New EU Rolling Plan for ICT Standardisation published

First of all Happy New Year everyone and to you and yours a healthy, peaceful and prosperous 2016.

Just with the beginning of the new year The European Commission published the new EU Rolling Plan for ICT standardisation. It is available from the Commission website.

This is the third version of the Rolling Plan which gets updated on an annual basis. It is developed in a collaborative process with initial input being provided by the Commission and comprehensive advice coming from all stakeholders in standardisation via the EU Multi-Stakeholder Platform. A process that has become well established by now.

The new version 2016 of the Rolling Plan contains a number of new actions for standardisation where ICT standards are seen to be of high relevance for supporting the implementation of EU policy objectives. It is now up to standards bodies and all stakeholders in general to take up action in response to the Rolling plan and lead technology development providing support to policy makers.

Relevant link of today. Blog post on Industry 4.0 by Erich Clementi, IBM Chairman and Senior Vice President Europe

I know this is advertising my own cause... but it is good and of high relevance. In a blog post on EURACTIV published today, IBM Chairman and Senior Vice President Europe, Erich Clementi, gives a very interesting and motivating and inspiring perspective on Industry 4.0. Definitely worth reading.

Interesting link of today: German student asks government to see exam questions before taking the exam

This is an interesting instance about the right of citizens to request seeing public documents. A student from Northrhine-Westfalia refers to the respective law on freedom of information (Informationsfreiheitsgesetz) by requesting access to the questions that will be asked in his final school exam (Abitur). He now gets a lot of publicitly for this - even his school master congratulates him to this clever move.

See the report in the online edition of the German national newspaper Die Welt: "Bin berechtigt, die Abi-Aufgaben vorab zu sehen".

Very sad news: Klaus Tschira is dead

Klaus Tschira, founder of IBM and great patron in the Rhine-Neckar region, died suddenly and unexpectedly at the age of 74. After his retirement from SAP he became a major patron in the region investing into future technologies. See for instance the local Rhein Neckar Zeitung for a very nice appreciation.

Relevant link of today: Contribution in FAZ about revolutions in the digital economy

There was a very interesting contribution from Shoshana Zuboff in yesterday's FAZ, one of Germany's leading daily newspapers. The article is called Die Vorteile der Nachzügler and encourages Europe to learn from negative results in North America and thus make best use of Europe's situation of lacking behind in some developments. Zuboff takes the theory and thinking of Schumpeter as her reference point and relates it to the current trends in the digital economy. Her main point is that there needs to be a clear balance between the interests of the customer and the new service or technology offered. And that this is often not the case when newcomers overrun the market with their offerings.

It is still available in the online edition of the FAZ and definitely worth reading. The English original called Disruptions Tragic Flaw is also available online.

Relevant link of today: Abhöraktivitäten des BND

In the German magazine Cicero's online edition of this week there is an interesting interview with a Berlin based German lawyer, Niko Härting, who went to sue the German secret service, Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), because of their activities in spying the people and monitoring communication.

What is interesting in this interview is the information provided about the broad scope of activities world wide, also with other EU member states. Definitely worth reading.

Relevant link of today: A rational view on TTIP

In guest comment in the German national newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau (FR) Ulrich Grillo, president of the German Federation of Industry (BDI), gives a guest writer position on the need and the opportunities of TTIP and warns against painting negative pictures and horror stories.

The guest contribution is in German, available on the online edition of the FR under the title: "Schluss mit dem Märchen vom bösen TTIP" (Make an end to the fairy tale of the bad TTIP).