Living Labs Europe

The small Swedish village of Grythyttan in the municipality of Hällefors should most likely have been a non-distinct place sleeping quietly many miles from the rush and life of Stockholm. It used to be a mining town and its population is just around 1200 people, but instead of disappearing into complete obscurity the town has turned into one of the most exciting and entrepreneurial projects in Europe today. Beginning in the seventies Grythyttan has developed an expertise in the field of food and taste and it has been the goal to become one of the leading centres, when it comes to the world of resturanteering and cooking. Covering all aspects of the meal experience this specialisation has been a great success and it has allowed Grythyttan to go even further. Today Grythyttan has become the site of a truly unique university campus, where the students are able to follow such courses as Chef and Culinary Arts and Meal Science. As a part of the larger Örebro University the campus in Grythyttan offers the only education of its kind in the world and there are programmes ranging from bachelor degrees all the way to PhD level. Simultaneously there has been a significant increase in fresh business developments that are related to the new profile of the village.

But the huge success of this educational innovation has posed Grythyttan with some real challenges. The number of students is going to increase from 450 to 750 and housing and communication will have to be more thought through. On a grander scale if Grythyttan is to maintain its position as a leader in its field, the university and the region must be able to collaborate with institutions and businesses from other regions and countries.

Interlace-Invent and A Taste of Media have worked closely with the university, the students and the village council to find a way to meet the challenges, and in the fall of 2007 Interlace-Invent launched the mStudent project in Grythyttan. The whole village has gained seamless access to the internet and Interlace-Invent has made communication between students and the university possible on a whole new level. The technology allows students to use a free SMS service and the student organisations are now able to push information to all its users. The university can make announcements to the students on this platform and administration of such things as applications will be swifter, making communication open and easy.

It has been the ambition to make the mStudent Grythyttan a user-driven project, focusing on the needs and interests of the energetic and creative students. In collaboration with the important student organisations Interlace-Invent located the areas where communisation between the students could be better and it has resulted in a livelier social climate, where all the extracurricular activities have seen an increasing interest.

By engaging in this dynamic evolution of new mobile technology, Grythyttan has become a part of the network of European cities, universities and innovative firms that are know as Living Labs. These centres of interactive design are interconnected and as a unit they function as a market place between some of most influential cities and regions in Europe today. This means that the free student services in Grythyttan are now not only supported by a professional infrastructure – they also have a common interface with a wide range of universities in the region and across Europe. At the heart of Grythyttan campus stands the impressive House of Tastes, where eager students are seeking excellence in their art. The large building was the Swedish pavilion at the Expo in Sevilla in 1992, and it is only fitting that it gets to represent Sweden once more, as Grythyttan joins the avant-garde of European innovation.

Tallinn Region – ”the European e-region”

Tallinn has been the European lead region in reorganising the public sector through the use of new e-technologies for collaboration between the public sector and private enterprises, thereby enhancing the offerings for citizens in the Tallinn region and in Estonia as a whole. The first IT strategy was implemented in 1994 on the basis of a very positive attitude of both the population and the government to implement new e-technologies and this attitude is unchanged and has allowed to convert Estonia in the leading e-technology country in Europe.

Hannes Astok, member of the Estonian parliament and former program director of the Estonian e-governance academy, and Vaino Olev, Tallinn City IT director, underlined the importance  of the e-governance program to facilitate the communication between citizens and the Estonian administration. Several initiatives have been conducted during the last years to enable electronic transactions in all areas of public life.

e-Governance Academy

The Estonoan government has early on realised the importance of an e-Governance Academy (eGA) to develop the strategy for the country’s IT infrastructure. The eGA is a non-profit organisation for the creation and transfer of knowledge concerning e-governance, with a special emphasis on tools for developing democracy and civil society. The main activities consist of research & analysis, training and consultancy and many of the Estonian successes have had their roots in the e-governance academy activities.

Success Factors for the Estonian “e-Hype”

According to Hannes Astok the following five success factors were key to the successful transformation of the region into an e-technologies region and thus serving as a best practice to other European regions:

• good level of education and research
• relatively young ICT systems
• Finnish, Swedish and German influence
• good telecom infrastructures and high level of eBanking
• flexibility of a small country

e-Estonia Facts and Figures

• 62 % of population are Internet users.
• 42 % of the households have a computer, 82 % of home computers are connected to the Internet.
• over 700 Public Internet Access Points in Estonia, 51 per 100 000 people
• more than 1 079 000 smart-card type ID-cards issued (all populaton 1.34m)
• 86% of tax  declarations were e-declarations (2006), increased by 12% compared to 2005
• 1st place in Internet Banking – (next are  Norway, Nederlands, New Zealand….)

The digital infrastructure is part of a wider strategy to transform Estonia into the leading “digital society” in Europe, focusing the resources in the country on how to develop applications and use the existing infrastructure to create a leading environment of high-technology companies to prosper in an area with a high engagement of the public sector and citizens as lead-markets.

e-Voting and e-Payments with the National Identity Card

Now the goals of the ongoing e-government strategy are based on a
customer- centric orientation (bottom up) to achieve an efficient and transparent public sector. The government wants to foster the integration of the Estonian population in democratic participation and therefore has been a European pioneer for e-voting based on a functioning model for protection of personal data.

E-voting is based on the introduction of a smart national identity card introduced already in 2002 and now equipped with a RSA crypto chip to allow for two private keys – enabling authentification and digital signatures. Over 1 million smard ID cards  have been issued by January 2007 (~ 90% of 15 to 74-year-old persons) including 230.000 ID-cards for foreigners.
A certification centre has been created at national level as a private limited company entity to contract with the government for the certification of the national ID-card and to develop the required electronic infrastructure and software. The company is held by a consortium of banking institutes and telecom operators.

Now e-voting has first been used by a public opinion poll in Tallinn in March 2005, thereafter in the local elections in October 2005 with about 2% uptake (9317 persons using e-voting). In March 2007 the Estonian parliament elections received a usage uptake of 5,5% (32 275 citizens) and it is planned to expand on e-voting for both the EU parliament elections in June 2009 and the next local elections in 2009.

Central Register and Data Exchange between Registers – X-Road

For 2008 and 2009 the Estonian government plans to complete the introduction of a central information repository to avoid citizen data redundancy and incorrect or not updated information. The aim is to conduct a vertical (state – local) and horizontal in-house IT systems integration, the project being named x-road. The Estonian citizens will no longer be required to deliver personal information to various administrations, but will only communicate relevant information once. All administration entities will  then be able and required (legal obligation) to retrieve relevant personal data from the central registry. The citizens can refuse to communicate personal information already delivered one time to an Estonian administration authority.

Tallinn e- or m-Technology Projects

Tallin has implemented several innovative projects that are running successfully based on the introduction of free Wireless Internet access: Tallinn has introduced more than 49 wireless Internet Connection HotSpots (WiFi) in the city’s most popular parks, squares and beaches (summer time only) entirely free of charge.

This infrastructure has enabled projects such as:

• M-parking (more than 60% of parking revenues in Tallinn come from mobile parking payments)
• ID-ticket in public transport  (virtual ticket, its users prove that hey have a pre-paid ticket with their mational identification cards, 100 000 ID-ticket daily users, 72,0 % of all passengers are ID-ticket users)
• e-School (communication of examination results via SMS, online lesson planning and communication etc.)

Further, more detailed information can be obtained upon request.
Implementation of  technology parks in Tallinn

The Tallinn-based Technopol park is an example of a successful PPP project to concentrate relevant know-how in a technology park development.

Tecnopol is located in the area of the former academy of sciences and is now aiming to  grow to challenge other European tecnoparks. Currently the park is hosting 135 companies (mostly innovative SME’s) on 10 acres of land. The industry sectors are divided between ICT, Biotec and materials sectors and the entire park is located next to the Tallinn technical university and IT college with approximately 12.500 persons (students and researchers). Tecnopol is also the home of the Skype research & development center and companies such as Cybernetica, concentrating on data security and mobile data transmission.

This is even more relevant as the Tallinn region (and Estonia) can be considered an excellent testbed to develop and test new innovative e- and m-solutions with an enthusiastic attitude of the local population and the Estonian government.

European clusters should start to consider Estonia as the key region for testing new applications as there are very few legal or attitude barriers in place, unlike in other European technology clusters.

mClusters Event in Tallinn December 6-7 2007 

After the tremendous success of Estonia in the mWatch Surveys, receiving the prize for the most innovative mobile region, this meeting looks behind the scenes of these successes, and asks the question about the future of mobile & wireless services clustering. Estonian experts and entrepreneurs will in particular discuss the issue of internationalisation and access to European markets.

Transformation of the Kalmar Region

The Kalmar region has since 1997 been a pilot region in reorganising the public sector, through the use of IT and new technologies for collaboration between the public sector and private enterprises to enhance the offerings for citizens in the Kalmar county.

Håkan Brynjolfson of the Kalmar Regional Council underlined the counties strategy to provide 24Mbit fibre-based Internet structure almost everywhere in the country, and 8 Mbits Wimax in the north-eastern part of the country. The digital infrastructure is part of a wider strategy to transform Kalmar county into a leading “digital society”, focusing the resources in the county on how to develop applications and use the existing infrastructure to create a leading environment of high-technology companies to prosper in an area with a high engagement of the public sector and citizens as lead-markets.

In addition to the fixed-line broadband infrastructure, the county has also been developing wireless broadband access. The first attempt to establish WIFI was done in the 3.5 Ghz spectrum, which ran intro trouble with coverage based on the spectrum inability to properly traverse natural obstacles. Consequently, the region had to change the strategy from wireless to fibre until is became possible to build a network using the 450 MHz spectrum, which provides better coverage up to 1Mbit.

From 2007, the county has started the next phase in the regional development strategy, focusing on education, training and collaboration with industry and the public sector. It was early in the establishment of the strategy identified that a major requirement for the region was to ensure the necessary competences of the citizens to embrace the digital society. Consequently, e-learning, computer literacy and common technical proficiencies has been prioritised in both urban areas and in smaller, rural communities.

From 2008, the transformation of the region will enter its third phase, focusing on supporting concrete projects in areas such as e-Learning, mobile health care, mobile tourism, e-Democracy, administrative development (such as making the administration more cost effective), and continue making the IT-Infrastructure more advanced.

Harnessing Societal Innovation

The BIT Service / IT Greenhouse in Blankaholm was born out of the broadband projects in the region which began in 1999. It was originally envisioned as an experimentation site with user-driven innovation in broadband technology for the rural communities. In the wintertime, the computers are used for distance working and education (e-learning), and in the summer, the computers are used by tourists and visitors.

The IT Greenhouse showed the need for models supporting the uptake of technology in society, and consequently, several projects have been pioneered in the context of the Greenhouse and the requirement for computer proficiency in rural communities.

Today, as a result of the projects in the IT Greenhouse, Blekinge, Kroneberg and Kalmar counties are collaborating in the areas of e-learning in “the Learning and Development Project” part of the centre for flexible learning on how to build up learning platforms and learning structure in areas such as the Folkbildningsnet (folkbildning.net) http://www.webbvideo.folkbildning.net is part of the Swedish e-learning tools for the Swedish Associations of Folkbildning, focusing on e-learning across Sweden and in international relations with e.g. China. The National Council of Education is responsible for the Folkbildningnet. Other areas are Folk High School and National Study Circle.

In addition, new initiatives under way are distance work (for instance, 60 new houses are being build, and professionals are moving to the rural areas in Kalmar based on the ability use distance working from the service centres), and initiatives such as “Baltic Sea Bridge” are being pioneered to link tourists and learning with local information to provide a basis for new services to tourists.

Learning Centres in Rural Areas

As a consequence of the needs for developing the IT competences and diffuse broad band and new technologies to the rural areas in the Kalmar region, the region has developed learning centres in local communities.

The background for developing the learning centres are that the eneral level of education is low in the rural areas, employers have asked for better IT competences, and the municipalities are bating with high rates of unemployment. Consequently, the municipalities and regional authorities have understood that conditions for learning and development of rural citizens must improve, and thus implemented pilot project in three areas in the region; in Blankaholm it is part of the harbour, in Jamervig in conjunction with the library, and in Loftahammer is together with the mayor’s office.

The learning centres have been supported financially from the European Union, and from the Living Labs network in the development of the learning processes with links to developing new pilot projects based on user needs and user requirements. Hence, one of the main results is that communities have seen social development in the form community building for groups of citizens normally left out of new technologies, and that digital technology and knowledge are available to the citizens on a general basis. Consequently, the learning centres have involved diverse groups of citizens, and linked to existing activities in the communities resulting in a unique uptake of technology in areas such as communications, distance learning, distance working and use of software.

On the operational level, each learning centre has instructors to handle requests and assist users in interacting with the technology. In addition, the learning centres are collaborating with libraries and with each other to links users and activities in also regional virtual networks. The learning centres have thus become a cornerstone in the development towards the digital society, and are slowly evolving as an integral part of a broader system of education, employment, knowledge and entrepreneurship in different areas.

mStudent at the University Centre of Västervik

The goal of the mStudent (mobile and IT services for students) project was to develop new solutions for IT-based higher education. The project was initiated as part of the EU structural funds financing program in the period 1997-2003 to develop distance-based university education in the northern part of Kalmar region.

Currently, there are 500 students annually at the University Centre, but as a specialty there are no actual teachers / professors at the centre. Hence, the entire learning offering is based on distance learning, through links with five larger Swedish universities.

On the mobile side, mStudent applications have been integrated into the everyday operations. Originally, students in the region were invited to come up with ideas for services for students, including 3G, IP phones on wireless networks etc. 300 students participated in the resulting pilot which was up and running in four months, in which the services were tested by the students.

Services such as administration-type services, mass-communication from teachers to students and chat were very popular and are still a driver for the continued use of the mStudent services. Currently 1,500 persons are using the mStudent services in the Västervik area.

Boundless Communication

The boundless communication is a pilot project for providing language courses based on student-to-student communication, and has been designed through active user involvement in the design process. The project started as a Living Labs project, and has now been integrated into society through the learning centres, university college and other facilities.

In many of the municipalities more than 50% of the budget goes to the learning centre, and hence they want better quality in the education. Also, the businesses want to use the e-learning and online collaboration tools for cultural integration of new employees. Consequently, the boundless communication program serves part of this purpose as students and citizens have access to new language learning, and the possibility to broaden their horizon through collaboration with students and citizens in other European countries.

IT for the Elderly

The IT for the elderly program was pioneered by a need for inclusion of the especially the older generations in the use of IT in the Kalmar region. Consequently, the pilot project “IT for Seniors” at Nynäsgården was designed to provide technology for communication with relatives and information via computer for the elderly citizens in the care centre.

The aim of the project was to identify, test and evaluate new possibilities for seniors to evaluate the use and uptake of IT for the elderly in areas such as contact with relatives, email and communication, online banking, training, planning activities, entertainment and e-meetings.

The focus of the services is put on areas that improve the quality of daily life of seniors including different related other groups such as relatives and visitors. In the pilot, approximately 30 elderly, (aged 70+), 15 staff and a number of relatives participated.

Based on the results of the project, which were improved wellbeing, better health and improved communication between the involved including caretakers and relatives, the project will now be implement in 12 additional areas to test the results on a broader basis, and to investigate the potential for commercialisation and sustainability.

Applications for Elderly with Special Needs

The project “Applications for Elderly with Special Need” was started as an EU project in 1997 between Sweden, Ireland, England and Portugal. However, quickly the project entitled “ACTION Care”, led by the University College of Borås was primarily carried forward in Sweden with a focus on services for the elderly with special needs to enhance quality of life, and make life easier for the families. In 2004 Borås implemented the system together with Telie/Sonera to commercialise the system.

The program is aimed to support elderly couples in which one of the partners suffer from diseases such as Alzheimer’s or other ailments requiring care to stay onger in their homes, before they require being moved to special home for the elderly or the hospital. The program involves special computer software and video phones connected to a call centre staffed with nurses and doctors with experience from care taking, as well as a support and education system to provide support for the spouse or care taker. In addition, the program also provides a platform for the creation of a social support network for the elderly through virtual communication as well as physical meetings designed for social as well as earning purposes.

The services were developed on the basis of the feedback from the family care takers using user-driven development, as has been very successful in addressing the challenges of home care. Hence, the family carers and the elderly feel less isolated, as long as the technology is easy to use, and the family caretaker feels more competent and secure in the caretaking role. Other added benefits are that the professional carers experience improved job satisfaction, and that knowledge about caretaking can easily be documented and passed on to caretakers in the home.

For the municipalities, the average savings per year are significant, due to a reduction in the need for help in the home and requirements for expensive services in home for the elderly. The program is currently running in seven municipalities in Sweden on a pilot basis, but due to the success an increasing number of municipalities are showing their interest in the program.
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Together with Euroland Projektierungen, Interlace-Invent is implementing the Competence Center Konstanz, a Third Generation Innovation Environment. As a waterfront development along the shores of the Seerhein in the centre of Konstanz the CCK will form the hub for innovative activities in the Bodenseeland, one of the most dynamic and innovative regions in Europe bordering Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein. For additional information please visit www.bodenseeland.info.

Overall, this new concept for an integrated innovation development, will include major investments into an urban regeneration to house innovative companies, as well as the Living Lab Bodensee and a Bodensee Venture Lab asa high profile programme to international talent.

The project, which began as an investors competition in 2005 which was won in 2006 by the EUROLAND / Interlace-Invent team, has followed a fully integrated process of investment and innovation planning. Today, the project stakeholders have a joint innovation strategy building on increasing the place attractiveness, service innovation, internaionalisation and entrepreneurship. Located in Konstanz, this project is anchored in strong regional support including the network of Bodensee Ambassadors, representing 150 leading businesses and institutions in the region.

Visit www.livinglabs-europe.com/bodensee for updates in the coming weeks outlining the project details and contact persons.

What currently attracts multi-nationals to invest in research in a particular location? What can regional actors do to make their regions more attractive? A two-day conference addressing these topics will take place in Hamburg 5-6 June 2007. This conference builds on extensive interviews with more than 40 global R&D directors carried out by the Regions of Knowledge Project “LOCOMOTIVE”

Speakers include Carlos Orzoco, Global R&D director of Dow Chemicals, Francisco Escarti Europe R&D Director of Boeing, Andrew Dearing General Secretary of the European Industrial Research Managers Association as well as directors of clusters, regional development directors and researchers.

The aim of this conference is to disseminate some of the findings of the project in order to support the development of better regional policies to make Europe more attractive as a research base. It should be of interest to regional policy makers, those involved in developing clusters, knowledge transfer professionals and university staff.

Further details can be found on www.locomotive-project.org or by mailing locomotive@tutech.de.

NOTE: Potential delegates are advised to book hotels early as Hamburg’s hotels are likely to be in heavy demand around this time. The venue is the Hotel Elysee in Hamburg and this can be booked via the conference web site. A contingency of rooms has been reserved until 12 May 2007.

Introduction by Prof. Jan Annerstedt, Living Labs Europe / Interlace Invent

In the mobile & wireless industry, Europe sits on a very large source of technology, with huge potential. Thus, we need a release of this resource, involving both macro and micro economics aspect, including citizens, business and travellers.

The mClusters project, sponsored by Europe INNOVA, is tasked with connecting the European innovation environments, within mobile & wireless services and solutions.

One of the main questions is whether we can actually shape innovation environments, and whether Europe is open enough to do this? The mClusters projects have so far looked at and benchmarked 21 European cities, on both hard & soft factors, to understand this dynamic, and one of the outcomes of the project is to support European cities in these endeavours to promote new models for innovation environments fostering user-driven innovation in the mobile & wireless areas, as well as to create a leading network of cities for mobile innovation.

Some of the conclusions so far: A city such as Tallinn, can be very effective in achieving excellence in new business ventures within the mobile & wireless industry, and use the networks of European innovation cities, to export the innovative solutions to other areas of Europe. Thus, the open innovation environments, or ‘Living Labs’ can help foster excellence in the innovation and commercialisation of mobile & wireless solutions, and as such work as a platform for attracting capital and talent to a region, as a mode of collaboration, and to involve users in the design and development processes. Hence, the Living Lab becomes a city-based innovation resource taking advantage of regional pools of creative talent, the affluence of cultural diversity, and unique regional resources.

One of the questions from the audience was how do you become a Living Lab? One of answers is that the driving force behind a living lab is the drive of business and users, to actively strive for pioneering mobile & wireless services and solutions in the context of a city-area, with the participation of universities, public administration, firms, users and citizens, and actively create links between the user groups. Thus, becoming a living lab is as much a question about management capacity and drive, as about set methodologies.

Jens Bley, Director Living Labs Germany, Partner Content Bridge AG

Living Labs Germany today is a network organisation, focusing on ICT and mobile & wireless services. In Hamburg, these activities have been pioneered by close collaboration with the industrial organisation of ICT companies, with the main focus on content and content-based services.

The two pioneering projects out of Hamburg, but with nationwide impact are Mobile Marketing in Urban Spaces and mTourism.

In the Mobile Marketing in Urban Spaces the urban commercial communication space is combined with mobile & wireless services. Consequently, the city has been broken into local entities, to develop the relationships with local stakeholders and thus provide a platform for developing city-wide services based on local engagement and business models. Public media provides navigation, communication and several other services, which can be enhanced by the mobile phone in the urban and mobile space.

One of the main focus areas is the urban furniture in Hamburg, in which outdoor advertising contracts in Hamburg have been tendered out, with the purpose of leveraging the multimedia aspects of the city. Although the main part of the business on urban furniture is done via traditional advertising, the future will be based on mobile and interactive services, which suddenly introduce new players to the market.

The public medium raises awareness, and the mobile phone raises the recall rate. Consequently, the business models are not new, but a known currency in the media and marketing world is being employed in a new business area. Hence, a variety of pioneering application are being developed in areas such as storefinder, live casting, event offerings, discount-coupons, public information, live voting, and interactive quizzing. For the consumers, the drivers are navigation, entertainment and smart shopping, for the marketers this is about traditional business drivers such as marketing, drivers of communication and awareness.

In the mTourism area, Living Labs Germany is taking advantages of the links to Living Labs Stockholm, signing an agreement to prototype the mobile tourism solutions developed and in use in Stockholm, in the cities and tourism destinations in Germany. This is combined with new initiatives such as Sehnsucht Deutschland or ‘Longing for Germany’, developing the emphasis on tourism initiatives in Germany in new and cross-media areas, e.g. print, online, mobile and television.

Bruno Naulais, General Manager of the European Space Incubator, European Space Agency

The European Space Agency (ESA) promotesthe idea that satellite technologies should enable end-user driven mobile and wireless solutions. What is important here is that based on the satellite data, new products, services and scientific results can be developed. Services, such as the Galileo project, are developing new technologies within navigation, position and communication with new features regarding accuracy, resolution and bandwidth. Consequently, the satellite systems are becoming increasingly involved in the communication industry linked to both US and other initiatives in space as well as terrestrial areas.

On of the main themes of ESA is the technology transfer and business incubation in the space area. Some main themes are low weight, strength and durability, efficiency and reliability, compactness, temperature, radiation and corrosion resistance for the technologies developed for e.g. space deployment. There considerations require highly specialised services and facilities, which ESA can provide in the incubators in Noordwijk, Darmstadt and Franscati.

Areas in which space technology have been used are for example composite materials for artificial limbs for the Paralympics, anti-vibration devices for skiers, ozonisers for e.g sterilisation of dentist equipment Other equipment are passive radiometers, to find water and soil moisture around e.g. dykes and dams to prevent flooding.

In the mobile area several solutions have also been developed. The company MarineNet has developed a technology for using GSM onboard e.g. cruise ships, by setting up a mini-GSM antenna, using satellite links to links to the global mobile networks. Mobiria is developing services for connecting retail, tourism services to consumers via a GNSS chip. The company Posirid is developing positioning systems using impulse radio improving positioning also inside buildings and other places not directly in contact with antennas. The company Sport Track develops visualisation of sports on the internet on mobile devices and displays. Some applications are in the boat racing industry, Tour de France and other sport events. The company Disaps creates applications for blind people to navigate in the city using satellite signals combined with WiFi, with one pilot project is running in wireless Leiden. The company Sat Sport is developing a tool for sports, where you can see your result during training using onboard telemetry, which can be compared with training patterns, form measurements and other methodologies.

ESA currently operates several initiatives to assist companies in areas such as technology transfer, technology brokering through MST Aerospace GmbH, and national technology transfer initiatives (NTTI) Business incubation, ESTEC, ESTIC and ESRIN in Netherlands, Italy and Germany, and the ESINET, which is the incubator network. In the incubators, ESA is currently making EUR 40-50M available in early stage financing. Also, ESA is involved in the Galileo Masters competition for business plans in the satellite and space area, to be kicked at the end of April, in Sophia-Antipolis.
 

Panel Debate

Laurent Londeix, Laboratory Director “Data services & M2M solutions”, France Telecom R&D

France telecom today employs 6000 employees in the region of C^te d’Azur, and is supporting a number of mobile & wireless projects, such as mTourism with satellite technology, GSM and other mobile & wireless technologies. 20 years ago, France Telecom thought that they could invent everything themselves, but today the company has increasingly understood the value of collaborative research. Hence France Telecom is today an active member of the 65 French clusters of excellence, and the chair in the secure communication clusters, and active in e.g. RFID and quality of communication.

Today, France Telecom is also involving SMEs to develop new technologies, and many new activities are focused on user-driven innovation, both in involving users in the innovation processes, and also to be sensitive to user requirements in the areas of services and applications.

Liisa Kanniainen, Executive Director, Mobey Forum

The common focus in mobile services is the consumer, as this is the person that has the mobile device, and will use the services. But what is the enabler or the enabling factor? In Mobile Forum, the focus is on payment, as users want to be able to pay wherever and whatever they want. Hence, the enabler is the possibility of payment, and securing the ability to pay, the necessary systems, security and integrations.

Frank Meinzer, Head of Operations, Telecom Valley

Telecom Valley is an organisation to develop collaboration between companies in the mobile & wireless industry in Sophia-Antipolis. The critical path for the future is to identify end-user solutions and to help the individual customer to get easier access to specific needs. No company can stand alone, and here also the European networks come in, as the role of the European networks is to create collaboration and to secure market access.

Jean-Bernard Titz, Programme Manager Pôle SCS

The developers are also important in the mobile & wireless context, and securing collaboration between developing companies. Some of the main markets in Sophia-Antipolis are tourism, health, and logistics. But we also want the business-side to be emphasised, as innovation is also about commercialisation. Hence, we have created thematic groups between universities, firms, researchers and users to discuss mobility and wireless. One of the main points is actually speaking with the users, for example tourism offices, about what they want to help them.

Philippe Moretto, Project Director, Team Côte d’Azur

Team Côte d’Azur was founded 22 years ago, and focuses on inward investments. The success of Sophia-Antipolis has been applications and technologies, and today the cities are becoming the focus for marketing of the region’s competences. For the region, some of the big challenges are to promote the clusters, and integrate these with the Pôle de Competitivé. The next challenges are be also to involve the satellite development, as well as other technologies such as GSM, in new application areas such as global monitoring, navigation and positioning. It will be interesting to see the new application areas such as timing and communication. Thus, our role will be to work together with the companies and associations in the region, to further enhance the region and to maintain the position amount the ten best regions in Europe. To develop this position, there must be a combination of public and private institutions.

One of the questions from the audience was whether there are mechanisms to source and support entrepreneurs. The region has among other resources, thematic groups to identify and develop technology needs, including tools such as a knowledge management platform.

Pihlippe Moretto responded that there are many new start-ups, and new competences, and hence the region is trying to facilitate meetings for entrepreneurs and the many young start-ups, to interlink investors and business angels. The more the exchanges can be facilitated, the better is the support the start-ups.

Karl-Frank Meinzer added that one of the contributions of the Living Labs is to involve the user, and to identify user needs, by connecting the firms and user-communities, in for example using lead-users or innovative users to become part of the firms’ innovation processes in order to open up to new paths for innovation by different incentive systems. Consequently, we should look at how user communities are interlinked with the firm.

Another question from the audience was when mobile tourism applications would be available in e.g. Nice or Cannes on the ordinary mobile phone.

Laurent Londeix answered that new support structures would have to be in place such as payment structures, but the status and timing of this had not been established now. mTourism is a hot topic right now in the region, and there are no technological barriers per se. One option could be NFC, and e.g. Nice airport is very keen to look at new technologies, and would be one of the first airports to use this technology. However, one of the challenges is how these services can be offered across firm standards, roaming, and identification. On top of the technology issues there are still legal, business and other dimensions which must be developed, but perhaps within 5 years this would be available.

Liisa Kanniainen added that it is not only the technological enables, but also how the business models will be on the phones. This is one of the main challenges in Mobile Forum, and this defines how fast one can go to the market. However, there seems to be common drive for the idea.

Bruno Naulais added that in the region, many technologies have been developed, but the region has been technology-driven and not user-driven, and therefore no one has the overview of which solutions have been developed where. For the EGNOS for example, the first tests have been made in the airport and are meant to spread into the market of e.g. the cities in the region.

Liisa Kanniainen concluded that as the technology and R&D is there, and the business case is being developed, it could perhaps been in even 3 years. As the name mTourism was pioneered in Sophia-Antipolis, there is a focus on this area.

A question from VTT in Finland, is whether in the future the use devices will be easier or more complex? And what kind of medicines will you have?

Jean-Bernard Titz responded that the technology has become more complex, so one of the challenges are to develop technologies that simplify the life of the user. The city of Tokyo has made a smart card solution for queuing in public transportation, so there is no more queuing. So, more application are on a convenience level, that the user chooses which technologies there want. E.g. there is an abundance of technologies, and the choice is with the users.

There is clearly a challenge for equipment manufacturers to hiding the complexity to the users, especially as we are going towards convergence, there is a strong value in addressing complexity. The whole idea of NFC is also to make it simple, but the level of abstraction is also higher for users. E.g. going from coins to mobile technology, will take time and adjustment for the users.

Living Labs Catalunya, an initiative to promote innovation in mobile services and technologies by the 22@Barcelona Innovation District, the Barcelona Digital Foundation, the City of Sant Cugat and TecnoCampus Mataró held a matchmaking event on Monday to connect 14 Scandinavian companies with Catalan business and institutional partners. Coinciding with the launch of the 3GSM World Congress, 40 experts in innovative services and technologies exchanged opportunities and ideas, with the support public agencies and venture capital partners to assist new inward investments and export opportunities.

22@Barcelona marketing director Jordi Sacristán welcomed the visitors together with Christer Asplund of Living Labs Europe, acting as the facilitator for the event. All participants considered Catalonia the ideal business and innovation environment for joint activities and a professional entry-point into the Mediterranean market.

Sascha Haselmayer, General Coordinator of Living Labs Catalunya, called the event a great success, with a number of promising leads that could bring new services to citizens, businesses and visitors in Catalunya and new international opportunities opened for Catalan companies. Studies such as the mWatch Europe surveys i(see previous post) into mobile readiness in 21 European cities have continually emphasised the need to place European users at the centre of service development.

Commenting on the 3GSM World Congress, he expressed the hope that in future editions of the event visitors would experience Catalonia as a ‘Cradle of Content’, through a unique range of mobile services at their disposal. Such initiatives would not only add to the attractiveness of the region, but also showcase the uniqueness of companies in the region developing world-class services and technologies.

Already on Tuesday, follow-up talks were held not only with key companies, but also representatives of Living Labs Kalmar (Sweden), to strengthen the regional collaboration to deliver new services for students, tourists and travellers.

The Second Living Labs Europe Forum 2006 was held at the IST 2006 conference in Helsinki, Finland at the Helsinki Fair Centre located 10 minutes from the centre of Helsinki city.

Monday 20 was begun with the Living Labs Europe network being present by special invitation at the Finnish Prime Minister’s launch of the Living Labs initiative as a pan-European model for innovation at a ceremony 16 kilometres outside of Helsinki in Espoo, Finland. Pre-publication copies of the mWatch Europe 2006 where handed out to the participants of the ceremony prior to the scheduled launch of the publication on Tuesday 21.

The afternoon of Monday November 20 was reserved for a short briefing session on the mWatch Europe launch and discussions on the progress of the mClusters project. Christer Asplun of Interlace-Invent / Living Labs Europe went through the findings of the mWatch Europe 2006 book and the special issues it raise for European the mobile & wireless industry. In the subsequent discussions special emphasis was put on how to integrate the activities of the mClusters projecs with the regions involved, especially how the regions’ communities of users and SMEs can be involved in the networking and project activities on a pan-European level.
Tuesday November 21 was begun with the IST 2006 opening ceremony with Commissioner Vivienne Reading as keynote speaker. At 11:00 the official launch of the mWatch Europe 2006 book was hosted by Christer Asplund of Interlace-Invent / Living Labs Europe. Mr. Asplund led the presentation of the mobile readiness index and the cluster profiling methodologies employed in the mWatch Europe 2006 book 21 European regions including Barcelona, Budapest, Catalunya, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Istanbul, London, Lund, Malmö, Matarò, Øresund, Oslo, Salzburg, Sant Cugat, Sophia-Antipolis, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Tallinn, Torino and Vaestervik. Several aspects of the European mobile & wireless industry and associated marketplaces were discussed in the subsequent plenary session moderated by Prof. Jan Annerstedt of Interlace-Invent / Living Labs Europe. Special emphasis was put on the structural challenges of interoperability and roaming between the European countries and European telecom providers as barriers to innovation. Also, the advancement of Japan and Korea in the areas of mobile services and technologies where seen as benchmarks for the continuing progress of the European mobile & wireless industry. The plenary session was followed by the mWatch Europe 2006 award in which the city of Tallinn, Estonia was awarded the first prize for the its excellence in promoting mobile services to its citizens and firms. Helsinki took the second place, and the Swedish city of Lund came in third. A special prize was awarded for the smallest city in the mWatch Europe 2006, the City of Vaestervik, which through dedicated leadership has transformed a small community in Sweden into one of Europe’s most advanced mobile & wireless regions.

The afternoon sessions on “Helsinki region’s Advancement into a Third Generation Innovation Environment for Mobility” where moderated by Prof. Jan Annerstedt of Interlace-Invent / Living Labs Europe, and focused on the question on how Helsinki region can further develop its technological and commercial leadership in a changing European context. The expert panel involved leading experts from key Finnish innovation support and intermediary institutions, research and business.

Tatu Laurila, Deputy Managing Director, Culminatum
Kimmo Ojuva, Managing Director, Dimes
Jarmo Eskelinen, Managing Director, Forum Virium
Eero Holstila, Director, Helsinki Office of Economic Development
Veli-Pekka Niitamo, Director, Mobile Work Place Research, Nokia
Risto Setälä, Director, SW and Digital Media Industries, Tekes
Prof. Tatu Koljonen, VTT

The discussions evolved around the models for collaboration and innovation support systems which have made Helsinki a world-leading cluster in the mobile & wireless industry and how these models will evolve with the new and increasing emphasis on pan-European collaboration.

The evening was ended with an official dinner at the Helsinki mayor’s office in downtown Helsinki. Invited participants where the mClusters consortium, the participating members from Living Labs Europe and the participants in the expert panel from the afternoon’s sessions.

Thursday November 23 was opened with the networking session on Living Labs with the participation of leading European firms and research institutions hosted by the DG IST 2006. Prior to the networking session, Living Labs Europe had by special invitation been invited as a key driving member of the DG IST’s program on Living Lab and a special advisory group had been set up to integrate the methodologies and know-how of the mClusters and Living Labs Europe network into the broader context of the DG IST Living Lab programs.

Presentation of mWatch: Survey on Mobile Readiness in Salzburg Study to assess the opportunity for a Living Lab Salzburg

Salzburg / Copenhagen. In October 2006 the mWatch Study on the potentials of the Region and City of Salzburg for a Living Lab was finalized. The presentation will take place on Monday, November 6^th, 2006 at the ICT&S Center in Salzburg. The “Living Lab” Study is a pilot project of the ICT&S Center to measure Austria’s development as an Information Society.

The Study was conducted as part of the “Living Labs Europe” initiative which aims at connecting regional innovational spaces throughout Europe. At the moment 20 Living Labs operate in Europe.

A Living Lab is a regional space functioning as a lab to develop prototypes for new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). The concept of Living Labs is to provide a dynamic, open and user-centered public space, to bring together stakeholders from economy, the public sector and science in order to encourage innovation and economic development in the field of new technologies on a regional basis. This cooperative work and research “space” enhances the development of prototypes for new ICTs and mobile applications.

The main focus of a Living Lab is on mobile technologies which offer users (citizens, businesses, visitors) more mobility, flexibility and comfort e.g. in their activities at work, at home, in the public as well as during travels. The technologies and applications developed in a Living Lab are user-oriented, aiming at supporting the needs of users, consumers and citizens and actively involving them in the design process. Living Labs Europe enables technology transfers and the creation of cross-national partnerships in the fields of business, the public sector and R&D. Living Labs are network-based organisations in a networked society.

The current study was executed by Interlace-Invent in cooperation with ICT&S Centre from May to October 2006. It analyses Salzburg’s potentials in the field of mobile communication.

Qualitative interviews with stakeholders from the business community, the public sector and science institutions; as well as quantitative, statisticical figures present indicators on the „Mobile Readiness“ of Salzburg.The results will be presented to the public on November 6^th, 2006 at the ICT&S Centre in Salzburg and can be downloaded from http://www.livinglabs-europe.com/salzburg/.

The research for the mWatch study for Salzburg was funded by:

ZIS – Zentrum für Innovation und Standortpolitik

Land Salzburg, Fachabteilung 15: Wirtschaft, Tourismus, Energie

Land Salzburg, Fachabteilung 0/92: Hochschulen, Wissenschaft und Zukunftsfragen

Stadt Salzburg WirtschaftsService

As interview partners for the mWatch study persons representing the following organizations participated:

3united

Austrian Research StudiosFachhochschule Salzburg

GIS Cluster Salzburg

ICT&S Center

Industriellenvereinigung Salzburg

Innovations- und Technologietransfer Salzburg (ITG)

Land Salzburg

Salzburg AG

Salzburg Research

Stadt Salzburg

Standortagentur Salzburg

ZGIS - Zentrum für Geoinformatik Salzburg