CECUA Euro-News flash
President's
Address
Mr. Chairman,
Thank you
for this opportunity to address you at your MEDEF meeting. CECUA believes
that MEDEF has an important role to play in the development of the Global
Information Society. CECUA is ready to co-operate with MEDEF and bring on
board CECUA's unique experience and expertise in addressing Information
Society issues from the user perspective.
First, a few
words about CECUA itself.
CECUA is a
totally independent umbrella organization of European Computer User Organisations,
presenting and advocating the interests of European Citizens, Computer Users
and Consumers. CECUA was founded a quarter of a century ago to bring together
computer users across Europe to discuss user issues such as usability and
acceptability in an area dominated by industry. This included user interfaces,
trans-European networks, standards, open systems, purchasing of IT goods
and services to name but a few. During this initial period CECUA established
a good working relationship with the European Union including acting as
a consultative body on user issues. This good relationship remains and has
now been extended to include other European Union institutions such as the
European Parliament and the Committee of the Regions. France has played
an important role in CECUA and actively contributed to CECUA's progress
and development. Mr. Alain Moscowitz is a well respected member of the CECUA
Executive Board and is CECUA's representative on the EU EC-POP Committee
which advises the Commission on issues which includes the new .EU Internet
Top Level Domain.
During the
last quarter of a century we have seen a tremendous development from the
computer being used mainly by professional users to becoming a household
item just like the telephone, radio and television. In the area of networking,
development has been no less explosive and dramatic - from stand-alone computers,
then to being connected through proprietary networks and today being linked
globally via the Internet. During this period, CECUA has successfully managed
to transform itself in step with those developments and actively participate
in the development of the Global Information Society. During this period
the distinction between computer user, citizen and consumer has more or
less disappeared. Consequently, CECUA makes no distinction between them
anymore. Therefore, I will alternatively refer to the user, the consumer
or the citizen, naming one and meaning all.
In recent
years CECUA has focused on the needs of Citizens in the Global Information
Society and has given full support to the concept of an Information Society
for All as is being promoted by the European Commission. The Information
Society for All is indeed a very broad issue and true to its origin CECUA
is focusing on it from the user perspective. What does from the user perspective
really mean? During this short address I am unfortunately not able to go
into details. However, let me try to capsulate it into one sentence:
The
Information Society for all is not just a question of technology! but one
of motivating citizens!
Just how do
you motivate the citizens, the users and the consumers?
In essence
there is no one answer to this. CECUA is currently focusing on a few but
very selected approaches:
·
Building trust and confidence
CECUA has published a draft Bill of Rights for the Citizens of the Information
Society to stimulate public debate spelling out some basic rights the Citizens
should have and which Government and Industry should respect.
· Removing
obstacles standing in the way of users' take-up
Use the Bill of Rights as a Reference Platform to identify critical consumer
issues in present legislation, issues which have to be addressed or improved
upon or they become obstacles.
·
Discussing the Information Society in terms people that can understand and
react to
Discussion on the Information Society in microeconomic terms in addition
to macroeconomic ones. How is the family budget going to manage the costs
of buying hardware, software and services? Something else will have to go?
What can go and will go?
·
Integrating consumers into the Information Society by getting them on the
Internet.
"The more people on the Net, the faster we'll enjoy the Internet's benefits,
both within the EU and Globally. ......." said Commissioner Liikanen in
a speech at the London School of Economics on 26 February of this year.
Mr Liikanen expresses exactly what CECUA has been fighting for a long time
that getting people on the Internet is by far the fastest way of integrating
people into the Information Society.
During the
rest of my address I will confine myself to the last point: Integrating
consumers into the Information Society by getting them on the Internet.
How can we get the consumers on to the Internet? They need to be motivated.
Fancy technology is not enough. Many people are technophobes. It has to
be fashionable to be on the Internet. It has to be "IN" as the young people
say. Just like having a mobile phone has become a part of our lifestyle
both for men and women. How can we make the Internet more personal? We can
do it via the Internet address. CECUA's position is that every citizen,
private and corporate, should get a personal Internet address. CECUA is
challenging the EU to take the initiative and do it NOW. The EU must take
the initiative and offer every citizen a unique Internet address. Having
own Internet address is as important as having one's own address and telephone.
It is becoming just as important as having one's own name.
And CECUA
wants the EU to make the Internet address a personal one. What does that
mean? It means that the Internet address should be structured in line with
the European tradition for personal names: Christian name and Family name.
And it should be derived from the person's Christian and Family name. The
Internet address should be just as easy to remember as the person's name.
CECUA wants to personalize the Internet address and have it stay the same
during his or her whole life. Receiving a personalized Internet address
and start using it is an important step toward joining the Information Society
for All, an issue being raised by CECUA in conjunction with the new .EU
Top Level Domain. Wouldn't it be nice for Europe to lead the world for once
by providing every citizen with his or her own personal name Internet address.
400 million people with a personal name Internet address. Would that not
be the ultimate proof of an Information Society for all?
This is a
political issue. The technology is there. The infrastructure is there. What
is missing? Political leadership from the EU. The introduction of the .EU
Top Level Domain offers the historical moment for putting such a leadership
into action. This moment will not come again. For the EU it is "to be or
not to be".
But the EU
cannot do it alone. It needs help from organizations like MEDEF and CECUA.
Being fashionable and being "IN" is fine but we also need "killer" applications
to make sure people have the feeling of "getting something out of it". Something
like the French MiniTel. For many years I have been telling my students
about MiniTel as an early information dissemination "killer" application
putting the technology available at that time into practical use. What we
need are many MiniTel like "killer" applications to convince people that
they are really getting something out of using their personal Internet address
and joining the Information Society. This is a challenge for the industry,
a challenge I am sure it readily accepts because the challenge also presents
a tremendous opportunity for them in the new economy. Governments also have
to lend a helping hand to make it easy for people to get hands on the technology.
Let me give you an example from Denmark as explained by Ms Lone Dybkjaer
Member of the European Parliament:
"The Danish
government has created a system where an employer can provide a personal
computer for use by their employees at home, for either work or training
purposes. This does not affect the taxation paid by the employee. Moreover,
this scheme provides an incentive for companies to invest in the training
of their employees. In addition, this benefits the employee as a citizen.
The
Danish model serves, in my opinion, as an example of an affordable method
of ensuring that a major section of society can make the societal transformation
to the information society. Europe should choose the same approach in order
to ensure that all European Citizens can fully participate in the Global
Information Society."
This was an
example from Denmark. There are many different ways for Governments to get
involved in this. But the goal remains the same: To
integrate everybody into the Information Society regardless of social status
or financial situation. Once on the Internet, they will start exploring
it and get a feel for it. They will look at the news, sports, weather, etc.
The list is endless but people will choose what suits them best, satisfies
their interests and inclinations. Many governments and municipalities offer
their citizens diverse information and services on the Internet. The concepts
of "the paperless City Hall" and "the paperless Government" are in various
stages of being implemented. For many people this will be the next step
after generally exploring the Internet and send e-mails to family and friends.
An important step is e-commerce. This involves doing purchasing on the Internet.
Presently only 2% of business transactions in Europe are e-commerce while
it is already 5% in the USA. Europe has a lot to catch up on. And to do
that Europe needs consumers who not only are on the net but also feel confident
and trusting enough to use the Internet for e-commerce. To become confident
enough to buy on the net takes time, experience and trust. But the first
step is to get people on the Internet. That is the first step and the first
hurdle to overcome. Giving everybody a .EU personal address is an important
part in overcoming that hurdle.
Ladies and
Gentlemen, CECUA asks for your support to make the grand vision of .EU as
the Citizens Top Level Domain for All citizens of Europe come true.
Mr Chairman,
Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for your attention.