The facilitation role played within the ACTS programme has been an important one. Architecture cohesion is a major issue in the Telecommunications industry to-day, DIFFERENCE tackles this in selected technical areas within the ACTS. This was done in a well-informed, hands-on, and co-operative manner.

The European commission identified the role of chain guidelines as important results from the ACTS programme. DIFFERENCE played an important role in ensuring that the guidelines produced by the SIA and NIM chains were relevant to the industry needs and consistent with the thinking of the market drivers. In particular the project used its close links with the industrial fora to provide information flow and market matching between the ACTS results and potential customers of these results.

Aside from chain facilitation DIFFERENCE undertook the significant role of Chair for the Domain 5 CLIMATE. This involved considerable organisation, information infrastructure and pragmatic management. Many links and liaisons with industry fora were forged and many beneficial inter-project exchanges have been presided over. Other important areas of facilitation included the organisation of the IS&N conference and development of theme papers on selected technical themes. Through its theme papers and advanced preparations for related workshops the project has actively contributed to the process of architecture cohesion, albeit in on small (but effective) scale.

Public Deliverables