Try to remember the last time you shopped from Amazon. Most likely you are another happy consumer that has enjoyed the benefits of e-shopping in terms of service, price and delivery time. It is also highly possible that you already master the plethora of reasons not to get into your car and experience all that […]Amazon, a pair of shoes and my Data Privacy walks away
April 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Try to remember the last time you shopped from Amazon. Most likely you are another happy consumer that has enjoyed the benefits of e-shopping in terms of service, price and delivery time. It is also highly possible that you already master the plethora of reasons not to get into your car and experience all that […]E-Government can be a remedy for the crisis
March 24, 2013 by 2 Comments
Since the dawn of the 21st century it has been clear that Information Communication Technology (ICT) would be a significant driver of modern society. Let’s not go far. Think about your first cell phones at the beginning of the millennium that were as big as a ping-pong racket, indeed very inconvenient, while mobile communication was […]High-technology manufacturing saves the EU industry
March 14, 2013 by Leave a Comment
According to a study by Eurostat, the EU statistical service, high and medium technology industries saved the manufacturing sector from a much larger fall during the difficult crisis years from 2008 until 2010. Still, the industrial sector has not yet fully recovered and in January 2013 compared to December 2012, seasonally adjusted overall industrial production fell […]Commission imposes a fine of €561 million on Microsoft
March 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Late in the afternoon of today 6 February, the Commission issued an announcement, signed by Joaquín Almunia, Vice President responsible for Competition Policy, saying that the Commission imposes on Microsoft a fine of €561 million. According to this Press release, the decision came as result of Microsoft’s failure to comply with the legally binding commitments […]The European Commission to stop Buffering
February 26, 2013 by 1 Comment
At last some good news for the European online gamers and Skype users. The European Commission has decided to fund a big research on how to fight internet lagging and make European Internet move faster without the need to have expensive changes in the network infrastructure. Following the steps of the increasing American research on […]EU plans pan-European network of cybersecurity services
February 11, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The European Union proposes the creation of a pan-European network of digital security services. Last week, Neelie Kroes, Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, Catherine Ashton, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Cecilia Malmström, Member of the EC in charge of Home Affairs, made jointly the relevant announcement. They unveiled a plan for […]It ain’t over until Google says it’s over
February 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The deadline EU Commissioner Joaquin Almunia set to Google to answer the Commission’s investigation expired yesterday and, since no answer had been filled, people in the DG Competition decided to throw a party. They thought that these would be the easiest €4 billion the European Commission had ever made. Mr. Almunia even rushed to brag […]The big five EU telecom operators in dire straights
January 17, 2013 by Leave a Comment
British Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Telecom Italia and Telefónica constitute the exclusive club of major telecom operators in the European Union. The very oligopolistic character of the market has prompted the European Commission some years ago to forcefully introduce ground breaking changes in the EU telecom market. Towards the end of 2009 the Commission […]Chinese “BeiDou” GPS goes to market
January 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Towards the end of last year Beijing announced the opening of its Geostatic Positioning System for civic and commercial users in the region of Asia and Pacific, adding that the China Satellite Navigation Office is working fast to extend the area covered by this satellite umbrella named “BeiDou”. A GPS system “provides location and time information […]Telecommunications and Internet: A Jungle with no principles?
December 6, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Since the last World Conference on International Telecommunications in 1988 our planet has become a completely different place. It is not any more the bi-polar globe we knew until the fall of the USSR, which ended the division between communism and capitalism. Today there is only capitalism and more…capitalism. During the 1990s and the 2000s […]Let your fingers do the walking
December 4, 2012 by Leave a Comment
It was high time. The European Commission has prepared a proposal to make mandatory for all member states the creation of easily accessible government web sites to facilitate the lives of their citizens. According to the Commission’s announcement key beneficiaries of this proposal would be Europe’s 80 million citizens with disabilities and the 87 million […]eGovernmnet for more efficiency, equality and democracy
November 20, 2012 by 1 Comment
At the fifth Ministerial eGovernment Conference in Malmö, (Sweden) the 27 EU ministers, responsible for administrative affairs, outlined a joint vision and policy priorities on how to developing smarter online public services for citizens and businesses by 2015. The EU Commission hailed this agreement and commented that eGovernment is a key step towards boosting Europe’s […]
