Annual Report 2009 - IVA

Control over Internet is a societal issue
The development of the internet has transformed
society, but the issues that are discussed
regarding the internet are often limited
and relate mainly to the portion of the traffic
that involves commerce. Politicians have not
understood that both education and the care
sector could be more efficient if the internet's
potential was used more effectively.
Within the framework of the Ambient
Sweden project, a debate was held on 4 june
about who should control the internet, if it
should be controlled at all. The differences of
opinion about this are often greater between
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the young and the old than between different
political positions.
during the debate many people shared
their view that the problem today is that politicians
often lack a broad understanding of the
issues concerning the internet. several of the
participating experts were seeking a holistic
approach and a vision for what the internet's
role in society should look like.
Driving force for IT-entrepreneurs
swedish expertise can help to transform the
internet into something really useful, according
to telecom pioneer östen mäkitalo at an
scorecard.se
scorecard shows success factors
scorecard.se is a continuation of the project
IT without Borders which ivA launched
in 2006. Scorecard.se is being run by ivA and
a steering committee consisting of experts
from industry, academia and government
agencies.
The project has developed five success
factors considered more important than
others in maintaining and strengthening
sweden's ability to develop and use iT
in products and processes and thereby
improve productivity, competitiveness and
growth. The five interacting factors are:
sweden's relative efficiency advantage, iT in
products and processes, the research and
innovation system, supply of expertise
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Ambient Sweden meeting on 29 April. östen
mäkitalo pointed out that sweden has always
been good at seizing opportunities in telecommunications.
one conclusion was that it
is the desire to create something new that
is driving iT development. education and
research are a good foundation, but new services
are often the result of individual innovation
initiatives. Also, it is often young people
who are behind these initiatives. Two examples
are Bambuser – a Web Tv service developed
by måns Adler, and Bloggy – a blog service
adapted for sweden created by jonas lejon.
Internet guru rejuvenated IVA
The "father of the internet," vinton cerf, was
ivA's guest on 23 october. one area he is
happy to talk about is the "internet of things" –
where more and more technical applications
are using the internet to communicate without
human participation.
"The internet of things is a rapidly growing
phenomenon," vinton cerf said. one important
area will be energy, where automatic
alarms and controls will be used, e.g. to lower
the temperature of a heating system.
ivA President Björn o. nilsson pointed
out in his opening speech at the seminar that
vinton cerf had managed to bring down the
average age of the audience by several years.
The number of people around the age of 20
was remarkably high.
through education and basic research, and
the attitude towards swedish iT capabilities.
Scorecard.se is measuring, highlighting and
following up the five success factors to
ensure the appropriate analysis is carried
out and measures are implemented in time.