Challenges and opportunities in ICT: a European perspective
Authors: J. Schwarz da Silva
Venue: Proceedings of the 6th international conference on Mobile data management (2005)

Information and Communication Technologies are critical to Europe's future. Half of the productivity gains in our economies are explained by the impact of ICT on products, services and business processes. ICT is the leading factor in boosting innovation and creativity and in mastering change in value chains across industry and service sectors. ICT is essential to meet the rise in demand for health and social care and to modernise services in domains of public interest such as education, learning, security, energy, transport and the environment. The escalating economic and societal demands, together with the continued mainstreaming of ICT in a networked economy, raises new challenges which require the technology limits to be further pushed. At the same time user expectations are changing, with technology needing to be brought closer to people and organisational needs. It is becoming imperative to hide technology complexity and reveal functionality on demand, making it very simple to use, available and affordable, while providing solutions and services that are trusted, reliable, and adaptable to the users' context and preferences. Convergence and interoperability at network, device, service and media level are key requirements that must be met, so as to enable the provision of end-to-end services at minimal operational and capital expenditures. Service providers are increasingly being called upon to develop innovative tools that enable radically simplified service creation and delivery. Well packaged, easy to use services that can be carried by the subscriber across multiple environments are key, with simplicity and value being the decision points for subscribers and the critical success factors for revenue growth. Ensuring the management of converged services and networks with the expected scale and scope will require radically new approaches. This effective progressive shift from "convergence" to "user-centricity", changes the classical model from a view of killer applications delivered over a variety of independent infrastructures to one that embraces the demand for a customized user experience across multiple devices, networks and applications. It is no longer about a few actors in the value chain but rather about entirely new value chains with novel actors and roles. It is also no longer about "mobile services" but rather about seamless services that are delivered by an intelligent network that is context and device aware. Mobility has morphed into an interconnected world where people seamlessly slip into their personal and professional lives, with almost no borders. All services need to be equally seamless ... available everywhere and all the time. Information explosion and device proliferation will impose new approaches to the design and management of an interconnected information infrastructure where all devices communicate with and understand one another and where the right digital eco-system is created for the agile enterprise. Pervasive connectivity will however increase vulnerability and privacy concerns, requiring radically new software solutions, the establishment of "trusted" devices, servers and gateways so as to accommodate a dynamic network infrastructure and provide end-to-end security, while containing the damage caused to businesses by malware. Removing social, geographical, economic and capacity impediments through the provision of cost effective infrastructures, offering capacity on demand and allowing an "Always on" network existence, are key requirements. Beyond providing for the connectivity of humans, significant efforts must be devoted to the deep networking of a myriad of small, inexpensive, low-powered tags, sensors and actuators, embedded into the physical environment, interacting and forming wired and wireless networks able to communicate, adapt, act, respond, and coordinate high-level tasks. Governance issues of such deep networks will be at the center stage. In such a context, the multifaceted key mission of the EU funded R D in ICT, as it is being currently elaborated, is to ensure smooth technological transitions, to anticipate the likely technological disruptions, to nurture technological development and innovation, to create the right synergies between key stakeholders, to establish the conditions for new value chain actors to emerge, to set the right collaborative standards, to stimulate innovative usages, in essence to shed light into the new world markets and create opportunities that will permit Europe its enterprises and creators to shape and master the future ICT world landscape.