PROMOTING BROADBAND CONNECTIONS

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PROMOTING BROADBAND CONNECTIONS INTERACTIVE
CONTENT FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES IN THE CONTEXT
OF MODERN EUROPEAN POLICIES The case of the
D-SPACE Project

• Dr. Ioannis P. Chochliouros
• Head of Research Programs Section
• Labs New Technologies Division,
• Hellenic Telecommunications Organization S.A.

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Thematic Contents

• Introduction The European Context for the
  Development of an Information Society for All
• The D-SPACE Project A Major Driver for the
  Promotion of e-Learning Activities
• Broadband Evolution A Pre-requisite for the
  Effectiveness of the D-SPACE Initiative
• Creation Distribution of Innovative Content
• Services
• Conclusions

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• Introduction
• The European Context for the Development of an
  Information Society for All

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Introductory Context Facing Various
Challenges for Tomorrows Evolution

• Information Technologies together with
  Communication Media Industries, are currently
  on the verge of a remarkable phase of fast
  growth development,
  in the global
  converged environment!
• Modern ICTs can affect, very positively,
  the wider European economy
• for reaching multiple benefits
  of the digital era.

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Facing Challenges for Tomorrows
Evolution A Global Context

• Exponential growth of electronic communication
  networks information systems in the recent
  years
• Both they constitute an essential part of the
  daily lives of the European citizens and
  fundamental tools to the success of the broader
  economy.

Networks and information systems are converging
becoming increasingly interconnected This
option creates potential opportunities for all
categories of market players involved and
affects, all sectors of human activity
(business, public services and private sphere).
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Facing Challenges for Tomorrows
Evolution Market Opportunities

• - Extended promotion-deployment-exploitation of a
  great diversity of electronic communications-based
  activities in the European (EU27) internal
  market.
• - Various technical, commercial investment
  priorities for all actors Governments and
  private businesses.
• - Perspectives for market synergies in a
  liberalized competitive environment.

The Scope ICTs/Internet are basic elements for
widespread access to the Information Society for
citizens and enterprises, towards designing
developing a modern knowledge-based economy.
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Facing Challenges for Tomorrows Evolution
Immediate Benefits

• New services products
• increase productivity,
• generate new consumer facilities,
• advance market competition and
• create employment opportunities

• Innovative applications can
• improve quality of life for all participants
  (enterprises, households, public sector)
• help to avoid exclusion isolation phenomena

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Facing Challenges for Tomorrows Evolution
European Policy Responses

• Stimulating use and creating new services has
  become the central goal of modern European
  policy objectives, as expressed in core strategic
  frameworks
• eEurope-2005
• i2010.

The Vision Europe should have modern online
publicly accessed services
(e-Learning, e-Government, e-Health) and a
dynamic e-Business environment, based on the
ubiquitous availability of
broadband access at competitive prices, and a
secure information infrastructure.
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• The D-SPACE Project
• A Major Driver for the Promotion of e-Learning
  Activities

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e-Learning Actions A Priority for
Europe

• e-Learning activities are among the most
  significant priorities of the European digital
  economy, in order to
• Enhance tomorrows education
• Make stronger Europes global competitiveness

• The use of new multimedia technologies and the
  Internet can
• Improve the quality of learning by facilitating
  access to several resources and services.
• Support remote teaching exchanges.
• Promote international collaboration.

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e-Learning Actions A Priority for
Europe

• The Target
• Allowing Europe to take full advantage of its
  educational strengths and
• to go beyond any potential barriers,
  restraining the uptake of digital technologies!

Actions Specific care in the areas of research,
innovation, education and training, aiming to
increase efficiency efforts by pursuing a more
integrated approach and by placing these
policies under a common banner An everlasting
European area of knowledge!
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The D-Space Project in the Modern
European Scene

• The D-Space Project is a core element of the
  European eTEN Work Program 2004,
  aiming to contribute to the immediate
  and effective deployment of services for
  An
  Information Society for All.

Vision Establishment of a modern distributed
virtual network of science centres and robotic
telescopes all over the world, accessed by
students, educators, researchers and the wider
public (e.g. amateur astronomers, visitors of
science parks, etc.) via the universal Internet.
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The D-Space Project in the Modern
European Scene

• Innovation via the usage of the global Internet
• Development appropriate usage of a modern
  web-based interface
• Provision of multiple facilities together with
  a great variety of tools for data manipulation,
  analysis and access to an unlimited library of
  information and to extended resources/material,
  for lifelong learners.

Facilities All potential users can continuously
enjoy professional-quality data, collected from
local sites via the operation of modern broadband
facilities, permitting (always-on) on-line
connection, at high speed, and supporting
multimedia options.
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D-Space Opportunities for the
dispersion-dissemination of knowledge

• Potential Benefits
• Enhancement - promotion of science education for
  a wider public.
• Enablement of learners to participate in the
  procedures of knowledge, by designing and
  carrying out astronomy observations, and creating
  their own science activities and works.
• Offering a great variety of modern forms of
  digital content, from quite fascinating areas
  of scientific sectors.
• The Project can serve the purpose of
• Making astronomy a popular science for the
  non-professional users!

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• Broadband Evolution
• A Pre-requisite for the Effectiveness of the
  D-Space Initiative

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Broadband Facilities for the
Effectiveness of the D-Space Project!

• Essential Features of the Activities performed
• Usage of broadband communication channels as the
  basic means for interaction and data transfer
  mechanism, between the telescopes and the
  remotely located users.
• Extended variety of on-line services/facilities
  for end-users.
• Guarantee/assurance for effective, always-on
  connectivity and fast response of all related
  applications.
• Conformance to basic attributes applied
  practices of the global broadband perspective.
• Alignment to requirements imposed by modern
  European policy objectives.

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Broadband Facilities for the
Effectiveness of the D-Space Project!

• Description of Projects broadband exploitation
• Broadband communication can create an appropriate
  physical backbone for bringing the knowledge
  economy to every part of the world -
  (International perspective).
• The ability to generate and use knowledge
  (through science skills or people) is the key
  to ensure that
• - Market operators can continue to innovate
  and
• compete (productivity, innovation) and
• - Citizens can participate more fully in
  society
• (better quality of life).
• Broadband offers enhanced options in terms of
  QoS.
• Distance education and entertainment/informative
  activities can become more practical (efficiency)
  through the combined use of multimedia
  facilities, in various formats (convergence).

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Broadband Facilities in a Multiplicity
of Underlying Infrastructures!

• Broadband is currently available mainly over
  existing infrastructure, in particular over the
  telephone copper network using ADSL (Asymmetric
  Digital Subscriber Line) technology, and over
  cable TV networks using cable modems. (Immediate
  market adoption)
• Under suitable terms and/or conditions, broadband
  access can be also delivered over new types of
  networks (Fibre optic Free-Space Optics Fixed
  Wireless Access (FWA) 3G, 3G, 4G mobile
  systems R-LANs (Radio Local Area Networks)
  satellite communication systems, etc.)
• (Conformance to future network development)
• Unlimited/unrestricted opportunities for several
  options
• - Interoperability
• - Interconnection
• - Interworking
• (No specific or extra infrastructure is
  required!)

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Broadband promotes and affects
Internet penetration

• Internet is the most important medium for the
  transmission of information and communication!
• Actions on broadband can further affect the
  roll-out of Internet-based infrastructures and
  stimulate the development of relevant content
  applications.
• Major Benefits of Internets usage
• Open and transparent architecture, allowing
  various
• adaptations modifications
• Unlimited opportunities (i.e. high-speed,
  high capacity)
• Ideal platform for promoting innovation
• Accessibility by anyone, at any time, from any
  place!
• The D-Space service is directly addressing these
  goals by offering immense opportunities
  of a virtual-innovative research laboratory for
  knowledge and entertainment!

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Broadband is shaping European Future

• Achieving widespread access by all citizens to
  new information society services and
  applications, is a core European priority.

Accessing services-applications via multiple
terminals and by using several network platforms
- Creates significant economic and social
opportunities, - advances innovation, - offers
freedom of choice and - enhances market
competition.
These options are all basic pre-conditions for
the success of the D-Space Project, in
order to serve multiple users, at multiple areas,
by multiple equipment!
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Creation and Distribution of Innovative Content
Services
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Request for Modern Digital Content Current
Trends
The evolution of the digital era and the
emergence of broadband influence drastically our
every-day life, by stimulating access to
knowledge and promoting new ways of acquiring
information.

• Although innovation in services is mainly
  driven by
• new offerings (responding to customer demands)
  and
• appropriate technology adoption,
• there are increasing claims for new content,
  applications and services.

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Request for Modern Digital Content
Current Trends Market Practices
Technological advances offer a strong potential
to add value to content in the form of
embedded knowledge and to improve
interoperability at the service level, which is
fundamental to accessing and using digital
content!
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Request for Modern Digital Content
The D-Space Response

• Projects Aims
• Offering inventive content from an immense
  variety of astronomy-related fields, in a fully
  converged environment.
• Offering specific content for educational/learning
  priorities, to satisfy requirements/needs from
  different audiences.
• Creation, updating, distribution and
  classification of innovative multimedia-oriented
  digital content in several (combined) formats
  (i.e. video, audio, films, images, photos, texts,
  etc.).
• The thematic sources of astronomical-related
  activities are practically unlimited,
• and have always attracted human interests, for
  different reasons!

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Request for Modern Digital Content in
Education The D-Space Response
Educational Teaching Innovations Opportunities
to examine/study live scientific phenomena and
experiments. Provision of data from extended
databases, to satisfy diverse
users needs (particularly to encourage
e-Learning and teaching options). Promotion of
(scientific and educational) interactivity and
collaboration, to facilitate the emergence of
new, Internet-based, applications.
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Exploiting Content Offerings in the
Context of the D-Space Project

• The Project fulfils satisfactorily essential
  market challenges for the creation/offering of
  content, in order to
• Ensure lasting accessibility
• Promote development of innovative services.

• Management dispersion of content offered, due
  to its specific nature, can support
• Creativity,
• collaborative work,
• adaptability,
• intercultural communication.

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Exploiting Content Offerings in the
Context of the D-Space Project

• The entire Projects effectiveness is to
• Make the relevant digital information more
  accessible, usable and exploitable.
• Facilitate creation on-line diffusion of data.
  
• Stimulate content enrichment
• (in education training programmes,
  courses, and self-learning
  actions).
• Promote multimedia-based products.

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Market Replies to Content Offerings from the
D-Space Scenarios
Content can support market synergies and advance
the emergence of (added-value) services/facilities
in a competitive and liberalized environment
Content created in the context of the Project is
fully conformant to current European (regulatory
and business) requirements and practices
Interoperability, user friendliness and
accessibility (at affordable cost), all
constitute issues to be considered
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Concluding Remarks
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Conclusions - 1
Education training sectors are of prime
importance in the context of the European
Information Society priorities.
High-bandwidth connectivity and
high-quality content (and
services), are able to support innovative
approaches methods, immediately applicable in
the markets.
The D-Space Project supports novelty in the
sector of the knowledge-based economy.
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Conclusions - 2

• The D-Space Project supports
  
• usage exploitation of appropriate broadband
  communications
• development offering of new forms of
  interactive content, able to be efficiently
  accessed on multimedia environments,
• contributing to learning and teaching activities.

Both these issues are at the front-line of the
contemporary European policies They help
generate demand for new services They provide
means to increase productivity.
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Ladies Gentlemen, Many Thanks for Your
Attention!