By James M.

Dorsey

COLUMN

Mobile Access
businesswoman approached Conservative British European Parliament member James Elles at a recent local business conference in Oxfordshire to discuss how local business can survive mounting competition from the likes of India and China. The businesswoman warned that she lacked the basics to do so. She told Elles that to ensure reception on her mobile phone she had to climb to the third floor of her house. Yet, when I am in my holiday home in Turkey its as clear as a bell, Elles quotes the woman as saying. The woman accosted Elles just about the time that British telecommunications regulator Ofcom announced that this year would be the first year in which Britons will make more calls on mobile devices than on fixed landlines. The incident highlights the competitive pressures on Europe as the European Commission and the Spanish presidency of the EU focus on the European digital agenda and the enhancement of the continents digital economy. European Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding says the EU will give priority to the boosting of digital services, integrating markets to overcome fragmentation due to a hodgepodge of national rules, improved coordination of copyright issues and the digitization of books to ensure the union remains competitive with the United States. The key is to merge knowledge and ensure that software architecture and research is close to the future of the Internet and the next generation, says Jan Sunderlin, CEO of TIE Holding NV, a Dutch company involved in EU-funded research to advance Redings agenda. The European Ideas Network, founded by Elles, warns in a recently issued report that to be competitive 15 years down the line, Europe needs to put in place a proper research and development framework. That may already be happening with the Commission investing 1.3 billion a year over the next five years to ensure that people are better connected and able to cooperate better. European competitiveness will depend on its ability to ensure that smart systems able to increase efficiency are at the core of major economic and social sectors such as energy, transport, health care, environmental management and public services. Already, digitally-enabled, purpose-driven masscollaboration demand side systems are undermining inwardlooking economic and political institutions who seek to control information, distribution channels and specific technologies. Those approaches are further cornered by the Commissions insistence system on open standards for ongoing research and development to turn Europe into a collaborative, digitally-en-

Driving Europes Digital Agenda:

abled society that will drive growth by making the continent an outward-looking technology leader and partner for the rest of the world. Achieving that is complicated by the fact that Europe does not have technology giants like Microsoft and Google. Europe is trying to promote the growth of SME-type enterprises through research and development that will, become bigger and may have influence, says TIE Chief Technology Officer Stuart Campbell. The digital society, just as was the case with past technological advances such as the mobile phone, the computer and the Internet, raises social and political questions about the kind of democratic society Europeans want. Issues social groups and political leaders have yet to confront include what impact the digital society will have on the democratic process and how one reconciles digital responsiveness a world driven by mass interaction enabled by the ubiquitous availability of high speed, highcapacity digital communications networks, systems, tools and services connected by the Internet - with democratic legitimacy. The spread of purpose-driven online collaboration involving digital acts being captured and stored in databases invades the domain of public policy, politics and politicians. It impacts issues already in the public domain such as the tension between privacy and security or, as the recent financial crisis demonstrated, the destructive potential of mass collaboration. That collaboration empowers citizens who will demand greater transparency and participation, blurring the lines between direct and representative democracy and transforming the role of government into one of a mediator between empowered, engaged stakeholder communities. To get there, the Oxfordshire businesswomans telecommunications problem needs to be resolved. Rapid advances in mobile Internet technology are key. Ever more people will be online with mobile devices anywhere at any time; user interfaces to access the network will be simplified and more intuitive; new tools, applications and services will be part of the network or available through the network to manage and make sense of vast volumes of data. To be on the leading edge of technical development it will be essential to have unimpeded access to mobile networks, MEP Elles says. James M. Dorsey was a foreign correspondent for more than 30 years for The Wall Street Journal and other publications. Today Mr. Dorsey is a columnist, media entrepreneur and international affairs analyst and consultant to strategic communications, security and water companies as well as investment funds.
TIE ~ 2/2010 ~ P7