IST 99 Final report available
The final report of the Information Society Technologies Conference 99 is available for downloading from the European Commission's Information Society Directorate-General, at: http://europa.eu.int/comm/information_society/ist/conference_en.htm#finalreport Over 3,200 delegates from business, research, politics and public administration took part in IST 99, held in Helsinki, Finland, on 22 to 24 November 1999, and organised jointly by the European Commission and Tekes, the National Technology Agency of Finland. Topics addressed ranged from Internet policy to next-generation microprocessor technologies; from the future of networking to the contribution of children in the Information Society. Commissioner Erkki Liikanen, responsible for Enterprise and the Information Society, said: 'The IST 99 conference set out to provide a meeting place for jointly exploring the road towards the future Information Society, for building new partnerships, and for renewing our commitment to realise an Information Society that brings benefits to all. 'The final report summarises the main conclusions from the conference and provides independent observations by external rapporteurs on the conference sessions and workshops. I expect that the report will provide valuable guidance for future work in the Information Society.' The 1999 conference was well received, with 91 per cent of participants surveyed rating it excellent to good. 'The conference clearly demonstrated Europe's confidence in its capabilities to shape the future 'information society for all',' said Robert Verrue, Director-General of the Information Society Directorate-General. 'The commitment to this objective and the urgency to act was underscored by politicians and business people alike. 'IST 2000 will be a good opportunity to take stock of the achievements and address new challenges, some of which we do not even know today. At the same time it is the challenge to do even better than IST 99.'