If Europe doesn’t start standardising on some of the ICT systems it is intending to install over the next decade or so, it is going to be in a mess, according to Jozef Cornu, president of the Information Society Technologies Advisory Group (ISTAG) which advises the EC on ICT strategy.
“Eurostar has six different signalling systems which adds considerably to costs. If we don’t standardise on electronic tolling we will have trucks with ten different electronic payment systems,” Cornu told the MEDEA+ annual forum in Monte Carlo last week.
Cornu argued that it was necessary to think through ICT deployment at a much earlier stage than we are used to if we are to get the benefit of them.
Cornu noted that standardisation was at odds with democracy, but argued: “Past success has been based on standards like GSM. It’s clear Europe has lost leadership in markets for products and services, and this needs to be taken in hand, and we should make standardisation a priority for R&D sponsorship.”
Cornu pointed out areas where ICT can make a big difference: boosting usage of the train system where capacity is clearly not being fully utilised; helping delay the retirement age by providing re-education and re-training; defraying health-care costs by monitoring old peoples’ vital signs and transmitting them; and even boosting the European content of DVDs.
Cornu sees us as being at that early stage following the introduction of a revolutionary technology when we indulge in illogical mania and financial bubbles. It happened when canals were being built, then with the railways, now with the Internet.