COST-Telecommunication Action 269

User Aspects of ICTs (Information and Communications Technologies)

The Signatories of this Memorandum of Understanding, declaring their common intention to participate in the Concerted Action referred to above and described in the Technical Annex to the Memorandum, have reached the following understanding:

1.      The Action will be carried out in accordance with the provisions of the document COST/400/94 "Rules and Procedures for Implementing COST Actions", the contents of which the Signatories are fully aware of.

2.      The main objectives of the action are to study and analyse ICTs usage and users, with emphasis on communication, in order to increase knowledge of how and why a person incorporates or rejects ICTs products and services into his/her daily life. 

3.      To this end a co-operative effort involving universities as well as telecommunication R&D establishments is required.

4.      The overall cost of the activities carried out under the Action has been estimated, on the basis of information available during the planning of the Action, at 3.5 MEcus at 1998 prices.

5.      The Memorandum of Understanding will take effect on being signed by at least five Signatories.

6.      The Memorandum of Understanding will remain in force for a period of five years, unless the duration of the Action is modified according to the provisions of Chapter 6 of the document referred to in Point 1 above.

TECHNICAL ANNEX

COST Action 269

A. Background

The last three to four years have seen a rapid development in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) throughout Europe.  This is a development encouraged by the implementation of the latest technologies in the networks, services and products made available to users.  But at the same time it is a development required by the increase in communication needs everywhere in society: in the business world, in homes, and in the structure of the state and its institutions.

This has implications at various levels, for various bodies.  At the national level, many countries are, for example, introducing computers and the Internet into all their schools, while the regions and municipalities are trying to use the Internet in order to facilitate dialogue with people and to improve their services.  Many  states remain concerned about their existing means of communications and hence they have looked to ICTs to improve the relations with their citizens.  At a European level, the European Community needs analysis, strategies and suggestions in order to build its policy towards ICTs which meet the needs its citizens.  This policy must be able, at the same time, to develop some guidelines for implementing the process of democratisation and for overcoming inequalities and social exclusion among the citizens themselves.  For example, both national Governments and the EC increasingly face the issue of how to include the technology avoiders and late adopters in order to close the widening gap between the haves and the have nots and want nots (groups that until now do not belong to the users of modern ICTs). 

At the company level, the telecommunication operators of Europe, facing a liberalised market, are in the process of being confronted with the consequences of ever increasing competition and an ever more demanding public of users.  At the same time user attitudes are becoming more and more critical and pragmatic.  Telecommunication companies will be judged by the perceived value and cost of the ser­vices they offer and for the ability to meet the needs and desires of customers.  Churn, when customers leave an operator, will become one of the most obsessive problems.  At the moment this is especially true for mobile telephony.  In the near future, however, with the realisation of competition in the fixed telephony market, this will also be the case for all fixed telecommunication services.

At the consumer level, across Europe we have evidence of uneven changes in lifestyles and with these changes in patterns of communication.  For example, there is a continuous blurring of the boundaries between working life and home life.  While some experience increasing mobility in everyday life others, many of the elderly, the poor, face more and more immobility.  And while the demands on peoples lives and the facilities now available can sometimes encourage hyper-communication, we find at the same time attempts to maintain or re-gain control over communication.  At the same time, with the blurring of national boundaries, we have to consider re-defining the European customer - thinking about a European level of market segmentation and of taxonomies—as telecommunication operators look beyond their national domains.  However, this also implies understanding the degree to which there is a shared European culture with similar attitudes, perceptions and behaviours, and the degree to which national cultures continue to be very different.

It is into this context that we find a rapid diffusion of mobile telephones and the Internet into our homes and lives; possibilities emerging of using either the television set or the home computer for shopping, communication, education, entertainment and on-line banking.  We need to understand both how these innovations are being experienced now as well as how that experience changes over time as these service migrate from the realm of the pio­neers and early adopters to the realm of the early and late majority.  Moreover, we also need to look forward to the horizon where more innovations will follow in the near future, such as services based around advanced speech technology.  Thus it is clear that it is now more important and necessary than ever for the providers of ICTs to increase their knowledge of user needs, behaviour, perceptions and expectations.

Studying these and the processes by which ICTs, with various degrees of success or failure, become incorporated into European households is one of the key aims of this action.  While there are various fora for bringing together and analysing ICT-oriented research, not very many of these focus specifically on the user, one major exception being the COST Action 248, ’The Future European Telecommunications User’.  This action proved how the COST framework could be the most suitable one for the type of research which is described in this MoU.

It should be noted that this proposal is not the only one to emerge from the previous COST Action 248 initiative.  In its last year, COST Action 248 held a workshop together with EURESCOM, which has now resulted in a proposal for a EURESCOM project on users and ICTs.  However, that has more narrowly defined goals organised around a defined piece of research and involving the specific participants involved in the bid.  The new COST Action proposed here is broader in scope and in participation.  Of course, should that EURESCOM project be approved it will become a valuable ”partner” for co-operation with the proposed COST action, just as co-operation will be sought with COST Action 219bis and any other initiative focusing on ICTs users and usage where mutual benefit can be expected.

The new COST Action being proposed here will build upon the successful experience of COST 248, where in the past four years a notable interdisciplinary research network has been formed with participants from 16 European countries.  One very important aim of the new action would be to build a European group which would be able to examine and synthesise the theoretical and empirical work done in the single participating countries in regard to research on ICTs from the users point of view.  Exploiting the re­sources that already exist in the different countries in this way will improve the debate and will make it possible for the participants to function as a reference group able to provide a the­oretical and empirical framework for telecommunication operators and network and service providers throughout Europe.

It is intended that the outputs from the Action should benefit the EC, European states, European telecommunication operators and network and service providers when planning, developing and deploying new telecommunication services and systems in order to satisfy the needs, desires and expectations of users.  In so doing, the Action aims to contribute to the process of closing of the gap between societal demand and technological push.  This means that the Action would be organised in such a way that open dialogue and close co-operation between technicians and social scientists are the natural ways to further progress.

B. Objectives and Benefits

The main objectives of the action are to study and analyse ICTs usage and users, with emphasis on communication, in order to increase knowledge of how and why a person incorporates or rejects ICT products and services into his/her daily life.

The objectives can be specified in operational terms as follows:

1.   To collect and analyse information, in order to identify which variables are likely to be important in the ICT assimilation process, whether that person is stationary or mobile.  In the case of rejection, to identify possible causes.  On the basis of this we aim to identify key factors shaping the market for a variety of ICTs.

2.   To promote the exchange and dissemination of results from ICT user research between experts from both behavioural and technical disciplines.  This will be managed via a number of mechanisms including participants reporting back to their own companies, ongoing ties with EURESCOM, the publication and promotion of material on the COST248 web site and participating in conferences and seminars organised by other bodies.

3.   To create a network which includes any expert interested in this field, regardless of discipline.

4.   To analyse peoples competence in the use of ICTs.

5.   To collect information on the processes by which states, municipalities and other such institutions manage ICT use in the relation to their citizens.

Other objectives are:

a)   To improve knowledge of and the dissemination of the empirical research conducted in the single participating countries which would not normally be translated into English and thus not known and avail­able on a European level.

b)   To provide an overview of the similarities and differences between European countries in the use and adoption of ICTs and the main variables that influence these.

c)   To provide an overview of the similarities and differences of the needs and experiences of different users according to key factors such as age, gender, ethnicity and disability.

d)   To generate recommendations for improving the quality of research concerning the social use of ICTs in Europe.

e)   To highlight the user issues which need to be taken into consideration by telecommunications operators and service providers, researchers on users, politicians and others developing public policy, other decision-makers and strategists.

C. Scientific Programme

Building on the experiences and results achieved by COST Action 248 (sharing knowledge of the field, appreciating the complexity of user research, managing complex multi-disciplinary research and mobilising a network of contacts) the work of the Action will be to:

1.   continue the research on residential users perception and use of ICTs (including new ICTs and services as well as changes in consumption as existing ones mature), usage patterns in different segments of the population and in different cultures, the migration of innovations between different users and contexts of use (e.g. work use to home use).

      Expected output: Segmentation models and models of the adoption and migration of ICTs and related services in different situations and in different cultures.

2.   study mobile phones and mobility with emphasis on the maturing of the mobile market, new user groups, new mobile services, implications for communication, implications for services and the role of fixed telephony, and the interplay between fixed and mobile services.

      Expected output: Segmentation of the mobile market related to culture and environmental factors.  Also in­sight into the ways in which the need of new services will develop, especially as regards the interplay be­tween fixed and mobile telephony.

3.   study the subject of language and ICTs, i.e. the implications from the user point of view of shifts between written texts and oral communication: ”from the writing to the voice” and vice versa (e.g. changes in language and the nature of communication through using e-mail rather than voice) and from single language to multi-language interfaces. 

      Issues here are: user awareness of multilingual support for the ICTs services or the lack of such support and the acceptance of one dominating language and culture; users attitudes towards the new service of automatic language translation on the Web; whether the use of languages and signs on the terminal communication equipment is a help or hindrance for the average user?

      Expected output: Insight into the user related variables that enhance or hamper the possibilities of speech technology in the near and distant future.  Situational and cultural models allowing insight into the appropriateness of written vs. oral interfaces and the human-machine interaction when users work in their own language vs. a dominating language.

4.   create liaisons to appropriate groups within COST, particularly Social Sciences, European Projects, EURESCOM, etc.

5.   further the spreading of research results as well as encouraging communication be­tween active European researchers in telecommunication and ICTs users and usage by utilising available electronic media as well as written reports.

6.   use workshops as the main form of cooperation, planning them to each be an important milestone in the progress to achieve the main objectives.

D. Organisation and Timetable

D.1 Organisation, Management and Responsibilities

Building on the experiences of COST Action 248 the work in will be organised in working groups with regular reporting at workshops.  This proved the best formula for this type of research involving as diverse disciplines as social sciences and telecommunication technology.  The opportunity for discussion in smaller groups was the best instrument for progress.

Working groups will be set up, each with responsibility for one of the first three work areas described in the scientific programme, including a special working group responsible for dissemination of the results.

The Management Committee will usually have 3 annual meetings.

Working liaison with other COST Actions in the field of telecommunications and teleinformatics are assured by consultations with the Technical Committee Telecommunications (TCT).

The delegates of the Management Committee are the liaison officers for contacting national groups in the participating countries.

Members of the Management Committee will form project groups working with specific issues as they arise.

Important elements in the dissemination process are workshops, seminars, and production of reports and books, as well as the establishment of WWW-pages and databases.

D.2  Timetable

The total duration of the Action will be five years.

Action Management:	15 half day meetings for preparation and follow up on work plan.
Collection and processing of information and establishment of liaisons and experts network.	Duration:  10 meetings.
Dissemination of results. Arrangements of seminars, development of printed and multimedia information.	Duration:  7 meetings.
Reviews of the action	Duration:  2 meetings

D.3 Dissemination

A special working group will be set up with responsibility for dissemination of the results including the planning and organisation of workshops and seminars (items 5 and 6 in the scientific programme).  All working groups are responsible for the realisation of item 4 in the scientific programme.

E. Economic Dimension

The following COST countries have actively participated in the preparation of the Action or otherwise indicated their interest: Denmark, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

Estimated number of signatories: 12

Cost (KEcus) per signatory per year:

Estimated number of Person-years per year and signatory involved in action	2
Estimated cost per person-year (average of engineer/student) (including Lab. overhead etc.)	15 KEcus
Materials, equipment, computing, consumables,	10 KEcus
Travel	5 KEcus
Short term missions, additional costs	5 KEcus
Cost per signatory per year:	50 KEcus

Economic dimension:

Total over 5 years  for all signatories	3 MEcus
(+ or -) 10% overhead for running/operational costs	0,300 MEcus
Total cost to national funds	3,300 MEcus
EU overhead (over 5 years) 50 KEcus	0,250 MEcus
Total Economic Dimension:	3,550 MEcus

(This amount is a very low estimate and the reason for this is the experience from COST Action 248, where the participating researchers often combined activities funded from several sources and for several reasons.  It was not so easy to decide which part of the contribution was purely COST 248.  A similar situation is expected in this action.)

This estimate is valid under the assumption that all the countries mentioned above but no other country will participate in the Action. Any departure from this will change the total cost accordingly.