Inter-Regional Information Society Initiative - Final report
The European Commission, DG XIII, has recently published the final report of the Inter-Regional Information Society Initiative (IRISI) Network. Launched in late 1994, the IRISI Network was supported by the European Commission and involved six of Europe's less favoured regions: Central Macedonia (Greece), Nord Pas de Calais (France), north-west England (UK), Piemonte (Italy), Saxony (Germany) and Valencia (Spain). The aim of these IRIS Initiatives was to encourage the development of consensus and partnership amongst key regional players around a Regional Information Society Strategy and Action Plan. They also aimed to promote inter-regional collaboration in Europe's first regional Information Society network. Following a bottom-up approach, comprising awareness-raising, partnership building, creating consensus and the development of a regional strategy and action plan, the regions could benefit through the exchange of experience and expertise within the IRISI Network. The experience and lessons learned from this experimental pilot action are now examined in the report from two perspectives. The first concerned observant participation which collated, analysed and synthesised the work of the regional initiatives. The second concerned participant observation from external evaluators contracted by DG XIII in an accompanying support measure. Both perspectives were designed with a view to learning whether and how regions might use the Information Society as a new paradigm for regional regeneration and development This report presents and evaluates the main experiences, lessons and conclusions of the IRISI Network. It is accompanied by a CD-ROM which contains many of the basic documents, as well as accompanying reports produced in the context of the IRIS Initiative.