eChallenges Conference 2003

Mícheál Ó Foghlú (TSSG, WIT) attended the eChallenges 2003 conference in Bologna (http://www.echallenges.org)
from 22nd-24th October 2003. A member of the International Programme
Committee, Mícheál chaired three sessions and has provided us with a
brief synopsis of the main themes arising from these sessions:

eWork
- There is surprising evidence to suggest that flexible working
patterns are most likely to be found in heavy urban areas in the EU at
present.

Broadband and Mobility: Regional Case Studies
- In all countries there is a tension between the free-market
approaches and government subsidised approaches to broadband provision;
even where a free market approach is adopted, small-scale local
government schemes can have a big impact in rural and peripheral
regions.

eBusiness: Interoperability

- whilst XML technologies provide a potential automated processing
language for many solutions, much work needs to be done in each domain
to agree on actual schemas even within a broad ebXML-based approach.

Mícheál
also presented a paper (authored by Frank Wilson, Margaret Grene, Hill
Stewart and Davorin Rogina, on the results of the Flexwork project. http://www.tssg.org/papers/20031022_eChallenges_2003/eChallenges_e-2003_ref_63.pdf).
This project was co-ordinated by the TSSG in WIT and has deployed a
portal site disseminating information to nearly 500 regional catalysts
impacting on many more SMEs in various regions across the EU and the
New Applicant States (http://www.flexwork.eu.com/).
The materials are all available free of charge from the portal website
(all are in English, and some have been translated into other languages
according to local requirements).

The proceedings of the conference have been published in two volumes and are distributed in the UK, the USA and in Japan:

Cunningham P., Cunningham M., & Fatelnig P.

Building the Knowledge Economy: Issues, Applications, Case Studies

(2003)

IOS Press, Oxford UK, ISBN 1-58603-379-4.

eChallenges 2004 is scheduled for Vienna, Austria 27th-29th October 2004 and there is now a Call For Papers for this next eChallenges conference. This call can be viewed on line at: http://www.echallenges.org. It is hoped that the 2005 conference will be held in Ireland.

The thematic priorities for the next call will be:

§         eBusiness

§         eGovernment & eDemocracy

§         eWork and eLearning

§         Smart & Virtual Organisations

§         Knowledge Management

§         Broadband & Mobility

§         eEurope 2005 and ICT take-up by SMEs