Text and photos by Karin Bendixen

Standardisation in support of the Design for All concept is not about charity: it is about market needs and user-friendly solutions. It is about business, says EU Commissioner Erkki Liikanen.

"Technology is the heart of the information society. But what really matters is how this technology is used, by whom and for what purpose." Finnish EU Commissioner, Erkki Liikanen, met by Crisp & Clear for an interview about the ambitious EU action plan ‘eEurope 2002 - an Information Society for All’, could hardly have put his message more crisply and clearly.

The action plan combines several methods to reach its goal; among them are benchmarking, increased competition, lower prices, education, Design for All and standards. And the member states, the European Parliament and the Commission must, of course, play an active role in implementing the plan.

The interview takes place in Strasbourg, France, where the European Parliament, the Commission and EU Ministers meet for one week every month. Erkki Liikanen is Commissioner for Enterprise and Information and one of the 20 members of the Commission.

The aim of eEurope is to accelerate the uptake of digital technologies across Europe and to ensure that all Europeans have the necessary skills to use them. The three main objectives are: 1) A cheaper, faster and secure Internet; 2) Investment in people and skills; 3) Stimulation of the use of the Internet: objectives to be achieved by the end of 2002.

We must catch up

Two and a half years from now looks like a very short time to reach the ambitious objectives of eEurope!

"The application of digital technologies has become a vital factor for growth and employment in the ‘new economy’, mainly driven by the Internet. But I must say that things are still not moving fast enough. In Europe, the subject of IT is mostly reserved for experts. In the USA, there is a lot more public discussion about IT, even the presidential candidates, Gore and Bush, talk about it two or three times a week. We must catch up. We have chances here in Europe to put ourselves out in front: we have a society that functions well, we have a public schooling system and our health system is more coherent; but the experts in technology, politics and public opinion are not co-ordinated in Europe."

Why was such a short period of time stipulated?

“There are two reasons. One is political – in the EU, the timetable must always be strict. The other is also symbolic – as the technological revolution moves so fast in this field, we have to move fast to the area of applications where citizens will get the added value,” says Erkki Liikanen.


The European Parliament, the Louise Weiss Building. The Parliament's one-week plenary sessions are held once a month in Strasbourg.

Value for Citizens

But how can technology be made accessible and usable to the user?

"Although the area of information technology is still very much technology-led, it is not only technology. And that is the point when you look at the web today: many computers are still so complicated, as they were not made for the users."

"We have to understand that the real value for citizens comes only if they get better access and better services – when they can improve the quality of their lives. So we need the best possible technology, as well as the best possible applications. The eEurope action plan supports this approach. It must be an information society for all."

The Importance of Design

"The second point, which is very important, is the political, social and economic objectives. There is the famous concept of Metcalf’s Law of Connectivity, which says that: ‘The value of a network is a function of the number of people connected to that network; value grows exponentially with each person’. This means that access for all – including disabled and elderly people – is an extremely important challenge. We must support design of this kind, so that people with disabilities can take advantage of technology. Terminals and tools must be well designed, too. For the first time, technology means that people with certain disabilities can communicate from home – a possibility they never had. That is why the design issue is so extremely important," underlines Erkki Liikanen.

Design for All

How do we prevent Design for All from being just another slogan?

"I think through open debate, public criticism and public hearings: I am never in a position to know whether we have succeeded or not until I have the benefit of strong public follow-up and public discussion."

"The fast take-up of the Information Society in general, and e-commerce and m-commerce (commerce in mobile sector, Ed.) in particular, depends strongly on the level of accessibility of the new ICT services, applications and products for all citizens. This is not only a political and social concern, to avoid a ‘digital divide’, but also an economic must. We need technology, but if it is not designed for all, and ends up being of no use to the people citizens, we will loose the whole thing," the Commissioner points out.

Other interesting initiatives for stimulating Design for All are described in detail in eEurope’s action plan. The activities listed under the heading of ‘Participation for all in the knowledge-based economy’ are supposed to result in the establishment and networking of national centres of excellence in Design for All and the publication of Design for All standards for accessibility in information technology products.

Unblock the Barriers

How can IT manufacturers and entrepreneurs be influenced to attach high priority to user-friendliness and to being competitive in this field?

"Free competition and comparison between countries should be an incentive to trying to make things better. In some areas we can legislate to unblock all the barriers against competition, so that prices will go down. We can also legislate in the field of safety and security and solve disputes between the parties in the market," says Erkki Liikanen, and he continues:

"But when it comes to Internet illiteracy, the responsibility lies with the Member States, their schools and so on. In the area of Design for All, we can standardise and then help industry apply the standards, but we cannot guarantee that Member States will use these standards."

Exercises in Benchmarking

Benchmarking between member countries is one way of ensuring that the action plan will be implemented efficiently – and with the desired effect.

"We are launching a big benchmarking exercise this autumn, one which I hope we will repeat every year. We study the Member States in Europe – how they advance in different sectors, etc. – so that they can compare with each other and see how advanced they are: after all, nobody wants to be the last. We are trying to generate this kind of positive, open competition to see who advances most. The aim is not to name and shame anybody, but to learn from each other. The Nordic countries, for example, are not the best in everything, and can learn from the South: in mobile applications, Italy is a very exciting country, while France has this old Minitel background."

Emphasising the importance of this kind of openness, Commissioner Liikanen continues:

"We need to learn much more from others, there is always somebody who has invented something – but how to diffuse best practices so that we can learn from each other with open minds is terribly important. If something is different, it is not always bad: we must keep an open mind and attitude and look at others. I hope that this kind of open benchmarking, this open method of co-ordinating policies, will generate an annual report. And I hope that we will be able to follow-up on the Web, so that people can monitor how the countries are performing."

  Government Policy

In your opinion, where is the biggest effort required to reach eEurope’s ambitious goals of an information society for all?

"Many efforts are required at the same time. Firstly, we need more competition in technological markets, we need to get prices down: if the costs involved in using the Internet are too high, people will not connect, so they will be ‘out of the Net’. Secondly, we need government policies – if people are not computer-literate, it does not matter what the costs are. So government investments in computers and the Internet area are extremely important, and of course we must start with the schools. A positive side effect is that there is statistical evidence that if young people learn to use the Internet at school, their parents will learn to use it too," says Liikanen.

Lack of Standards

"The third issue is standardisation – and the lack of standards. Without standards, there will be no sizeable production. If there is a weak production of scale, the products will simply be too expensive. That is why standardisation as such is very important. We have asked standardisation bodies to concentrate their efforts on assistive technologies and Design for All."

"Standardisation must be a full-scale commitment. We intend to treat it as an important landmark in the implementation of the eEurope action plan. Standardisation does not make headlines in the newspapers, but it does make a basis for all."

Standards are about Business

The work on standardisation has been criticised for taking such an incredibly long time before a standard is produced. One example is the four years it took to reach a standard for the dot on the number 5 key on telephones. Also, small companies and organisations do not have the necessary funds to pay the fees, hours and travel expenses involved in this work. This means that large companies are the only ones to make their mark on the standards.

"I am not familiar with the case you refer to, but I will check it up. Anyway, standardisation is an open process based on voluntary agreement. This sometimes takes time. But standards have an important impact on the market, both as terms of reference, for example for public procurements, and in defining the ‘state of the art’. But more needs to be done to promote their use effectively. Firstly, industry has to be fully committed to the process of standardisation. Secondly, it should be clearly understood that standardisation in support of the Design for All concept is not about charity: it is about market needs and user-friendly solutions. It is about business. Thirdly, European standardisation has to be better to sell its products to the public."

Public Sector lags behind

Commissioner Liikanen is particularly worried about the public sector:

"Once we get the standards, we still have the problem of the public sector side: our public administration is so split and fragmented that there is no real market there. It is very important that more activity is somehow generated on the public sector side, also to create the right demand. But as things stand right now – well, nothing happens. I have seen young companies making huge innovations in the area of disability and health, but before the market develops the companies die, because it takes too long to sell."

"The public sector is also lagging behind in relation to websites, and that is a real weakness. There is no interaction. You may write us a letter and we may write back to you, but there is still no real interaction – and same goes in all countries. Little by little, I think the challenge is now to move towards a point where there is real interaction and where certain services can be fully handled on-line. And then there is the issue of web accessibility: we have to involve users. And I think that governments, municipalities and communities should set a good example."

Epilogue

Commissioner Liikanen fondly hopes that the coming EU-presidencies will also adopt the eEurope Action Plan into their own missions and be prepared to organise some major events and discussions on the issues of Design for All, disabilities, elderly people and health.

"We need to turn this into a cross-sectorial, horizontal issue and we will then all go in the same direction. We also have to continue collaborating with the whole industry. Because we want to change society, for you and for the whole market."

By the way, what sort of relationship does the Commissioner have with technology personally?

"Let’s be frank – as far as the video is concerned, I have always left that to my children, but they say they learned their computer skills from me. I have always followed developments with great interest, and I had some contact with the Finnish telecommunications industry twenty years ago. So I am one of those people who wants to follow the latest trends and see what is possible. Actually, it used to be my hobby, now it is my job.

I answer all my e-mails personally, and I also surf the web, to compare services and so on...!"

Published in Crisp & Clear No. 3, October 2000

Erkki Liikanen