WE
HAVE REPORTED IN PAST ISSUES about political and trade union presence
in the online world of ‘Second Life’. As well as embasssies, election
hustings and even the EU Commission the Internet environment has played
host to a cyber-picket. Now unions have a permanent virtual home on the
site. ‘Union Island’ chose 1st May to launch itself with a day of
training, networking and celebration. 150 avatars (as the Second Life
inhabitants are known) turned up at various sessions including a
discussion on the situation in Zimbabwe, a surgery on building union
web sites and one on the history of May Day. Attendees came from around
the real World including Mongolia, India, Russia and South Africa as
well as western Europe and the USA. The virtual bar was also popular.
After this sound start the organisers hope to run many more events in
future.
May Day morning
on ‘Union Island’
EU
Doctors get the e-Health habit
ANOTHER SECTOR
OF THE EU ECONOMY has come under the Commission’s ICT microscope. A
survey into electronic services in healthcare has found that European
doctors (General Practitioners) are increasingly using computers in
general and the Internet in particular. 87% now have a computer with
70% on the Internet. The most common applications are the storage of
patient records and emailing of data such as lab. reports. But the
report highlights areas where the use of Information and Communication
Technology could be expanded e.g. telemonitoring, electronic
prescriptions and cross-border services. Telemonitoring, whereby
doctors can manage a chronic illness remotely, is only used in Sweden
and the Netherlands while exchanging patent data between countries has
only been done by 1% of the EU’s GPs.
As so often with such reports the wide variation in conditions among
Member States comes out in the findings. For instance, e-Prescribing is
only used by 6% of doctors on average but is much more common in
Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands; figures of over 70% being recorded
in all three countries. In Denmark 91% of doctors have fast, broadband
Internet connections yet Romania, at the bottom of the league, is way
down on 5%. GPs who responded to the survey agreed that ICT improves
the quality of the service that they provide but cited lack of training
and technical support as barriers to its wider adoption.
EU wants code of practice to help women in ICT
LAST YEAR THE EU COMMISSION highlighted the poor record of the
Information and Communication Technology industry in employing women.
It initiated a ‘shadowing’ project in which girls with an interest in
technology followed female employees of twenty leading ICT companies.
Now, after reviewing this exercise at a conference entitled, ‘Move out
of the shadow! Seize the opportunITy’, Information Society and Media
Commissioner Reding is to agree a ‘European Code of Best Practices for
Women in ICT’ with the industry. The sector, which contributes 4% of EU
jobs and 25% of economic growth, is estimated to need another 300,000
recruits. ‘It is unacceptable that Europe lacks qualified ICT staff …
we need to overcome common stereotypes which describe ICT careers as
boring and too technical for women and instead encourage women to
succeed’ she said.
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