The ICT partnership - Cooperation through Europe

The European Commission convened two meetings in 1993 to set up a co-operation between the associations involved in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Europe. The four results of this action are:

1. All participants aggreed on the document "User involvement in ICT Policy" which analyses the situation of ICT users and their future role. It also sets out the ways and means to improve the co-operation between the various actors: users, vendors and the Commission services.
2. The participants also decided to co-operate. They agreed on a Memorandum of Understanding called "a Partnership in ICT", specifying the principle guiding such co-operation. EurOpen is one of the associations having signed the MoU.
3. Futhermore, the participants decided to launch several Round Tables each one chaired by one of the organisations. Some of these round tables have now completed their work, while some other have been created. EurOpen chair round table #8 on "An information network for the associations and their members". EurOpen has also provided an email list service and a web server, to facilitate the organisation of the round tables.
4. There are so many sources of ICT documentation that it is not easy to find the information one needs. The associations requested the Commission to prepare a guide to access existing information sources. This document, called "ICT Information Sources" is updated regulary.

Three outputs have been produced:

• A new Memorandum of Understanding between organisations on the information provided and the use of electronic tools. This MoU broadens the audience to smaller and national associations which cannot participate regulary to meetings in Brussels.
• Recommendations to the service providers of the ICT partnership electronic services.
• Recommendations on Organisational and multicultural aspects.

The ICT partnership electronic services are now running. These include the web server, Email lists, private news groups and links to many associations and European Commission webs.

The next step will be to setup national mirror webs. Some of them are already planned to start in 97:
French, Swedish, Danish, Italian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Lithuanian, Hugarian, Polish
Other national mirrors are under investigation.

Jean-Michel Cornu is a european expert on Electronic Information and the Information Society.

He is active in 4 main areas:
• EUROPEAN AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS in Information and Communication Technology (ITC). he chairs the ICT Round Table on "an Information network for the Associations and their members" and is very active in international standardization
• PUBLIC SECTOR, especially administration and archives.He produced several guidelines for the European Procurement Handbook on Open Systems (EPHOS), for the French Governement and for the DLM Forum
• LARGE USER COMPANIES. He benchmarks organisations and architectures for large accounts and drives reengineering.
• SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTREPRISES (SMEs). He serves as a nearness advisor for group of SMEs and helps making liaison and cooperation with other bodies.

Richard Delmas started his European career at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. He further joined the European Commission as Project Officer in the field of multilingual policies within DG XIII/E in Luxembourg. He further joined Brussels where he now works at the level of the Directorate General as assistant of Mr. Triana, Conseiller Hors Classe, and as responsible of the ICT Partnership with the associations.

He follows closely the evolution of the various disciplines of information and communication and publishes regularly books and articles in the domain.