Public Policy Blog

On 2 May the European Commission adopted the Communication for a “Strategy for a Better Internet for Children”, which aims to: Give children the digital skills and tools they need to fully and safely benefit from the digital world. Unlock the potential of the market for interactive, creative and educational content online. The strategy brings [...]

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank, around one billion people – 15% of the world’s population – have some type of disability worldwide. According to the European Commission, “about 80 million people living in the EU have a mild to severe disability. The physical obstacles they face, such as gaining [...]

This evening, Fundación Telefónica will present the “ICTs and the Finacial Sector of the Future” report, which analyses innovation in the financial sector. What is the relationship between ICTs and the Spanish financial sector? The Spanish financial sector has been one of the pioneers in bringing ICTs into its productive model, an effort that has [...]

Last week, the European Commission (DG for Entreprise & Industry) finalised the selection of three business sectors that will be the focus of a new, year-long project to develop sector-specific guidance on the corporate responsibility to respect human rights, which forms part of the United Nations (UN) Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The [...]

7th February, a day celebrated by more than 70 countries around the world as Safer Internet Day, marks the official launch of the eSafety Label. The eSafety Label is an online safety support and accreditation system that will bring schools across Europe together in a learning and resource exchange community to tackle the many challenges they [...]

This week, on Wednesday 25th, the Fundación Telefónica will host the presentation of the yearly report untitled “Information Society in Spain 2011″, its 12th edition.

After more than one year involving hard work by many companies in the new technologies sector, companies as diverse as search engines, mobile handset manufacturers, social networks, ISPs, telecom operators, etc., the principles governing the safe use of Internet-connected devices and services by children and young people in the European Union have been published today. [...]

The European Union has designated 2012 as the European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations (EY2012). EY2012 will be officially launched at a high-level EU conference which will take place next week (18-19 January 2012) in Copenhagen (Denmark). At the event, the Stakeholders’ Coalition for the European Year 2012 will present its roadmap, [...]

Many are the predictions those days in the Net concerning our sector and its perspectives for 2012, from how the telecom sector will evolve, to which services and technological trends will be the winners for next year, or how social networks will be positioned, what will be the IT “super themes” for 2012, etc…
This is a difficult and somersault exercise in a very dynamic and evolving sector such as the ICT & Telecom one. However, it is sure that some trends could be already detected.

Concerning the ICT public policy area, we could see the following issues as relevant as they are present in several international and public institutions agendas for 2012. Here are some of them:

Last week, the leaders of the FORESTA project organized a 2-day seminar in Brussels titled “Fostering EU-Latin America ICT Policy Dialogue”. The event achieved the challenging objective of bringing together several activities that have been undertaken in cooperation between EU and Latin-American countries. Panels of experts from industry, government, academia, research as well as the [...]