periodic activity report n°: 2 - circabc - welcome · pdf fileinstitute of computer...

ASK-IT

IST-2003-511298 Ambient Intelligence System of Agents for Knowledge-based

and Integrated Services for Mobility Impaired users

Periodic Activity Report N°: 2 Covering period 01.10.2005 – 30.09.2006

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ONLY

Report Version: 1

Report Preparation Date: November 2006

Classification: Public

Contract Start Date: 01.01.2004

Duration: 48 months

Project Co-ordinator: SIEMENS

Partners: SIEMENS, CERTH, ATCRom, UniNEWCASTLE, SINGULAR, UniMADRID, POLIS, STAKES, LUCENT, NOKIA, VODAFONE, CRF, UniVALENCIA, IDEASIS, FTELE.TEC, ICCS, ITACA, UniDELFT, POULIADIS, PTV, COAT, FORTH, SIGMA, USTUTT, IFADO, FTB, INT, RNIB, eISOTIS, ComArch SA, HACON, SI, NETWORK MODELS, MICROSOFT, VTT, TELESPAZIO, PEK, ALCATEL, SOLINET, DOMOLOGIC, NETSMART, LACRUNA, FMOV, HKL, SPORTUM, NIK, DSO, AIA, ITESM, INFOTERM, ISEC

Project funded by the European Community under the “Information Society Technology” FP6 Programme (2002-2006)

Project Co-ordinator:

Name: Angel Blanco Organisation: SIEMENS SA Address: Ronda de Europa, 28760 TRES CANTOS, Madrid, Spain Phone Numbers: +34 91 514 4585 Fax Numbers: +34 91 514 4787 E-mail: [email protected] Project websites & other access points: www.ask-it.org

ASK-IT (IST-511298) 2nd Periodic Activity Report

November 2006 SIEMENS-CERTH/HIT 1

Table of Contents PUBLISHABLE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..................................................................................................... 2

DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT OBJECTIVES.............................................................................................................. 2 CONSORTIUM .................................................................................................................................................... 2 COORDINATOR CONTACT DETAILS .................................................................................................................... 3 SUMMARY OF WORK PERFORMED AND ACHIEVEMENTS.................................................................................... 3 EXPECTED RESULTS .......................................................................................................................................... 9 INTENTIONS FOR USE AND IMPACT .................................................................................................................. 10 USING AND DISSEMINATING THE KNOWLEDGE ................................................................................................ 11

Project communication materials................................................................................................................ 11 Preliminary exploitation plans .................................................................................................................... 11



Publishable Executive Summary Description of project objectives ASK-IT integrated project aims to establish Ambient Intelligence (AmI) in semantic web enabled services, to support and promote the mobility of Mobility Impaired people, enabling the provision of personalised, self-configurable, intuitive and context-related applications and services and facilitating knowledge and content organisation and processing. In order to satisfy this aim, the work in ASK-IT is organised in 5 SubProjects (SPs). Each of the SPs 1-4 deal with research technological development and pilot applications. The fifth SP encompasses a number of horizontal activities, including the consortium management.

Consortium The ASK-IT Consortium consists of 50 partners, covering the following research areas: MI user needs, telecommunication, ambient intelligence, intelligent user interfaces, telematics, etc. A full list of the Consortium members follows in the Table below:

Participant name Participant short name

Country

SIEMENS S.A. SIEMENS Spain Centre for Research and Technology Hellas CERTH

(HIT&ITI) Greece

SC ATC ROM SRL ATCRom Romania University of Newcastle upon Tyne UNEW UK Singular Software SA SISO Greece Universidad Politécnica de Madrid UPM Spain Promotion of Operational links with Integrated Services POLIS Belgium National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health STAKES Finland Lucent Technologies Network Systems GmbH LUCENT Germany NOKIA Italia S.p.A. NOKIA Italy Vodafone España S.A VODAFONE Spain C.R.F. Società Consortile per Azioni CRF Italy Universidad Politécnica de Valencia UPV Spain IDEASIS Ltd IDEASIS Greece Fondazione Telethon – Laboratorio Tecnothon FTELE.TEC Italy Institute of Communication and Computer Systems ICCS Greece Asociación Instituto de Aplicaciones de las Tecnologías de la Información y de las Comunicaciones Avanzadas

ITACA Spain

Delft University of Technology TUD Netherlands Pouliadis Associates Corp POULIADIS Greece Planung Transport Verkehr AG PTV Germany Centre of Applied Technologies in neuroscience COAT Switzerland Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas Institute of Computer Science

FORTH Greece

Sigma Consultants S.A. SIGMA France University of Stuttgart, Institute for Human Factors and Technology Management

USTUTT Germany

Institute for Occupational Physiology at the University of Dortmund IfADo Germany Forschungsinstitut Technologie-Behindertenhilfe der Evangelischen Stiftung Volmarstein

FTB Germany

Groupe des Ecoles des Télécommunications - Institut National des Télécommunications

INT France

Royal National Institute of the Blind RNIB UK Information Society Open To ImpairmentS e-ISOTIS Greece ComArch SA ComArch Poland HaCon Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH HACON Germany Singular Integrator SA SI Greece



Participant name Participant short name

Country

Network Models R&D Ltd. NM UK Europaeisches Microsoft Innovations Centre GmbH MICROSOFT Germany Technical Research Centre of Finland VTT Finland TELESPAZIO S.P.A. TPZ Italy Panhellenic Union of the Deaf PEK Greece ALCATEL SEL AG ALCATEL Germany SOLINET GmbH TELECOMMUNICATIONS SOLINET Germany Technical University of Lisbon / Faculty of Human Movement UTL Portugal DOMOLOGIC Home Automation GmbH DOMOLOGIC Germany NETSMART S.A. NETSMART Greece LACRUNA LACRUNA Italy FMOV FMOV Spain HKL HKL SPORTUM SPORTUM NIK NIK Germany DSO DSO Netherlands AIA AIA Greece ITESM ITESM Mexico INFOTERM INFOTERM Austria ISEC ISEC Portugal

Table 1: List of Consortium members of ASK-IT IP.

Coordinator contact details SIEMENS SA Mr. Angel Blanco Ronda de Europa, 28760 TRES CANTOS, Madrid, Spain Tel: +34 91 514 4585, Fax: +34 91 514 4787 E-mail: [email protected], Project website: www.ask-it.org Summary of work performed and Achievements Sub-project 1: Content for all In the 2nd year period, the development of Use Cases has taken place. This activity has been a major focus of the whole ASK-IT project, because of its importance to the development of the ASK-IT concept. Therefore, both the development of the whole structure and contents, as also the contributions of the Use Cases to other activities in other subprojects were performed. The Use Cases are finalised and the relevant deliverable, D1.1.2 was submitted on Month 20, delayed by 2 months. In the previous reporting period, the Glossary was produced. However, since this must be a living document and has to proceed further, a new partner (INFOTERM) has been involved in the current reporting period and developed a prototype web-based collective work platform for the continuous updating of the Glossary. The User requirement matrices, which were already finished before the start of this reporting period, were updated in two ways. First, the Matrix 3 types needed additional columns to facilitate the modelling procedure. Secondly, the interviews, performed with experts and representatives of user groups were used to validate the matrices, and therefore, some changes had to be made. The content surveys were developed and performed. In principle, for each domain these were performed on the content providers at the pilot sites, but also some best



practices were researched. Furthermore, the modelling of the user requirements in XML of all the different domains has been performed for all the domains: Transport, Tourism and leisure, personal services, e-learning and e-work and social contacts and community building. The ontologies for all these domains are developed and fed into the data management module of WP1.7. The 5 relevant Deliverables (D1.2.1-D1.6.1) were submitted on Month 20, thus, with 2 months delay. In the workpackage 1.7 the data management module and the Ontology server are developed (publicly available on-line), including the user interface. Some data of content providers are collected. The IM@GINE IT ontological framework constituted the basis for the ASK-IT one. The DMM allows service providers to align their services with the ASK-IT model through WSDL pairing, using a web interface. Based on the content models developed within WP1.2-WP1.6, a first Distributed Data Store of ASK-IT was developed and was integrated into the first prototype of the DMM. High Level Interfaces for data communication are defined in the current version of the system architecture. Moreover, a set of appropriate SOAP web services have been defined and implemented for allowing communication between the DMM, the Ontology and the agents. D1.7.1 was submitted on Month 25. In addition to the Deliverables, 3 Internal Deliverables have been produced, ID1.7.2, ID1.7.3 and ID1.7.4. WPs 1.2-1.6 have concluded successfully. As the only running activities (after Month 26) of SP1 are A1.1.2, A1.7.6 and A1.7.7, it was decided at the last Core Group meeting to transfer them other SPs and close SP1. Thus, A1.1.2 is now a new activity of WP5.9 (A5.9.4) and the two remaining activities of WP1.7 are now include din a new WP4.7 in SP4. Sub-project 2: Tools for all All WPs within the SP have finaliesed specifications and have started the development of the tools. Most of the work packages have prototypes and standalone demonstrations available. For example, WP2.2 demonstrated a first prototype of the localisation tool during the ITS World Congress in London, WP2.8 is able to demonstrate a first prototype of the Writing Support Tool. The GUI prototypes of WP2.10 have been further enhanced, and a demonstration of a pedestrian navigation was shown on the net-atHome Conference in September 2006, together with a first prototype of WP2.5. Further technologies and tools have been included into the data base of WP2.1. Although this activity is considered as finalised, further updates of the database will be regularly done in the course of the project (every 6 months). The tool database is available on the Internet. WP2.1 has concluded with the delivery of D2.1.1 (database) and D2.1.2 on Month 20. Also, D2.2.1 (Localisation module specification) was submitted on Month 25. During the meeting in Newcastle, OSGi was introduced officially to all project partners as a potential solution for the integration tasks of ASK-IT. An accompanying document was issued by PTV shortly afterwards, and a technical meeting was held in Crete in July 2006, based on an initiative of SP3. For example, the Residential Gateway of WP2.5 as the interface between the domotic applications and the ASK-IT system will be developed in OSGi and JAVA. Due to limited hardware resources on mobile devices (overload of DLLs in RAM space of device) Microsoft and PTV started an internal analysis of potential solutions to this problem. In addition, open questions regarding the integration of .NET with OSGi were discussed and



presented during the Crete meeting. A final solution is not yet found and the search for a solution is continuing. In parallel, a discussion is going on between SP2 and SP3 (WP3.3/3.4) regarding solutions for necessary push services. Solutions under closer examination are KSOAP, Web Service Events and technologies based on mobile networks, such as IMS. All partners incorporated the comments of the reviewers in their current work as far as possible. Restrictions are set by the available resources and the time constraints. Up to now no major obstacles are discovered for the SP in order to successfully complete the work. Input is received from SP1 and input is given to other WPs and SPs in the form of internal reports or technical documents. Currently there is an overall average delay of 2-3 months, which is however not in the critical path of the project and is expected to be absorbed by SP3 during integration. In addition to the Deliverables, 4 Internal Deliverables were prepared, namely ID2.2.1 which was combined with ID2.2.2, ID2.8.2 and the first draft of ID2.10.2. Sub-project 3: Ambient Intelligence Framework The main body of SP3 workpackages and activities is in progress. Workplans have been established and are being carried out without significant problems. Only some activities are perceived to be behind the schedule due to some small delays in the specification phase. An important role has been given to cooperation and integration of the different activities, by creating several task forces regarding software development, access and security policy, semantic framework, etc. A special task force has been established with main partners from SP2 and SP3 for developing an early prototype with the aim of testing some key integration strategies and components. Deliverables and internal reports are being produced according to the timeplans, with minor delays in specific documents. The AmI platform is well depicted at this stage of the project, providing the basis to start the development of the agent framework. Agents are being developed and deployed through JADE, JADE-S and JADE/LEAP platforms. The role of each agent has being clarified, generating documents about the multi-agent architecture, agent-related security framework, inter-agent communication protocol and profile database content/management. The main agents have been deployed in the integration platform and the signatures of the interfaces between them are under construction. The scope of all the activities related to user interfaces (WP2.x, WP2.10 and WP3.2) has been specified. WP3.2 will take the responsibility for the design and development of the UI for those generic use cases not included in WP2.x modules as well as the enhancement of WP2.x UI with multimodality and self-configuration, taking into account user profiles, user habits and environments of use. The final set of UI configuration parameters has been defined, while the core configuration mechanisms are being refined. Three kinds of mobile terminals will be used for ASK-IT demonstration scenarios: smart phone, PDA and tablet-PC (apart from the car scenario). The document about the state of the art on mobile terminals is being continuously revised and updated, and as result of this, the first selection of mobile terminals have been made for the development and demonstration phases. An analysis about the application architecture for each demonstration device is being carried out, resulting in the final collection of use cases, which could be implemented in each scenario, according to different device capabilities. The OSGi platform has been adopted as solution for assuring the interoperability of the different modules, regardless of the final target



devices. This platform is being tested by the demo task force for integrating the different modules developed so far. Seamless connectivity within the ASK-IT environment has being analysed. Use cases are being explored in detail to extract the definite communication requirements for ASK-IT tools and services. BAN/PAN/LAN/WAN specifications have been issued, selecting the content of each network and the different communication technologies to be integrated through the required gateways. Technical integration challenges and risks are being faced in order to propose a feasible and reliable communication framework, dynamically adapted transparently to the user. A new task will be included in WP3.4, to define the parameters of Quality of Service needed to guarantee a correct reception of the services, independently of the network conditions. The semantic framework has been designed, specifying the responsibilities for each workpackage involved (WP1.7, WP3.1 and WP3.5). WP3.5 will provide a semantic engine to support matchmaking of service and information requests, enriching ASK-IT ontologies through the monitoring of several parameters, such as QoS or user assessment. The main components of the semantic search engine are ready by taking advantage of the JENA framework. The ASK-IT ontologies are under the debugging phase, preparing the first complete stable version that would enable the start of service profiling and matchmaking. Use cases are also being analysed to extract trust and security requirements for ASK-IT tools and services, as well as to define the main roles which will interact within the ASK-IT environment and the range of each access permission. The ASK-IT authentication and authorisation policy is being deeply discussed between members of WP3.4, WP3.6 and WP3.7, in order to assure the best solution for seamless service and network cooperation. The objective is to provide the user with a unique access policy to both networks and services, avoiding multiple and complex account management procedures to the user. Therefore, the authentication framework has been designed as federated and distributed along a network identity management infrastructure. Finally, two server-located integration activities have started: ASK-IT web portal infrastructure and ASK-IT service centre. Both of them are designing a common structure for supporting an integrated service provision through adequate gateways with external content and service providers. Another activity has begun to integrate external third party services into the ASK-IT framework. Through an active search in the immediate environment, discovered services will be available for users after the corresponding acceptance of use. Sub-project 4: Accessible Europe After the selection of the pilot sites in the previous reporting period, the available services and content per site are summarised in ID4.1.1 “Pilot sites requirements and selection”, which was ready on time. In the same document, the stakeholders per pilot site are identified. A big effort was spent to the development of the application scenarios from each site. For each application scenario, the connected Use Cases are identified. The results are reported in D4.1.1 which was submitted in Month 26 (2 months delay, to await for the sites input). A close cooperation was established between WP4.2 and the DMM tool development (of WP1.7) for connecting existing and new content of each service provider at each pilot site. The templates for gathering the new content per site have been development for all ASK-IT domains, following the ASK-IT ontology; they are currently under review by the pilot sites for final comments, before data gathering will start. Furthermore, a questionnaire for



gathering the existing and needed infrastructure per site is prepared and data gathering is on-going in WP4.3.

Specific workshops have been realised in various pilot sites, in order to inform the local stakeholders on our expectations from them and their gain from ASK-IT. Local agreements have been established and are constantly extended to secure critical mass involvement at each site.

A detailed report analysing the main tasks that have to be realised in the individual activities of SP4 has been created, in order to assist the new pilots partners and give them an insight of what is needed by each one. This will help significantly in the smooth performance of the work within SP4.

All the selected pilot sites have provided important input to various other activities, through the filling of specific questionnaires, such as the existing content and services, as input to the realisation of the models in WP1.1. An important feedback was provided in D5.6.3 regarding the personal information handling during the pilots. Input regarding existing localisation issues is provided to SP2 and on WiFi issues on A5.7.3. Furthermore, the pilots contributed to the training needs of content-service providers (WP5.2).

Finally, the 2nd User Forum meeting took place on 25 October 2006, in conjunction with the ASK-IT International Conference. The relevant minutes are available. D4.4.1: “User Forum synthesis and tasks” has been submitted on Month 15 (with 1 month delay). Sub-project 5: Horizontal activities All SP5 workpackages started on month 1. Regarding the training activities (WP5.2) an online training environment is already available in: http://www.atcrom.ro/coursemillaskit. An internal report on "Benchmarking of existing university courses on design for all" has been produced. Regarding the dissemination activities (WP5.3.), they continue being very strong, starting with the web-site update (www.ask-it.org), the publication of promotional material (poster, leaflets) and the 2nd and 3rd Newsletter edition. The first ASK-IT workshop and user forum were held in October 2005 in Stuttgart. Furthermore, a dissemination calendar is circulated on a monthly basis within the Consortium, informing partners on dissemination opportunities, and including an extensive list of conferences and events. The first international conference has been successfully performed on 26-27 of October 2006 in Nice (France), with 121 participants (eight session, incl. opening session, 31 papers with oral presentations, 8 posters and exhibition stands) and a DVD film has been prepared. It synthesizes ASK-IT scenarios that could take place in the pilot sites. This version will be fine-tuned. The project has been represented in several dissemination events. As an update of D5.4.1, D5.4.2, a “Revised market report on ASK-IT applications and services” has been realised. An a-priori CBA for ASK-IT products/services has been performed, based on a CB analysis tool and a specific methodology proposed, followed by an organisational framework, defining the roles of key actors and their interactions within the ASK-IT structure, to provide basis for creating an ASK-IT business model. Also, a methodology has been proposed for evaluating the cost effectiveness of the project’s results. For this purpose, literature review has been carried out, relating to cost effectiveness methodologies. D5.4.3 is submitted on Month 26 (2 months delay).



Regarding the “Stakeholders views”, there is a list of 10 best practices. A “design-for-all” page for the ASK-IT website has been prepared and is ready to be put online. The draft D5.5.1 “User Acceptance Memorandum” has been developed, identifying user concerns and providing guidelines on how to address concerns. Also, instructions on how to promote user acceptance are prepared.

Regarding ethical and legal issues, the Ethics Advisory Board has been enlarged with three additional experts. Privacy protection and confidentiality aspects have been considered through the identification of the personal data management in every activity of the project. D5.6.3 “Ethics Manual revised form” was updated, including several changes (IPR issues, data management, identity management and security issues, personal data issues, etc.) and submitted on Month 20. A MoU between the pilot sites and end –users is in the process of being stabilised.

The System Architecture is being updated, taking into account the results of the revised D5.7.1 “Services Specification” (submitted on Month 26), the EC June 2006 review comments and including further elaboration on the services. The results have been summarized in D5.7.3, submitted on Month 26. The SP2 and SP3 risks analysis has been performed, identifying the main risks that are currently indicated by the key partners and proposing relevant mitigation strategies. The first version of the pilot plans is prepared and included in D5.8.4 which is submitted on Month 26 (living document). D5.8.2 “Tools for data collection, statistical analysis and reporting” that was submitted on Month 18 is updated, as it is a living document too. D5.8.3 “Web application(s) and database for the collection & administration of pilot data”, was submitted both as s/w and report on Month 20, including the general architecture of the tool, the database, implementation issues and usage manual. A standards compliance template was distributed among partners, with the aim of identifying key relevant standards to be taken into account during ASK-IT development. The compiled list has been used to produce the D5.9.1 “Compendium of relevant standards and impact on ASK-IT work”, which is submitted on Month 20 as draft and finalised on Month 26. The administrative management is proceeding without any problem. Technical management is successfully monitoring and guiding project activities and outcomes. According to the DoW, 17 Deliverables were planned to be submitted within these twelve months of the project:

• D1.1.2 Use cases (month 18) • D1.2.1 Transportation Content Model (month 18) • D1.3.1 Touristic and Leisure Information Content Model (month 18) • D1.4.1 Personal assistance and support model (month 18) • D1.5.1 Work and educational support model (month 18) • D1.6.1 Social relations and virtual community building support models (month 18) • D2.1.1 Relevant technologies database (month 16) • D2.1.2 Required tools functionalities and specifications (month 18) • D.4.1.1. ASK-IT Pilot sites selection and profile (month 24) • D4.5.1 User forum synthesis and tasks (month 14) • D5.3.5 Conferences-Workshops Proceedings (month 14) • D.5.4.2 Revised market report on ASK-IT applications and services (month 20)



• D.5.4.3 Cost –benefit analysis report of developed tools and preliminary business plan.(month 24)

• D5.6.3 Ethics Manual revised form (month 18) • D.5.7.1.Services specification. Revised version. (month 21) • D.5.7.3. Revised System Architecture (month 24) • D5.8.3 Web application(s) and database for the collection &administration of pilot

data (month 18) • D5.9.1 Compendium of relevant standards and impact on ASK-IT work (month 18)

All of them have been fulfilled. They are distributed among partners and delivered to the Commission mainly on time, or with some delay, on time however for the 18-months project review and for the 2nd ATR (Annual Technical Review). In the Interim Review that was held on June 2006, the EC asked also for several Internal Deliverables, that were subsequently provided. Expected results The expected results are provided below per SubProject: • Subproject 1 gathered information about content requirements for ASK-IT, both by

literature reviews and by empirical data collection (interviews, limited surveys, group discussions, both with potential end users and key experts), and devised a list of 51 use cases as well as operational recommendations for testing. It matched the content requirements on the one hand with the available content and its format on the other hand. Content models were constructed as XML structures and content typologies. Furthermore, development of the data management module tool place, that is not a static database, but an open, dynamic data interface scheme, based upon common data fields, ontologies and semantics web structure. Finally, the common data format is decided and related to the user model.

• Subproject 2 includes a wide range of applications (localisation, navigation and route guidance, e-Commerce and e-Payment, domotic tools, ADAS and IVICS, health and social care, computer accessibility, e-Working and e-Learning, interfaces for assistive devices and intuitive user interfaces elements). All these developments are guided by an initial technological benchmarking, including a technological database with over 570 entries Besides adaptation of existing systems and interfaces to the user needs and technical requirements, which are specified in SP1, new tools and interfaces are also being developed, as the envisaged target group needs were largely unaccounted for by previous developments. Stand alone tools are developed to provide or interface single functionalities, affecting the mobility of MI users. After comprehensive investigation of specifications and development of tools and gateways to technologies, the relevant modules will be tested on their own and then integrated within SP3 and installed at the test sites in SP4.

• Subproject 3 contains applications and services to actively support mobility impaired people in achieving specific tasks using a variety of interaction devices and taking users’ preferences and profiles in account in relation to actual situations. Thus, ASK-IT system will be able to:

- Interact with the user: using more natural interfaces like speech, touch and gestures. - Model the user behaviour: build users’ preferences from his/her past interactions and

eventually abstract the user profile to more general community profiles.



- Model the environment and sensors available to perceive it and to take care of the world model.

- Control security aspects to ensure the privacy and security of the personal data and deal with authorisation, key and rights management.

- Ensure the quality of services as perceived by the user. - Ensure service interoperability and ability to be provided through any mobile device

of adequate technical characteristics. • Subproject 4 selected the application sites and scenario per site. All the developed

modules will be installed at each site, and any additional content required to provide holistic service will be developed. Both urban and inter-urban scenarios will be tested with various MI user groups (roughly 50 MI people per site). An active Stakeholder’s User Forum with 700 total and over 80 active Members (active = Members that will participate in tests as observers, test subjects or technology platform providers) is established, to support the sites but also promote ASK-IT concept to other areas of Europe and beyond. The Pilot results will be thoroughly analysed, resulting in guidelines and recommendations for system improvements, extension and use.

• Subproject 5 gathers a set of activities that are common to all four subprojects 1-4. This includes the Consortium Management, innovation-related activities: dissemination, exploitation, legal and organisational issues, user acceptance, gender issues, training activities, a common system architecture and evaluation framework, standards, guidelines and policies to be taken into account during project development phase and to further extend/promote through project findings. These activities are rather heterogeneous and have been gathered together for organisational rather than technical reasons and thus, each has own specific objectives.

Intentions for use and impact The mid-Nineties have witnessed sweeping economic, political and social transformation in Europe. Against a background of profound structural change, most countries in the developed world have been reviewing their policies with regard to their public administrations at local, regional and national level. There is a demand for better quality service and cost rationalisation in the public sector. A new awareness of the relationship between economic competitiveness and efficient public administration are the key factors underpinning the “re-engineering” of the public sector. The intention is to improve the quality and efficiency of their services. The key issues impacting on this are: i quality of services, and consequent improvements in public-sector competitiveness; ii reorganisation of internal processes through unification, streamlining, elimination of

duplication and inter-departmental integration; iii transparent procedures and cost rationalisation; iv retraining of staff, introduction of management control systems and market testing. The Telematic infrastructure that is rapidly developing is already providing the basis for bringing about these objectives. There will be major changes in the way in which society operates, and individuals organise their time and social activities. ASK-IT will enhance the socio-economic integration of mobility impaired people, through information use, information availability, consumer interaction with Information Networks and organisation of People in the Information Age. As a practical outcome, ASK-IT will help Mobility Impaired individuals and their representatives to facilitate new and novel methods of economic and social integration. Further, it would enable all sections of the community to increase their competitive ability and enhance the exercise of civil rights.



Using and disseminating the knowledge Project communication materials The communications materials prepared during the 2nd year of the project, in order to disseminate the project concept and available results to the public, are shortly listed below: • The Project Web Site that was established at early project stage, is continuously updated.

It can be visited at: www.ask-it.org • The newsletter mailinglist was expanded, and was used for sending out 3 newsletters so

far (1 for the reporting period), the latest being focused on the local pilots. All three available also at the ASK-IT web site as downloadable files (pdf).

• The 1st ASK-IT International Conference ‘Mobility for All’ was held on 26-27 October 2005 in Nice, with 121 participants in total, 43 of which were external to the Consortium. 16 of the 31 papers were prepared by Consortium members, about ASK-IT issues.

• A new version of the ASK-IT leaflet was created in different formats, while the project poster was fine-tuned and provided in different formats and bigger size. Also, a dedicated Conference poster was designed, while project bags were produced for dissemination at the forthcoming 1st international ASK-IT conference, as well as beyond.

• A first ASK-IT video is developed, which will be used for dissemination purposes, and which was premiered at the ASK-IT international Conference. The video will be made available online, after some fine-tuning, through streaming video.

• Advertisement and direct marketing campaigns, newsletters and announcements on major portal sites dedicated to the specific target groups, have been continuously undertaken, supported by various press releases and the use of the ASK-IT newsletter, to further propagate the goals and objectives, as well as achievements of the ASK-IT project.

• Finally, 12 scientific papers have been presented in conferences so far, 2 journal publications are made and 3 demos.

Preliminary exploitation plans The preliminary exploitation plans of ASK-IT target 21 potential products. A relevant exploitation agreement will be drafted by month 30 of the project, planned to be signed by all partners by month 38. This will be based on a detailed market, cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis of all projects results, as well as on alternative business plans, which have been prepared and included in D5.4.3.

periodic activity report n°: 2 - circabc - welcome · pdf fileinstitute of computer...

Documents