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The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that telecommunications liberalization in Europe has taken the European telecommunications and internet sectors a breathtaking leap forward. To counter the leveling off of growth and facing the smartphone revolution, new structural changes are now required.

The paper assesses in a concise manner the effect of telecommunications liberalization in Europe based on the 1987 green paper. It demonstrates the enormous dynamics created in the mobile and fixed network sectors and the key role of liberalization to make Europe internet‐ready during the 1990s. The paper then proceeds to the analysis of the leveling off of growth during the last few years and discusses required changes to restart dynamics.

The green paper of 1987 successfully defined a framework within which political and legal action in both regulatory and competition fields could develop, leading to full liberalization of telecommunications in the European Union by 1998. The subsequent decade saw an enormous expansion of both mobile and fixed services, which only abated by the end of the decade. Liberalization and coordination of licensing of mobile systems were the basis for the entry of the internet in Europe and the explosive growth of GSM mobile services. The paper finds that the deployment of broadband internet and fourth generation mobile now needs further change to relaunch dynamics. It welcomes the goals of the digital agenda for Europe in the context of the 2020 objectives of the European Union, but argues that deeper structural changes are needed to achieve these goals.

Liberalization of European telecommunications was guided by a strategic framework set out in the 1987 telecommunications green paper and developed subsequently further. Comprehensive frameworks of this nature will be needed if Europe wants to gain a leading role in the future smart phone and broadband internet markets.

While information communication technologies (ICTs) are essential for social and economic development in today's emerging digital society, the problem of the digital divide persists. To close this gap, the European Union has proposed eInclusive policies. However, a general belief has emerged that this issue must be dealt with at the local level. The purpose of this paper is to report on such an effort, the Digital Local Agenda (DLA). It aims to show the DLA development in Europe and provide an example of its utilization in practice through a European initiative.

The paper explains the rationale for the DLA, and examines implementation of the DLA in pilot sites in five European countries to support civil servants in small municipalities, and empower them to develop and utilize their capacities to use ICTs and reach people most in danger of eExclusion.

Preliminary findings indicate that the DLA should be considered when looking for solutions to the persistent problem of digital exclusion in Europe. Implementing the DLA may improve public service provision and reduce the digital divide faced by disempowered groups.

Given the flexible and adaptable instruments provided for in the DLA, the paper argues that the DLA is an effective and strategic approach to translate policy frameworks into solutions that practitioners can deploy to overcome the barriers of accessing eGovernment, reduce the digital divide among marginalized groups in Europe and include all stakeholders in decision making processes.

This paper intends to promote a re‐consideration of the most appropriate policy framework for implementing the European Union (EU) digital agenda.

The paper examines relevant EU documentation and the related research literature on EU telecommunications reform within a context of economic market theory and policy analysis models.

The liberalization principle driving EU telecommunications reform for the past quarter century has stalled, and may be reversed by the policy framework adopted for implementing the digital agenda. The public sector broadband funding model is likely to be wasteful and ineffective. Other options for implementation should be considered.

This paper examines current EU policy shaping the development of broadband networks and the evolution of the digital economy and information society. It highlights the progress and limitations of EU policy as it has evolved as a reference for implementation of current policy objectives. It will be of value to policy makers, industry analysts and players, as well as researchers in academia and other institutions.

Purpose – Changes in the environment – political, economic, social, educational and technological – have demanded changes in many areas of work, most particularly in the roles and tasks of those involved in the preservation and transmission of cultural heritage, and interpersonal information intervention. Sending, storing and receiving digital information are commonplace activities, and now formally constructed digital libraries constitute an important component of this virtual information environment. Similar to traditional physical libraries, digital libraries are constructed for particular purposes, to serve particular clienteles or to collect and provide access to selected information resources (whether text documents or artefacts). Information intermediaries – or digital librarians – in this transformed information environment must learn new skills, play different roles and possess a new suite of competencies.

Design, methodology and approach – Myburgh and Tammaro have, for several years, examined the new knowledge, skills and competencies that are now demanded, in order to design and test a curriculum for digital librarians which has found expression in the Erasmus Mundus Master's in Digital Library Learning (DILL), now in its sixth year.

Findings – The chief objective of the Digital library program is to prepare information intermediaries for effective contribution to their particular communities and societies, in order to assist present and future generations of digital natives to negotiate the digital information environment effectively. This includes, for example, the necessity for digital librarians to be able to teach cultural competency, critical information literacies and knowledge value mapping, as well as understanding the new standards and formats that are still being developed in order to capture, store, describe, locate and preserve digital materials.

Research limitations – In this chapter, we propose describing the work we have done thus far, with special reference to the development of a model of the role of the digital librarian, including competencies, skills, knowledge base and praxis.

Social implications – Amongst the various issues that have arisen and demanded consideration and investigation are the importance of a multidisciplinarity dimension in the education of digital librarians, as information work is orthogonal to other disciplinary and cultural categorisations; that a gradual convergence or confluence is being identified between various cultural institutions which include libraries, archives and museums; the new modes of learning and teaching, with particular regard to knowledge translation and the learner-generated environment or context; and possibly even a reconsideration of the role of the information professional and new service models for their praxis.

Originality/value – The chapter tries to evidence the present debate about digital librarianship in Europe.

Technological progress in recent decades has driven a true digital revolution. The promise of greater efficiency, immediacy, and effectiveness of processes accompany this digital transition. However, to prove effective, it needs the development of quantitative instruments to assess the quality and competitiveness of the national and international digital strategies. Under this perspective, the study proposes the construction of a statistical index in the Italian context built on the five digital development dimensions of the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), that is, connectivity, human capital, use of Internet services, integration of digital technologies and digital public services. The elaboration of a DESI at a regional level (NUTS-2) allows to identify more precisely the possible digital gaps existing in the national territory. The findings make it possible to explain Italy's extreme backwardness within the European rankings. The study identifies the strong digital gap between the northern regions and the southern area of the country as one of the main criticalities, as well as human capital and integration of digital technologies.

Within today’s information and knowledge society, learners with disabilities and/or special education needs (SEN) are among the groups most likely to encounter barriers to accessing and using ICT, while at the same time the essential purpose of using ICT in education for learners with disabilities and/or SEN is to promote equity in educational opportunities.

This chapter considers two key issues:

• Legislation and policy focussing upon rights and entitlements to ICT as an educational equity issue;

• Access to appropriate ICTs within an accessible and sustainable ICT infrastructure for learners with disabilities and/or SEN.

Legislation and policy focussing upon rights and entitlements to ICT as an educational equity issue;

Access to appropriate ICTs within an accessible and sustainable ICT infrastructure for learners with disabilities and/or SEN.

In the chapter, how international and European level policy impacts upon the use of ICT in inclusive education will be discussed, followed by the presentation of a profile of a fictitious learner with disabilities who uses ICT as a key tool for accessing educational and inclusive learning opportunities. The case study will be used to exemplify the sorts of issues apparent in many different policy and practice situations across Europe.

Based on this discussion, a consideration of the use of ICT in inclusive education as a tool to enable all learners to be empowered in their learning is presented. This discussion leads to the identification of three potential policy levers that should be further exploited in attempts to address the digital divide and ensure all learners benefit from ICT as a tool for accessing inclusive learning opportunities:

1. Public procurement;

2. A widespread programme of training for all stakeholders;

3. School level policies and action plans for ICT.

Public procurement;

A widespread programme of training for all stakeholders;

School level policies and action plans for ICT.

This study, an exploratory one, aims to empirically investigate the association of national intellectual capital (NIC) with the national digital transformation readiness of the European Union's (EU’s) member states. Apart from building the conceptual model of NIC, this study explores the role of NIC dimensions in the digital divide between European countries.

Based on the literature review and the available EU statistical data and indexes, the theoretical framework and conceptual model for NIC were developed. The model explores the relation of NIC and its dimensions (human, social, structural, relational and renewable/development capital) on the readiness of European countries for digital transformation and the digital divide. Significant differences between EU countries in NIC and digital readiness were tested. Multiple linear regression was used to explore the association of each NIC dimension with digital transformation and digital divide within the EU.

Despite a positive association between all dimensions of NIC and digital transformation readiness, the proposed model of NIC was not confirmed in full. Regression analysis proved social capital and working skills, a dimension of human capital, to be the predictors of digital transformation at a national level, able to detect certain elements of digital divide between EU member states. Structural capital, knowledge and education, as dimensions of human capital, were predictors of the digital divide in terms of the integration of digital media in companies.

This research has a limited propensity for generalisation due to the lack of common measurement models in the field of NIC exploration.

This research offers policy makers an indication of the relationships between NIC and digital transformation, pointing out which dimensions of NIC should be strengthened to allow the EU to meet the challenges of digital economy and to overcome the digital divide between EU member states.

The use of digital technologies is key in creating active and informed citizens in the public sphere and productive companies and economic growth in the business sphere.

This study provides an original theoretical framework and conceptual model through which to analyse the relationship between NIC and digital transformation, which has thus far not been explored at the level of the EU. This research makes an original contribution to the empirical exploration of NIC and produces new insights in the fields of digital transformation and intellectual capital.

The purpose of this paper is to identify e‐skills shortages, gaps and mismatches in Europe, and the reasons behind these. In this light, the paper explores some key issues/aspects related to development of e‐Skills, while attempting to provide some benchmarking tools by which European countries may be able to access their current and future challenges regarding e‐Skills.

The paper begins with an overview of the problem highlighted in the literature and then moves on to what has already been done to solve the problem in European countries. Several policy options are proposed which could be implemented to deal with the problems of shortages, gaps and mismatches of e‐Skills.

The paper presents recent developments in the field of e‐Skills and highlights the various dimensions/aspects and issues of e‐Skills in the European perspective and prescribes innovative policy options to solve the problems of e‐Skills shortage/gap/mismatch in Europe.

The paper presents a discussion and provides some policy options to solve the problems of e‐Skills shortage/gap/mismatch in Europe, which will be helpful for policy‐related discussions and in suitable policy formulations.

The paper provides a detailed analysis of the issues related to e‐Skill by a comprehensive survey of literature and the existing framework. It also prescribes some alternative ways to resolve the problems of e‐Skills shortage/gap/mismatch in Europe.

This paper asks the following research question: What are the policy dynamics of copyright regulation for digital audiovisual (AV) archives in Europe and what is their potential impact? The paper aims to discuss the social relevance of archives, European cultural policies targeting operationalisation of these archives and underpinnings and sought implementation of copyright policies.

Drawing upon three European cultural policy approaches, namely, democratisation of culture, cultural democracy and governmentalisation of culture, the discussion aims to situate current legislative attempts within digital content governance and examine policy as to its proclaimed aims of broadening access. The authors deployed macro-level legal analyses of key legislative acts of the European Union (EU) with direct relevance to the availability of and accessibility to digital historical content by European citizens. The authors juxtapose relevant cultural policy interventions with the corresponding legal rules and norms in copyright legislation. The authors evaluate the ways in which normative arguments are reflected in these acts and propose reflections on documented and possible impact.

The authors argue that the EU’s legal direction is characterised by uncertainty of conviction and internal tensions regarding the place of common cultural heritage in EU policy, and they present a restrictive acknowledgement of what culture and heritage policy entail and, by extension, how cultural matters should be governed. Cultural heritage AV archives are examples of digital content whose governance was almost “automatically” linked to copyright.

The paper links copyright and cultural policy and demonstrates that although the EU cultural policy is based on access, availability and usability, copyright is unnecessarily restraining them with the improper design and implementation of exceptions and limitations. This reflects EU’s focus on the single market, which, in this case, is pursued at the expense of building of a European identity with shared memories.