Confederation of European Computer User Associations

CECUA Euro-News flash

President's Address

Mr. Chairman,

Thank you for this opportunity to address you at your CANeu meeting. CECUA believes that the Internet has a crucial role to play in the development of the Global Information Society. To make this happen CECUA is co-operating with many institutions and organisations and bringing 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. CECUA is a legacy user association and has been working closely with DG ISO and DG ENTERPRISE. 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. 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 should 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 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. And CECUA wants it to be a .EU address and the .EU space should become the trust and confidence space for all European Computer Users-Consumers-Citizens, both private and corporate. Both issues are 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 .EU Internet address. 400 million people with a personal name .EU Internet address. Would that not be the ultimate proof of an EU commitment to an Information Society for all? I have talked a lot about motivation. Is there a stronger motivation than joining a group of 400 million people?

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 space 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 and institutions. 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 .EU 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 and net connection 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. Therefore, CECUA stresses the point of the .EU space should be a space of trust of confidence.

Ladies and Gentlemen, CECUA asks for your support to make the grand vision of .EU as the personalized Citizens space of trust and confidence for All Europeans benefit from come true.

Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for your attention.