With the growing consolidation of network operators at member-state level and the ‘Connected Continent’ package currently stalled, the latest CEPS Digital Forum seminar addressed concerns about network infrastructure, spectrum management and whether the goal of achieving an effective digital single market (DSM) for Europe was realistic. WIK-Consult stressed that the DSM cannot be achieved solely by making regulation stricter or more consistent; a broad vision based on innovative policy instruments is needed for the benefit of consumers and for the sake of EU leadership in innovation. Telecom Paris Tech agreed and highlighted the critical impact on areas of massive communications such as transportation, smart cities, health and education, while Amazon reflected on the upward trend of cross-border sales and the urge to harness the full potential of e-commerce in Europe and Odyssey connects governments, corporates and non-profits with innovative entrepreneurs from around the world to let them jointly tackle 21st-century challenges in order to create together an interconnected, multi-stakeholder ecosystem to build a future.

From that evidence, by next year they will identify the best innovation strategies combining research, strategy and policy recommendations for DSI in relation to the Digital Agenda for Europe and Horizon 2020 (H2020). The Collective Awareness Call for proposals addresses DSI under the H2020 work programme (see presentation 'Collective Awareness Platforms for Sustainability and Social Innovation').

Some of the best examples of DSI in Europe that are transforming governments, businesses and society include:

• cities like Vienna and Santander pioneering new practices in open data and open sensor networks;
• personal networks like Tyze integrating with traditional social-care provision;
• sharing economy platforms like Peerby creating new forms of relationships and services;
• new projects pioneering open democracy and citizens participation through crowd-sourcing legislation, such as Open Ministry, Liquid Feedback or AVAAZ, which are transforming the traditional models of representative democracy;
• organisations like Mysociety and Open Knowledge Foundation developing services like Fixmystreet allowing citizens to report city problems, and CKAN, the biggest repository of open data in Europe.

The value of this DSI experiment is difficult to quantify using traditional indicators of success and impact, such as GDP, profitability and competitiveness. New sustainable business models and socio-economic mechanisms based on collective and public benefit are starting to clearly emerge. Once the network of DSI actors in Europe is mapped and its dynamics understood, it will inform future EU initiatives, research and policy to foster open and inclusive innovation for social good in Europe.

On July 1, CAPS2014 organized the CAPS2014 OFF part of the event, held at The Egg, which offered a dynamic schedule of talks, unconferences, workshops, hands-on sessions and networking moments and on July 2, the CAPS2014 Conference part, held at the European Commission, which provided participants with an overview of current projects and initiatives, and with detailed information of the CAPS Call under horizon 2020.

Online communities have been playing an increasingly important role in supporting grassroots initiatives in the area of social innovation and sustainability. However, as such platforms go larger and larger, it is more and more difficult for community managers to ensure efficient debates among citizens, i.e. to ensure collective ideation, decision and action. The CATALYST project partners, tackling this issue, have been developing and testing collective intelligence tools and will make them available, as open source solutions, to any interested communities.

The Web is today increasingly more enmeshed with our daily lives, forming a universally distributed intelligence constantly enhanced, coordinated in real time, and resulting in the effective mobilization of skills and tools for “collective intelligence”.  New attractors are collaboration, sharing, hosting and facilitating, interoperability, friendliness, balancing, stakeholder coordination. The old ones competition, isolation in patents, copyright, violence, ego, originality are fading and will never be able to manifest themselves in that iteration. Things are thus getting serious and they are getting clear.

It is not the current growing collaborative ecology that is in trouble. It is the policy ecology, the 19th century pillars that institutionalized data, information and knowledge into rigid formats that were tuned to a theory-practice dichotomy. We are in realtime and the disruption is total. The next CAPS should target co-creation not only with citizens, but with institutions, democracy and the EU project itself targeting decision making processes and making the step for product and service design to system design.

Internet of Things, full traceability and monitoring in all domains, on all levels will be both a huge driver of transparency in decision making as well as a particular kind of cybernetic operation itself. If we want a smart Europe for all and not just a few smart gated communities with seamless connectivity, we have to start prototyping new forms of decision making harnessed in real world environments, that are no longer projects or demo, but constitute a deep aligning of semi autonomous operations with the way decisions on infrastructure, services and applications are made on local, regional, national and supranational levels.

INTERNET and SOCIETES - NEW INNOVATION PATHS

A conference that is set to be one of the few major global events of 2011 focusing on Future Internet issues. The 2011 edition was, similarly to the one of 2009, a high-level international conference, including contributions from keynote speakers from all over the world. The event main objective will be to reach a better understanding of the possible and probable interactions between Internet and societal developments in the next decades, from which recommendations on innovative research areas and applications to explore can be derived.

In a world of accelerating changes, and at a time when economic, social, and environmental risks of breakdowns are in sight, forward-looking approaches are of paramount importance. This applies in particular to the development of the Internet, which has become so central to economic activity and day-to-day life in societies around the world.

The internet can not only impact and transform societies in the long term but has also to be adapted to the needs of tomorrow’s societies particularly if societal paradigm shifts are envisioned and if a true sustainable future is targeted.

The PARADISO project has explored the foreseeable interactions between Internet and societal developments in the next decades, identified new innovation paths, and suggested recommendations on research to be developed under the European Union’s 8th framework programme. In the light of this work it has published, with the support of the PARADISO high-level expert panel, a CALL FOR ACTION, addressing in particular the need of EXPLORING THE INTERNET AT ITS LIMITS.

If we want to make a better world, we have to ask ourselves where to start and we have to think of paradigms shifts, future focussed and of the present state of the US, Europe and the Arab uprise. Bring human mind back to emotions, to nature. New economic systems to secure our common future, ways to prevent and to stop wars.

Marc Luycks Ghisi, former member of the "Foresight Studies Unit" of European Commission's President, looked at the future of our societies and presented 'ICT, a new civilization.

Around 450 participants from 40 countries have participated in the conference organized with the support of PARADISO at the European Commission in Brussels from 7 to 9, 2011, on the theme “Internet and societies: new innovation paths”. The event was supported by several leading institutions and included the 2nd edition of the “PARADISO international conference” (on Sept. 7-8) during which PARADISO recommendations to the European Commission regarding research topics to be addressed in future EU-funded programmes were presented.
It also included (on Sept. 9) the 1st “Dialogue on Platforms for collective awareness and action”, a one-day workshop to contribute identifying related multidisciplinary research priorities for the last Call of FP7 and for FP8.

Read the details of the conference in the overall report.

In Europe and around the world, Paradiso also arranged a childrens drawing contest on how the internet will affect their future. We imagined that when we want to access the Internet, we can make everything the way we want, for example change the colour of the wall without using paint.

The main findings, based on various inputs including those from any interested stakeholders contributing through the online consultation, the PARADISO social networks, their participation in project events, etc. is detailed in the “PARADISO reference document”. The document includes technical specification of the envisioned Future Internet and recommendations to the European Commission on research topics to be addressed in future EU-funded programmes.

Lynn St Amour, President & CEO, The Internet Society (presented by Frederic Donck, Director European Regional Bureau at ISOC)

Michael Remmert, Deputy Head, Directorate of Policy Planning, Directorate General of Democracy and Political Affairs, Council of Europe: Understanding the interactions between Internet and societal developments

Visions of the future of our societies, chaired by Ziga Turk, Secretary General, Reflection Group on the Future of Europe: Internet does change everything

Peter Johnston, President, International Advisory Committee, Club of Rome: Innovation for Energy and climate security smart green growth

Yves Punie, Senior Scientist, JRC/IPTS: Social Media and User Empowerment a trendo or a vision

Ruben Nelson, Executive Director, Foresight Canada: Civilization transformation At what scale must we consider paradigm change

Afonso Ferreira, Scientific Coordinator for international relations, CNRS - INS2I: The world in the Midst of the digital Revolution and beyond

David Dickinson, Founding Associate, Unlike Minds Limited, UK: Introduction to Unlike Minds Cloud Relevance

Hans van Willenswaard, Project Director, School for Wellbeing Studies and Research, Bangkok: Visions on the future of our societies

Luis Rodriguez-Rosello, Director, Converged Networks & Services Directorate, DG Infso, European Commission: Visions of the Future Internet A European R&D perspective

Sirkka Heinonen, Head of the Technology Futures Forum, VTT, Finland: Future of the Internet Paths to Paradise or to Digital Demise

Dimitri Papadimitriou, Principal research engineer, Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs CTO: Vision of the future Internet

Akihiro Nakao, Professor, University of Tokyo, Japan: Advanced Network Virtualization Research projects for Future Internet

Ward Hanson, Policy Forum Director, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research: PARADISO Comments

Lina Shi, Researcher, Institute of Economy and Policy Research, China Academy of Telecommunication Research: The impact of eCommerce on Chinese employment market

Jonathan Cave, Senior Research Fellow, RAND Europe and Senior tutor in Economics, Warwick University: Visions of the Future Internet

Roger Torrenti, PARADISO project coordinator: PARADISO reference document

Roberto Peccei, Vice-Chancellor for research at UCLA and President of the Italian chapter of the Club of Rome: Closing remarks for the 2010 PARADISO workshop

Jeremy Rifkin: Having access to energy is a fundamental right for all human beings. Store energy'.

In this context, the “ICT for a global sustainable future” conference was organised, with the support of the PARADISO project, on January 22-23, 2009 at the European Commission in Brussels:

• Opening addresses Today's global challengesVisions of a true sustainable futureThe role of ICT to ensure a global sustainable futureSustainable future: initiatives funded by the EC Future directions for EU ICT research

  Feedback from the PARADISO open consultation

• Closing session: next steps

An era of change. Acceleration and working together (also with the USA) are keys to make use of possibilites of ict, which forms 20% of GDP. ICT will take care of a break through. It plays a central role as infrastructure and it creates opportunities for all elements in all areas. It will change lifestyle. But implementing the opportunities have to go hand in hand with policy actions. After all, it will transform properties, it can show its inluence on our climate and energy-needs and on our every day life.

ICT creates and shares and we have to rethink how to approach globalisation on fields as finance, energy and climate: organise the energy of this planet first (due to the responsibility for the future generation), then decide how we use it and finally develop a control mechanism. (Societal) Paradigm shifts are needed. Civilizations will change: growth will not remain self-evident and the phenomenon of dematerialize is on the way. Discern the core of the important problems, self-knowledge, being sincere and direct with others, be open for advice, be consistent with ethical beliefs and knowledge are values that will become in front. Webontology and nanocosm. Intelligence will be non-biological and as much more powerful as these days. We are still in the stone age.

ICT must be able to offer low cost networks, easily accessions and solutions to systematic problems. It must also encourage to share data and providing financial support. We need long term thinking and look for a new way of assessing societal progress according to the Istanbul Declaration. Rifkin adressed motorized vehicles versus hybrid, temperature in the buildings versus demand and supply of electricity and underlines to use best practices and make for partnerships, without giving monopoly to anyone. After these statements, this first day ended with attention for trust, privacy, security, (possible) break-downs and elemination of obstacles. There is only one web on everything for everybody.

It is all about people, the rise of the user and it concerns radical (new) ideas and emerging technologies (convergence 3.0). Initiatives have to implemented on global, national and regional level and education and training is necessary to develop the digital literacy.

The event can be considered as having reached its two main objectives: further developing and validating the PARADISO vision and bringing the message towards, if not having it endorsed by, the various political instances of the European Union. But this milestone reached is only a first step and a lot remains to be done, as underlined during the wrap-up session, to influence the political agenda and identify the ICT research areas likely to contribute building a true global sustainable future.

Welcome address World Economic Forum 2009 stated: Breathtaking technologies, which generates a great opportunity for a new wave of economic growth, based on technologies, products and services directly meeting societal needs in eco-efficiency, in healthcare, in transportation, in people empowerment and many more.