The session was introduced already focusing on the importance of Cloud Computing, and the topic of discussion is how it can innovate and change the future.

The first speaker, Alin Stanescu , begins by presenting Qualcomm’s unique business model, including their main projects and developments. He mentiones that smartphones will surpass the PC as a Cloud connected device in 2014 and how this may affect the way people communicate with each other.

The second speaker, Danilo Cattaneo, highlights the difference between the perception of trust and the real reliability of storing data online. He then presents the innovative idea of “From cloud to trusted cloud”. InfoCert’s vision of e-health is that in the future we can become 100% paperless and that it will be safe to store information online

Professor Hercules Dalianis then presents about the clinical text mining for health care managing using aggregated data. The problem hospitals face is that doctors are busy taking care of patients and don’t prioritize reporting the procedure information. To deal with that problem, a new system would be needed: the Cloud. With this he explains that hospital intelligence is actually business intelligence, and by implementing this system we could not only connect hospitals around the world but also improve the health care system.

Hosted by the City of Stockholm and Vinnova, the Swedish Governement Agency for innovation, the Global Forum gathered today in the Grand Hotel. The 200 delegates coming from 35 countries including China, Japan and most of the EU countries listened to a very interesting set of keynote speakers moderated by Proessor Jean-Pierre Chamoux from the University Paris Descartes.

The opening speech was delivered by the highly respected Commissionner Tom Rosch from the Federal Trade Commission of the US. The Commissionner pointed out that the worldwide industry convergence now well established between telephone, computers and the media may soon require a simplified institutional regulatory system able to avoid capture from the industry as well as power abuses.

Two high level public Commissioners from Japan and Sweden, Director General Toru Nakaya from the Institute for Information & Communication policy in Tokyo and Professor Jan Gulliksen chairing the Digital Commission of Sweden, expressed their views on how public policies can fit with technology and its usage.  Public policies shall still take all steps necessary to maintain the ICT industry safe and secure so that people will trust networks and services : all stakeholders, including consumers, networks and services do appreciate clear guidelines and legal guarantees in order for them to trust the ICT system at home and globally as well, they said.
Two high level spokesmen from the ICT industry joined this opening session : Dr. Urban Fagerstedt, vice-president R&D, Huawei Technologies Swedish branch and M. Olivier Duroyon, from Alcatel Lucent Regulatory department in Paris. Dr. Fagerstedt noted that his 25 year old company climbed from the follower seat to a worldwide leadership during the last ten years, thanks to fast moves and innovation from the lab promptly adjusted to market competitiveness. M. Duroyon noted that innovative devices developped outside of the network industry do maintain a constant pressure on operators to deliver a sustainable service and a quickly growing demand for broadband.

Innovation is also pressuring procurement analysts and public institutions to forecast how and when to buy equipements even ahead of their appearance on the market said Ann Mari Finneman, head of IT department Vinnova, in her speech pointing out what is really needed to improve public services through information technologies, well before they are available on shelf.

M.Gerald Santucci from the DG Connect unit of the European Commission noted that the so-called Digital Agenda for Europe prepared by the Commission for the coming decade, may miss some of the multiple stakeholders expectations if it fails to recognize the diversity of targets expressed by the people in Europe, a most difficult task to accomplish given the critical economic environment resulting from the World crisis underway.

A final touch was given by Dr. Kingsley Fletcher, a traditional African Ruler from Ghana well acquainted with IT technologies both in the West and in Africa. He stressed that the African environment is now changing drastically along this huge continent and that growth and entrepreneurship are blossoming in many countries with IT having a major role in that change.

This may support a brilliant view for the future, Professor Chamoux said in his concluding remarks as, for the first time in modern history, Africa may soon become the place where traditional ruling and modernity finally play a positive sum game for the ordinary people, with communication and information technology supporting a significant growth in welfare and well being.

Written by: Prof. Jean-Pierre Chamoux

Business Content is the topic of the first speech. Content in the company. The quality and resources. Digital entertainment for children, you need to have storytelling and creativity.

The second speech is about how ICT can help heritage in Egypt. Europe is the first target and eventually to different places in the world.

The third speech is by James M. Fraser on “How we use IT delivery for students.” Video conferencing (VC) in England. Delivery to fragile areas to communicate more and get more diversity.

What are the future values? Putting social learning into learning for students and develop from social areas to urban areas.

Debate on Human economic development in the world; social changes in the world.

Eric Seuillet, President La Fabrique du Futur, President of Smartsy in France, spoke about future media Internet. How can technology be used is involved in this project.

Opening Session – Smart policies for innovation and open innovation

Göran Marklund, Deputy Director General of VINNOVA and Chair of the Opening Session, offers his remarks on innovation policies as an ending of the first session. He wants the audience to take with them the importance of putting support of innovation at the heart of policy making, a point which is often overlooked.

He also urges the listeners to specify the sometimes vague nature of innovation policies by answering why, what and how. His impression of the current development is positive, but the full potential power has yet to be released – needs have to be turned into value. Experimentation is a key strategy, involving opening up boundaries to enable learning and testing different ways of handling talent as a source for innovation.

The session ended with a discussion originating from a question by Sébastien Héon, Director of Political Affairs at Cassidian:

Why have there been no commercial innovation successes like facebook or Google in Europe?

The question was answered by Bror Salmelin, who traced the issue to the European innovation focus on industry products, rather than consumer products. And incorporating this commercial user focus is one of the key challenges facing innovation policies of the future.

A few of yesterday’s presentations are now available online. More to come: http://www.globalforumblog.com/category/conference-presentations

Session 3:

• Francisco Garcia Moran
• Gaetano Santucci

This morning was a special one, it started off with the organisation “Women In Leadership” having a workshop regarding social networking in different mediums. The presentation from the keynote speakers were very interesting in the sense that they had a  vast experience from their fields. The word was pretty much open to anybody who felt that they had something to say or comment on and this led to a couple of spin off discussion regarding pratical networking scenarios.

Opening Session – Smart policies for innovation and open innovation

How can healthcare and innovation in ICT come together? Pêteris Zilgavis, the Head of ICT for Health at the European Commission, makes a compelling presentation about the opportunities that emerge when combining these two areas. Through innovation and the technological advances in ICT, healthcare can offer solutions that are more personalized, cheaper and more effective.

Mr. Zilgavis and his team of specialists employ a user centric view on digitalized healthcare, bring together different practises and endorse the EU’s Digital Agenda to face the challenges of combining healthcare and innovation. User literacy in both ICT and health is essential for the success of eHealth.