I was today running a workshop at "Bredbandsdagarna" in Copenhagen. The topic was how to get the most out of the broadband capacity that we have installed.
Recent studies show that Sweden and Denmark are top-10 in the class, but we are falling behind. This is concerning and my speaking partner at the conference, Micael Curri from Strategic Networks, had lots of data to show the benefits of broadband. This was both financially and socially. His studies, along with those from OECD and EU i2010, clearly show that ICT is driving growth. To fall behind means that we are losing opportunities and something must be done.
There are for sure some pieces of the infrastructure that are missing, most importantly fiber all the way to the end users, but there are also much “softer” aspects of broadband that deserve investments.
I think mostly about services that would enable our public sectors to find new ways of working and servicing the citizens. We have at Øresund IT already launched projects where such new concepts are tried out together with end-users. We use methods such as open innovation and have even been selected to run one of only five national Living Labs in Sweden. We call it Living Labs Øresund and this should really be expanded to benefit many more projects.
So if you are planning a new service based on broadband and/or mobile technologies, but are uncertain about the end user needs and how to interface to other services that you already are running, please let us know. We may be able to help out.
There is also a piece of news from today's workshop here. And if you want a copy of the slides, please contact me: peter.hojerback@oresundit.org.