Information Society Project Office, 1994-

Established as part of the Commission's action plan on Europe's way to the Information Society (COM(94) 347), the role of the Information Society Project Office (ISPO) is to act as an interface between the Commission and other public and private operators on all issues relating to the Information Society. In particular, it will help all interested parties benefit from the new opportunities offered by the Information Society (e.g. job opportunities, services and markets). This is to be achieved by pursuing the following tasks:

- To help industry and users contact the Commission and make optimal use of the existing instruments and resources:
The purpose of this task is to make information available on relevant European instruments to a wide constituency. ISPO's role will be to handle information requests coming from various quarters, to dispatch the requests to the relevant services of the Commission and to ensure that the answers are returned within as short a time as practicable.

- To act as a broker in information and ideas for interested parties:
ISPO's activities in this area are focused on encouraging, with the help of the relevant Commission services, the creation of partnerships among interested organizations and individuals. It will also assist with the diffusion of calls for ideas and projects launched within the framework of the specific RTD programmes in the area of information and communications technology under the Fourth Framework Programme.

- To create and increase awareness of the advantages and potential impact of the Information Society and its new applications, to publicize ISPO-supported actions and to act as an information clearing house. This is to be achieved by:
. Helping, where necessary, other Commission services to organize awareness and information campaigns across the EU and keeping relevant participants and the public informed of recent initiatives;
. Producing comprehensive reviews and summaries of relevant studies and articles on the information society on a regular basis, and distributing them in the form of a magazine/newsletter;
. Ensuring the Commission projects a consistent image (through model speeches, participation at conferences, etc.).

- To contribute to the learning process among relevant participants and facilitate the acceptance and adoption of information society-related applications and solutions by encouraging the demonstration of efficient implementation techniques and strategies. This is to be achieved by:
. Setting up workshops and demonstrations on advanced applications, in close cooperation with Commission services and organizations in the Member States and regions;
. Disseminating concise reports on advanced applications, highlighting problems, solutions and best practice.

- To facilitate the launching of relevant international cooperation actions acting, where necessary, as a link between potential participants from the private sector and the Commission services responsible for international cooperation. Activities include:
. Building up a working knowledge of applications on information society issues launched in non-EU countries;
. Contributing to European Union partners' awareness of the potential for international cooperation.

The activities conducted by ISPO are expected to be of benefit to the following: SMEs, local and national public administrations, information technology manufacturers, content providers in the information business, universities and other research bodies, innovators, and usergroups and associations.

To support, promote and orient public and private measures in the field of the Information Society.

No details are available for this field.

The Information Society Project Office (ISPO) is an initiative of the European Commission which is jointly operated by DG III (Industry) and DG XIII (Telecommunications, Information Market and Exploitation of Research).