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Disclaimer

The information in this document is provided as is and no guarantee or warranty is given that the information is fit for any particular purpose. The user thereof uses the information at its sole risk and liability.

This document reflects only the author's views and that the European Community is not liable for any use that might be made of the information contained therein.

This project is funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP) as part of

the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme by the European Community. http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp. The authors wish to acknowledge the

Commission for their support, the efforts of the partners and the contributions of all those involved in NET-EUCEN.

Table of contents NET-EUCEN mission statement .....................................................................................................4 1. NET-EUCEN in a nutshell.........................................................................................................4 1.1 The added value brought to the Community........................................................5 1.2 The Policy Framework ....................................................................................................6

2. Introduction to the network .................................................................................................7 2.1 A brief history....................................................................................................................7 2.2 Members’ profiles ...........................................................................................................7 2.3 The organisation ..............................................................................................................8

3. Goals and activities..............................................................................................................10 3.1 The numerical indicators.............................................................................................11 3.2 The Network planned activities ................................................................................12 3.3 Synoptic scheme of network’ targets achievement .........................................14

4. Be a Network member: why?............................................................................................15 4.1 Become an associate member! ..............................................................................17 4.2 Become an associate expert!...................................................................................18

5. The network enlargement campaign ............................................................................19 6. Procedures for entering in the network..........................................................................20 FAQs..................................................................................................................................................21 Members signing the NET-EUCEN network contract...........................................................22 Contacts..........................................................................................................................................26

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NET-EUCEN mission statement

The NET-EUCEN network mission is to engage organisations and citizens in defining and using innovative high added-value services enabling the fruition of public and private facilities.

Our motto is: Enabling innovative visions to shape the EU future services

1. NET-EUCEN in a nutshell

NET-EUCEN is a network of subjects all interested in the enhancement of the application of the user-centricity paradigm in Europe and shall be seen as a multi-disciplinary eGovernment Community.

NET-EUCEN is co-funded by the European Commission under the CIP-ICT-PSP funding programme.

The network of Organisations covers the whole supply chain of the user-centered services: Users, Associations, Public Administrations, software developers, services providers, cultural facilitators, field experts. NET-EUCEN is supported by an open group of experts (NEPEG) acting as peer reviewers of the project proceedings.

All the members and experts actively contribute to the achievement of the following goals:

� Build an international Community of interest and practice

� Scout opportunities for innovative ICT based e-Gov solutions

� Enable user centricity as a condition for services take up

� Develop a set of scenarios as scalable examples of user-centricity

� Enhance convenience for the users of e-services

� Facilitate the interactions of Public Administrations with citizens

� Enhance reliability of services provision of administrations at all levels

� Define guidelines for the correct application of user centricity

� Establish a set of indicators as benchmarking tool for administrations

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1.1 The added value brought to the Community

NET-EUCEN’ members focus their efforts in the outline of guidelines for deploying current and forthcoming ICT solutions in the adoption of user centric eGovernment services and the underlying technologies in the Public Sector. As result, the network will develop guidelines for user centric delivery of eGovernment services in the 5 to

10 year timeframe

NET-EUCEN is expected to give an important feedback to the process of support broader public sector development objectives, aimed at creating a more coherent, user-focused and efficient public sector by:

� ensuring the widest future replication and co-deployment of innovative solutions

� providing guidance for ICT solutions and their roll-out in the selected domain

Furthermore, the network members gather and deploy running best practices and EC funded projects results for a validation in a wide European scale as wished1 by the EC, thus will directly led to:

� change service delivery approaches by creating personalised, high quality services to users, thereby increasing effective service delivery;

� facilitate major work organisation and management changes creating back-office coherence and efficiency gains;

� increase transparency of government activities;

� increase citizen engagement;

� improve benefits for citizens and, consequently, user satisfaction.

NET-EUCEN adopted the Philosophy:

Put the user “at the center” of the definition new services

The users in NET-EUCEN are meant as persons, citizens and the whole concept of “services for users” is based on “putting the user at the center of innovative services” starting from the enablement of a specific procedure: users are involved in the services development that is be driven by what users want and operate on a scale that is relevant to them. This approach avoids the typical approach of developers and administrations that only understand the users guess of the services they need or how they intend to deploy the service to solve problems and achieve goals. At this aim, users’ needs are clustered in two main categories: the innovative services and the future services, mainly depending from the availability of enabling technologies and/or of public administration integration mechanism.

1 “We are starting to see benefits from eGovernment ... but we need to be more active in learning

lessons from each other and getting benefits of scale” [Viviane Reding, launching the eGovernment Action Plan]

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1.2 The Policy Framework

NET-EUCEN pursues the application of a list of requirements as stated in the major Communications and Declarations released by the European Community and by the eGovernment International Communities:

� Digital Agenda for Europe2 “empowering users and improving the efficiency,

effectiveness and transparency of the Commission”

� (…) eGovernment is about using the tools and systems made possible by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to provide better public services to citizens and businesses (…)

� If eGovernment services are to provide significant added value to citizens and business, then it is crucial that different government bodies, both within a country and in different EU Member States, are able to share information efficiently and co-operate in serving citizens.

� The i2010 eGovernment Action Plan3 “improving the efficiency and

effectiveness of public administrations and facilitating the interactions of

citizens and businesses with them”

� (…) to support the transition to a new generation of open, flexible and seamless eGovernment services at local, regional, national and EU levels.

� User Empowerment4: Public services can gain in efficiency and users in

satisfaction by meeting the expectations of users better and being designed

around their needs and in collaboration with them whenever possible

� (…) The combination of all these efforts should lead to an increase of the take-up of eGovernment services, indeed by 2015 50% of citizens should use eGovernment while the target envisaged for businesses is 80% by 2015 (…)

� The Malmoe Declaration5 “Citizens and businesses are empowered by

eGovernment services designed around users needs and developed in

collaboration with third parties”, that identifies two specific political priorities:

� Empower citizens and businesses

- services designed around users' needs

- involvement of citizens and business in policy-making process

� Reinforcement mobility in a single market

- seamless services for businesses

- personal mobility

2 Digital Agenda: eGovernment Action Plan - what would it do for me? Memo/10/681 3 accelerating eGovernment in Europe for the Benefit of All" COM(2006) 173 final (2006) 4 The European eGovernment Action Plan 2011-2015 “Harnessing ICT to promote smart, sustainable

& innovative Government” 5 agreed on 18 November 2009 at the 5th Ministerial eGovernment Conference in Malmö, Sweden

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2. Introduction to the network

NET-EUCEN federates all committed eGovernment stakeholders in Europe sharing a common objective of fostering the deployment of user centric eGovernment across Europe and across multiple services.

2.1 A brief history

NET-EUCEN is a project funded by the European Commission and it has been set-up in 2010 by a core group of 23 Organisations all experienced in developing knowledge and services for the wide User Domain, in European Projects coordination and participation, sharing common practices, objectives and work methods.

The initial core group covers the whole supply chain of the service for users (S4U), belonging to 16 different European countries but efforts are made to increase the network capability in attracting new Organisations, Experts and Policy Makers and to enlarge the programme constituency.

Implemented activities answer to a clear request of the European Commission of enable user centricity as a condition for services take up.

2.2 Members’ profiles

The network is composed by the whole supply chain and holds the capability to understand the technological and adaptability level of each existing solution, as well as the compliance with the actual needs and requirements for a user-centred vision. The NET-EUCEN network is built by 7 main kinds of participant Organisations:

� Public Administrations which up to date the consortium in the latest policy developments in the area of ICT, eGovernment and Policy Modelling application and for partnership agreements, search for partners. The main reason to include PAs is to fully cover the value chain of S4U services with users and providers.

� Technology Transfer Companies, which are the “glue” for the growing network and as “bridge” for the bilateral communication and assessment of developed scenarios. They provide new added value services based on best practices and knowledge in implementing ICT solutions or strategies. While all companies help sharing experiences, knowledge and good practices in ICT solutions and networking, each consulting company is an expert in a very specific area.

The NET-EUCEN is an open network of Organisations

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� Industries which are the main developers and providers of off-the-shelf or customisable solution for users and service providers, public or private. They act as technology analyst and support the scenarios in terms of analysis of technical feasibility.

� Universities and Research Centres, which give support both in methodological approach toward the easy implementation of ICT solutions within the public governance and user communities, and more high level research solutions. Research Centres, specifically, input with their knowledge in state-of-the-art technology and potential foresight for scenarios development. They provide the consortium with transferable technology, research or hand-made solutions for providers and users, “giving” both advice and technology.

� eGovernment Policy Maker Organisations, including both public and private Institutions having specific knowledge of the issues related to user centricity in e-services (S4U) in their countries and at European level, as well as data protection Authorities. Their role is focused on the analysis of the best practices, the identification of R&D paths and scenario assessment, also at local level.

� Behavioral and Cultural Policy Maker Institutions, including both public and private organizations able to understand and analyse the users’ needs; they are involved in the scenarios analysis and guidelines outlining.

� User Associations, including User Communities, mainly taking part to the IDON-based events to build potential scenarios as well as to assess them through the web campaign.

In addition, the NET-EUCEN is supported by a board of experts, the so-called Net-Eucen peer review group: NEPEG

� Expert, user behaviour analyst, psychologist, cultural mediator; this is the only category including physical persons. Experts are asked to release a short interview and to provide a peer review of the documentation produced by the network as well as to contribute in the guidelines definition

2.3 The organisation

NET-EUCEN is ruled by simple procedures and the management is smooth, thus giving to all the interested Organisations the opportunity to contribute and participate in the Network activities.

The management allows every members of the network to actively contribute to the steering of the network, ranging from strategic decisions to the definition of the Action Plan to be carried out by the workpackages. Periodic audio-conference and electronic voting will be used extensively to ensure constant activity of the General Assembly.

Establishing a clear and robust consensus across NET-EUCEN members is a priority and a pre-requisite for success and its long term viability. Every key decision in

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defining and building the network is based on consensus: by definition this implies that network members shall accept the decisions. To help build consensus there is usually a strong focus on consultation, sharing, and involvement.

Moreover, the network development uses extensively collaborative tools to ensure transparent and participative information flow across partners, communities and work packages. A dedicated and moderated Wiki together with a shared documents repository is at the heart of the scheme, supported by an open web portal and periodic audioconferences to ensure a collegial management of the activities.

As consensus concerning the user centricity of eGovernment services can not be achieved just based on contractual members, the network also seeks to reach out to external stakeholders, with the objective of integrating them as Associate Members. Priority is given to Members that are representing communities or countries that are not already involved in the network. Efforts will also be made to involve national bodies, to provide a network structure offering the prospect of reliable yield when it comes to publishing consensus guidelines across European countries.

The picture represents the interaction among different members and the main expected outcomes

The interaction of each network member with the main results

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3. Goals and activities

� To build a network of stakeholders involved in eGovernment service development and delivery.

� Co-operate with relevant EU, national, regional and local initiatives to further advance the development and deployment of user centric eGovernment services.

� Mobilise and co-ordinate exchanges of experiences among actors and stakeholders.

� To define and review what user centricity means for eGovernment services today (2010-2013) and how it can and should influence the services on offer.

� To gather good practice case studies that demonstrate user centricity. These will be analysed for commonalities and to establish critical success factors to design user centred services.

� To create a set of guidelines and recommendations for policy makers and service designers to improve eGovernment services.

� To develop new user centric services. This will be done through creating service scenarios, which will be developed as online simulations that can be discussed and validated by service users.

� Assessment of 3 performance indicators for eGovernment and Service for users’ policies and scenarios.

� Disseminate the findings and results of the network among all stakeholders, including policy makers at EU and national levels.

� Support - all over Europe - the multidisciplinary approach to the finding of innovative ICT solutions for citizens, public administrations and large communities.

� Set-up the basis of the co-participation in the constituency of private and public consortia aiming to set up innovative services and to deploy innovative ICT solutions.

� Build a sustainable Community after the Community funding ends. The consortium will pursue to develop a long-term business strategy that will allow continuing the NET-EUCEN network either as a joint-venture or managed by one of the partners on a sustainable basis

The NET-EUCEN members have fixed ambitious targets

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3.1 The numerical indicators

This table contains the planned numeric indicators of success for the project, it must be intended as cumulative number, so at each Year it is expected that the related indicator would achieve that amount.

Expected progress Objective / Expected result Indicator name

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3

External members joining the consortium

Associate Members

50 150 250

Number of User Communities User Communities 1 3 5

Number of P.A. Associatons P.A. Associations 1 3 5

Number of involved researchers

Involved Researchers

25 60 100

Number of performance indicators for S4U and eGOV

Performance Indicators

0 1 3

Number of scenarios developed

Developed Scenarios

4 9 16

Number of scenarios assessed Assessed Scenarios 2 6 16

Number of developed business models

Business Models 0 2 5

Identification of best practices in the S4U

Best Practices 10 25 40

Preliminary market analysis for best practices

Market Analysis 0 5 15

Number of thematic and dissemination workshops held

Workshops 1 3 6

Number of training events held

Training Events 1 3 6

The table of project progress indicators

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3.2 The Network planned activities

The planned activities reflect the actions to be taken to achieve the set of targets as just described; these activities could be listed as:

� Exchange of best practices

Members holding best practices are invited to share with the whole network them through the webportal. The best practices shall be the base of a joint discussion of internal groups and fora. Sharing of best practices will be done through meetings and training sessions, moreover, the scenario development will be done trough ad-hoc brainstorming sessions based on the actual best practices to be used as starting point.

� Participation in S4U analysis including best practices description

NET-EUCEN has a target of 40 best practices (divided in 25 belonging to the network itself and 15 outside) of S4U to be listed and analysed. Each partner shall contribute in the scouting and analysing the BP, the framework for BP recognition and analysis is a document released as result of WP2 activities; the expected contribution must reflect the competence and capabilities of each organisation.

� Participation in awareness creation and dissemination of network activities

Each partner is expected to disseminate the network ongoing results within its contacts, during events (through speeches) and forwarding official public documentation to interested and interesting Organisations, Expert Groups and User Associations.

� Scouting (and recruiting) of new members

Each partner shall select individuate a list of suitable contacts for disseminate the NET-EUCEN message to its contacts, especially in case of a network. Each member shall check at local level the user associations and networks, gathering contacts and provide to the coordinator for further communications. Each partner get in touch with the selected contact in order to inform them about the NET-EUCEN project and the opportunities for joining members. The partner could choose different communications for different profile of organisation.

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� Participation in document analysis, drafting and refining

Each partner will be asked to contribute to the document drafting and assessment. Each partner is enabled to provide feedback to the running documents and to send feedback to the document responsible.

� Participation in scenarios development and assessment

Consortium members and partners are welcomed and, in specific cases, specifically requested by the coordinator, to participate in open events during which users ideas will be gathered and aggregated for the scenarios outline. These events will be Country-based and it is required that each partner based in the same Country to participate to the event. During each event it is of huge importance that all the value chain of S4U is represented, the main participants of this integrated exercise being the users and the service providers.

� Training to network members

Many of the best practices shared and the new/innovative scenarios will need training from the consortium to its members and interested external SMEs /stakeholders in order to help them to understand and implement the solutions given. The training will be provided also in case of new ICTs to be applied to the services development and in case of mandatory information provided by the user associations. At least 9 training sessions are planned and, in addition, 7 brainstorming sessions.

� Participation in events organisation

Each event: plenary meetings, local IDON and dissemination events, shall be supported by local partners and the coordinator in optimising the agenda and each intervention, and in finding potential interested attending people and organisations.

� Participation in polls

Due to the huge number of planned members, it is commonly accepted that the best way to reach an agreement on meeting dates, hours and other plenary decisions will be managed through an online facility, DOODLE (www.doodle.com) or something similar available through the portal. The final decision will be kept following the most voted option. Please note that

the inclusion of new members into the network will be managed within the

NET-EUCEN portal.

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3.3

Synoptic scheme of netw

ork’ ta

rgets achievement

The sinoptic scheme of NET-EUCEN framework

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4. Be a Network member: why?

Networking services facilitate exchange processes within the NET-EUCEN network and with other similar networks and external entities dealing with policies for the improvement of public services provision at national level. The final objective is to strengthen the NET-EUCEN network capability in becoming a catalyst for participants to the eGovernment and policy programmes and to gradually increase the stakeholders base for the network.

The Members’ Agorà is the virtual open space where every member can speak and publish its work as well as to start conversations with other members.

� Being part of a community of interest where you are able to discuss user centric service development as a specialist topic

� Recognition as a member or expert by other members through the website and the Members’ Agorà

� Being part of and actively influence the creation of guidelines. Your opinion is valuable

� Networking with European partners to exchange ideas and learn from experiences in other countries

� Submit your cases to a sectored community, the cases will be replied in the ePractice www.epractice.eu portal of the European Commission

� Access to a group of experts – if you have a question we’ll facilitate a response from the expert group (NEPEG) within the discussions moderated in the linkedin and Agorà forums.

� Full access to best practices as well as to all the publications and proceedings of the network

� Weekly newsletter with network news and relevant events

� Membership in LinkedIn group

NET-EUCEN reserves benefits to its members

Network members share knowledge and create innovative added-value content on the user centricity domain.

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Associate Members are fully enabled to participate and to be involved in all the network activities, specifically to:

� Actively contribute to the strategic decisions of the network;

� Actively contribute to the achievement of network goals;

� Participate to general meetings and local ones;

� Contribute to the definition and the evaluation of user scenarios;

� Act as first movers in case of application of scenarios;

� Use and contribute to the document definition;

� Use network’ results and brand having the same rights and duties of all the other members

� Disseminate and speak on behalf of the network

� Suggest and invite new members.

� Services Providers can evaluate new and innovative ways to approach to the

users and citizens, as well as new solutions found by other providers.

� Services Developers can discuss about the application of new technologies as support to the user-centric paradigm and evaluate the services’ customisation

boundaries.

� User-Centricity analysts can discuss with developers, providers and users themselves and learn how to optimise the interaction among all the categories.

� User Associations and Citizens can understand the potentialities of user-centricity and learn how to better expose or submit their needs.

� Academia and research centres can outline new research paths to answer to

the growing needs of citizens and move towards the application of future services scenarios.

Associate Members receive no funding for their participation or travel costs

associated with the network. The degree of participation of Associate Members to

the network activities is up to each institution and is on a voluntary basis.

The membership implies rights as well

You can always learn from the network!

Sharing solutions and experiences consolidates knowledge

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4.1 Become an associate member!

The NET-EUCEN network offers to Organisations that wish to become associate members the following:

� Access to a group of experts and network with European partners to exchange ideas and learn from experiences in other countries.

� Invitation to international events and events in your Country.

� A free virtual space where submit cases and developed services and/or your latest technology features.

� A free analysis of submitted case / service / technology and benchmarking with NET-EUCEN user-centric approach; possibility to highlight your case in the ePractice portal of the European Commission.

� Answers to users questions both from the kind of service and from the way it should be provided to citizens.

� A weekly newsletter with network news and relevant events.

We need your help to review and discuss our findings and ensure they are relevant for the Community at wide.

We hope to influence the creation of next generation of user-centricity guidelines thanks to your support and your valuable opinion.

Be part of a community of interest and discuss user centric service development as a specialist topic.

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4.2 Become an associate expert!

The NET-EUCEN network would be delighted to include physical persons as a NET-EUCEN expert (NEPEG) and receive the support of your experience about the main topics of the project.

We would like to invite you to advise on specific questions in our discussion forums, like the linkedin group and the Members’ Agorà.

The NET-EUCEN network offers to experts that wish to become associate experts (NEPEG) the following:

� Free access to the network repository and knowledge base.

� Invitation to international events and events in your Country.

� A free showcase where offer knowledge and find potential costumers.

� A free virtual space where submit papers / works / activities to the attention of interested Organisations.

� Mention of your support in all the network’ publications, including the guidelines

� Added-value data gathered from the brainstorming sessions with citizens and users.

� A weekly newsletter with network news and relevant events.

We would be really grateful to those experts that could provide us with valuable feedback to be used to draft guidelines for assessing new and innovative applications, scenarios and foster their realisation.

We hope to assess a set of eGovernment indicators and influence the application of ICTs in the future services development.

Be recognised as eGovernment and user-centricity expert by a wide International network of Organisations

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5. The network enlargement campaign

The NET-EUCEN is an open initiative, involving both the 23 Contractual Members and Associate Members joining the network after its contractual start.

NET-EUCEN needs to include additional Organisations for the achievement of targets and goals. The network is expected to provide continuous feedback to the Commission on the eGovernment issues by

� having an heterogeneous composition of organisation that are able to cover the whole supply chain of the Services for Users;

� gathering multiple feedback and multiple assessment from potential users;

� assessing also the feedback of public administrations;

� reaching the widest and highest number of different participants (Organisations, Associations, experts, other projects, other networks) to validate developed scenarios and services.

Therefore, Associate Members will be able to participate and to be involved in all the network activities. Both the "Contractual Members" and "Associate Members" will be allowed to vote on the General Assembly and participate to the General Meetings.

Starting from 23 signatory partners and 16 different European Countries, the final aim of NET–EUCEN is to foster a self-sustainable network including at least 400 Organisations, thus to have a global reach and achieve economies of scale in carrying out its remit.

Participate and be involved in all the network activities, in strategic decisions, document definition and events realisation.

Reminder:

� Associate Members are organisations joining the network after its contractual start.

� Associate Members are invited to participate in the NET-EUCEN activities and to contribute to the achievement of the different network goals.

� Associate Members are subject to the typical rules of good relationship and fairness

� The degree of participation of Associate Members to the network activities is up to each institution and is on a voluntary basis.

The target at hand is to ensure access to the network for a growing number of associate members

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6. Procedures for entering in the network

Each external organisation is enabled to ask for joining the network, those interested in being a member of the network are asked to connect to the portal and include Organisation’ details (see screenshot). In a second step they shall:

� Declare their interests in the NET-EUCEN network overall aims and targets;

� State what they could offer as added value to the network.

The process to approve the integration of a new institution as “Associate Member” does not exceed 2 working weeks.

The initial data required to subscribe to NET-EUCEN network

Signing up is easy, and completely free of charge!

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FAQs

� Why NET-EUCEN refers to the European Commission?

NET-EUCEN is a network project sponsored by the EC - contract number 250522 – under the CIP-ICT-PSP Programme ec.europa.eu/ict_psp

� How long this project last?

It runs from 01/04/2010 to 31/03/2013 but it is planned to keep the community alive beyond the project.

� Who is my national contact point if I want to find out more?

Find members in your Country through the webportal www.net-eucen.org All network members can be contacted by email; if we don’t have a member in a particular country you may always contact the coordinator, Innova SpA.

� Do I get paid for being a member?

Associate Members receive no funding for their participation or travel costs associated with the network.

� Do I commit myself to any actions?

The degree of participation of Associate Members to the network activities is up to each institution and is on a voluntary basis.

� To which activities I’m allowed to participate?

Associate Members are able to participate and to be involved in all the network activities, including the participation to the General Meetings and expostion of their cases to the network.

� May I contribute to the scenarios or document draft?

Associate Members are welcomed to actively participate in the document draft and hold the same rights of signatory members in guidelines definition.

� Where are usually held the Network General Meetings?

NET-EUCEN network always meets in Brussels

� I want to join the network, which is the procedure?

Signing up is easy, and completely free of charge. The whole procedure is completely managed on line, avoiding any paper and signatures. The ASP module is accessible via the webportal NET-EUCEN, http://www.net-eucen.org/index-1.php

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Members signing the NET-EUCEN network contract

Innova SpA

The INNOVA group is made up of a pool of more than 140 professional consultants and experts (of which 60% engineers and technicians) who have developed a long standing and consolidated knowledge in areas such as Research & Development, project financing, evaluation and valorisation of advanced technologies, marketing activities and technology transfer services at national and international level. INNOVA

collaborates with cutting-edge research centers and universities in the implementation of valorisation strategies regarding the assessment and exploitation of advanced technologies for an efficient product and process management, developed in the framework of private research initiatives, R&D programmes of the European Union as well as national programmes.

University of the Aegean / Information Systems Laboratory The Information Systems Laboratory (ISLab) of the Department of Information and Communication Systems Engineering, University of the Aegean, has extensive experience in research and development projects dealing with advanced forms of ICT exploitation in public organizations for supporting public policies formulation and interaction with the society (e.g. e-services, e-participation)

Steinbeis Innovation Center Embedded Design and Networking

Steinbeis Innovation Center Embedded Design and Networking (sizedn) at the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University Loerrach, Germany is a R&D partner in the field of embedded networking. Its system and software development expertise is a

profound basis for ubiquitous and distributed computing applications

Inova Mais INOVA+ S.A. is an expert consulting service provider in the Innovation field. Created in 1997, it is a private company operating in Porto, Portugal, with affiliated companies in Luxembourg, United States and a shareholder in applied research laboratories in Portugal. INOVA+ has a consolidated experience in dealing with SME technology needs and research.

Cheshire Henbury

Cheshire Henbury is a small company that specialises in providing research support services to industry and research funding agencies. The primary focus is on studies to establish research needs and opportunities, exploitation of ICT, research strategy development, and services to support the operation of research programmes. Information and Communication

Technologies have been the main area of activity, with emphasis on applications

Techin TECHIN is a company made up of a pool of consultants specialised in marketing and technology transfer with an extensive experience in supporting organizations and companies for R&D projects development and technology innovation stimulation.

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White Hall – Reply

Whitehall Reply is the SW development branch of Reply and its competitive positioning it is based on cornerstones inspired by strong know how and dynamism: consulting approach, qualified international technology partnerships and R&D activities. Its e-government proposition deployed on

Public Administrations it is able to produce measurable end benefits.

Data Media Group The Data Media Group was established in 1994 as project management, consulting, market research and media company in ICT field. Data Media Group has high professionalism and knowledge, experience, proved by 15 years of successful operation, public and private partnership networks in Baltics and other countries,

high effectiveness per employee

CRP Henri Tudor

CRP Henri Tudor contributes to the improvement and strengthening of the innovation capacity of enterprises and public organisations. Therefore, the Centre offers a large scale of services and activities: applied and experimental research, doctoral research, development of tools, methods,

labels, certifications and standards, technological assistance, consulting and watch services, knowledge and competences transfer, as well as incubation of high-tech companies

Ventspils Digital Centre "Ventspils Digital Centre" is a public institution of Ventspils City Council the aims of

which are: 1) to facilitate the involvement of Ventspils city municipality, residents and entrepreneurs in the information society and e-government; 2) to work actively in building up the information society and in implementation of e-solutions on local, regional, national and international level; 3) to form, to support and to develop the infrastructure of information and communication technologies.

Association for the Promotion of Information on Science and Technology for All

Countries

IT4ALL is an association whose core activities consist in ideation and development of innovative business Intelligence related services and in designing software packages and providing training and technical assistance activities on Business Intelligence, Internationalisation, Technology Transfer and Innovation processes as well as in offering Technology Assessment, R&D National and International Projects.

Malta Information Technology Agency MITA, formerly MITTS Ltd, provides ICT services and professional project management and consulting services to the Maltese public sector. It is an organisation of 320 highly skilled professionals dedicated to assisting the Government transform technological innovations into real business solutions. By means of its ICT and project management services, MITA helps the Government implement available technology in the

fulfilment of its strategies and projects.

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Technical Support for European Organisations TESEO is a Brussels based consulting with special focus on research and innovation and more than 15 years experience in European funding programmes especially in the

Information and Communication Technologies. TESEO has run a series of projects specifically targeted at SMEs of the IT domain or at public organizations and has coordinated several policy related actions.

Vestfold University Vestfold University College is a medium-sized public higher education institution with approximately 4000 students and 450 employees. The Faculty of Social Science is one of five faculties. The faculty delivers several undergraduate and graduate programs, and has a well developed research

organization

eDATA EDATA is a company focused on BPM-type services, having remarkable competencies in process analysis, modeling, automation and monitoring. The methodology we use for process analysis and modeling is one of our own and comes as a result of the intimate knowledge of the newest tools and standards in this area as well as the use of

this knowledge in various projects. EDATA Competences are in Modeling Standards, Methodologies and Modeling platforms.

Birmingham City Council Birmingham City Council is the biggest unitary local authority in Europe. Approximately 59000 staff are serving a population of over 1 Million people with an

annual budget of ca. £3 Billion. The council provides a great number of services, including areas like children’s and adult education, social housing, social care and health, street maintenance and transportation, benefits, libraries, culture and arts to name but a few.

Euroconsultant S.A.

Euroconsultants S.A. (ECSA), has vast and varied experience in many

fields of economic and technology development, at the international, national and regional levels. Founded in 1990 as a private consultancy, it has grown and evolved into a group of companies with a diversified staff of 100 in-house experts and a further reservoir of expert consultants expanding their field of action.

Informacines visuomenes pletros komitetas prie LRV The mission of the committee is to design, arrange and co-ordinate processes aimed at the development of information society alongside the creation of an open, educated, continuously learning society, members of which rely on knowledge in their activities, have an opportunity and capability to make effective use of modern ITT means in every step of their life.

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In-Jet

In-JeT ApS was established in 1997 and has developed to become a renowned research and innovation firm in the field of technology

development and exploitation. In-JeT has developed a effective tools for technology assessments, defining technology strategies, developing business models and business cases and exploiting innovative technology solutions in such divers areas as healthcare and industrial services.

Theodore Puskas Foundation Theodore Puskas Foundation is a non-profit, public benefit organization under

Hungarian law. The objectives include from the beginning the dissemination of advanced foreign technologies in Hungary and the introduction of state of the art Hungarian technologies on the international market (know-how and technology transfer, knowledge management, partner search).

DIDA

Dida has a deep experience in SMEs and Public Administration training asnd

communication needs analysis that are in turn strictly connected with their knowledge lifecycles, as well as in designing and managing complex services delivery systems , also mediated by technologies.

Cities on the internet "Cities on Internet" Association (COI) is an organisation created in 1997, gathering Polish experts in the area of eGovernment. The highest priority of the organisation is

to support local, regional and central public administration in the process of their transformation toward modern eGovernment solutions. COI is the Polish Information Society think tank.

e-trikala S.A. Development Agency Of Local Government

E-trikala S.A. is an emerging company, formed within the Municipality of Trikala, acting

in the fields of new broadband technologies. e-Trikala aims to the development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based applications, oriented to the improvement of every day life in a medium sized city. Its implementation of the first Digital City in Greece at Trikala, is a fact achieved through many projects and applications.

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Contacts

� The Coordinator

INNOVA SpA

Head Quarter Via Giacomo Peroni, 386 00131 – Roma (Italy) Tel. +39 0640040358 Fax. +39 0640040364 info@innova-eu.net

� Project manager

Francesco Niglia

Via Leuca, 174 73100 – Lecce Tel +39 0832349659 Fax +39 0832232368 Mob. +39 3290398946 f.niglia@innova-eu.net

� Project website

www.net-eucen.org

� Linkedin

A specific group is accessible via

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=3209635

� Facebook

The Facebook page is an open page, called Net-Eucen

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Net-Eucen/163831660340711

� Twitter

NET-EUCEN tweets are available at the address @NETEUCEN