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Hans-Peter Ritt
How to build Links between Regions and Sectors
Approach and Results of the Central European Platform
“Preparing for eContent.plus”
The multinational platform “Preparing for eContent.plus”, jointly
initiated by Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, was
created to establish closer cooperation’s in the field of digital
content in this four-country-region. All the stakeholders working in
the field of digital content were invited to take advantage of the
initiative's offers, and to actively partake in its activities.
Within the nearly two and a half years of operation between 2004
and 2007 the initiative „Preparing for eContentplus“ succeeded in
establishing a lively platform which enabled cooperation’s between
relevant players in the Central European regions. Moreover the
Central European platform „Preparing for eContentplus“ was also
able to find attention within Europe and to attract private and
public organisations all over the place.
The following pages will give You a deeper insight into the
objectives, activities and results of the Central European platform
“Preparing for eContent plus”.
Contents
1. Objectives, Structure and Activities ...........................p. 2
2. Feed-Back and Results ............................................p. 7
3. Suggestions from the Participants .............................p. 14
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2
The Central European Platform “Preparing for eContent.plus”
Objectives, Structure and Activities
Focusing on the common competitive challenge being small
economies, the four involved countries Austria, Czech Republic,
Hungary and Slovakia took steps to strengthen co-operative
structures and activities to reach critical mass in respect to the
European landscape.
The Objectives
On a more operative level the main objectives of the joint platform
are described as such:
To improve the mutual knowledge of the different markets
within Central Europe
To build links not only between the regions involved, but
also between different sectors.
To deliver orientation on the European Commission's
programme eContentplus.
To initiate specific international co-operations, be it funded
projects or any other business.
To attract other regions in Europe and set up interactions
with them.
The Instruments
To conduct it’s activities and to manage the whole platform,
“Preparing for eContentplus” developed four main instruments
working hand in hand.
1. A series of two-day conferences, the „Orientation and
Matching-Days“, each one focusing on different areas of
digital content. Theey took place in Prague, Budapest,
Bratislava and Vienna.
2. Both, national contacts as well as a central Info-Point with a
countious online presence in five languages, providing
informations and supporting the workflows.
3. A balanced operative structure with well anchored national
intermediaries and a strong co-ordinating plattform
management.
4. A broad and careful integration of different national and
international organisations and persons on different levels.
3
The Central European Platform “Preparing for eContent.plus”
Focusing strongly on face-to-face meetings at the conferences the
platform-website served as the digital backbone of the social
interactions. The site distributed the necessary information and
produced contents in five languages.
The Participants
One main goal of the initiative was to network the actors within
the region of Central Europe – another one was building a
platform, that reaches and appeals to different business sectors.
Participants from all over Europe
Participants at "Preparing for eContentplus"
Vienna
Bratislava
18
Budapest
12 5
Prague
4
Austria
3 8
91
10 10 11
73
17
0
15
15
8
24
20
6
27
7
59
30
45
Czech Republic
60
75
Hungary
90
105
Slovakia
120
other countries
.mi l estone
4
The Central European Platform “Preparing for eContent.plus”
The 428 registered participants were from all over Europe –
and beyond i.e.: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany,
Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Russia,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and USA.
Assortment of various business sectors
What kind of organisation are you w orking at?
Multinational
Company
2%
Large Company
3%
Archive/Library
6% Research
Organisation
7%
Small /Medium
Size Company
32%
Federation /
Professional
Organisation
8%
University
11%
Other
17%
Administration
14%
.mi l estone
The composition of the participants shows the success to reach
different stakeholders. We would like to emphasise the high
number of SME, which demonstrates that the platform appears
to be interesting for different cooperation’s.
The Structure
The main challenge of developing the structure of the initiative
existed in finding an adequate response to the inherent
complexity. The initiative had to sail between two extremes, overcomplexity on one hand – and horrible simplifications on the other.
The solution developed consisted in a set of bodies and boards
with different jobs to fulfill. These boards integrated the main
differences up from the starting phase, they included
representatives from different regions and different sectors.
On national levels there were direct contacts and co-operation
between the single representatives and multipliers. Within the
over-all structure of the initiative the platform management served
as responsible co-ordinator of all bodies.
5
The Central European Platform “Preparing for eContent.plus”
The complete structure of the platform “Preparing fur
eContent.plus” consinsted of the following five entities, formal
bodies and focused groups:
The Steering Committee
Federal Ministry of Economics and Labour, AT
Christop Raber,
Ministry of Economy and Transport, HU
Gabriella Simor, András Galambosi,
Ministry of Finance, SK
Zuzana Pargacova, Valentína Michálková
Ministry of Informatics, CZ
Jan Prokšík, Martin Hiršal,
The Core Team
Karel Charvát, CCSS – Czech Centrum for Science and Society
Romana Križová, Cross Czech a.s.
Gerhard Laga, Alexander Foidl, WKO – The Austrian Federal
Economic Chamber
Hans-Peter Ritt, Plattform Management
Bea Sáfár, Ferenc Hargitai, MATISZ – Hungarian Association of
Content Industry
Emöke Zákai, MTE – Association of Hungarian Content
Providers
Rudolf Takáč, SPPR - Project Management Association of
Slovakia
The Advisory Board
Jaroslav Cech, Czech E-Learning Network
Jerzy Celichowski, Open Society Institute
Peter Tomaz Dobrila, KIBLA Multimedia Center
Nikolaus Futter, Compass-Verlag
Markus Huber, Collettiva Design GmbH
Hans Petschar, Austrian National Library
Gábor Remetey-Fülöpp, Hungarian Association for GeoInformation
Martin Sperka, Slovak University of Technology
Ágnes Szilágyi, Eduweb Distance Learning Company
Samo Zorc, Slovenian Ministry of Higher Education, Science
and Technology
The Platform Management
milestone management gmbh
6
The Central European Platform “Preparing for eContent.plus”
The Sponsors and Supporters
Austrian National Library, Austria
Computerwelt, Austria
Czech Asssociation for Geoinformation, Czech Republic
eConTec Umbrella, Eureka
EnterMedia, Austria
European Multimedia Forum, Belgium
FFG, Austria
IVSZ, Hungary
The Speakers at the Conferences
In addition to this structure, also the invitation and selection of
speakers to the four conferences followed the strict rule to
have represented both, different regions and business sectors.
Speakers at the four Conferences
Zuzana Bauerová
Ministry of Culture, CZ
Martin Baumgartner
FFG, NCP, AT
Peter Baumgartner
FernUniversität in Hagen, DE
Maria Bendl
Federal Ministry for Economy and Labour, AT
Agnes Bereczki
MATISZ, HU
Peter Bíro
Ministry of Finance, SK
Karel Charvát
Czech Centrum for Science and Society, CZ
Christian Dögl
UMA information technology, AT
Monika Gajdosikova
Ministry of Finance, NCP, SK
András Galambosi
Ministry of Informatics & Telecommunication, HU
Ferenc Hargitai
MATISZ, NCP, HU
Max Harnoncourt
factline Webservices, AT
Josef Havas
Intergraph, CZ
Martin Hiršal
Ministry of Informatics, NCP, CZ
Vladimír Hořejší
Deputy Minister of Informatics, CZ
Ádám Horváth
IT-Advisor Ministry of Education, HU
Jan Hylén
OECE/CERI, FR
Mihály Jambrik
Ministry of Informatics & Telecommunication, HU
Andrea Kárpáti
Eötvös Loránd University, HU
Dušan Katuščák
Slovak National Library, SK
Adolf Knoll
The National Library of the Czech Republic, CZ
Rok Kokalj
Nevron d.o.o., SI
Peter Kruzliak
Geomatika, SK
Miroslav Kukučka
Ministry of Transport, Posts + Telecommunications, SK
7
The Central European Platform “Preparing for eContent.plus”
Speakers at the four Conferences
Gerhard Laga
WKO - The Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, AT
Gertraud Leimüller
arge creative wirtschaft Austria, AT
Walter Mayer
Progis, AT
Valentína Michálková
Ministry of Transport, Posts + Telecommunications, SK
Federico Milani
EC, DG Information Society and Media
Ludovit Molnar
FIIT STU Bratislava, SK
Jiri Novobilsky
Central European Data Agency, Czech Republic
Krister Olson
EC, DG Information Society and Media
Eva Pauknerova
DG Joint Research Centrum, IT
Hans Petschar
Austrian National Library, AT
Spyridon Pilos
EC, DG Information Society and Media
Christoph Raber
Federal Ministry for Economy and Labour, AT
Hans-Peter Ritt
Milestone., Project Management
Iván Rónai
Ministry of Education and Culture, HU
Bea Sáfár
MATISZ, NCP, HU
Michael Seifert
WIFI – Wirtschaftsförderungsinstitut, AT
Gabriella Simor
Ministry of Economy and Transport, HU
Gabriele Singer
APA-Multimedia, AT
Václav Slaboch
VUGTK, CZ
Richard Swetenham
EC, DG Information Society and Media
Mihály Szabolcs
Inst. of Geodesy, Cartography, Remote Sensing, HU
Rudolf Takáč
Project Management Association, SK
Ádám Tichy-Rács
Budapest University of Technology and Economics, HU
Zdenek Uhlir
Memoria Mundi Series Bohemica, CZ
Erich Weichselgartner
Institute for Psychology Information, DE
Stepan Zezula
Ministry of Informatics, CZ
Péter Zsolt
Neumann House, HU
Balassy Zsolt
Hungarian Association of Content Industry, HU
8
The Central European Platform “Preparing for eContent.plus”
Feed-Back and Results
One of the most difficult questions in the context of a platform like
„Preparing for eContentplus“ is concerning the success. Notably
the initiative targeted on mid-term goals, so quick and directly
measurable results were not expected.
In order to obtain feedback on the general approach and the
activities, different kinds of sources of information had to be
combined.
Feedback by Word of Mouth
At the conferences we saw consortia forming themselves during
breaks, we listened to presentations of projects, developed at the
previous conferences. In addition to that there are single successstories “behind the curtain”, and there are personal statements.
“It is a valuable initiative which should be
“It is unique to have different
continued. It’s an excellent idea which
sectors on one panel, so I’d
should be copied in other areas of Europe.”
like to ask you all …”
European Commission
OECD
Results from the EC programme
As the initiative did not target at one specific call of the ECprogramme, we expect the main results in the context of the 3rd
call in 2007. But the figures comparing the two first calls show
some hints regarding the work of the initiative.
Relevant organisations could be reached
Organisations submitting Proposals and
participating in Preparing for eContent.plus
Call
Country
Austria
1st Call, 2005
Submission Shortlisted
13,9%
41,7%
2nd Call, 2006
Submission Shortlisted
41,7%
3rd Call, 2007
Submissi Shortliste
35,7%
Czech Republic
30,6%
20,0%
20,0%
33,3%
Hungary
18,5%
57,1%
57;1 %
66,7%
Slovakia
21,1%
33,3%
33,3%
75,0%
In both categories you can observe a definite increase between the
first and second call. The numbers show explicitly that “Preparing
for eContentplus is relevant for national actors, which are also
relevant for the EC programme.
9
The Central European Platform “Preparing for eContent.plus”
Results of the Online-Survey
In March 2007, we asked all conference participants as well as the
recipients of our newsletters to evaluate the platform, it’s activities
and it’s outcome.
Key Data
785 registered persons received the invitation to the onlinequestionnaire, every single person was able to participate only
once
the online-questionnaire was accessible from 4 March 2007 to
18 March 2007
in the end we received 124 valid responses, that’s a return rate
of 15,8%
The Respondents of the Survey
How was your involvement in the initiative
"Preparing for eContent plus"?
100
90
89
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
18
11
5
5
2
4
0
n=143
Participant at one of the conferences
Member of Steering Committee
Member of Advisory Board
other
Speaker or Moderator at one of the conferences
Member of Core Team
Sponsor or Supporter
.milestone
Viewing the individual involvement of the answering people in
the platform “Preparing for eContentplus” we see a broad
allotment of the roles that corresponds very well with the real
allotment during the activities of the platform.
10
The Central European Platform “Preparing for eContent.plus”
As you will see in the following chart, there is a wide
distribution of different organisations and sectors. Above all
public
authorities,
private
enterprises
and
associations/intermediaries are represented strongly.
What kind of organisation are you working at?
Consultant
NGO
2%
1%
Research
Institute
3%
University
8%
Public Authority
30%
Archive, Library,
Museum
9%
Association
20%
Private
Enterprise
27%
n=118
.milestone
In comparison to the registered and documented participants
at the four Orientation- and Matching-Days the private sector
seems to be a little bit underrepresented in the survey.
In w hich country is your organisation located?
Luxembourg
2%
Germany
2%
Finland
1%
Belgium
1%
Greece
2%
Bulgaria
2%
United Kingdom
1%
France
1%
Other European
Countries
5%
Austria
24%
Slovenia
4%
Italy
5%
Czech Republic
12%
Hungary
20%
Slovakia
18%
n=118
. mi l es t one
The distribution of the respondents regarding country of origin
of their organisation corresponds to the distribution of
participants in the whole initiative.
11
The Central European Platform “Preparing for eContent.plus”
In w hich of the activities of the platform
"Preparing for eContentplus did you participate?
50
Conference on
Geographical Data in Prague
45
45
35
30
33
29
25
25
20
15
10
Conference on Scientific
Content in Budapest
37
40
17
28
Conference on Educational
Content in Bratislava
Conference on Cultural
Content in Vienna
Subscribing the New sletter
Documents and Dow nloads
5
0
n=116
Using other contents of the
w ebsite
.milest one
Due to the fact that the survey was conducted shortly after the
conference in Vienna, this conference is represented more than
the others. Noticeable is that the web based services were used
to a large extent.
12
The Central European Platform “Preparing for eContent.plus”
Opinions regarding the platform
Overall Impression
unsystematic
diversified
vague
pr
e
va
t iv
e
he
ns
i
exclusive
confusing
in
no
co
m
in
vi
tin
g
fo
cu
ss
ed
re
n
tra
w
am
bi
el
lo
ns
pa
rg
an
us
tio
va
nt
re
le
standard
irrelevant
t
is
ed
bl
e
What is your over all impression about the platform
Preparing for eContentplus?
conservative
n=79
milestone.
The platform „Preparing for eContentplus“ appeared profiled
and outlined to the audience: „relevant“, „well organised“ and
„comprehensible“ received the highest approvals.
Opinion about the single activities
What is your opinion about the single activities of the
platform ?
100%
90%
80%
25
22
27
70%
60%
50%
1
5
4
8
40%
30%
7
4
8
12
Conf er ence
" Sci enti f i c Content
Conf er ence
" Educati onal
Conf er ence
" Cul tur al Content"
Newsl etter
" i n Budapest
Content" i n
Br ati sl ava
i n Vi enna
Conf er ence
" Geogr aphi cal
Content" i n Pr ague
excellent
good
balanced
1
8
16
13
5
11
27
24
9
7
0%
n=11
8
7
11
20%
10%
7
35
14
20
18
bad
terrible
15
Documents and
Downl oads
6
Other contents on
the websi te
not applicable
. mi l est one
The participants attested all the activities mainly as excellent
or good! Only a few answers are neutral or explicitly
negative. Besides the four conferences the online services
reach both a high usage and a high assessment.
13
The Central European Platform “Preparing for eContent.plus”
Major outcome – Overview
In general the usefulness of the initiative for the single
person and respectively the organisation is highly approved.
In w hich respect w as the platform useful
for you and your organisation?
100%
9
18
90%
15
24
25
34
80%
37
43
70%
57
51
60%
48
52
50%
41
56
40%
45
39
34
30%
29
20%
32
22
10%
29
26
13
16
15
T ak i ng f i r s t
Wor ki ng on
st eps i n
spec i f i c E U
ot her
E ur opean
P r oj ec t s
Cooper at i ons
12
0%
Or i ent at i on on Or i ent at i on on Or i ent at i on on
E s t abl i shi ng
E s t abl i shi ng
t he
t he Cent r al
t he s peci f i c
Cont act s i n
Cont act s i n
Commi s si on
E ur opean
Cont ent A r eas
Cent r al
E ur ope
P r ogr amme
Count r i es
n=92
E ur ope
very useful
useful
E s t abl i shi ng
6
Ot her
col l abor at i on
not useful/ not applicable
. mi l est one
The answers correspond to the preset main goals of the
initiative – according to the attendees the goals have been
reached. In each of the following four items, between 70%
and 90% of the respondents think, the platform was “very
useful” or “useful”:
Orientation on the EU programme
Orientation on the specific Content Areas
Orientation on the Central European Countries
Establishing other Cooperation’s
14
The Central European Platform “Preparing for eContent.plus”
Major outcome in Detail
The more detailed second question asks about the major
outcome, the question allowed the maximum of three answers.
On the one hand the results validate the answers from the first
question and on the other hand bring up additional aspects.
The major outcome
for your organization
Participate in
the Platform
Others
3%
6%
Contacts to
persons and
organisations
24%
Advice on
eContentplus
5%
Info on content
related Topics
8%
Contacts in
Central Europe
8%
Orientation on
eContentplus
13%
n=115
Partner for other
Activities
7%
Partner for EU
Projects
10%
Gain European
Visibility and
Experience
8%
Info on Content
Areas
8%
.milestone
The largest percentage relate to the categories of international
presence, experiences and contacts. 30% mentioned the
usefulness of socialising and making contacts to other people
and organisations.
Furthermore …
18% of answers focused “information and support
concerning the eContentplus programme”,
almost 16% regarding dealing with “specific fields of digital
content”, and
17% of the respondents said that potential cooperation’s
regarding EU projects and other joint activities resulted
from participating at the platform.
15
The Central European Platform “Preparing for eContent.plus”
How to continue?
The closing part of the questionnaire was dedicated to the
question whether and how to continue with a platform like this.
A series of three questions asked about the opinion of the
audiences.
Should there be a follow-up
Should a platform like this be continued in Central Europe?
3%
23%
74%
n=87
Yes, because ...
Yes, if ...
No, because ...
.milestone
Actually the outcome of the question whether this platform
should be continued was quite pleasing. Especially positive is
the fact that 97% gave a favourable opinion to continue such
an initiative in Central Europe.
16
The Central European Platform “Preparing for eContent.plus”
Reasons for continuing this platform
Reasons for continuing this platform
it strengthens
Central Europe
19%
it suppoorts and
strengthens
collaborations
18%
to netw ork and
meet people
16%
direct contact
w ith commission
it integrates
other
4%
different
4%
sectors
6% brings EU
programmes
closer
6%
it is valuable and
useful
12%
exchange of
ideas and
experiences
15%
n=68
.milest one
All the respondents answering “Yes, the platform should be
continued“, 74% as mentioned above, where asked to tell us
the reasons why the platform should continue.
The shown answers can also be interpreted as achievements
of the platform and may spot the non-planned effects the
respondents see the positive benefit and achievement of the
platform mainly in the four following areas:
Strengthening Central Europe (19%)
Supporting cross-sectoral collaborations (18%)
Facilitate networking and contacts (16%)
Exchange ideas and discuss experiences (16%)
17
The Central European Platform “Preparing for eContent.plus”
Suggestions for a continuation
The last question of the survey, again presented to all of the
respondents of the questionnaire, was about asking for
suggestions for a further continuation of the platform.
Suggestions for the platform
address more
the companies
more
4%
involvement of
EC
4%
cover more
content-areas
6%
more
carry on as
now
15%
other
11%
eu-programmes
6% kontaktbörse
7%
netw orking and
incubator
8%
more project
focused
13%
online
community and
database
10%
include more
countries
more practical
8%
advice
8%
.milestone
n=61
The answers brought a broad range of suggestions, although
a big part of them head into a few similar directions. The
greater part of the suggestions was on different aspects of
strengthening the interactive potentials of the platform:
“more project focused”
“online community”
“networking, incubator”
“kontaktbörse”
15%
10%
8%
7%
Besides this the following extensions of the platform were
suggested: either to include more countries, to include more
European programmes or to cover more content-areas.
But first of all it is to mention that 15% of the respondents
said that the initiative should be continued without changes
in the same way as up till now.