This is one of the main messages
emerging from the recent eBusiness and eWork conference (e-2001),
which was held in Venice, October 17-19. Delegates attended the
conference from Europe, the USA, Japan, Africa and Australia.
The event demonstrated that Europe is making a major contribution
towards the development of new Internet-based technologies.
The eBusiness and eWork conference
is an annual event that is now considered as a main reference
point to check the state of the art of eBusiness technologies
in Europe. The event is aimed at providing a dissemination platform
for eBusiness and eWork research projects funded by the European
Commission's IST Programme, Key Action II, New Methods of Work
and Electronic Commerce.
The conference demonstrated
how emerging digital technologies for eWork and eBusiness are
generating new R&D opportunities and new business initiatives.
It also showed how progress and developments are continuing,
even though the dotcom bubble has burst, and how industry
still supports the Internet as a fundamental means of improving
business and creating new opportunities.
The conference was held shortly
after the terrorist attacks of September 11, but was nevertheless
well attended, demonstrating the growing interest in Europe's
progress in eBusiness technologies and related issues.
Keynote strategic papers in
the plenary sessions were presented by speakers from the European
Commission, Cisco, Canon, Telecom Italia LAB and IBM.
In the closing session, Rosalie
Zobel from the European Commission, the Director responsible
for Key Action II said: "I am highly pleased with the success
of the Venice Conference, which has shown how well Europe is
placed in the development and exploitation of Internet technologies."
The e-2002 conference will
take place in Prague in October.
The eBusiness and eWork events
are the conferences for RTD projects in Key Action II of the
IST Programme, who are also the primary sponsors of the eBusiness
and eWork conference series. Other sponsors of e-2001 were Telecom
Italia, Canon and InfoCamere.
Ends
Notes for editors.
Around 273 abstracts were submitted
for the e-2001 event. Of these 179 were selected for the conference
and these have been published in a two volumes book entitled
E-work and E-commerce Novel Solutions and Practices for a Global
Networked Economy. See news release dated 29 October 2001 for
further details.
The e-2001 Programme Committee's
Award for the best paper in the Conference went to Manon van
Leeuwen of Fundecty, Spain for the paper entitled The impact
of e-work on leadership in organisations. The two runners
up were: Norman G. Roth from Fraunhofer IAO, Germany, for his
paper NIMCube: New Use and Innovation Measurement and Management
Methodology for R&D; and Monika Jungemann-Dorner from
ComnetMedia, Germany and Tony Lam from NetUnion, Switzerland,
with their paper Open Contracting TransActions in the New
Economy.
The Organising Committee's
Award for the best demonstration went to Gruppo Formula of Villanova
di Castenaso (Bologna, Italy) for their stand presenting two
projects, FLUENT and WHALES.
A special award for demonstration
went to Telecom Italia on behalf of Key Action II Project, ANGELO,
the goal of which is to create a guardian angel - an e-assistant
- for workers and managers in call-centres. Such a guardian angel
should provide a better working environment, improve motivation
among call-centre employees and enable companies to provide better
service to their customers. |