Members of the group: Göran HERMANSON (Ericsson), Roland KLEBE (SNI), Jean MICHEL (SEMA group), Kjell-Håkan NÄRFELT (Telia), Claude PIAGET (Philips), Antonio SCIARAPPA (STET), Peter SPIEKER (Olivetti), Piero TORRIGIANI (Finsiel).
Document based on inputs from: Göran HERMANSON, Roland KLEBE, Jean MICHEL, Kjell-Håkan NÄRFELT, Claude PIAGET, Antonio SCIARAPPA, Peter SPIEKER.

Part I Present Situation and Trends

1 Expected achievements of Framework Programme IV

After the two series of Digital Cities related projects supported by DG XIII-C ( Call for proposal U&R December '94 and IADS December '96 ), the situation, in 1998, may be expected to be the following:

a) 40 to 60 cities, towns and regions will have set up experimental communication infrastructures to test - at a limited scale - some applications recognised as useful to their future.
These infrastructures may vary considerably, from simple to more complex and performing:

- nothing else than a web server linked to the analog telephone network (PSTN), allowing PC owners to access to services through Internet providers,

- the same, using also ISDN ,

- the same, plus special offers to the population for low cost or free of charge services with access from modem equipped PC's and /or from the Internet,

- the same, plus information kiosks installed in public places,

- true local Intranet systems and services. They are accessible through the local PSTN and/or ISDN network with information kiosks, PC's and some lower cost terminals, like TV internet terminals (TeleCD-i, WebTV, or others expected in the near future), screen-phones, and even Minitel (in France),

- similar systems and services accessible through the ( just emerging ) Cable TV interactive Information-On-Demand systems operating on Fibre Hybrid Coax CATV networks,

- more complex information systems, including the previously described "distribution systems" associated with LAN's and even with MAN's to make the high speed links between content and service providers. Technology will be based on frame-relay and/or ATM transmission protocols,

-at the highest level of complexity, some multi-local, or international, service combinations will use very high transmission capacities including fibre optic lines and satellite systems (Teleports).

- complementary local radio solutions based, for instance, on DECT, will start allowing mobility and exchange of voice and data outside homes and offices in the cities.

b) Some series of services will be experienced in the various application domains of the socio-economical activities of the cities, towns and regions.

Their penetration will be still limited ( geographically, socially as well as qualitatively and quantitatively).

Their synergy's will not yet have been fully exploited.

Their business profitability, although foreseen, will not have been proven

2 Users Needs: end users, professionals, administrations, businesses, etc.

(Who are the users? Qualitative and quantitative aspects of user needs, the dynamic interaction between user needs and technological and organisational change)

The specificity of the local and regional Information Society, is the priority to citizens as users and actors in information, communication and transaction processes in their everyday lives. Although the relations with their administrations is a significant part of their activity, it is by far not the totality of it.

Following "Application Ten" of M. Bangemann High-level group recommendations, the approach of this S.R.B. "Government on line - Local and Regional", despite its title, deals with many activities not only directly related with governmental organizations, but as well with semi-public and private local structures.

This situation is already very clear nowadays - through the presently running U&R TAP projects - in most European countries in work environment, training and education, private transportation, healthcare, entertainment and culture, associative life, etc.

It is also obvious that financial evolution of local governments and the resulting trend to outsource or privatize services-to-the public, will further reinforce this tendency.

Described as "competitiveness through excellence in information access, processing and management", the access to, and supply of information is probably the key factor to world dominance in the future; this is in contrast to supply of raw materials, and efficiency in productions and distribution capabilities which gave dominance previously.

The developments in New ICT's, giving users global access to enormous amounts of digitized information, accentuates this trend. The societies being able to foster an excellence in information access and supply combined with an excellence in processing that information will therefore definitely have a competitive advantage compared to competing societies.

a) The users

Different user groups should be considered:

First of all, the citizens; they need easy access to public, semi-public and private information in all of the following fields:

• Education and training,

• Healthcare, elderly and disabled,

• Local economy and employment (SME's, job research/offer,..)

• Quality of life (social services, working environment, transport, shopping, security..)

• Culture and recreation,

• Relations between citizens and local governments.
  

Among these collective service domains, the highest demand is in education and training, transport and social services. Other service and use needs of NICT's are expected to develop in the coming years, such as cost saving in houses, buildings and streets through energy control, security,.. systems.

Interaction with public authorities must be possible from the home, and from public information desks, and progressively from mobile terminals.

Citizen groups and special interest groups will increasingly require information from private, semi-public and governmental organisations and will try to use multimedia for their own promotion. Examples are: social organisations, churches, clubs, entertainment, culture, NGOs, political organisations, business. After the advent of telematic communication to private homes, we expect great increase of Telematics usage by special interest groups.

It is up to local or regional government in dialogue with these socio-economic actors to decide on the organisational and financial conditions for the development of such services.

Second, professionals in education, in business, in healthcare, local governments, etc., are rapidly turning to usage of Telematics for the information and transaction processes in their own profession and for related activities. They require the integration of services and applications. E.g.: the availability of geographic information is no more the sole concern of public surveying. It is becoming integral part of many applications in land management, planning, utilities, marketing business, environment, tourism, social services. But it needs to be made easily available to the professionals in these fields who will then provide their solutions and information to the citizens.

Third, the co-operation between administrations requests similar needs as for professional users. Specific solutions may be found to optimise such processes. Speed up of government procedures is obtained through telematic interoperability of government offices in different locations and levels.
Local governments should play a key role in bringing telematic services to citizens and to enterprises, especially to individual enterprises and SME's. This will be considered as models of implementation and, in the mean time, will act as a catalyst for the introduction and diffusion of telematic services.

Business and industry are already strong users of Computer Aided Information. They have a high demand of rapid introduction of the use of telematics applications by all their private (customers, suppliers, subcontractors and even employees) and public (local government, administrations,..) partners.
Telematics is quickly becoming the basis for a plethora of network-based applications that industry uses. Moreover, these technologies are being used as internal service platforms in enterprise Intranets.

b) Their needs

Users' needs analyses realised in most of the presently finalised and ongoing projects show that the whole socio-economic actors in cities, towns and regions are fundamentally interested in the delivery of services through telematics, provided a series of basic requirements are satisfied.

The basic requirements of end users are:

• no cost (investment, service delivery) or low costs, only according to the benefit they get from these services,

• ease of use:

  • access to all (including PC illiterates, elderly and disabled, and even more or less fully illiterate people)

  • common terminals, interfaces and procedures to access similar services,

  • integration of all local services,

• fast response to service requests,

• secure and trusted management of confidential information,

• solutions allowing access from different types of terminals in order to allow various categories of users and usage,

• mobile access starts to appear: it will be a major demand before year 2000.

The basic needs of professionals, content and service providers, companies are:

• low cost of implementation (progressive when possible) and of operation

• easy interworking (interoperablity)

• secure and reliable information handling,

• efficient communication and transaction with other partners, including governmental bodies,

• rapid and high penetration (for services to citizens: 5% of households is a minimum for the initial period, 20% is a reasonable objective; for professional services, it depends on cases).

The dynamics of the service deployment process is complex. Main parameters are linked by the well known chicken & egg problem:

• much content, high quality, diversity of services and low cost are needed for the users to subscribe and pay,

• many paying subscribers are needed to sustain the creation, development and maintenance of performing services.

The best chance for rapid development of services is for "existing services that may be drastically improved by Telematics". Services already fully satisfying with traditional means will not succeed. Brand new services will need more than a generation to really penetrate.

Local governments are key to the initialisation of such a development process, through:

• demonstrative first implementations,

• support to initiators in this field,

• facilitating service integration on the same infrastructure,

• incentives to support local initiatives (fiscal, free of charge or low fee availability of terminals and/or service access,..).

The use of Telematics in information, communication and transaction service delivery, needs a large series of structural changes in the content and service providers' organisations, in their way to operate and to see their customers and their business.

One of the major problems of this evolution is the need for both freedom of expression and protection of the individuals (electronic crime,...) . The following issues have therefore to be addressed:

• management of control and surveillance

• responsibilities and rights for material/ information propagated on the networks ( originators, service providers, host operators, etc.)

• new legal framework

3 Present situation and trends in local and regional governments

(Opportunities, risks, challenges, fiscal climate, organisational trends, political issues (legitimisation, accountability) etc.)

In contrast with the situation observed a few years ago, the local authorities start to realise that their responsibilities and interest related to "Information and Communication" is not only to build (public) buildings where citizens may meet their administrators and incidentally each other on one hand, and streets and roads to give access to these buildings on the other hand. They understand the need for and start to implement more modern and efficient IC tools : Telematics.

One of the major objectives of cities, towns and regions is to prepare their long term future in terms of economy and job creation. As done by Baden-Würtengerg, Catalogna, Lombardy and Rhone-Alpes, the focus on supporting SME's -through networking- is an important trend towards the support of local employment.

The local governments should show the way and create the dynamics. Some (a few ) do so . Their major limitation is initial financing and confidence (and proofs ) that it will improve the efficiency of the local activity.

Associations (cultural, sport, entertainment,..) are extremely efficient in defining, promoting and running telematics applications of common interest.

Schools are one of the most promising organisations to promote the development of Telematics acceptance.

Cost efficiency through an open electronic market place is a way some local governments are looking to. Cost savings in government operations without decreased degree of service quality is an equation local governments are trying to solve. In order to create more market oriented rules for the government operations, one approach is to separate policy making and service purchasing bodies from the service delivering bodies. The latter consist of local companies providing the services directly to citizens or through government bodies.

More generally, the following society trends related to the previously mentioned needs are :

The globalisation of the market and the international character of offers changes the user behaviour. Library services, educational offers, social services information, legal advice, country government decisions and new rules, etc., will be sought from wherever the best offer comes. Telematics will drastically change a part of the local market into regional and later into national and perhaps international scales.

Administrations will continue to be short of investment money in the near future. Thus investments in IT will only be done where clear benefits in efficiency and costs cuts can be realised. Improvement of user friendliness and service it not a sufficient stimulus for promoting government on-line applications.

In terms of evolution and trends currently available at local and regional level, there are a lot of example which underline the Information Age transformation; in particular the Report NCIH - "Preparing for the 21st Century" reports, several evaluation which demonstrate some relevant changing which confirm several impacts also on the industrial sector:

· In 1960 almost half of all workers in industrialised countries were involved in making things or helping to make things. By the year 2000 no developed country will have more than 1/8 of its workforce in the traditional roles of making or moving goods.

· In USA the Department of the Labour estimates that by the year 2000 at least of 44% of all workers will be in data services (gathering, processing or utilising information).

These two examples illustrate that new changes in the job-world will have relevant impact also on industrial sector and consequently on life style, demography, economics and citizen expectation that will require a reshape the delivery of the private and government services. In particular it will be clear that everything and every one will be progressively connected electronically while stand alone information system change in nature and organisation (human contact will be re-enforced and improved there).

Part II Recommended Actions and Specific Objectives

1 General objectives for the V th. Framework Programme

In a general way, the 5th Framework Programme should :

• promote the richness of Europe related to its cultural, linguistic, sociologic variety, through the development of new services using New ICT's in locally integrated and coherent approaches, starting from the major citizens' need: the local services,

• promote standards for interoperability between terminals, networks and applications,

• promote the development of cheap, easy to use information access devices for citizens,

• promote and pave the way for a new approach to government services through the actual use of ICT-based applications,

  • educate and motivate citizens to take advantage of the information society opportunities through the use of advanced telematics applications and systems at home, at work and in mobile conditions,

  • create foundations for efficient, secure, reliable and responsive government services through use of advanced ICT-based applications and systems,

  • create a secure and reliable electronic market place for locally and regionally produced information services.

Within the actions for the development of the Information Society in the 5 th. Framework programme, "Government on line - Local and regional aspects" should support Research, Technological Development, and Demonstration of new proximity focused Telematics systems and applications.

This must include the following priority fields:

• Education and training,

• Healthcare, elderly and disabled,

• Local government bodies,

• Local economy and employment (SME's, job research/offer,..

• Quality of life (social services, working environment, transport, shopping, security..)

• Culture and recreation,

• Relations between citizens and administrations

2 The role of telematic applications in helping to solve present problems of local and regional governments and administrations

(fiscal, economic, organisational, quality-of-service, political (e.g., legitimacy))

Telematic applications will change the amount and the quality of the offered services as well as the awareness of government both to citizens and internal partners:

• public: enabling on-line access to a plethora of local, regional -and progressively national and international- private, semi-public and governmental information, communication and transaction services for all private and public users.

• intergovernmental: providing local telematics on-line applications on a broad scale for improving processes of local operational intergovernmental co-operation and decision making between authorities on local and regional levels.

• interface with national and European governmental bodies: While the role of European and national governments are in legislation, in definition of implementation and in control, the role of local authorities is in the practical implementation of the so-defined politics. Telematics can be here also -due to its evolution to distributed intelligence and information processing- a very powerful tool:

- for central governments to question and inform local authorities and socio-economic bodies,

- for local government to improve information and reporting.

• Healthcare is more and more under the responsibility of local governments. In terms of quality of services, control of public expenditures and political legitimacy, this area is extremely important. The current trend (Framework IV) in favour of regional healthcare systems has to be pursued and strengthened in Framework V, especially in developing home care approaches.

3 Development of relevant tools

(content creation, content packaging, hardware and software for service, infrastructure, terminals, data modems, etc. (European industry development and competitiveness)

R&D for two types of technologic tools should be supported by the 5 th. Framework Programme:

• generic technologies related to the access by (usually computer illiterate) people to multimedia information , communication and transaction services and for non specialist professionals to easily create and edit such a relevant multimedia content,

• specific technologies for the optimal deployment of local services.

The first category -the generic technologies- is absolutely necessary for the success of local multimedia telematics service, but should be considered to be of general use in other application fields. We therefore strongly recommend that the 5 th. Framework Programme supports them in its general support to the European industry with a view to ensure Europe's independence and competitiveness.
The fact that public R&D spending is only 0.76% in the EU, while it is 0.96% in the US and even more in Japan, illustrates the danger for the long term.

The second category - specific technologies for the optimal deployment of local services- is specific to the domain of Cities Information Highways/ local and regional aspects of Government-on-line. It must be considered as of First Priority for the future of this domain. It should be supported in close relation with other actions related to this sector, such as application conception, large scale trials, awareness, dissemination of good practices, etc.

Technologies , systems and enabling application environments

In the following, where the various parts of the multimedia value chain are reviewed, technologies and application environments are enumerated from generic (in italic) to specific.

a) Content creation

- Support to European generic R&D on:

• interactive application concepts, multimedia signal processing, 3D modelling, immersive virtual reality communication

• DVB / DAVIC standardisation and R&D on compliant equipment for the capture and recording of multimedia content: digital cameras, digital audio and video recorders,

- Financial support to Digital Cities projects to purchase such equipment for schools and non-profit associations, and public administrations in order to allow them to install amateur / semi-professional studios,

- Make content right issues easy to understand and well known to Digital Cities,

b) Content packaging

• Support to European generic R&D on :

  • multimedia signal processing, specialised multimedia processing IC's, embedded software,

  • DVD / DAVIC standardisation and R&D on compliant equipment for the storage, processing and permanent recording (for distribution) of multimedia content: DVD-ROM, DVD-Video, DVD-i,..

• Support to European R&D of multimedia content editing tools for multiple support and multiple terminal reading. A specific focus should be made on equipment for small professionals and associations,

• Support to European R&D on educational tools on multimedia content creation and packaging

• Financial support to Digital Cities projects to purchase such equipment for schools, non-profit associations and public administrations and to offer training, in order to facilitate local multimedia edition and support local content edition and promotion,

c) Hardware and software and service concepts for service delivery to the citizens:

- Support to European generic R&D on :

• high performance computing power and storage,

• new distributed applications: workflow systems, CSCW,

• electronic document management systems,

• interoperable transmission protocols,

• data-base management,

• network security,

• information, communication and transaction system interoperability,

• automatic recognition of users,

• encryption and authentication,

• translation and interpretation systems.

• smart cards,

- Support to European R&D on server systems and on system integration, in order to accelerated the development of local on-line services of general interest to the citizens :

• process reengineering with workflow tools for local integration and coherence of the activity of administrations, services and industry,

• electronic transactions and commerce allowing the integration of all types of transactional activities at local and regional level as well as their interfacing with national and international public and private systems,

• multimedia conferencing,

• locally adaptable software's for navigation, guidance and problem solving,

• local geodata and geographic information systems,

• specific local navigation systems for disabled (acoustic, tactile)

- Support to European R&D on services:

• concepts in such application areas as health care, education and training, safety, and electronic market for all types of local and regional services, etc.

  • implementation of best practices, including :

- creation of services in co-operation between all local actors (content suppliers, service providers, associations and governmental bodies, etc.)
- integration of services for economy of scale and ease of use,
- interoperability between related applications through work flow systems, and information integration and exchange,

• development tools such as organisational schemes, local service marketing methods, financial concepts adapted to local economy.

d) Transmission and distribution infrastructure

- Support to European generic R&D on:

• optoelectronics, microwave systems and related devices,

• satellite transmission systems,

• fibre optic systems,

- Support to European R&D of DVB / DAVIC compliant equipment and systems for the regional and local transmission and distribution of multimedia content:

• multimedia broad-band fibre optic systems,

• interactive Cable TV systems ( servers, data modems,..),

• enhanced broadcast (MHEG) for progressively interactive TV,

• ATM protocol based Local- and Metropolitan-Area-Networks,

• home networks (information, control, alarm, support to elderly and disabled,..),

e) Terminals

- Support to European generic R&D on:

• technologies for micro- and nano- (mobile) electronics,

• specialised multimedia processing IC's,

• embedded software,

• high density connecting and packaging,

• cheap multimedia information processing and storing,

• flat and thin displays,

- Support to European R&D of DVB / DAVIC compliant terminals for multimedia content:

• internet PC's and PC add-on's,

• enhanced TV terminals,

• internet TV terminals,

• internet screen-phones,

• mobile (cordless) terminals (phones, PDA's, lab-tops...),

- Support to European R&D on the regional and local deployment of user friendly terminals into large scale trial projects based on integrated applications for all citizens and socio-economic actors.

f) Enabling application environments

- Support generic application environments (non exhaustive list):

• Language independent Multimedia application environments for the friendly access to public services for citizens, organisations and enterprises

• Multimedia synchronous and asynchronous co-operative work and communication environments to support co-operative teleworking and virtual meetings between administrations

• Inter-operable simplified EDI and transaction systems application environments

• Intelligent data mining and Decision support systems environment

• ...

- Support specific local and regional application environments for:

(non exhaustive list)

1. Efficiency and inter-operability of the public administration

2. Tele-democracy

3. Management of the internal market (finance, trading, jobs,...)

4. Integrated Cities Management

5. Environment

6. Transportation

7. Healthcare

In many of these domains, the US and Far-East industries, using their dominant positions (for instance in PC software), are creating de facto standards which create a big risk for the future coherence and decision capacity of the European Information Society, for the European capacity to control its infrastructure, as well as for the competitiveness of its ICT industry. The support to the DVD / DAVIC, Internet II and other world-wide standardisation processes and to the related equipment R&D is therefore of the highest importance.

4 Process re-engineering in local and regional government

(relationship between telematics and organisational restructuring)

Telematics is a key technology in the restructuring of government. The ongoing move from huge inflexible administrations to customer (i.e. citizen) oriented services needs to be supported. The subsidiarity principle and autonomous decision processes at local governments should be supported.

Quick local and regional intergovernmental communication is required for improving decision processes.

An important proposed objective is to exploit the new opportunities that Intranet-based information systems provide for process re-engineering and organisational restructuring efforts. By use of open ubiquitous information systems, management decided changes can be facilitated bottom-up (user/employee driven) rather than pure top-down (management driven) in societies and organisations. This gives much more efficient and long-living changes than the traditional top-down implemented change processes.

A reachable goal could be to reduce all waiting hall sizes and queues in local governments to 1/10 of their current sizes. The efficiency of governmental services for citizens could be improved by a factor of 4 (regarding time and human resources required) for repetitive tasks and therefore would allow the development of person-to-person related consultancy services.

5 Role of the different actors

(including the citizen, professionals, businesses, the voluntary sector, local and regional administrations, the supply industry and telecommunications operators, national administrations, the EU etc.)

The projects should be driven locally (cities, towns and regions) by citizens and associations, by governments and by companies:

- citizens and associations should be allowed to specify their needs as users and as providers,
- governments should play their role as policy makers, regulators and service providers,
- companies create accordingly new or improved products and services to citizens and to governments, based upon advanced technologies.

In the 4th FRP, the support by non-professional users has been very weak. Such support is essential for the acceptance of solutions under human factors aspects. This has to be organised.

Three views for local and regional government on-line development should have key interest:

• private sector view: creation of and access to information services by all citizens and socio-economic actors

• public sector view: on-line access to government information and services for all citizens.

• intergovernmental view: on-line interoperability and intergovernmental co-operation between local authorities and with national and European authorities.

The 5 th. Framework programme, "Government on line - Local and regional aspects" should support the integration of these three views.

Part III  Implementation Recommendations

1   Integration of applications

It is important not to focus only on governmental needs. In order to get acceptance, the applications need to integrate all needs of citizens, service providers, commerce's, industry and governments.

It is the main drive of the local implementation of telematic services to be the only possibility to really be able to realise the actual and useful integration of all services needed by the local actors. This integration is an absolute need for acceptance - unique access point, same user interfaces,..- and for economical reasons -sharing the costs of infrastructures and service organisations-.

As the tasks of different levels of governments are closely related the interaction between these levels must be supported. The separation of applications between local and regional administrations on one hand and national administrations and the EU on the other hand has to be addressed. Interfacing and , in some cases, joint solutions for different government levels should be enabled.

An important implementation issue is how to bring results out to the citizens and thereby get the only "real" evaluation impact of proposed solutions.

- One possibility is to use the technology adaptation cycle concept. As real users are to be involved in the test, one has to find the innovators and early adopters among the citizens. Based on the experiences with these advanced users, the next steps in refining the application can be taken.

- Another possibility is to set up large field trials with the largest diversity of users and assess their ways to accept, use or refuse the new services and technologies.

- A third solution is to involved a limited but representative socio-economical structure (a small town for instance) and involve all local actors in the definition, creation and optimization of the new services and technologies.

2  European added value

The co-operation of European companies of different size and from different sectors in European wide projects is an extremely positive factor of competitiveness improvement of the European industry as a whole.

In order for the industry to really understand and take into account the diversities and the commonalties of users' needs over Europe, projects should, as done up to now, address several regions and countries of Europe.

Multilingual support is essential also at local level.

3  International Co-operation

While focusing on European needs, the world-wide international co-operation is essential in two aspects:

• projects shall be allowed to integrate Eastern-European countries, prospective future EU member states and the other neighbours. For promoting European solutions in these countries they will need special support.

• Co-operation with key technological development in the US and the far east is essential for Europe not to loose ground. This relates to standardisation issues as well as to scientific exchange of ideas. For global challenges, joint actions should be supported.

A relevant message for the development of government services comes from the Internet evolution which could impact seriously on the governmental infrastructures.

The Internet II project, as it is known, will bring energies and resources to the development of a new family of advanced applications which can meet several of the application solutions previously mentioned; at present the Internet II Consortium includes about 100 universities and several telecom and terminal providers.

4 Socio-economic issues, consequences and risks

To allow underprivileged groups a maximum benefit of the Information Society, they have to be included into the projects by special actions. For handicapped and elderly the needs are -as for many citizens - with an additional challenge in human factors.

Support of R&D for these groups needs unconventional funding schemes as solutions tend to be very costly in relation to a limited market segment. E.g. the development of car navigation systems was done by industry based on market expectations, but the development of city navigation systems for the blinds will need near to 100% financial support, otherwise no one will do it.