Alberto Steindler: CEO of Insiel Mercato, Paolo Barichello: CIO Azienda ULSS N. 8 di Asolo, Italy, Giampaolo Armelli: Head of Research Unit GPI Group, Italy, Giorgio Calzetti & Alessandro Borgato: CEO Sales Manager, Solinfo, Italy, Serena La Manna: Project  Manager R&D Division DEDALUS SpA, Italy, Michèle Thonnet: Official Representative of the French Ministry of Social Affairs and Health in the Europian & International e-Health Domain, France, Sara Zanchiello: Technology Transfer Broker, AREA Science Park, Italy

With the world becoming more connected with the use of wireless networks, there is a desire to bring healthcare into this world.  Already many doctors’ offices have made patients records electronic and have eliminated a portion of human error from the process of maintaining these records.  With these improvements we are moving towards a more tech savvy healthcare system.  Alberto Steindler proposes a system where the patient never has to leave their home to seek treatment.  Those chronically ill can speak directly to their health care providers through video conferencing instead of risking their health further by going to the doctor in person.  He demonstrated an intricate wireless system of the simple doctor’s office visit from patient’s records to receiving medications.

Continuing on the road of eHealthcare, Barichello presents a test project which will allow for citizens to have secure access to their personal healthcare records.  This in turn will allow the public to update their personal healthcare records.  They will be able to make outstanding and current payments to their health plans. Patients can also check themselves in for appointments prior to their arrival at the office.  This will allow for less wait time between appointments and more efficient record keeping on the part of the healthcare professionals.

With this new technology, doctor’s offices, pharmacies and patients will have easier access to records and will be able to have more accurate results.  Hopefully this process will also eliminate human error which occurs much more frequently with the use of paper records.

Joze Gricar (Chair Department of Informatics, University of Maribor, Slovenia) introduced the session “Collaboration in Danube” talking about the Danube river, not as a boundary but as a connecting river. He explained that the Danubian region is a geographic region composed by the countries in which the river passes. He pointed out the importance of eCollaboration (collaboration in technology) as a relevant topic for the Global Forum.

Christian Kittl (Managing director, Evolaris Next Level, Graz, Austria & Mobile Living Lab & Steering Committee, ALADIN – ALpe Adria Danube Universities Initiative, Austria) then took the word talking about the ALADIN network project, that represents the linking between 19 universities and LivingLab. The goal of the project is to help nations in the Danube macroregion improving their innovation level by creating a flow of knowledge among the institutes. The action plan of the European Union strategy for the Danube region is to apply a methodology called Digital Business Ecosystem Model, that will help sharing technological knowledge between the region. He finally mentioned the Danube Business Forum, a place where new ideas can be shared and discussed.

Maurizio Fermeglia (Rector University of Trieste, Italy) analized the topic from the high education point of view. He highlighted the fact that italian universities form students focusing on single faculty, while the world needs experts in interdisciplinary fields. Then he talked about the Horizon2020, an European project, and specifically about investments on forming leadership in enabling industrial technologies. Therefore he concentrated the second part of his presentation on nanotechnology, a science where a lot of money will be invested into. According to Fermeglia’s opinion, money invested in research product results and not directly other money. From results comes innovation and only then new money come. He also stated that innovation is a discontinuity in knowledge, because people have to change their mind to reach a new innovation level. Finally he said that the question is not what the Danube region can do for Trieste, but what Trieste can do for the Danube region.

Jani Recer (Assistant Director for Informatics University Medical Center Ljubljana, Slovenia) talked about eHealth collaboration in the Danube region. He spook about initiatives in healthcare pursued by the European Union. In the Digital Agenda for Europe directives on the application of patients’ rights in crossborder healthcare are present. He said that we need to make eHealth tools more effective, user friendly and least but not last acceptable by patients.  He then provided prototypes of working systems that enhance collaboration among hospitals to face common problems like the drug event reporting.

Tomaž Breznik (Presales Specialist, SAP d.o.o., Ljubljana) exposed the SAP solution to improve the tourism sector, called Tourism Insight. Tourism has a lot of potential, as a consequence there is a need for optimize tourist pricing and offering. Institutions get a lot of data on tourism but doesn’t know how to manage and gain profit from it. The SAP prototype help regions improving their tourist offering. Then exposed the impact of the solution provided by his company by showing reports on the trend of that sector, focusing on the possibilities for the Danibian region.

Edi Kraus (Deputy to the Economy Development, city of Trieste) brought his real life case of collaboration between people from the Danubian region. He talked about his company that produces nylon. The company started in Trentino Alto Adige (an Italian region) and after few years opened a plant in Slovenia. Then the Slovenian division opened another factory in Croatia and from there it spread around the world (the last plant opened is in China). People in the company understood that internalization is a richness and not a risk, so the built an international mentality. It is a clear example of how people from the Danube region where able to gain success thanks to their collaboration.

Alessandra Laderchi is a graduate (MSc) student in computer engineering at the University of Trieste. She attended the sessions and wrote the articles during Global Forum 2013.

Alessandro Morsut is a student in Multimedia Sciences at the University of Udine. He was technical support during the event.

Andrea Bidinost is a graduate (MSc) student in computer engineering at the University of Trieste. He attended the sessions and wrote the articles during Global Forum 2013.

Carlo Moretto is an undergraduate student in computer engineering student at the University of Trieste. His task was filming and uploading videos during the event.

Delanie Cook is an Italian Major and Marketing Minor from Southern Connecticut State University. She is participating in an exchange program at the University of Trieste.  She attended the sessions and wrote some of the articles for the blog.

Desiree Rigonat is a PhD student in engineering at the University of Trieste. She attended sessions, filmed some interviews and managed the twitter profile of the event.

Diego Bortolin studies photography at ISFAV School of Padua. He was one of the official photographer of Global Forum 2013.

Federico Morsut is a graduate (MSc) student in computer engineering at the University of Trieste. He was technical support during the event.

Filippo Muscolino is an IT engineering student at the University of Trieste where he is finishing his master degree. His task during the Global Forum 2013 was attending the sessions and writing the articles for the blog.

Lorenzo Gasparini is an undergraduate student in computer engineering at the University of Trieste. During the event he attended sessions and wrote the articles for the official blog.

Marco Virgolin is a graduate (MSc) student in computer engineering at the University of Trieste. He attended the sessions and wrote the articles during Global Forum 2013.

Mariela Nasi is a graduate (MSc) student in computer engineering at the University of Trieste. She was the team leader during Global Forum 2013.

Matjaž Guštin is an undergraduate student in computer engineering at the University of Trieste. He attended the sessions and was technical support during the event.

Monica Zambon studied Social Science of Population and Development at the University of Bruxelles. She attended the sessions and did the interviews during the event.

Nicola Furlan is a graduate(MSc) student in computer engineering at the University of Trieste. He attended the sessions and wrote the articles during Global Forum 2013.

Ornela Kita is a student in pharmacy at the University of Trieste. She loves photography and for this reason she was one of the official photographers of Global Forum 2013.

Pietro Rigonat studies international and diplomatic sciences at University of Trieste. During the Global Forum 2013, he managed the interviews with the speakers.

Regi Jaupi is a graduate (MSc) student in electronic engineering at the University of Trieste. He attended the sessions and did the interviews.

Sara Caraceni studies international and diplomatic sciences at University of Trieste. During the Global Forum 2013, she managed the interviews of the speakers.

Shady Kalbouneh is a graduate (MSc) student in telecommunication engineering at the University of Trieste. He attended the sessions and did the interviews.

Session 7, themed “Contents & Creativity” started at 11:30am, with Thomas Spiller as the Chairman and Jean-Pierre Chamoux as the moderator.

The first speaker was Amadou Daffe, CEO of Coders4Africa, USA. He introduced us to the opportunities of improvement in Africa thanks to the ICT sector. Indeed, not-so-ancient history teaches us that after giving knowledge and access to technology to coders & content creators, the results are often impressive, with communities of innovating people growing by themselves and reaching extraordinary levels. He then presented several examples of mobile applications & games developed by Nigerians, Ghanians and Kenyans. According to him, Kenya is the first developing country to have an open government data portal. What is really missing now in Africa are the investors and venture capitalists which are the only ones who can make happen the digital revolution there.

The next speaker, Ellwood Kerkeslager, CEO of Information Futures, USA, underlined the need of a personalized approach to the market of ICT in Africa, which is completely different from the others.

Afterwards Denis Gardin, Vice-President of EADS CTO, France presented an innovative project involving augmented reality called MiRA. Mr. Gardin stressed that taking advantage of augmented reality can improve the quality of manufacturing. MiRA has been tested for the quality inspection of aircrafts wings, bringing the Digital Mockup to reality. It can be applied to several fields, and until now it has been a great success.

The next one to speak was Blaz Golob, Founding Director of the Centre for eGovernance Development for S.E.E., Slovenia. He stressed the importance of setting priorities for e-government, and the need of the collaboration of governments to implement the policies established by the EU commissions. The pillars of new development are: integrated growth, smart growth and sustainable growth. The next point was the necessity of training for public administration and citizens in order to improve their interaction with e-government services. E-government services, he said, should reflect the specific needs of each region.

Franco Grossi, Professor State University of Kazan & University of Trieste, Italy, talked about holistic ICT, and the innovative approach to it. He pointed out that we live in an era of knowledge  in which ICT is integrated in the economy forming a social system which enables seamless communication between every individual.

Olivier Las Vergnas, General Delegate for Inclusion, Training and Professional Activities, and Director of the Paris La Villette “Cité des métiers”, Universcience, France, presented the history of smart cities in France.

Eric Legale, Managing Director Issy Media-City of Issy-les-Moulineaux, France, talked about digital technologies which are employed in order to share history of the place with visitors and inhabitants. He also discussed the use of touch screens to offer a real immersion in the place history, and tablets, too. One of the main take-outs of his presentation is that well-deployed app offers all the info you need on your hands.

The final speaker, Manlio Romanelli, President M-Cube S.p.A., Italy, focused on connecting location and content, marketing intelligence systems and developing an omni-channel.

 The session was moderated by Hervé Rannou, CEO Items International, France and its participants were:

• Jean-Christophe Clément, Energy Expert Pole Développement Durable-Chambre de Commerce et d’Industrie Nice Côte d’Azur, France
• Marcello Guaiana, Senior Officer For International Technology Transfer Programme, AREA Science Park, Italy
•   Sergio La Mura, Technical and Research & Development Director, Siram, Italy
• Massimo Lamanna, CERN Dept IT, Switzerland
• Adriano Ruchini, EFQM Excellence Advisor, Italy
• Thaima Samman, Partner, associated lawyer, Samman Law FIRM
• Michela Vellico, Istituto Naz.le di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale – OGS, Italy
•   Marinka Vignali, General Secretary and EU Coordinator, ARESS-ARAB Renewable Energy and Sustainability Society, Italy

Hervé Rannou explained some words like “Cityzen Data”,”Smart Grids” (digital technologies to assist renewable energies) ad “cities” (as area of metric and sensors). Next, presented the possible of smart City, where big data, smart grids and digital technologies could change our style of life. But the risk is to seems like the “Big brother”abusing the privacy of the citizens.

Jean-Christophe Clément asked why we must develop the smart grid and the smart city project. He explained that France is at the end of the power line and it requires more energy resources. He presented six projects for acquiring energy from the sun and integrating it with local power line. He presented the “Cote d’Azure Smart Grid Character” which is a guideline to projecting buildings and cities according to the smart city intuition.

Michela Vellico talked about how to reduce energy consumption and measure it. She presented the energy city project. According to her, by installing a hyper-spectrum-camera and a thermo-camera on an aircraft and flying over a city it is possible to measure the temperature and identify the kind of material that composes the roof. From this measure it is possible to calculate the energy efficiency. The project was realized following the 20 20 20 accord (reducing about the 20% of the pollution by 2020).

Marcello Gualana talked about how to deploy an Italian smart energy program. He presented the example of LID (Laboratori / Impianti Dimostrativi) as a model to save energy and pollution (51000 kg CO2 saved yearly). This project is extending to the European Community and has the target to promote the 20 20 20 accord.

Massimo Lamanna wonders about if the big data experience at CERN can be useful for other applications. He presented the WLCG (Worldwide LCH Computing Grid collaboration). A lot of data must be analysed: 20% of that are computed in Geneva (and for this, there is an increasing necessity of electrical power) and other is transferred elsewhere. He characterized big data as “big in Volume, fast in Velocity, but reduced in Variety”.

Marinka Vignali talked about promoting cooperation and common standard in the Mediterranean basin. She also pointed out the sharing of proper technologies and “know-how transfer” and the improving of a common market between Arab/EU regions. She said that there should be Standard and Labeling.

Session Eight began with a small panel consisting of only four speakers on a topic that is very much relevant to our lives today.  Chairman Colin Williams, Director SBL, United Kingdom, Speakers: Michael Stankosky, Research Professor George Washington University, USA, Magnus Wakander, Deputy Head I2 Office, FMV, Sweden and Paul Wormeli, Executive Director Emeritus, Integrated Justice Information Systems Institute – IJIS; Innovation Strategist, Wormeli Consulting, LLC, USA. These four individuals discussed steps that need to be taken to protect the public and governmental industry against cyber attacks. In this day and age we are incapable of accomplishing half of what we need to do without the use of the Internet and computers. In order to maintain a level of control in this ever growing cyber space, there needs to be a level of understanding throughout nations to maintain a safe and secure web space. Each device connected to the Internet and wireless networks is a vector that is vulnerable to either large scale or small-scale cyber attacks. 

In order to perform risk management tasks and processes, companies and even those on personal networks need to have clearly defined critical assets. These assets need to reflect the most precious pieces of information that need to be protected above all of the others. Stankosky expressed that knowledge, data and information are the new currencies of the 21^st century. These are the types of assets that need to be clearly defined if a company or large corporation is going to protect themselves from attacks. Wormeli proposed a secure program where nations can safely share data pertaining to different platforms. All stake holders in the program, NIEM, must be represented and also must agree on what are core and common interests. Under U.S. law there are standards to a building a basis with sharing this information and must be done as a consensus. It is a starting point to conserving and protecting data shared online. There are some programs between Mexico, Canada and the US to share data on stolen cars, and in Canada they use it to share information pertaining to Visas.  NIEM is a starting point towards a secure way to share data between nations. 

Hopefully from this starting point, governments and firms similar to that of Paul Wormeli can decide on and develop programs that allow for secure sharing between nations.

The opening session of the Global Forum on Tuesday October 29, 2013 began with a panel discussion on Innovation. Panelists included Chairman, Bror Salmelin, Advisor Innovation Systems, DG CONNECT, European Commission, Moderator Jay E. Gillette, Professor of Information and Communication Science, Center for Information and Communication Sciences Ball State University, USA, Key Note Speakers: Nicole Dewandre, Advisor for Societal Issues, “Digital’s Social Sciences and Humanities” DG CONNECT, European Commission, Ann-Mari Finema, Head of IT Applications & Service Department, VINNOVA – Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems, Sweden, Enrico Fiore, Chairman Truyoins, Israel/Italy Antoine-Tristan Mocilnikar, Energy Digital Infrastructures Head, Interministerial Delegate to the Mediterranean, France, Gary Shapiro, President & CEO CEA – Consumers Electronic Association, USA, Michael Stankosky, Research Professor George Washington University, USA, Yoshio Tanaka, Professor Tokyo University of Science Graduate School of Management of Innovation Studies; Emeritus Councilor National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan.

These nine participants gave compelling presentations on what innovation is and how important and crucial it is to developing advancements in the growing field and world of technology. To be innovative means to be open and forward thinking.  No longer should you be working on self-development, but on professional development or the development of others. Innovation takes more than one person with a brilliant idea to make things happen. That is where the idea of Cross-Boundary Innovation comes into play. It is taking innovations from different fields ranging from organizations, nations, regions, sectors, age, background, etc. and putting them together to foster innovation. Innovation is going above and beyond the normal realms of thought and idea creation. It is pushing back against your peers and asking questions, discovering new and unique processes. Value what knowledge you have, but then continue to look for and improve that base. Knowledge is our wealth and we need to use that wealth to keep innovations moving forward.

Hugo Kerschot (Founder & CEO Is-Practice, Belgium), moderator of the talk, started the session at 2.45 pm introducing one of the main topics – the concept of a Smart City.

Troy Nachtigall (ISIA Firenze, Italy) pointed out the central role of designers according to creation of ideas and new tendencies. In the example of a bike-sharing project the city is seen as a platform, full of services accessible to people, and citizens are compared to users of a community.

The story of Taichung city, brought to us by Ching-Chih Liao (Deputy Secretary-General Taichung City Government, Taiwan), represents a perfect example of Smart City, with its free Wi-Fi coverage and fiber broadband availability. The Government  made abandoned areas more attractive (for example, by creating vertical gardens upon the buildings, organizing various events and festivals).

Government is not the only actor participating to the changes of a city. Citizens’ role is fundamental, too. Citizens are able to join government activities through ICT, creating forms of e-Democracy and e-Participation. This is what emerges from the talk of Eikazu Niwano (Producer Research and Development Planning Department, NTT Corporation, Japan). Self-Government activities became to raise their importance, for example in a case of disaster recovery. The offer of an ICT environment helps regional entities to administer themselves and gain autonomy. This will improve the sustainability of the Smart City.

Kenji Hiroshige (Director London Representative Office, FMMC-Foundation for Multimedia Communication, Japan) presented a platform taking care of citizens – the Integrated Public Alert  Platform. From this example it is easy to see how ICT can improve public services, representing an efficient method for communication in case of an emergency. Local and central governments are providers that collect information (such as flood warnings, evacuation centers, etc.) in a centralized way and share them with local residents through several media channels. Citizens can access accurate information independently from where they are.

Hanne Melin (Policy Strategy Counsel, eBay Inc. Public Policy Lab EMEA, Belgium) showed the cycle of policy innovation and the role of Big Data into her company.

Another company also trying to build interfaces for Big Open Data is Navidis, represented by Philippe Perennez (CEO and R&D, Navidis, France), that brought the “Smart City +” platform as an example of aggregation of apps and services. Sharing needs and availability, using real-time and interactive applications with Open Big Data, helps forge stronger relations between people. This can reinvent the way we live together.

Fabio Perossini (Managing Director Kpeople ltd, UK) focused on the CROSS (Citizen Reinforcing Open Smart Synergies) – a European project aimed at supporting collaboration of citizens in the domain of innovation.  This project is based only on help and offers from volunteers and there is an unofficial sector of community services being provided without any funding. In this scenario it is mandatory to have good communication.

Alan Shark (Executive Director PTI – Public Technologies Institute; Associate professor of Practice Rutgers University School of public affairs and Administration, USA) turned the focus on the key role taken by Big Data (“data is like rain, they are everywhere. Don’t miss the power of data.”). In New York, for example, there is a spread of Open Data websites and apps. Innovation, considered not as creating something new from scratch but more likely doing things in a different way, has fundamental role, too.

Julia Glidden (Managing Director 21C Consultancy, UK) considered the city as an Innovation Platform where we’re all data collectors and geolocated data has a central function. Data should be open and accessible (release of Open Data) and it should be simpler to use them.

In conclusion, there was a little debate about the cooperation between private and public sector. The main question was: “After spending lot of money for gathering these data, why allow other people to access them and, possibly, making money from them?” The answer should be that there is a price to be paid for giving customers this data, but the potential is worthy.

Day two of the Global Forum began with a lovely breakfast and discussion on the topic of women in leadership roles in the digital age. Panelists included, moderator, Thaima Salaam; President WIL – Women in Leadership in Europe, Partner & Associate Lawyer, Samman Law Firm, France, opening keynote delivered by Maureen K. Ohlhausen; Federal Trade Commission-FTC, USA, and other presentations given by Myriam El Ouni; Alliance Manager Microsoft, France, Eliane Fiolet; CEO, Ubergizmo, USA, Gabrielle Gauthey; Executive Vice President Global Government & Public Affairs Alacetel – Lucent, France, Marcella Logli; Director, Corporate Identity & Public Relations; General Secretary Telecom Italia Foundation, Italy, Claudia Selli; E.U. Affairs Director, AT&T, Belgium, Marta Turk; President of the Board & Director, CCI Ljubljana, Regional Chamber of Commerce, President Founder of the Association of Women Entrepreneurs GIZ Pdjetnost (Member FCEM), Slovenia.

The theme of the discussion was improving a woman’s position in a primarily male profession. Women have made progress in the work force, but still in the Digital Age it is still much of a man’s game. When it comes to the sciences especially women are still in a minority.  Marta Turk gave us some astounding statistics of the woman’s involvement in entrepreneurship in Europe: 20% or less of European women hold patents or own their own tech companies. Italy is one of the few that can boast about 30% of women who do in fact hold patents or own their own companies in the digital world. In Slovenia the majority of self-employed companies are failing and women’s business stays small and micro.  Eliane Fiolet also contributed with 10% of women have success when it comes to tech start-ups. What Europe is lacking is the legislation to promote women in business, something that the United States already has. 

Aside from the difficulties that women have entering into the tech industry, the panel of eight women left us with some very wise and inspiring words. Moreen Ohlhaussen, Gabrielle Gauthey, Eliane Fiolet, Claudia Selli and Marcella Logli all put emphasis on the importance of women speaking up and out to let themselves be heard. They put extreme emphasis on networking and not waiting for your boss to give you an assignment, but rather you look for opportunities that will propel you forward and up in your profession. Build up those connections that are made while networking even if one serves as a mentor. Keep learning and building knowledge because in these situations knowledge is the weapon that you will use to succeed in this digital and tech age.