The mission of the IPTS is to provide customer-driven support to the EU policy-making process by researching science-based responses to policy challenges that have both a socio-economic and a scientific or technological dimension. European Commission Joint Research Centre Institute for Prospective Technological Studies Contact informationAddress: Edificio Expo. c/ Inca Garcilaso, s/n. E-41092 Seville (Spain) E-mail: jrc-ipts-secretariat@ec.europa.eu Tel.: +34 954488318 Fax: +34 954488300 http://ipts.jrc.ec.europa.eu http://www.jrc.ec.europa.eu Legal NoticeNeither the European Commission nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission is responsible for the use which might be made of this publication. Europe Direct is a service to help you find answers to your questions about the European UnionFreephone number (*): 00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11 (*) Certain mobile telephone operators do not allow access to 00 800 numbers or these calls may be billed.A great deal of additional information on the European Union is available on the Internet. Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged Printed in Spain 1 PREFACEThis report is the compilation of three discussion papers prepared during the EPIS projectEuropean Perspectives on the Information Society -with a view to gaining an in-depth understanding of the creative content sector. The creative content sector is characterized by a great diversity of activities, therefore music, books, games, films / TV broadcasting, cultural spaces, mobile content and advertising have been the focus of EPIS, for two main reasons: the role of ICT in their evolution and their contribution to the creation of growth and jobs in Europe. By studying the future evolution of the sector the ultimate goal of EPIS was to provide strategic intelligence for policy makers, and assess the need for policy action in order to unleash the potential of the creative content sector in Europe. The three papers presented in this report address the following issues: -Discussion Paper 1 describes the state of the art of the creative content sector in Europe and establishes a present scenario, in market, industrial, technology and business terms, for a set of sub-sectors (books, music, audiovisual production, video games and cultural spaces) engaged in the mass production of creative goods. -Discussion Paper 2 analyses the impact of ICT innovations on the industrial structure and dominant business models of these sub-sectors. -Discussion Paper 3 focuses on factors related to consumer demand, and social and institutional issues that might drive or hinder the adoption of these innovations.The three discussion papers were presented and validated at a workshop (May 2007) with stakeholders from different parts of the creative content sector. They were also used as a basis to define theses for a Delphi survey that was carried out in June-July 2007. Finally the discussion paper findings helped define scenarios for the future of the creative content. These scenarios may be the subject of a separate publication....

No abstract

This paper assesses the development of emerging computing applications that fall under the family of digital applications and technologies. These applications and technologies — Internet 2 based technologies for short — enable new ways of connectivity for networking, interfacing and producing content. They have the capacity and the force to disrupt existing social and economic relations and thus have major impacts on society. Hence, the term ‘e-ruptions’: emerging e-trends with potential disruptive power. This paper investigates the socio-economic impact of emerging e-ruptions, in an attempt to try and contextualise their implications and relevance for policy formulation. Evidence on trend development is presented from both formal and less formal sources such as weblogs, journals, independent commercial sources and industry-produced data. Although this evidence is largely anecdotal, at least for Europe [1], it is consistent and growing, and is reflected in social and economic impacts. Some of the social computing applications are only at the promotion stage (e.g. Ajax, social networks and wikis [2]), but others (such as VoIP) have already been widely adopted. The social relevance of these trends appears clear. They affect the way people find information, learn, share, communicate and consume and the way businesses do business. Throughout, an emphasis can be detected on interpersonal communication and on the role of the user as a supplier or co-producer of the service (content, taste, contacts, reputation, relevance, physical goods, but also software, connectivity and storage). In economic terms, these trends are already having a visible impact: new players and markets provide significant threats and opportunities for the ICT and media industries, and the new applications are increasingly used for professional purposes. The rise of the user — as a person, group or firm — as a producer is recognisable as the common thread of most of the emerging trends. Users produce utility-bearing information that minimises the transaction costs on various markets for goods and services in a potentially Pareto-optimal setting. In interacting, they use platforms that enable social networking and facilitate the further development and spread of the new e-ruptive trends. This process also changes the structural composition of (primarily) ICT and media industries, influencing directly their competitiveness. The nature of the competition for platforms that support current e-ruptive trends has been identified as one of the key factors in the continuing development of these trends. Although spectacular success stories of trend-setting companies promoting some of these applications can be observed, one has to be more cautious (bearing the Internet bubble in mind) when assessing their sustainability. In other words, a second bubble is not impossible. However, the success of innovation is measured by how established it is on the market and not by of any individual company. During the Internet bubble, the ‘holy grail’ of company success was "first-mover advantage"; now the focus has shifted back to more traditional business concepts, such as income, providing a more stable economic base. Internet 2 computing companies tend to have a smaller cost base, since they rely on users for a large part of their output, viable business models, and real market and they are much more closely integrated with the old economy, providing increasingly predictable income streams. This was not so much the case when the Internet bubble burst a few years ago. The paper starts by analyzing the available evidence on the usage growth of these trends (point 2). It then spells out the drivers of this growth (point 3), the different types of social and economic impacts (points 4 and 5 respectively). Building on this analysis, it puts forward interpretations on the sustainability of these trends (point 6), and on the main implications for innovation and competitiveness (point 7). The conclusions point to further research needs, and European policy options (point 8). In the annex (point 9), the main empirical data and a rough impact assessment are given.

Abstract.As governments across the world provide more and more support to open data initiatives and web 2.0 channels for engaging citizens, researchers orient themselves towards future internet, wisdom of crowds and virtual world experiments. In this context, the domain of ICT for Governance and Policy Modelling has recently emerged to achieve better, participative, evidence-based and timely governance. This paper presents a taxonomy classifying the research themes, the research areas and the research sub-areas that challenge this domain in order to deal with its diversity and complexity. Taking into account advancements in research, policy and practice, the taxonomy brings together the open, linked data and visual analytics philosophy; the social media buzz taming collective wisdom in decision-making; and the future internet approaches around cloud computing, internet of things and internet of services, while embracing the collaborative policy modelling aspects and the safeguarding against misuse implications.