John Higgins,
CBE, Director General of Digitaleurope –

Just over a week ago, the streets around my office in Brussels became the world’s biggest farm tractor park, as farmers from all over Europe descended on the Parliament to protest about possible cuts to their funding. It reminded me that we have to see our eSociety in the context of the people’s lives all over Europe. The great thing is though that digital technologies DO have relevance to all the people of Europe.

I imagine that social net-working tools were heavily used by the farmers to coordinate their arrival and of course mobile technologies kept those at home up to date with progress from the front line. And perhaps tech savvy Estonians will not be surprised to discover that a big event here in Brussels last year was the European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture Conference which focused on the Rural Digital Agenda for 2020 and ICT-technologies, and knowledge management for integrated and sustainable farm management.

I find it hard to imagine such a scene on the streets of Tallinn. When I visited to speak at the ITL conference last month I found a city and country that appeared to understand very well what a modern European nation should look like, and how it should act. Hearing President Ilves open the excellent conference, I thought here is a leader who knows the importance of supporting local digital industry, and appreciates the part that that industry can and should play in tackling societal challenges, making public services more effective and efficient, and improving the productivity and competitiveness of Estonian industry. ...

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