Microsoft, Oracle and GIC initiate the Greek Interoperability Council, in Athens

The "Interoperability Day" co-organised by the Greek Interoperability Centre, 9th June 2010

The Greek Interoperability Centre (GIC), Microsoft Innovation Centre and Oracle Hellas organised the "Interoperability Day for the Private and Public Sector", on Future Internet Digital Services, in order to promote international interoperability standards in the Greek Public and Private Sector, towards new digital public services.

<- On the left: J.Psarras, T,Tzakri, Y. Charalabidis and W. Grommen in GIC Day opening


During the day, representatives of public administration, IT industry and research centres discussed about strategy, actions and impact of Future Internet services for governments and businesses.  Keynore speeches, after introduction by Prof. John Psarras, NTUA were as following:

Theodora Tzakri (pictured, right) Vice Minister of the Greek Ministry Interior, responsible for Electronic Governance, talked on the new framework for eGovernance and Interoperability in Greece, announcing more than 10 specific actions and initatitives on fiber infrastructures, base registries, service delivery channels, interoperability standards, open government in local administration and the overall target of having all major G2C services in level-5 (pro-active and personalised)

Yannis Charalabidis, Manager of the Greek Interoperability Centre and Ass. Prof. in the University of Aegean in Samos, spoke on world-class examples for policy making, service transformation, open governance and interoperability science, with a note to the "interoperabilty ROI" within crisis. Microsoft Interoperability Council, FhG FOKUS Germany-Online plan and eID, the ENSEMBLE project on interoperability science base were among the highlights.

This first session also included:

- Wilfried Grommen (pictured, left), Regional Technology Officer, Central and Eastern Europe, Microsoft, delivering a talk on cloud infrastructure and open standards for governments.

- Theodore Karounos, Consultant to the Greek Prime Minister, on the Greek OpenGov.gr initiative and interoperability outlook.

- Yota Paparidou, Greek ICT Industry Association, on the enterprise interoperability needs of SME's  

- Ingo Prestel (pictured right, bottom), Senior Manager Public Sector - EMEA, ORACLE, described the multi-fold interoperability offering of Oracle, relying on open standards, common infrastructures and Fusion middleware.

In the second part of the day, Dimitris Askounis, Ass.Prof NTUA and researchers from the Greek Interoperability Centre, together with collaborating organisations and companies, showcased innovative scenarios for automated government, seamless security and identity management, semantic interoperability and coordinated process management.

Within the panel discussion, journalist Yannis Rizopoulos dicussed "the next day in interoperability" with a pool of experts from the Greek Market:

- Panos Theodosopoulos, Public Sector Director, Microsoft Hellas
- George Bourmas, DB & Options Sales Consulting Manager, Oracle
- Nikos Karamolegos, National Bank of Greece
- Yannis Papidis, IT Applications Operations Director, OTE

The establishment of the Greek Interoperability Council was announced, aiming at coordinating interoperability-related efforts. Establishing members include representatives from Aegean University, NTUA-DSSL, AUEB-ELTRUN, Microsoft, Oracle, Singular Logic, ATC, Greek Geeks, HSE and Piraeus Bank.

See all the presentations and announcements at:

http://www.iocenter.eu/news--events/events/iopday.aspx

In the Executive Interoperability Council, at Microsoft Redmond

The Microsoft Executive Interoperability Council annual meeting was held in Microsoft Headquarters in Redmont, Seattle.    More than 20 CEO's and CIO's together with top researchers and academics joined Microsoft leading executives in two days of presentations and discussions around interoperability issues.
The agenda included the "hottest"  interoperability challenges and solutions in cloud, social media, enterprise systems and services for the connected and mobile world.

In the picture below, Yannis Charalabidis among the invited experts in the EIC, which from Europe also included representatives of Fraunhofer FOKUS (Germany) and NCC (UK).

Interoperability and Future Internet Public Services

Interoperability Day for the Private and Public Sector: “Future Internet” Digital Services

9th June 2010, 09:00 - 15:00
Central Building, Zografou Campus, National Technical University of Athens

The Greek Interoperability Centre (GIC) Microsoft Innovation Centre and Oracle Hellas are organising an information day, in order to promote international interoperability standards in the Greek Public and Private Sector, towards new digital public services.

During the day, representatives of public administration, IT industry and research centres will talk and discuss about strategy, actions and impact of Future Internet services for governments and businesses.

Researchers from GIC, together with collaborating organisations and companies, will showcase innovative scenarios for automated government, seamless security and identity management, semantic interoperability and coordinated process management. 

See the programme and register at http://www.iocenter.eu/news--events/events/iopday.aspx
(some knowledge of Greek will be required)

New book on eGovernment Performance Measurement

A new title on electronic government has just been published by PTI & ITEMS International.  The book “Beyond eGovernment-Measuring Performance: A Global Perspective" is targeting performance measurement in eGovernment, at a global scale. The book’s 40 contributors from 17 nations demonstrate how eGovernment initiatives – to include Web 2.0 and social media tools and multi-channel public contact services – can benefit from performance measurement.

“Today’s social media and IT tools have many built-in metrics that if properly applied can help governments truly measure the effectiveness of the services they provide,” said Alan Shark, Executive Director of PTI and the book’s co-executive editor. “With this book we provide officials with examples of how these tools are being adopted in government agencies across the globe.”

The book is available for sale through Amazon and Barnes&Noble.

See more, including Table of Contents and Author Biographies at: http://www.pti.org/index.php/ptiee1/more/632

The Samos 2010 Summit on ICT for Governance and Policy Modelling

Samos, Greece, July 6-8 2010

The Samos Summit on ICT for Governance and Policy Modelling is being co-organised by the University of Aegean, the CROSSROAD project, the Greek Interoperability Centre and the eGovernance Cluster Projects (COCKPIT, OCOPOMO, PADGETS and UBIPOL), on July 6-8, 2010.

The Summit is a splendid opportunity to see and influence the new European ICT research roadmap for Governance and Policy Modelling, as being prepared by the research community and the CROSSROAD project, supported by European Commission / DG INFSO. Participants will have the opportunity to exchange ideas with international research projects in the area of eGovernance and work on innovative future scenarios for ICT-supported governance.

The audience of the Summit, by invitation only, comprises more than 50 high-level representatives from southern-eastern European governments, the European Commission, the ICT Industry and the research community, coming from more than 20 countries, including India, Australia, China and the US.

The agenda of the Samos 2010 Summit includes:

• The EU priorities for Research on ICT for Governance
• Key Initiatives in the area of ICT for Governance
• Government, Industry and Research representatives, on the new directions for eGovernance and Policy Modelling research
• Presentations of innovative solutions, research prototypes and new research ideas
• The latest FP7 Projects presenting their achievements and strategy

More information and registration application, at: http://samos-summit.blogspot.com/