The day’s last session was opened by the chair Giampaolo Armellin, the Head of Research Unit CRG. The session covered the very interesting and acute topic of Connected and Personalized Health in the Internet Age. The topic is universal and is important even for people not involved in the research on the topic itself, as the Internet is inevitably revolutionizing the science of medicine and the way the systems of medicine work in our everyday lives. Technology is meant improve the health care system, not to only simplify it and reduce the distance.

Carmelo Battaglia, the Sales Director of SMEs Customers at InfoCert, a company with 3 offices, 200 employees, 41 million EUR revenue in 2014, started the session by talking about the importance of our digital information’s safety. Everyone have to make sure his or her digital information is properly owned, stored and made accessible and available only to the allowed users and for allowed purposes. Everyone’s digital identity should remain safe at all times.

Kim Westerlund, the Chief Development Officer at Nixu, continued the topic of the importance of cybersecurity and data protection in the spheres of healthcare and medicine. The healthcare environment is being rapidly changed by technology and the expanding possibilities to analyse and access the huge amounts of biometric, genetic and other personal data, which is being stored digitally.This personal data along with other medical records can be extremely valuable to the cyber criminals, which no longer aim to steal only the credit card & bank account-related records and data, as one might think, and it’s very important to take measures to make sure this data won’t get hacked and stolen. We need to know and understand which actions do we have to take to protect our privacy and the privacy of our personal data. The only way to make it clear and accessible to everyone is to make it private by design. According to Kim, there are 7 foundational principles of privacy-by-design:

• Proactive not reactive – Preventative not remedial
• Privacy as default setting
• Privacy embedded into design
• Full functionality – positive-sum, not zero-sum
• End-to-End security – full lifecycle protection
• Visibility and transparency – keep it open to everyone
• Respect for user privacy – keep it user-centric

Giuseppe Grassi, the Director of Cardiology Division at ULSS 12 in Veneziana, Italy, continued the session by elaborating on the concept of innovating the processes of interaction between the doctors and the patients by automation and by the usage of the dedicated software. For instance, the hospital Mr. Guiseppe Grassi works at, is using the dedicated software for prescriptions of medicine, which helps to reduce both the prescription errors and pharmacological interaction as well as allergic reactions and the misuse of drugs. In other words, the automation of the whole process helps to make sure the right patient receives the right medicine at the right time. Also, the patients are being monitored after the treatment by an electronic device, which provides the data on whether you have to see your doctor or not.

Carefully designed automation can help to avoid errors, simplify the doctor-patient relationships and take the healthcare processes to the next level of efficiency.

Maritta Perälä-Heape, Director in the CHT – Centre for Health and Technology at the University of Oulu, talked about information flows and interactions among users and applications. Maritta introduced the MyData approach, which is all about the consumer controlling his/her own data. Benefits of MyData for the enduser were presented to be for example better ways to interact with companies and public organizations, easy-to-use tools for personal data management and better privacy and transparency. Also the health care providers and the industry would benefit of MyData.

Andrea Sandi, founder of SINTAC, started with showing images and practical examples of how digitalization transforms the healthcare sector. He showed how to define a physical model to craft a personalized prosthesis by a 3D printing innovative system. This enables the partnership development with the medical staff, which is the key factor to success. Tailored is better in the future healthcare.

Michele Thonnet, International eHealth Affairs Executive in the Ministry of Social Affairs, continued and talked about opening data and borders. Michele talked about health issues, ehealth and connected health to improve citizen/patient’s health by making life-changing information available. Openness is something to strive for, but Michele pointed out that the openness and open data are very difficult in practice, because healthcare is a complex system of systems. Michele calls for cooperation for interoperability in all areas: legal, organizational, technical and semantic.

Madis Tiik, Senior Advisor in Sitra – Finnish Innovation Fund, pointed out that even if the discussion is very much in the health care, there are, in the matter of fact, several factors that affect to our health: behaviour, lifestyle, genetics, environmental and social factors and health care. Madis called for better health outcomes and more personalized care, and as an example, he presented the Virtual Clinic, which offer personalized services, and connects all the current separate health care services and operators together. It’s a place where people can get guidance and virtual help to the symptoms and monitor own medical record. New entrants are creating options consumers want, and threatening billions of dollars in hospital and physician revenue.

In light of the recently ratified UN Sustainable Development Goals, the moderator Julia Glidden (Moderator), Managing Director 21c Consultancy, United Kingdom, announced that during this session with such a broad topic in its title, the panellists will be talking about the relationship between the sharing economy, IT and sustainable development, because the notion of sharing that IT facilitates puts a whole new challenge to the consumptive/ capitalist focus on acquisition of goods and constantly buying and selling and replacing things. Ms. Glidden finds the concept of circular economy very inspirational – not constantly buying and throwing away and buying and throwing away again, but borrowing and sharing in a manner that brings people together. The panel will have some very high level discussions as well as very interesting practitioners’ discussions of practical components of IT and the sharing economy, like security, ID cards etc.

Steffen Nerdal, Chief Strategy Office, Ascella AS, Norway, started his presentation by showcasing the company he works for, SmartDok which is the Nordic leader in digitization in the building and construction industry. He addressed the main challenges that the company had to overcome since its founding toward full use of digital systems: working in a conservative industry; reliance on traditional documenting (with pen and paper), and little ICT knowledge in the industry. The solution to the industry’s main barriers of growth was through digitization. The company started developing solutions together with and for their customers (having customer’s needs in mind) and ensuring that the right technology is used and providing knowledge about various markets.

Ascella has made some good impacts on the Norwegian and Swedish market by increasing quality, cost efficiency, developing effective processes for companies and customers, making sure that there are fewer errors and becoming more environmental friendly. Basically, the company is shaping the future by empowering the society and helping the development of smart buildings.

According to Nitya Karmakar, Professor MQC Macquarie University Australia, Australians have been at the forefront of inventing various tools. One of the most famous innovations from Australia include: the electronic pacemaker, Google Maps, polymer bank notes, cochlear implant, electric drill etc. They are not behind in improving of digital life. The innovation through science, technology and knowledge is growing and there are new catalysts for new way of innovations. Innovation and economic development are in place but they are challenges that need to be overcome still. Therefore the following aspects:

Innovation +creativity =commercialization

Innovation + proximity = commercialization

Tim Kelly, Lead ICT Policy Specialist, World Bank Group, started his presentation talking about the upcoming World Development Report which is focusing on the Internet and development, and how digital life impacts the sharing economy. World Bank’s approach is economical, based on transaction costs and how reduced transaction costs in the digital economy help create: processes of inclusion, processes of innovation, and processes of efficiency – the three mechanisms that drive the sharing economy.

The sharing economy/ the digital economy comes in direct conflict with the analogue economy, especially in the areas of regulation, professional services, universities, bricks and mortar stores, building and construction.

Ali Kone, Chief Operating Officer/Co-founder of Coders4Africa Inc, USA: The drivers of sharing economy – connectivity and knowledge are important aspects of digitalization. Being connected means that information will be shared. Sharing information has become so important such that people regardless of their status and regions are now coming into the digital life to share information. There are also more people who would want to share information but they are unable due to the lack of infrastructure in some areas. It is important to change the mind sets through simplicity, transparency and traceability. In regard to digitalization, developing countries are still lagging behind due factors such as: security and the infrastructure are serious issues that are poor and not there in some cases which is affecting the digitalization.

Eikazu Niwano, Producer and director of Produce Group, R & D, talked about the new e-ID cards in Japan that will come into effect in January 2016. Social activities are being expanded into the cyberspace in addition to the real space. Card holder will be able to select the spaces they want to use according to their convenience. The idea or aim is to have social activities be accessed and used digitally.

Therefore, the card number will support both digital signature and personal authentication services and may be used for medical insurance, as a credit card and cable TV. Credit card and paper certificate could be recongized as attributes of the card holder. Cyberspace passport selection of the private services will also be up to the card holder.

Alfredo Ronchi, Secretary General, EC Medici framework Italy, elaborated on important issues such as citizens in the global age and ICT safety and security, safety, health working practices transportation built environment infrastructure free time etc. Security for humans encompasses several areas such as: security, assets, food, drugs, ideas etc. All these important things will need to be protected one way or the other. Therefore, safety and security are an integral part of human rights; we must strive to provide all the efforts in order to guarantee such rights as stated.

Paul Wormeli, Executive director Emeritus, IJIS – Integrated Justice Information systems institute; innovation strategist Wormeli consulting LLP, USA, talked about opportunities and challenges at the intersection of the ICT between sharing information in government and private sector – looking at crimes that are committed in the cyberspace. Information safeguarding in the sharing environment is very vital and important digital life. Information must be safeguarded so it does not end up in the wrong hands or end up being used for unintended purposes.

The following are the fundamental truths about ICT in the sharing economy:

• The sharing economy is dependent on the information technology and including social media
• Information is a valuable assets and requires a lot of safeguarding
• Growth of the sharing economy is depends on establishing trust which requires safeguarding information asses and building a sense security
• Our inability to prevent cyber crime
• Cost on society cybercrime about 1.trillion dollars

There are various trends going on in the cybersecurity and the following trends have been noted,

• technology is getting better defense in depth
• Insider beings are careless or intentional are still largest threat
• Threats are migrating – more organized crime nation state new targets
• Data continues to experiential growth

Comment from the audience: What is the role of the government in all this? The govt seems to be missing especially that our govt are not paying much attention to the digital borders. Physical borders are being protected by different means while digital borders are largely ignored or less attention is shown.

Chair/Moderator

• Jay Gillette, Fulbright-Nokia Distinguished Chair in Information and Communications Technologies, University of Oulu, FINLAND; Senior Research Fellow and Institute Secretary, Digital Policy Institute, USA

Keynote Speakers

• Donald R. Davidson, Chief, Cyber security Lifecycle Risk Management and CS/Acquisition Integration Division, Office of Deputy DoD Chief Information Officer for Cyber security, US.
• Paavoo Lipponen, Finland Former Prime Minister.
• Markku Markkula, President, Committee of the Regions, European Union.

PAAVO LIPPONEN

Helsinki as logistic centre of northern Europe

• 17% of world mineral and 25% of World Oil is in Arctic Region.
• Arctic Region is the 10^th largest economy approx 1.4 trillion Euros.
• Arctic possibility for growth – the arctic region can develop Europe largest area of investment. It is estimated that investment worth EURO 140 billion are planned
• Key sectors are oil gas LNG mining industry wind power logistics investment and the development of the power grid.

DONALD DAVIDSON

• “Your technology solution might be my security risk”
• Globalization is good but it brings many challenges
• Global interdependent supply chain
• We also have a world of capabilities that are dependent on globally sourced, commercial off the shelf (COTS), information communication technology

Product Assurance – Tradespace

SCRM standardization and assurance will enable acquirers to better communicate requirements to system integrators and suppliers so that the supply chain can demonstrate good/best practices and enable better overall risk measurement and management.

Supply chain risk management has a landscape of activities

SCRM believes commercial acceptable global standard must be derived from commercial industry best practices.

MARKKU MARKKULA

• Setting the scene the regional innovation ecosystems
• Renewing and strengthening EU’s urban agenda cities
• Cities and urban areas are becoming more important
• As ¾ of 500 million people of EU live in cities and urban areas.
• As engines of economic growth and employment.
• We need to modernize the Triple Helix.
• Three layers for city development levels

1. Smart Regions
2. Regional innovation Ecosystem
3. City Innovations

JAY GILLETTE: Information Renaissance

• New Era Knowledge society driven by an information economy
• Challenging innovation yet not unprecedented in human history
• Like European renaissance

Management vs Leadership

• Management is about consistency and order
• Leadership is bout vision and change

Succeed and prosper in the information renaissance age

Succeed as a person – become renaissance man or woman.

Succeed as an organization add knowledge value to everything you touch

Incorporate knowledge value in all products/activities in whatever it is you do.

(Morale is itself a strategy advantage)

Mr. Sebastian Lévy, Vice President of the Global Forum, welcomed everyone to the Global Forum 2014 «A CONNECTED AGE OPPORTUNITIES & DISRUPTION IN A TIME OF TRANSFORMATION». Stating the obvious that change is inevitable, and that we need to be prepared for it, Mr. Lévy reminded everyone that this is exactly what the Global Forum is all about – discussing our opportunities for the future.

Right after him, Ms. Anna Wyden Guelpa, State Chancellor of Geneva, welcomed everyone to the city of Geneva. In her words, the Global Forum is about three key aspects that equally apply to Geneva and Switzerland, as well:

• Interdependence;
• International;
• Neutrality.

Governments are challenged by the fast-pace change that takes place in the world, but they are also embracing the ways new technologies help strengthen democracy – she used the example of the e-voting system in Geneva. Now the technology is here, and works perfectly fine but it is not the final goal, it’s not the end – it’s the beginning. «Technology is not enough to make the change» she said. «You need to inform people, and educate them to use the new system. You can have a beautiful website and a wonderful iPhone app but you need the citizens to communicate with one another, otherwise the whole concept will fail. »

In the video presentation delivered at the Global Forum, Dr. Hamadou Touré talked about the new connected age and how the future was all digital. «People are now more connected than ever». We’ve seen the modification in the ways we communicate, and how we do business. Mr. Touré also mentioned the pressing need to tackle one of the biggest challenges of the digital world – cybersecurity.

After a lot of thanks for coming to each attendee and presenter at the Global Forum, the welcome addresses is ending, and the Global Forum 2014 can really begin.

The truly interactive and engaging opening session brought together:
• Anna Gomez, attorney at law and former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) – the moderator of the session;
• Roberto Viola, Deputy Director General DG CONNECT, European Commission;
• Gary Shapiro, President & CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, USA;
• Jørgen Abild Andersen, Director General Telecom (RTD), Chairman of OECD’s Committee on Digital Economy Policy (CDEP);
• Ching-Long Lu, Ambassador, Taipei representative office in France;
• Theresa Swinehart, Senior Advisor To The President On Global Strategy, ICANN – Internet Corporation for Assigned Names And Numbers, and
• Willie Lu, Co-Founder of Technaut Intellectual Ventures; Chief Inventor & “Father” of Open Wireless & Mobile Cloud Platforms for Mobile Devices, USA.
to discuss: delivering innovative, disruptive technologies, critical success factors for innovation, the Internet of everything, Broadband/4G Infrastructures, new Devices and applications affecting mobile networks etc.

Ms. Gomez brought to everyone’s attention that in 1992 there had been as many connected devices as the population of San José, California, and now there were more connected devices than the entire population of the world! «Now that the world is full of connected devices, privacy and security are very important, so it is our job here, at the Global Forum, to talk about it.»

Having just arrived from the airport, Mr. Viola talked about the establishment of the first digital Commission in the history of the EU whose strategic objectives are:
• Creation of a single digital market in EU which would be the largest in the world;
• Drafting and implementation of a unified legislation that is of critical importance for: telecom single market regulation, net neutrality, network security as a response to cyber-attacks) etc.
• Increased investments in digital – as high as 340 billion EUR.
Mr. Viola stressed the multi-stakeholder approach behind this new digital revolution in Europe that will create jobs and drive growth.

Mr. Shapiro said that it was a great time to discuss the ways the world was changing because despite our cultural and political differences, we all faced the same challenges induced by change. He focused on the importance of innovation for growth, and the disruptive technologies that would bring even more options: wireless health, drones, 3D printing, nanotechnologies, robotics, the Internet of things…. For governments to be fully prepared to create an environment conducive to innovation, Mr. Shapiro said, they need to focus on the following aspects: diversity; speed of change, investment capital, and culture.

Mr. Andersen started his presentation with latest statistics related to the digital market in order to stress the point that digital economy is, in fact, extremely powerful in tackling challenges like: innovation, jobs creation, and economic growth. For example, Internet has created 2.6 new jobs for every job it has displaced – it is a job generator not the contrary. He also mentioned the app economy as an example. For Mr. Andersen the biggest problem is that the focus has been too much on the supply side, and forgetting the demand. What’s the point to have a huge broadband when there is no content to exploit it? According to him, we need a coherent approach by the government, and not just a decision made by one minister in charge of the entire case. Last, but not the least, he talked about leveraging data, information, and knowledge, and the big-data driven processes of growth and innovation.

His Excellency Ching-Long Lu started his presentation in a rather unconventional way by using songs and puppets to draw our attention to the fact that Taiwan, with a territory as big as only 0.025% of the surface of the world, and population as small as 0.3% of world population, is a real representative of a digital society due to:
• High level of investments in technologies;
• Strong focus on international collaboration (there are currently 44 ongoing collaborative projects/ programs between France and Taiwan);
• Excessive government investments in education (up to 18% of the national budget);
• Strong focus on intellectual properties;
• Dense import-export matrix, and
• Close collaboration between the private sector and public administration to bring together this new digital era into reality.

According to Ms. Swinehart, the entire world is converting into digital. We’re facing a digital generation who doesn’t know how to handle non-digital things, and we need to educate and protect them, because now their online identity is equally if not more readily accessible as their disconnected identity. The digital economy has already started to outpace the traditional economy, and it has been proven that an online active country increases its GPD by 2.6 times faster compared to non-online active country. This is why there is not a single industry that hasn’t changed its business plan due to technologies.

Mr. Lu talked about three different types of system architectures:
• The First Generation Internet – The Internet of people whose purpose was to connect people together via mobile communication.
• The Second Generation Internet – The Internet of vehicles. Your car isn’t just a car anymore. It’s a mobile office, a mobile home, and even a mobile enterprise!
• The New Generation Internet – The internet of aircrafts. The technology is already available; we just need to put it in aircrafts.

According to him, we need to stop focusing on 3G, 4G, etc. We have to focus on high speed wireless, and our main objective should be improving its performance.

The session finished with an open discussion among the presenters, and a summary of its main highlights:
• EU’s strong focus on digital innovation;
• The need for a coherent approach to data-driven innovation;
• The critical role of internet of things and broadband infrastructure;
• Proper addressing of market failures in the domain of digital;
• Changes in legislation and ways entire industries operate caused by single innovative companies like Uber, for example.

This session included perspectives from different industry players on the challenges and drivers of today’s Connected Age. The session was led by Mr. Lars Albinsson, Creative Director of Maestro Management in Sweden, who started by sharing his point of view on the dramatic changes in the mining industry in northern Europe caused by the evolution of technology. Mr. Albinsson stated that being more connected through application such as Skype, Facebook, and other social media had helped the mining industry keep attracting people by eliminating the feeling of isolation.

Later on he asked the other speakers on the panel to share their thoughts about the topic and the top three critical points that they think humanity should foster. He started with Mr. Gerald Santucci, Head of Unit Knowledge Sharing at DG CONNECT. Mr. Santucci’s view was focused better regulation. According to him, today, policy-making in Europe and worldwide should no longer ignore the need for regulation regarding the usage of internet. Governments must be ready to leverage the possibilities that the Internet offers by creating suitable legislative frameworks, and ensuring complete security for users.

Afterward Ms Gabrielle Gauthey, Executive Vice President, in charge of Global Government and Public Affairs for Alcatel-Lucent took the lead and spoke about the drivers of change. She stressed two main aspects: innovation and disruption. According to her, we are seeing an explosion of the usage of mobile devices (smartphones), an explosion of video usage, and an explosion of cloud usage. These three significantly elements increase the traffic of data. Ms Gauthey also opined that the global network is not done yet, and that we need it now more than before in order to support these developments. At the end, she raised questions about how the world is going to make this transition.

Ms. Claudia Selli, the EU Affair Director talked about the ways smartphone are replacing many things. She said that our phones were going to be far more than just phones, and that we had been getting more and more connected with our Phones. At the end she said our phones tended to be more like tools that we used for daily life and tasks than for anything else. According to her, public sector is changing, and will automatically bring new investment during the next 5 years at least.

Next Ms. Aarti Holla, the General Secretary of the ESOA (European Satellite Operators Association), brought us into the video world – one of the more attractive sectors for most people. She believes that in the near future videos will be available everywhere, anytime, on any device, and at an affordable price. Otherwise it is not going to conquer the market.

Mr. Christian Buchel, Deputy-CEO & Chief Digital Officer at ERDF (Électricité Réseau de France) gave us his impression about the future. For him the user is at the centre of the future. People need to be allowed to benefit new technologies pointing to real-life examples like Paris where more than 3000 points for people to charge their electronic vehicles have been launched. Mr. Buchel, like many others, underlined the fact that investment from the public and the private sectors is needed. He also highlighted another problem related to the aging population that is scared of being left behind us and forgotten. He concluded by saying that people need to use Social Media more and more in order to interact more with each other.

Then Ms. Margot Dor, Strategy Development at ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) talked about the internet of things, and the ongoing process of getting more and more devices and object of any kind connected. By 2020 we will see more than 30 billion devices connected. The important thing for Ms. Dor is to find effective ways to engage in a dialogue and to work with everybody, and strengthen the connections among all kinds of industries. She finished by saying that Governments needed to set standards and implement them through the private sector.

Mr. Gérad Pogorel, Professor of Economics and Management, concluded the discussion by underlining the problems with our connected age – the huge differences in the connectivity speed across the world. For example, in USA the connection is 75% faster than in EU, and we are even not comparing that with emerging countries where the gap is huge. For him this is a difficult challenge, and governments can tackle it by enabling a platform for active involvement of stakeholders, and collaborating with one another on a global level.

Moderator: Jay E. Gillette – Fulbright Nokia Distinguished Chair in Information and Communications Technologies at the University of Oulu, Finland 2014-2015

Keynote speakers: Thomas J. Rosch – Partner and Counsel Antitrust & Competition Practice, Latham & Watkins, USA
Ismail Serageldin – Director of the Library Alexandria, Egypt.

In this 45-minute long session Mr. Jay E. Gillette wanted to concentrate on the human side of today’s Connected Age, so he chose the topic of the Digital Citizen. According to him, in most of the sessions participants have been talking a lot about ICT and the tools we should use to innovate, but he thinks that we should not forget to talk about the people in today’s digital world, and the consequences of the digital becoming a big part of most of our everyday lives. He describes the Digital Citizen and the Digital Community by two adapted mathematical formulas:
• Digital Citizen = Person * (+ or – ICT)
• Digital Community = Digital Citizens * (+ or – Community) * (+ or – ICT)

Mr. Gillette decided to apply a well-known strategy tool commonly known by the name of SWOT analysis, but he prefers to call it SWTO analysis. Why SWTO? “Start with your strengths. Finish with your opportunities” says Jay E. Gillette. Instead of finishing this analysis by the threats it is more positive and effective to finish with the opportunities which will be the last themes analysed with each subjects and finish on a positive and motivating notes instead of the scary threats we might be facing. The SWTO analysis stands for:
Strengths and Weaknesses: the internal view
Threats and Opportunities: the external view

Jay E. Gillette also mentioned the important factor of knowing where you are now to be able to take actions about the current situation. He illustrated this comment with a quote: “You are not really lost, you just don’t know where you are.” This is how he set the stage for the other two keynote speakers to share their opinions on the matter of Digital Citizens.

The first keynote speaker to take the microphone, Thomas Rosch, explained the difference between UE and USA privacy regulations for digital users. Between not enough regulation and too much regulation of the use of data by digital users, it is hard to find a common ground between the user’s privacy, and the need of the provider of the consumer’s information. There are then three aspects that need to be taken into consideration:
1. Interests of the consumers coincide with the interest of the providers.
2. Interests of the consumers sometimes coincide with the interest of the providers.
3. Interests of the consumers don’t coincide with the interest of the providers.

By using concrete examples, the second keynote speaker, Yasser Elshayeb, explained what he thought were the main opportunities and threats for the Digital Citizen. Fact is that captures and sensors are everywhere as we are always connected. Now the question is how to exploit those data, and how to understand it. The biggest threat he pointed out was the threat to the social aspect of life. We are always connected which enables us to speak with people all around the world but robs some users of the opportunity to connect with people around them. Forgetting the direct interactions in common areas such as when travelling in a plane or a train, and speaking with the passenger next to us, the digital citizen might prefer to put their headphones on ,and listen to music or watch a movie.
Mr. Elshayeb also took one of the terms used by one of the persons in the audience who reacted in the session 1, Drivers for Our Connected Age – “Homo Digitus” as opposed to the “Homo Sapiens”. The Homo Digitus being virtually together, and the Homospiens physically together.

After those two really interesting interventions Jay. E. Gillette lead a brainstorming SWTO analysis session with people in the audience asking what are the Strengths, Weaknesses, Threats and finally Opportunities of the Digital Citizen of today. The audience was really active even though this session was straight after a great lunch break! We finished the sessions with some really interesting key takeaways for each of these categories (see picture below). The final note was to try to balance those strengths and weaknesses so that we evict those threats and make the most of the opportunities the digital world of today offers us.

The session was focused on content, creation, communication and copyrights implications, and it started with the following question: «What is content?» It is about data, information and knowledge. The focal point is promotion of democracy, better innovation processes, business insight, and content. The session was moderated by Mr. Hugo Kerschot, the founder and managing director of Is-practice in Belgium, a Program Management Office that delivers project management and high-level advice for major projects within the international and national public sector in the broader field of the information society. Mr. Kerschot started the session with an «appetizer» talking about different insights of a few European projects about smart cities, smart citizens and open data. Four European cities have developed a “citadel”, an on-the-move smart application that allows data to be visualized throughout a mobile application. “Easy molino”, is another smart city. These smart applications offer services that allow finding playgrounds, metro access, pharmacies, smoke free restaurant, and coffee.

The first speaker, Mr. Alfredo M. Ronchi, the general secretary of EC Medici framework, a professor from the Polytechnical Engineering Faculty of Milan, asked the question: «Does e-content talk to the heart?» Open data, intellectual property rights management, e-content and services present challenges nowadays. Open data is a new ream that needs to be faced. Topics like citizen’s data, intellectual property and privacy are also part of this debate. What about open data and its challenges? The European Union sets guidelines and regulations. They are easy to find, and provide specific regulations about open data. Some countries adopted those directives, while other countries still focus on their own local regulations. The key problems are ownership, privacy and intellectual property. As the speaker mentions, “My data belongs to me” and this should raise young generation’s awareness about how they have to be particularly careful, and think twice before they post personal information on social media. Internet is a good opportunity to promote knowledge of cultural and language diversity, but it is also a challenge. Citizens and languages: the presence of languages on the internet shows that the majority of the content is still in English, although Chinese is getting more and more popular. What is the picture of the actual situation? Evolution is providing some good news as new languages and new formats are being created.

The second speaker, Mr. Alan Shark, Executive Director of Public Technology Institute (PTI), in Alexandria, USA, highlighted the value of e-content and talked about e-government. According to statistics, 61% of the population does not trust governments. There is a real movement to look at the value of content but there is still a long way to go. But what do citizens really want? Smart citizens? Smart governments? Citizens do want meaningful information, as opposed to just data. They wish to be truly heard on policy issues, have greater trust of government, and that is why e-government is important. Citizens also want to help and they produce different information formats. The role of institutes is to make this content clearer.

Ms. Stephanie Bacquère, founder and co-CEO of NOD-A in France, continued the session talking about how to create value from data. She explains how digital culture is important: there is a need to improve and integrate the digital culture in today’s society. She presents a concept of “Makestorming” which is based on the following principles:

• Organize sprints;

• Gather the key talents;

• Prototype at every stage by gathering people from your organization and other organizations;

• Act collectively, like we are all together.

Her advice is to stop planning for the next 5 years. Instead, focus on a concrete project, something small, and precise so that the project can be effective.

Prof. Patrick Yves Badillo, Director and founder of Media@LAB at the University of Geneva, addressed the topic of innovation and social media in a media-based golden age. According to him, evolution shows that innovation and social media are increasing from a general point of view, and it’s getting really hard to truly grasp the importance of social network. But on the other side, there is a digital paradox – there is very little exchange of ideas between different people, and dissemination is restricted to some areas. Social networks among companies are seen very differently from social networks among citizens. The digital native generation is different based on their point of view about the digital world. Media and social networks will change companies within the next coming years.

Ms. Giovanna Di Marzo Serungendo, professor at the University of Geneva concluded the session by pointing out the importance of participative platforms to promote democracy engagement.

The moderator of this session, Mr. Sebastien Heon, Director of Consulting & Political Affairs, Airbus Defense and Space Cyber Security, has been working in the security ecosystem for a dozen years, and yet he’s always hearing the same thing over and over again – threat and vulnerabilities are everywhere. Yes, it’s a fact that there’s threat and vulnerabilities but for him the focus should be on preventing the incident, and not just waiting for it to happen and then resolving it.

The session is focused on security progress all over the world, and we began with Ms. Sarah (Xiaohua) Zhao, partner at Perkins Coie LLP, China/USA. According, to Ms. Zhao, the biggest problem in China is the absence of a comprehensive legal framework for cybersecurity or privacy. There are local rules and administrative measures but they are improving gradually. Basically, every Government around the globe is trying to create or improve Cybersecurity, and the privacy law needs to be based on these 4 cornerstones:
• Enhancing the protection over privacy;
• Tightening the control over cybersecurity;
• Balancing between protection and control;
• Governmental initiatives and commercial opportunities over the market.

Mr. Patrick Curry, MACCSA, UK, brought to our attention the EU Council about cyber security called MAPPING (Managing Alternatives for Privacy Property and Internet Governance). His whole presentation can be summarized as «No to data protectionism! Yes to data protection!», and this should be the moto for every country in the world. «We should secure the foundation before thinking about the window or the roof. Security must be the base of our work. We need to speak the same languages and use the same rules».

Mr. Kevin Boyle from Latham & Watkins, talked about how security process could reduce your privacy, and why you should always try to avoid it unless it’s necessary. When you’re going through the security process you’re reducing the privacy of your employee because the programs you’re going to use will, for example, be reading inside email to prevent risks. According to Mr. Boyle, we need to go back to the first principles of privacy:
• Disclosure;
• Transparency;
• Least intrusion necessary (proportionality/necessity);
• Balance interest (security vs privacy).

According To Mr. Bror Salmelin, Adviser, Innovation Systems, Dg Connect, European Commission, the challenges related to Internet security have become ever more pressing. The economy is dependent on the level of Internet security since many businesses are now only done over the internet. Risks and incidents are on the rise because of lack of trust, economic losses and missed opportunities. The European Commission has developed a cooperation platform called NIS (Network and Information System) with the purpose of centralizing all the information about cybersecurity, and addressing the issue in a better way.

Mr. Oliver Väärtnõu, the CEO of Cybernetica AS from Estonia talked about how every part of the system in Estonia is entirely digital. Estonia’s digitalization can be illustrated by the following facts:
• Every Estonian has a digital ID;
• 95% of personal tax declarations are done online;
• 30% of Estonia’s voting process is done through the Internet
• e-residency offering state-proven digital identities that give access to services like: online banking, education and healthcare.
And it’s just the tip of the iceberg. To manage information from databases and services around the country they use X-road – Estonia’s homemade Secure Communication Layer.

Mr. Bertrand Lathoud, Information Security Officer, Paypal-Europe addressed the issue of complexity of threats landscape, infrastructures and usages which leads to an extreme vulnerability. He gave an example about innovation in usages. It feeds complexity because we want things available at anytime, anywhere, from any device. To avoid this vulnerability we need to shorten our decision cycle because individuals committing fraud don’t wait for regulations to be updated and then interfere with their criminal activities. A decision-making cycle based on the following four steps would be very effective: 1) observe; 2) orient; 3) decide, and 4) act. As Mr. Lathoud put it: « Security on the Internet is challenging but not impossible».

All speakers agreed on one major point – we need to regulate cyber security and privacy in a global way, and not do that on case-by-case basis so that we could prevent a situation where fraudsters had a lot more time to perform their criminal activities.