IST 2000: Information Society for all

Organized at Nice Acropolis, from Nov. 6 to 8 by the European Commission, the meeting will gather together more than 4,000 people around the challenge of new technologies of communication.

The IST 2000 (Information Society Technologies), which will take place in Nice in November (6 to 8), will be actually the main repetition before the European summit in December. The event, for the STIC world is very important. Each year, the general management of the Information Society of the European Commission organizes a meeting about new technologies of communication, with the aim of promoting concrete realizations of the IST program, and presenting the main regulation actions of the European Union in that field.An opening over the future EuropeThis year, because of the French presidency, the IST meeting has been organized with Research and Finance ministries. Last year in Helsinki, the meeting had welcomed about 3,500 participants, and had become a main event in Europe. Nice should go further on with a program of conferences and workshops really impressive by its width, by the issues developed and by the high level of contributors.The Information Society, a chance for anyone? Can Europe count on a higher competitiveness? What are the technological challenges to beat?…Here are some of the questions developed in conferences and workshops.Sophia Antipolis is presentIn this program, Sophia Antipolis will be present. Senator Pierre Laffitte will make a speech during the session Europe 2020. The W3C will be present in several conferences and workshops: Christian Huitema, now in the USA, will preside the session about IPv6, the new version of the Internet protocol in charge of replacing the former version IPv4 (20 years old) and allow a web expansion; Jean-François Abramatic, president of W3C, will talk about the web, the net and the grid; Daniel Dardailler, responsible for the European W3C site will take a part in the workshop called 'a good design and an accessible design: create web sites accessible to anyone'.In addition with the conferences, IST 2000 will show an exhibition about more than 70 leading projects in new technologies. They represent what is best in European technology now. These projects make the processes in the business world easier and allow to improve competitiveness thanks to a better form of communications B2B and B2C.France is the host country of the IST 2000, thus a whole stand will be dedicated to the latest French technological innovations. The Sophia Antipolis Foundation and Telecom Valley will allow start-ups and French Riviera companies to show their products among the European elite. At the same time an investment European Forum will take place on Nov. 5 to 7 and will be inaugurated by Erkki Liikanen, the European commissioner in charge of companies and information society.