e-EIONET Group Collaboration and e-Communities in the Environment Sector in Europe

1. e-EIONETGroup Collaboration and e-Communitiesin the Environment Sector in Europe Hannu Saarenmaa European Environment Agency with European Commission DG Enterprise and DG Enlargement and Finsiel S.p.A., European Dynamics S.A., TietoEnator

2. European Environment Agency • Through provision of information to legislators, decision makers and the public improve environment • The environmental information centre of the European Union • Decentralised, independent • Small nucleus (100 people, 20 MEUR budget) of a large network, the EIONET European Environment Information and Observation Network - www.eionet.eu.int

3. Outline • e-Europe and e-Government • e-EIONET background • e-EIONET architecture • Group collaboration features • Data management issues • Integration and development issues • Lessons learnt

4. e-Europe

5. European Union • Network State • 2% of GNP used at European level, vs. 6% at federal US level • Harmonisation of legislation • 90% of new laws on environment affected by EU directives • Environment biggest issue in the enlargement

6. Internet will drive the economy • all sectors, all businesses • increase productivity • create new businesses • open global markets • The Internet is a key factor for growth, competitiveness and employment 2

7. Internet penetration (1998-2000E) Internet penetration:EU behind the USADiscrepancies in Europe 5 Source: Morgan, Stanley, Dean, Witter

8. Mobiles: EU ahead of the USA EU mobile liberalisation EU USA Mobile subscribers (million) Source: FT Mobile Communications USA: Cellular Telecoms Industry Association 6

9. The EU has played a majorrole in these achievements • mobile communications - GSM • digital TV • 1998 telecoms liberalisation • But there are still major obstacles in Europe: communication prices, venture capital, entrepreneurship 10

10. Objectives • bring every citizen, school, business and administration on-line - quickly • create a digitally literate and entrepreneurial Europe • ensure an inclusive information society 11

11. How? • address key areas of action at European level can make a difference • collaborative efforts by Member States, Commission and private sector • 10 key areas selected for action 12

12. Action 1. European youth into the digital age 2. Cheaper Internet access 3. Accelerating e-commerce 4. Fast Internet for researchers and students 5. Smart cards for secure electronic access 13

13. Action 6. Risk capital for high-tech SMEs 7.eParticipation for the disabled 8. Healthcare online 9. Intelligent transport 10. Government online 14

14. e-Government

15. Government Online Priorities • Ensure easy access to at least four essential types of public data in Europe. • Ensure consultation and feedback via the Internet on major political initiatives. • Ensure that citizens have electronic access to basic interactions.

16. Reporting Burden • Each year, each member state has to provide 37,000 figures to various international environmental reporting systems, essentially answering that many questions. • Only 17% of these figures are related to evaluating the effectiveness of any particular EU policy. • There are 57 sectoral committees in the environment sector alone. • Most of them have developed their own data collection and applications.

17. The Public and Decision-Makers The Public and Decision-Makers EuroStat EuroStat EC EC EEA EEA OECD OECD UNEP UNEP DG DG ETC ETC DG DG NRC NRC NFP and other National Authorities NFP and other National Authorities Currently: Ad-hoc Overlapping Data Exchange on Email, Floppy, Fax, Letter

18. The Public and Decision-Makers EuroStat EC EEA OECD UNEP DG ETC DG EIONET Server NRC NFP and other National Authorities 2001: From Data Exchange to Information Provision

19. TheEIONET Value Chain

20. EIONET Supports the Entire Range of Information Management from Data to Decisions Newscast Public Access The Famous Pyramid of Information Document management Decision Decision Support Systems Judgment VALUES Knowledge management Analysis (Indicators) TOOLS Data Mart/ Warehouse Integration (Ontology) Data- bases Data & Observations 3 8 1 6 9 7 1 4 1 TEXT DATA INFO

21. Background:How Did e-EIONET Come About?

22. General Business Requirements for EIONET • A2A e-government network, with public gateways • An integrative generic infrastructure for applications • Support the collaboration process of integrated analysis on state of environment, consultations, and reporting on it • Project coordination, management of information overload, making life easier, achieving savings, other practical benefits... • Streamline environmental data- and workflows • Removing duplication and reporting burden • Vehicle for coordinating international and national initiatives, interoperability with other economic sectors, creating new opportunities

23. EIONET Origin and Facets • EIONET was set up at the same time and on basis of same legislation as the EEA in 1990. • EEA became operational in 1994. • EIONET is a huge, political e-community • EIONET is both an organisational network and an electronic network. • This presentation only discusses the latter aspect: e-EIONET. • e-EIONET became operational in 1997. • e-EIONET operates as an Extranet on Internet.

24. IDA Interoperability Pyramid

25. Phasing of the EIONET Build-up • Basic infrastructure • 15 Member State NFPs 1996-1998 • 9 European Topic Centres 1997-1998 • 10 Phare countries 1997-1999 • 2 Phare countries 1999-2000 • Applications 1999- • In summary, only the basic infrastructure is now available • A new phase is at hand for application development, new strategy approved

26. Public International institutions NRC EU Insti- tutions NGO ETC Part- ners NFP ETC EEA R&D projects Con- tractors Phare Phare Topic Links Special Interest Networks Media Scientists Public www- services and news broad casting EIONET Zones Core Extranet of 33 sites with servers Full EIONET of 600 nodes with username access Enviro- Windows and corporate portals

27. EIONET Architecture

28. “Interest Groups” organise collaboration of projects EIONET the Mother of Extranets ETC Partner NRC Phare Topic Link ETC Phare NFP NRC NFP EEA NRC Extranet: Password access Euro- Intranet Contractors

29. NRC Node Architecture Phare NFP NFP ETC EEA Fire- wall TEN-155 TESTA-II Rou-ter Local LAN Internet EIONETserver Public server General public

30. e-EIONET Technology • Internet backbone • Speed is still a problem; from public Internet to TEN-155; TESTA II • UNIX Server Computers • Old (m’97) DEC, HP, IBM, Sun (ES450) servers good 3 more years • Linux for new projects • Routers of Cisco, firewall of IBM, local setups • Software server engines • Netscape SuiteSpot 3.5 servers (to be phased out) • Open source servers to replace them (Apace, Zope, MySQL, ...) • CIRCA 2.1.5 from European Dynamics • Open to all desktop applications

31. e-EIONET Functionality Layers Personal Workplace Group Collab App Corporate Portal App Library Tool DataMgmt Tools Workflow Tool Other Tools Generic services www, directory, email lists, news, search, SQL, replication ... Internet and its Communication Protocols TCP/IP, http, ldap, nntp, smtp 33 Server Computers across Europe

32. Generic Services, Common Tools, and Applications

33. e-EIONET Group Collaboration Services

34. About 100 “Interest Groups”on 33 Servers

35. CIRCA Services

36. Sophisticated Multilingual Document ManagementDon’t print, don’t email, but upload, share and search • EIONET’smost important service • Users control content • 4600 documents in EEA alone • Versions • Languages

37. Messaging “If the only tool you know is a hammer, the world soon looks like nail.” • Mailing lists @eionet.eu.int (about 20 lists now) • Functional mailboxes at nodes • Email contributes to information overload... • Encourages unstructured communication • Organisation of material left to recipient • No history for new participants • Attachments clog mail servers and spread viruses • ....but EIONET users still want it, so... • Email attachment to be connected to CIRCA document management • Roles to be defined in site directories and to be used as basis of dynamic maling lists, such as nrc-iw@nfp-dk.eionet.eu.int • CIRCA user classes:authors.eionet-telematics@eea.eionet.eu.int

38. Discussions, Newsgroups, Joint Reviews • Newsgroups and services available in CIRCA • HTTP interface to discussions • Connecting discussions with documents • Announce postings in newsgroups • Threaded discussions on documents • Need to integrate discussions with documents (like Amazon.com) • WebDAV • To be specified

39. Meeting and Dissemination ServicesAfrican village metaphor: “The world is one big meeting.” • New ways of working together needed • Meetings very resource-consuming, communication needs escalate • Meeting service available in each IG • Virtual (chatroom) meetings available • Meeting service more useful across IGs • Announcements service available on EIONET’s public gateways • Provided by Zope modules • Freqently Asked Questions service at Network Management Centre • Internet-based videoconference easy and cheap, but not used

40. Directory Services The n-directory problem • LDAP is thekey component in EIONET infrastructure • Usernames, user information and preferences • New features • Self-registration of users to site directories • Organisation object • Roles • Expertise • Integration with email lists • Re-using user information in EIONET Directory? • We could maintain the information at the original source at NFPs, ETCs • Address database, CDS, and sitedir integration the goal

41. Replication • Copy entire IGs between servers • Copy directory and newsgroup entries between servers • All sitedirs will be copied to NMC • Replication of individual documents later NFP ETC EEA NMC NFP

42. Search • Search within one IG is surprisingly powerful • When we have 33 nodes and several projects on each of them, how do we find information? • On each IG there is a search facility • All nodes’ public pages searched • Push technology pilot scans the Catalog Servers of all sites • ”What is new” across all Interest Groups • Customisable welcome page: Towards ”MyCIRCA”

43. Workflow The activities of the prototype consultation process include: • request for consultation, • answer request, • make decision and • summarize.

44. The Outcome of e-EIONET Collaboration Services:Corporate Knowledge Management Use Apply Modify Explicit knowledge Applied (tacit) knowledge Analyse Organise Share Create Identify TOOLS i.e. CIRCA CONTENT System and technology supportto manage knowledge Collect Store Internalising by doing

45. Support

46. Helpdesk and Training • After the training the users...." • Network Management Centre http://nmc.eionet.eu.int/ • Four levels of Helpdesk • 1st level is IG Leader or Secretary: • allow users, control access, structure library and discussions • 2nd level at NMC helpdesk@eionet.eu.int • 3rd level at CIRCA vendor • 4th level by hw/sw vendors • Training programme • Nine different courses, offered twice a year, online registration, ... • EIONET Newsletter

47. Data Management Issues

48. The EIONET Value Chain Operational Databases in Member Countries’ NRCs Distributed Data Marts Information Warehouse ETC EEA NFP “Data - Information- Knowlegde”

49. EU Conventions OECD EUROSTAT DGs Citizens Reference Centre EDR ROD Information DW EEA Data definitions Reporting request definitions Dissemination XML IW XML- European Topic Centres' Information Systems AE AQ SQL SQL SAS SQL SQL CIRCLE Combine, analyse data DTD XSL XML WORKFOLW application for dataflow mgmt Definitions Definitions CIRCLE XML XML Country X Import, select, transfer data IW-DEM AE-DEM AQ-DEM National EIONET Data Systems XML Manual input XML XML XML Collecter/ Reporter Airbase- dem National datasources (NRC etc) IW Conversion AE AQ EIONET Data Flow Architecture 2000

50. Distributed objects... ...InfoSleuth and EDEN style