Intelligent System for Tourism - Cordis - Europa EU

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Intelligent System for Tourism Report on the R&D activities carried out in the specific programme Information Society Technologies (IST) of the fifth Framework Programme

Final Report Autumn 2003

Intelligent Systems For Tourism

Report on the R&D activities carried out in the specific programme Information Society Technologies (IST) of the fifth Framework Programme

Autumn 2003

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LIST OF CONTENTS

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INTRODUCTION

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PROBLEM AREA

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OBJECTIVES AND CHALLENGES

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ON-GOING WORK AND RESULTS

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PROJECT WEBSITES

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ANNEX : PROJECTS FACT SHEETS

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INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS FOR TOURISM Report on the R&D activities carried out in the specific programme Information Society Technologies (IST) of the fifth Framework Programme

Introduction The purpose of this brochure is to present the R & D activities undertaken in the newly-created Tourism sector in FP5. It covers the results achieved so far and the ongoing work as several projects are still running. During the course of the programme, synergies and the exchange of information between projects have been promoted, and close relationships have been maintained with other European initiatives in the domain. These include policy-making initiatives, and the EUMEDIS and EUREKA programmes. Problem area The European tourism industry directly contributes 5,5% of GDP, 6% of total employment and to more than 30% of external trade in the European Union. In the context of a fast and continuous growth for tourism world wide, Europe is losing its market share. Without new initiatives, this trend is likely to continue. Europe, which remains the first tourism destination world wide, must build on its strength and better exploit the current tourism demand and its planned evolution. For example, forecasts anticipate that, by 2007, 30% of all B2C transactions in the European tourism domain will be made via the internet. The tourism market is highly fragmented, geographically scattered and involves many and various actors along the value chain: These range from a few very large tour operators (TOs) to the numerous SMEs which represent more than 95% of the organizations involved. The emergence of e-economy is a formidable opportunity for the European tourism industry to improve its competitiveness and to reinforce its sustainability. Information and communication technologies (ICT) are key enablers of a flexible response to evolving patterns of tourism and offering more attractive travel experiences, while increasing the quality and the efficiency of the value chain operations. Consumers are seeking more personalised tourism products and services, and are expecting intelligent and proactive access to relevant high quality information and services at any time and anywhere in a mobile context. Operators and service providers are facing the challenge of packaging and broadcasting information so that it is reliable, up-to-date and reasonably accessible. They will have to re-think their products, their business models and marketing channels, by seeking co-operation with partners and establishing networks of alliances. Objectives and challenges As an information-based industry, Tourism has traditionally intensively exploited IT and contributed to advances in this field. In the preceding programmes FP3 and FP4, the period coinciding with the rapid deployment of the internet, several projects explored and developed IT technologies leading to innovative applications for the tourism business. At the same time, the rapid convergence of IT and Telecommunications and the vision of an all-digital and mobile knowledge society

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have opened the door to entirely new perspectives in ICT-based applications in the tourism business and for tourists. Thus, a Tourism sector in FP5 has been created with the objective to explore and develop the next generation of ICT-based applications enabling tourism organizations to provide attractive value added services, gain customer loyalty, extend their customer base and establish business synergies. This will lead to the creation of longlasting employment in the tourism sector and contribute to the cohesion and growth of economically weak regions (including Newly Associated States) which have potentially rich tourism assets. This will also contribute to progress towards the eEurope objective as settled at the Lisbon Council in 2000 and promote the European cultural heritage and raise the awareness of environment issues. Intelligent Systems for Tourism is also a challenging application domain for the development and deployment of the Ambient Intelligence (AmI) vision which underpinned the R & D activities carried out in the IST programme. A broad use of IST is needed not only to support the operations of a complex business chain, but also for addressing the expectations of a population of socially and culturally diverse consumers (mass market) with unpredictable behaviour in a wide range of contexts. These AmI-based applications will require cross-fertilized breakthroughs in many ICT topics (e.g. user interfaces and interactions, microelectronics, telecommunications, intelligent decision support, content creation and management). The focus of the work is twofold: To develop innovative systems, tools and business processes enabling tourism operators and service providers to interact dynamically and efficiently along the value chain. To develop and trial new applications, services and devices offering final customers, the tourist, AmI environments supporting them all along their tourist experience (before trip, on trip, in particular in a mobile context, and after trip). On-going work and results The Tourism sector of the IST Programme includes a portfolio of 22 projects (total budget 69 M€) with more than 200 organizations participating. In general, projects have a good mix of enterprises and research laboratories covering the ICT topics to be developed as well as of tourism organizations focusing the R & D work on tourism requirements and hosting testbeds and demonstrations. Type of Organisat./ Countries Large Industry

A

B

D

Dk

E

3

1

1

SME

2

1

16

University

1

3

Research Labs. research

2

9

orgs. non public TOTAL

1

1

2

1

6

9

3

31

4

25

F

6

3

3

8

3

10

5

6

12

2

4

2

7

2

1

3

5

3

2

2

9

16

36

10

4

16

3

Gr

I

Ir

NL

P

S

SF

6

4

5

2

4

2

4

4

1

1

1

1

2

UK NAS

3

Assoc. countries

Others

TOTAL

3

1

40

7

2

80

3

1

24

1

2

1

29

1

2

3

1

34

11

6

18

6

207

Number of participating organizations per country and types of organizations. 6

In addition, several projects in other parts of the IST programme are developing general purpose platforms and tools which are demonstrated in the tourism area, among other application domains (e.g. ARCHEOGUIDE, HYPERGEO, MTM, ODIN, TOURBOT. XML-KM). International co-operation with the Mediterranean countries is also supported through the EUMEDIS programme where four projects have been launched and clustered in order to ensure their interoperability and their compatibility with the work carried out in the sector.

The projects HARMONISE, FETISH and DAFNE aim to reduce the fragmentation of tourism information systems. HARMONISE is developing a common framework (mediating tourism ontology and mapping tools) reconciling the numerous and various (often proprietary) standards used in the tourism domain, thus enabling tourism actors to communicate and co-operate easily and transparently. FETISH and DAFNE have developed and are trialling an open source platform in order to turn fragmented and diverse tourism information systems and value-added services into a seamless landscape of interoperable resources. Intelligent decision support systems are being further developed, either to help tourists to choose a touristic destination in accordance with their profile (e.g. DIETORECS, HITOUCH) or to help future tourism actors to create new tourism enterprises (e.g. VMART for rural tourism). Techniques and tools for multisource and multimedia information gathering, structuring and customization, and for data mining are developed in several projects (e.g. WHAM, ESTIA, HITOUCH, XML-KM, CAPITAL ITTS, GUIDEFREE). For example, WHAM has developed a data collection tool which integrates data from multiple sources into a common format and ontology (using data interoperability results from FETISH). Many projects are developing platforms providing various added value services for mobile tourists. Positioning techniques are used/combined to provide location-based information (e.g. points of interest) and services (e.g. guidance, orientation) often linked to geographic information systems (e.g. MTOURGUIDE, ARCHEOGUIDE, HYPERGEO, REGEO, IMAGE, ETOUR, CRUMPET, CAPITAL ITTS). They also have the capacity to support 3D representation/reconstruction of the surroundings (e.g. TOURSERV, WEBPARK, PARAMOUNT, TELLMARIS). For example, TOURSERV has developed an open platform for alpine tourism resorts providing information and services for travelling, accommodation, rental and sports (before trip) and supporting mobile tourists during their sporting activities with access to 3D maps of their immediate surroundings.

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PARAMOUNT, as well as WEBPARK for open touristic areas (e.g. parks), in addition to developing services such as map download, position information, places of interest, routing and guidance, 3D visualization and avalanche prediction, is focusing on safety and rescuing services for hikers and mountaineers. The application will be trialled in Alpine and Pyrenean mountain regions where there is sufficient mobile signal coverage. AMBIESENSE takes a different approach to anytime and anywhere access to location-based information; it is exploring the innovative concept of "context tags". These are wireless markers that may be placed in various places (e.g. buildings, furniture, restaurants, vehicles). Their purpose is to make themselves known to the tourist's PDA and so establish a well defined context that can be tied to data resources and intelligent agents in a tourist information system. This concept will be tried in the city of Seville and at an international airport. Several projects with a strong interest in location-based services have decided to set up a special interest group on this subject and have started to publish an LBS Newsletter (mail to: [email protected]). In order to reflect the variety and the dynamic nature of tourists' behaviour and interest (both off trip and on trip), innovative user profiling techniques are being developed which are capable of adapting to the changing touristic context (e.g. WHAM, PALIO, CRUMPET, AMBIESENSE, ESTIA, ETOUR, HYPERGEO). For example, CRUMPET has developed agent-based components for intelligent delivery (location-based, context-dependent user preferences) of services to nomadic users.

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PALIO is considering users with special needs. Most of these projects, which deliver information and services to mobile tourists, are also exploring new human machine interfaces (HMI) adapted to the tourists' needs and to the use of a variety of mobile devices. Handheld devices are being designed and trialled with add-ons and adaptable HMIs able to convey easy-to-exploit information and services to tourists, in particular providing communication, positioning and multimedia facilities (e.g. MTOURGUIDE, ETOUR, MTM). In general, information and services offered to (mobile) tourists are supported by back office systems and mediation platforms enabling cost efficient operations and consumer-centric business processes such as booking, payments, marketing and customer relationship management (e.g. ESTIA, WHAM, TRAVELSMART). ESTIA, for example, has integrated into its platform an auctioning/reverse auctioning service enabling tourism service providers and tourists to dynamically interact on proposed special offers. Collectively, the projects cover a broad spectrum of tourism domains. Urban tourism is addressed in PALIO, CAPITAL ITTS, AMBIESENSE, ESTIA, WHAM, MTOURGUIDE, and is often linked to cultural tourism which is more specifically addressed in ARCHEOGUIDE and ETOUR. Tourists in large European cities are targeted in CAPITAL ITTS: a single platform will integrate data from many local services such as traffic, coach parking, points and events of interest, etc, together with topological information and will present them with a common look and feel interface to the tourists.

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Rural tourism is addressed in VMART and ODIN, whereas WEBPARK and REGEO consider tourists' requirements in open areas. TOURSERV and PARAMOUNT specifically focus on mountain tourism.

For example, WEBPARK is developing a mobile service platform with location-based services for leisure/tourism visitors in recreation or protected areas.

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Finally, waterborne tourism is dealt with in TELLMARIS and EUREAUWEB. TELLMARIS will provide boat tourists in the Baltic sea region with access to location-based and 3D enhanced information via mobile terminals. EUREAUWEB targets waterways tourists in Europe. A portable audiovisual device, the EureauMap, will give access to context sensitive multimedia information. A waterways web portal will offer data resources for downloading before and during trip such as places of interest, restaurants, service points, wildlife and activity data.

In the framework of EUMEDIS, the Euro-Mediterranean co-operation programme, the four projects DAEDALUS, MEDINA, NETJOURNEYS and STRABON are being supported. Their objective is to set up in the South Mediterranean countries eTourism portals based on common standards and technologies developed in the IST programme. For further information, please go to http://europa.eu.int/information_society/topics/international/index_en.htm

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Project web sites Projects have supplied fact sheets containing their contact points and web address. Please found the web addresses below. The fact sheets start on the next page.

http://www.cordis.lu/ist/projects/projects.htm .

AMBIESENSE ARCHEOGUIDE CAPITAL ITTS

IST-2001-34244 IST-1999-11306 IST-2000-30038

www.ambiesense.com www.aec2000.it/archeoguide www.eu-capitals.net

CRUMPET DAFNE DIETORECS ESTIA ETOUR EUREAUWEB FETISH ETF GUIDEFREE HARMONISE HITOUCH HYPERGEO MTM MTOURGUIDE ODIN PALIO PARAMOUNT REGEO TELLMARIS TOURSERV TRAVELSMART VMART WEBPARK WHAM XML-KM

IST-1999-20147 www.ist-crumpet.org IST-2000-35113 fetish.t-6.it IST-2000-29474 dietorecs.itc.it IST-1999-20962 estia.sema.es IST-1999-20447 www.elios.dibe.unige.it/etour IST-2001-34182 www.eureauweb.co.uk IST-1999-13015 fetish.t-6.it IST-1999-21055 www.guidefree.gr IST-2000-29329 www.harmonise.org IST-1999-57452 www.visiolab.fr/craft.htm IST-1999-11641 www.hypergeo.org IST-1999-11100 www.mtm-project.com IST-2001-36004 www.mtoguide.org IST-1999-70498 www.odinproject.org IST-1999-20656 www.palio.dii.unisi.it IST-2000-30158 www.paramount-tours.com IST-2000-32336 www.regeo.org IST-2000-28249 www.tellmaris.com IST-1999-20414 www.tourserv.com IST-1999-20015 IST-1999-20674 www.vmart.org IST-2000-31041 www.webparkservices.info IST-1999-20676 IST-1999-12030 www.ipsi.fraunhofer.de/oasys/projects/xmlkm/index_e.html

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AMBIESENSE IST-2001-34244 Ambient, personalised, and context-sensitive information systems for mobile users Key Action: KA1 Action line: Ambient intelligence application systems for mobile users and travel and tourism

Project Abstract: The aim is to design and implement technology that is ambient, personalised to the users, and sensitive to their individual situation (i.e. context-sensitive). The idea is to develop a new system architecture, which will enable ambient information services to be delivered to mobile citizens. These services will be ubiquitous, personalised to the individual user, and appropriate to the user's current situation/ context. The application focus will be targeting citizens who are mobile - particularly business travellers and tourists. The project aims at testing and evaluating a prototype system with mobile users. Hence, user-centred design with user testing and evaluation are corner stones of the project.

Objectives: The AmbieSense project looks into the future of the Ambient Intelligence Landscape a landscape where computing surrounds you while mobile users are on the move. AmbieSense focus on travellers and tourists as end users. It will take one important step towards ambient, personalised, and context-sensitive info spaces for mobile citizens. The main scientific challenge is in the use of environmental context information and individual user context information to develop leading edge personalised interactive information services for mobile users. The main technological challenge lies in the combination of ambient, context-sensitive and personalisation technologies. The thesis of the project can be formulated as: "It is impossible to provide mobile users with the Ambient Intelligence Landscape without making the surroundings around more intelligent and adapted to the situation. "This will be enlightened via user scenarios. The AmbieSense project will both develop and improve technology possessed by the technology providers in the project The cornerstones of the AmbieSense system are: (1) wireless context tags, (2), mobile computer/PDA, (3) intelligent agents, and (4) personalised and context-oriented information services. These components utilise an ambient and intelligent user interface for the mobile user.

Description of the Work: In AmbieSense, context-sensitive technology is based on the use of context tags. These small electronic tags are a means of capturing and communicating information about the surroundings (i.e. info about the environment). The context tags within AmbieSense are unique as they can store a large amount of structured data and communicate it to mobile computers. Additionally, the tags can also be updated with information from remote network nodes. The technology development and improvement focuses on: · Small electronic context tags that can be mounted everywhere - in buildings, within shops and restaurants, in vehicles, hidden in furniture, in user clothes, and even outdoors. The context tags automatically send the contextual information about the surroundings to the mobile users who travel. The effect is that the user is relieved from specifying the context around him. Context tags 13

can be networked and integrated with existing computers and wireless network infrastructures. · The AmbieSense system architecture supports the development of information systems that are ubiquitous, personalised and adapted to the situation. It consists of the context tags mounted in the surroundings, mobile computers, and netbased information services. It builds upon state-of the-art wireless network infrastructures and de facto software and hardware. · User context software and persistent storage for the administration of user contexts that belongs to individual mobile users. This software will run at the mobile computers and in the network as a net-based service. It will implement security and privacy mechanisms that mobile users’ need. A user context is capable of describing the user’s interests, his state, the social setting, the spatio-temporal aspects, and other entities in the surroundings. · Intelligent agents for mobile computers will be the technology that personalises and adapts the information system in terms of information extraction, retrieval, filtering, and presentation. Personalisation is achieved via the use of the context-sensitive technology. The intelligent agents help the mobile users to get the right information to the right situation. · Ambient and intelligent user interfaces for the travelling businessman and the walking tourist. Access to different information depending of user’s interests and the current context and location. The applications will be tested and then demonstrated for mobile users in-house at an international airport, and in Seville. The integrated AmbieSense prototypes will undergo user testing and evaluation in both realistic and controlled environments. The consortium regards the results - the AmbieSense system - as wearing a significant potential for strategic impact for a wide range of applications within both B2B and B2C. The dissemination and exploitation activities are therefore regarded as very important facilitators for providing the target market with the overall AmbieSense system and it's components. Thus, exploitation is an important goal of the AmbieSense consortium.

Milestones: The AmbieSense milestones are: M1: Technological Prototype, M2: Functional Solution, M3: User Validation and M4: Technology Implementation Plan. Contact point: Name: MYRHAUG Hans Inge Organisation: SINTEF - STIFTELSEN FOR INDUSTRIELL OG TEKNISK FORSKNING VED NORGES TEKNISKE HOEGSKOLE SINTEF Telecom and Informatics Address: Strindveien 4 N-7465 TRONDHEIM NORWAY Tel : +47 73597072 Fax : +47 73594302 e-mail : [email protected]

List of Participants Participant Name SINTEF - STIFTELSEN FOR INDUSTRIELL OG TEKNISK FORSKNING VED NORGES TEKNISKE HOEGSKOLE COGNIT AS SIEMENS AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT OESTERREICH THE ROBERT GORDON UNIVERSITY YELLOWMAP AG

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NORGES TEKNISK-NATURVITENSKAPELIGE UNIVERSITET NTNU OSLO LUFTHAVN AS SEVILLA GLOBAL S.L.

N N E

Start date: 01-Apr-2002 Duration: 30 months Total Cost: 4,837,731 EURO EC Contribution: 2,769,000 EURO

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AC AC AC

CAPITALS ITTS IST-2000-30038 Capitals providing Integrated Travel and Tourism Services Key Action: CPA Action line: CPA3: Ubiquitous and intelligent info-mobility and geo-information systems

Project Abstract: The CAPITALS ITTS Project will develop, provide and demonstrate Integrated Travel and Tourism Services (ITTS) for users in five EU capitals (Brussels, Berlin, Madrid, Paris and Rome), already having developed their mobility service platforms. The information services will be developed and finally provided by one single information/content provider via a Business to Business (B2B) model to local users (e. g. Service providers &/or special agencies) offering the service together with own specific content and information services based on local requirements and developments. The implementation and demonstration is expected to comprise consultation of a comprehensive web portal with tourist, cultural and mobility information and the opportunity for reservations, provision of a coach management including routing and parking availability information, itinerary and proximity information for travellers arriving at the sites of the capital cities, traffic information e.g. on congested roads. The dissemination media will have the same standardised friendly and easy-to-use user interface in order to provide information via Internet, innovative (text to speech) Call Centres, Infokiosks with HTML user interfaces, mobile information via GSM phones with WAP opportunities. Tourists, bus drivers and citizens are enabled to receive tourist, cultural and mobility information which are processed and provided according to common formats (e.g. HMI) within the five capital cities (during CAPITALS ITTS) and which could be further exploited to European cities outside the project.

Objectives: The project aims at: - integrating tourism and transport information, allowing authorities to manage tourist coaches in a way compatible with their mobility policy and to improve the city information services for travellers and actors of the tourism value chain (e.g. tour operators and coach drivers) by ensuring coach management with route guidance and parking availability information and by providing traffic, tourism and proximity information; - specifying and implement a common service using a Common ITTS Interface Language to exchange information related to travel and tourism; - using only usual portable devices such as WAP phones and PDA and the web at the user side. A GPRS test will be performed in at least one site (Rome and/or Brussels). The demonstrations within the capital cities will comprise a common validation, dissemination activities (conference, workshop, newsletters, web site, ITS Show Case 2003) and exploitation plans for marketing the services.

Description of the Work: Location-based Information Services will be offered to the end users (e.g. travel agencies, tour operators, transport carriers and travellers/citizens in general) within the five capital city sites with a different extent and depth (in technological development) depending on the user and service requirements (WP2). Two user group workshops (one to identify the needs, respectively service requirements, and a second 16

one to have a feedback on the developments being implemented) will be held. Service Specifications (WP3) will specify the system requirements necessary to support the services and satisfy the user needs defined in WP2. The European added value lies in the development of the Common ITTS Interface Language to exchange information related to travel and tourism between sites and between actors (content providers) and in human-machine interface standards for such applications. Service Implementation (WP4) will produce reference software modules that will be implemented in the different sites for the preparation of the content according to the common data entry interface, the upload of content from the city information databases (traffic, Point of Interest (POI)) onto the Webraska central database, the access from the city web sites to the navigation services provided by Webraska, the provision of turn-by-turn navigation into the tourist coaches, the access of services from WAP phones. In the On-Site Demonstrations/Field Trials (WP5) the five capital cities will demonstrate the ITTS services to be implemented, including coach management with route guidance and parking availability information and traffic, tourism and proximity information. WP5 will also test services on wireless technology platforms (GPRS) at least in one site (Rome and/or Brussels). No common Web site will be developed but 5 web sites accessing the Webraska common service provision. One project web site will be created and it will offer information on the project and links to 5 similar (same look and feel) city web sites offering the city specific content (managed locally) and the mobility services provided via links to the central navigation server and at least 2 similar WAP sites (Rome and Brussels) to be hosted by local telecom operators. An evaluation (WP6) following a commonly set-up evaluation framework will allow an assessment of the effectiveness and acceptance of the services. A cross-site assessment will provide statements on the transferability of results. Finally, the project intends to create a strong awareness of its results through the dissemination by a project web site, 2 user group workshops, newsletters, ITS Show Case 2003 and exploitation through the development of business cases for the service operation beyond the project (WP7).

Milestones: The project results will be based on user requirements and specifications (Milestone M1 after 10 months) which will lead to the service developments and local implementations (Milestone M2 after 15 months). The demonstration will be accompanied by a common validation (in field trials) allowing real cross-site and transferable evaluation results and exploitation (business plans) work (Milestone M3 at the end of the project after 24 months).

Contact point: Name: SCHMITZ Pierre Organisation: MINISTERE DE LA REGION DE BRUXELLES-CAPITALE Address: RUE DU PROGRÈS 80, BOITE 1 B-1030 BRUSSELS BELGIUM Tel : +32.2.204 1970 Fax : +32.2.204 1520 e-mail : [email protected]

List of Participants Coun try B E

Participant Name MINISTERE DE LA REGION DE BRUXELLES-CAPITALE AYUNTAMIENTO DE MADRID

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Ro le CO CR

S.T.A. SOCIETA TRASPORTI AUTOMOBILISTICI SOCIETA PER AZIONI AGENZIA PER LA MOBILITA DEL COMUNE DI ROMA SENATSVERWALTUNG FUER STADTENTWICKLUNG VILLE DE PARIS ALCATEL ETCA S.A. CARTE BLANCHE CONSEIL CARTECH TELEMATIC GMBH COMUNE DI ROMA FORSCHUNGS- UND ANWENDUNGSVERBUND VERKEHRSSYSTEMTECHNIK BERLIN HB - VERKEHRSCONSULT GMBH HEUSCH/BOESEFELDT GMBH INTERACTIVE MEDIA S.R.L. MAINTENANCE ETUDES ET REALISATIONS EN CIRCULATION URBAINE ET EN REGULATION MERCUR MIZAR MEDIASERVICE S.R.L. ROMA MOBILITA TURISMO - ROMOTUR - S.C.R.L. SAINCO TRAFICO S.A. SOCIEDAD IBERICA DE CONSTRUCCIONES ELECTRICAS, S.A. STRATEC S.A. TRAKTEPLAN, S.L. UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI ROMA "LA SAPIENZA" VMZ BERLIN BETREIBERGESELLSCHAFT MBH WEBRASKA MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES

Start date: 01-Feb-2002 Duration: 24 months Total Cost: 4,935,546 EURO EC Contribution: 2,474,992 EURO

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D F B F D I

CR CR AC AC AC AC

D

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D D I

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I I E E B E I D F

AC AC AC AC AC AC AC AC AC

CRUMPET IST-1999-20147 Creation of user friendly mobile services personalised for tourism Key Action: KA1 Action line: Systems and services for tourism Project Abstract: The overall aim of the CRUMPET project is to implement, validate, and trial tourismrelated value-added services for nomadic users (across mobile and fixed networks). In particular the use of agent technology will be evaluated (in terms of useracceptability, performance and best-practice) as a suitable approach for the fast creation of robust, scalable, seamlessly accessible nomadic services. The implementation will be based on FIPA-OS; a standards-compliant open source agent framework, extended to support nomadic applications, devices and networks.

Objectives: · to develop a service-oriented architecture to establish and deploy flexible tourism services and applications; · to adapt tourism services to the various QoS levels offered by different bearer services, to changes in physical location, and to other contextual factors such as the characteristics of the terminal in use; · to develop a generic seamless execution environment across different types of networks and access devices for a range of value-added services within the tourism domain; · to explore an evolutionary approach to the integration of emerging technologies in this application area, such as the provision of services over mobile cellular networks such as GSM/GPRS/UMTS, wireless data networks such as Wireless LAN and Bluetooth, and including wired data standards such as IPv6; · to explore the use of contextual information such as presence, location (e.g. GPS), and user-preferences (e.g. servicespecific preferences and preferences associated with different contexts), in order to intelligently adapt service delivery; · to explore the applicability of advanced software techniques, specifically Intelligent Agent technology, for service creation, deployment, distribution, personalisation, and interaction for nomadic users; · to provide an architecture that supports the distribution and re-distribution of intelligence between smart terminals and smart network elements - this will involve consideration of active network research; · to evaluate how the system meets the business needs of multiple service providers and network operators (in a competitive environment) and the relationship between them.

Description of the Work: The main work in the CRUMPET project includes: · to select and modify services that will be trialled and evaluated by multiple mobile service providers; · to select and modify service content that is tourism-related, and supports intelligent, anytime, anywhere communication; · to adapt nomadic services to enable them to respond to underlying dynamic characteristics, such as network QoS and physical location; · to implement a service architecture that is standards-based and that will be made available at the end of the project as (mostly) publicly available open source code; · to implement a service that is suitable for networks that will be typical of those that a tourist user might be exposed to now and in the near future (including IP networks, Wireless LAN, and mobile networks supporting WAP technology: GSM, GPRS, and

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UMTS); · to implement a service that is suitable for a wide range of terminal types, including next generation mobile phones / PDAs / PCs, and hybrid terminals.

Milestones: The implementation will be developed using best practice, including an "open source for open standards" platform. The implementation is being based on generic re-usable components on an open distributed architecture. During the trial phase of the project, an assessment will be made of the scalability, robustness, and time-to-market advantages of the approach.

Contact point: Name: Organisation: Address:

Stefan Poslad Queen Mary & Westfield College Department of Electronic Engineering Mile End Road E1 4NS London United Kingdom

Tel.: +44/207/8823754 Fax: +44/207/8827997 E-mail: [email protected] List of Participants Participant Name QUEEN MARY AND WESTFIELD COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON EMORPHIA LIMITED EUROPEAN MEDIA LABORATORY GMBH FRAUNHOFER GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V. GMD - FORSCHUNGSZENTRUM INFORMATIONSTECHNIK GMBH NORTEL NETWORKS UK LIMITED PORTUGAL TELECOM INOVACAO, S.A. SONERA OY SONERA OYJ UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI

Countr y UK UK D

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Start date: 01-Oct-2000 Duration: 26 months Total Cost: 3,454,241 EURO EC Contribution: 1,892,725 EURO

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Role

DAFNE IST-2001-35113 Distributed Advanced Fetish Network Evolution Key Action: KA1 Action line: Best practice and trials in transport and tourism Project Abstract: In the European Tourism market, the opportunity to carry on transactions across multiple platforms, software services and information providers is still a distant goal, were a myriad of different technologies and standards struggle everyday to understand each other in the electronic processing of transaction. In order to change the tourism electronic distribution channel, DAFNE aims to bring to a commercial and industrial stage the already existing FETISH network technology, which links several service providers. A distributed, open source licensed, tourism services and information component repository will be the result of this take up action, integrating a critical mass of European information systems and services. Through the open consortium we will assure a broad industry support and acceptance of the proposed solutions.

Objectives: The overall goal of DAFNE is to enhance the effects of the Fetish network results, bringing the project to an industry grade that can be exploited on the market through business and marketing actions, aimed at building up a real commercial activity. Moreover, 4 main objectives can be established: the integration of Travel Spaces Network and tourism information providers in the Fetish network (which will add new elements and cover the existing lacks); DAFNE technology update (better installation and performance improvement, achieving a final product, tested and validated); transfer of Fetish & Travel Spaces technology to a specific targeted users, the information and tourism service providers (will allow to complete the product with tourism information databases and direct access for end-users): NTT, Portugal InSite and KATAWEB; the improvement of the integration process (between the cluster of projects and the Fetish network, so that the cluster process reaches its final stage).

Description of the Work: The project can be divided into 3 phases: The first one, Business Target Scenario, is focused on the identification and specification of the business scenario evolution in which the DAFNE services will be deployed. The partnership will analyze the entrance barriers for commercial services, the risks and opportunities, the existing competitors and the results of the RTD Projects; we will identify the most valuable services to be commercialized and possible agreements to enlarge the impact of the services. The second phase is the Integration & the Business Component Development that will allow the integration of several information and tourism service providers (TravelSpace, PortugalInsite, Kataweb) in the DAFNE trial. Then, a business component factory will be adapted to become the main operation network, enabling service to be seen as business components. These blocks can be combined together in a seamlessly way in building Value added services. This phase will allow the creation of a global communication platform for the European tourism SME that integrates research components and commercial systems in one unique market proposition. The final phase is composed by Trial Validation & Quality Analysis and Results Measurement. During the validation, trial systems together with the services

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coming from the running project of the tourism cluster will be tested in the existing Fetish network. DAFNE will activate four nodes for accessing the services to evaluate, in real market conditions, the performance and usability of the system. All the ex post information will be analyzed by crossing it with the previous one, producing a concrete measurement of the impact of DAFNE. In order to control, support and promote the whole process, dissemination and project management activities will be carried out. Self-sustainability analysis, will produce the business cases and a marketing model needed for the business success of the initiative.

Milestones: Month 4 Electronic Product and Service for the online tourism industry research Month 7 Core FADA deployment handbook Month 10 Trial System integration Month 11 Business Component System Design Month 12 Company Statute Month 17 FADA application compiler toolkit Month 18 Measurement of the DAFNE impact

Contact point: Name: GIORGETTI Mauro Organisation: T6 PICCOLA SOCIETA COOPERATIVA A RESPONSABILITA LIMITATA Address: VIA GENOVA 30 00184 ROMA ITALY Tel : 06 478 23 286 Fax : 06 478 82 798 e-mail : [email protected]

List of Participants Participant Name Country T6 PICCOLA SOCIETA COOPERATIVA A RESPONSABILITA LIMITATA I HERZUM SOFTWARE S.R.L. I ICEP PORTUGAL - INVESTIMENTO, COMERCIO E TURISMO P KATAWEB - SOCIETA PER AZIONI I NEWTRADE TECHNOLOGIES INC. CA SUN MICROSYSTEMS IBERICA, S.A. UNIPERSONAL E

Start date: 01-Mar-2002 Duration: 18 months Total Cost: 1,700,449 EURO EC Contribution: 808,572 EURO

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DIETORECS IST-2000-29474 Intelligent Recommendation for Tourist Destination Decision Making Key Action: KA1 Action line: Intelligent Systems for Improved Tourism and Travel Services Project Abstract: The main objective of the project (DieToRecs) is to develop and validate a recommendation system for destination decision making. The system will be web based and will access and integrate data managed by two existing tourist portal. DieToRecs will provide personalized recommendations based on user profile and contextual information. It will be highly interactive and ``conversational'' adapting the dialogue process as it learns more about the user. The dialogue will be driven by an explicit model of the tourist destination selection decision making, that will be developed analysing existing case repositories. DieToRecs will provide support for direct manipulation of data to enhance user confidence on suggested items. It will support product aggregation for a given destination. This will end up with a ""travel plan"" that can be used to support the user during the travel (recall events, advise on traffic condition, etc.) by means of his/her portable phone.

Objectives: The main objective of the project is to develop and validate a recommendation system for destination decision making. It will provide personalized recommendations based on user profile and contextual information. It will be compliant with existing eCommerce and technological standards (component based and multi tiers) and give support for accessing heterogeneous data, from plain text to semi structured (XML) and structured (RDBMS). It will be interactive and ``conversational'' adapting the dialogue process as it learns more about the user. The dialogue will be driven by a tourist destination selection decision making model. It will support product aggregation for a given destination in the form of a ""travel plan"" that can be used to support the user during the travel (recall events, advise on traffic condition, etc.) by means of his/her portable phone. The project will bring innovative results in the area of Case-Based Recommendation Systems and Tourist Decision Modelling.

Description of the Work: The project can be subdivided into four temporal phases: Development of the decision model. In this first stage we shall collect the requirements (use cases and system features). Moreover, previous available knowledge on user behaviour, in the form of cases (human/human and human/compute interaction logs), will be analysed. That data will enable to develop a realistic model of the user decision process, including the modelling of destination. First prototype design and development. The key technologies will be chosen and for some of them a quick evaluation will be conducted (XML data management system). This material and the decision model, will provide input for the design and the development of the first prototype, a fully operational recommendation system to be integrated in two existing tourist portal (managed by two partners in the consortium). The key components are: dialogue management based on the tourist decision model; similarity based queries; filtering using a user model; user activity logging. Prototype management and evaluation. We want to conduct rigorous statistical tests to determine the real significance of the 23

improvements brought by each single techniques. In this stage alternative approaches (for filtering, selecting, presentation), supported by the prototype, will be run in parallel and evaluated with users. Final recommendation system and framework. Implementation of a set of requirements not yet done, i.e., the personalized presentation of the destination and the Travel plan tool. A wizard that enable the user to store in a single entry point a collection of information connected to the travel. These data will help the service providers to follow and support the user during the travel. Moreover, at this stage, log data collected with the first prototype will be used for user profile learning and tuning the various filtering techniques implemented.

Milestones: M8: Tourist decision model: model of the decision variables and process.M9: Software Architecture: data integration and representation (customized views).M16: Case-Based Reasoning components: software library (cases in XML and retrieval functions).M18: First Prototype: selection of personalized destination; integration with existing data repositories.M29: Final system: personalized presentation of destination; content and collaboration based filtering; travel plan management.

Contact point: Name: RICCI Francesco Organisation: ISTITUTO TRENTINO DI CULTURA Address: VIA SOMMARIVE, 18 38050 POVO - TRENTO ITALY Tel : (39-0461)314521 Fax : (39-0461)314590 e-mail : [email protected]

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ISTITUTO TRENTINO DI CULTURA AZIENDA PER LA PROMOZIONE TURISTICA DEL TRENTINO INSTITUTE FOR TOURISM AND LEISURE STUDIES - VIENNA UNIVERSITY A CR OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION NATIONAL LABORATORY FOR TOURISM AND ECOMMERCE USA CR UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN TISCOVER AG TRAVEL INFORMATION SYSTEMS A CR

Start date: 02-Jul-2001 Duration: 30 months Total Cost: 1,577,686 EURO EC Contribution: 899,980 EURO

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ESTIA IST-1999-20962 Efficient Electronic Services for Tourist in Action Key Action: KA1 Action line: Systems and services for tourism Project Abstract: The ESTIA project aims to provide the means for mass adoption of Business-toConsumer (B2C) E-Commerce in the tourism sector. The project is introducing valueadded services over the next generation access medium of E-Business: Mobile Networks, in order to efficiently support individuals and vendors in the tourism economy. More specifically, this project will provide the following tools and services: Easy and cost efficient access to travel information (and all associated info) during the actual holiday trip. Brokering tools and platforms for locating, reserving and purchasing domestic products & services better matching their needs. Personalised services including recommendation and bundling services that best complements their tourist plan and schedule and matches their tourist identity and travel profile. On line virtual communities of groups of people that belong to their target segment, travelling along them that build virtual trails in order to be easy located from other un-informed travellers and people at home.

Objectives: As On-line Commerce evolves, services will become increasingly supportive, cost efficient and consumer-oriented in order to add value to current business practices. Also in the Tourism industry, suppliers are offering innovative useful services, by making use of the Internet. However the focal point of the Tourism business, i.e. the tourists demands during their travel, remains insufficiently addressed. It is clear that the mobility of travellers urges the development of new mediation platforms that will focus on supporting them at their destination place and building-up exploitable relationships, which will be maintained after the actual trip. The ESTIA project aims to contribute to the economic development of the Community by providing the means for mass adoption of Business-to-Consumer (B2C) E-Commerce in the tourism sector. The project is introducing value-added services over the next generation access medium of E-Business i.e. Mobile Networks, in order to bring closer and efficiently support, individuals and vendors in the digital tourism economy. Moreover, the project aims at: Enhancing the traditional and digital value chain of the tourism sector by extending the traditional business models around new type of mediators. Introducing new market opportunities for the active players in marketing (i.e. advertising and promotion), merchandising, reservation, customer support processes of E-Tourism. Improving the quality of life for European citizens by having on-line access to international markets through mobile access devices and enabling previously passive tourists to become active participants. The main objective of the project is to introduce advanced B2C oriented E-Services upon intelligent mobile access devices, enabling full interactivity and personalisation, in the tourism value chain and to attract tourists in active digital marketplaces. To this end, the project will develop a supportive mediation and brokerage system between product/service providers and tourists by combining the traditional physical trading activity with the advanced services of the virtual environment.

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Description of the Work: In ESTIA we will use the incremental development process engineering methodology. This implies that we will built parts of the system as a prototype early in the project, and get feedback of the users. This is more likely to result in a system that truly addresses the needs of the users. We will start with requirements elicitation both from the end-users and domain experts. In parallel, we will survey particular aspects of the tourism domain. Then, follows the specification of an overall system architecture and the initial design of its relevant components. The end of the initial design will be accompanied with the delivery of a mock up demo that will be presented to the users in order to validate the specification choices, and demonstrate the user functions. The user assessment about this demo will provide early feedback for the implementation and design process of the ESTIA prototypes. This is important since the end-users will have the opportunity to put their figures on a prototype that is very close to the real system and provide on the spot valuable feedback on all aspects of the proposed system. Finally, a new iteration of re-design and implementation activities will take place taking into account the evaluation results of the initial prototype and the same time the demands of the market stemming from the marketing activities scheduled in the project, leading to the final implementation of the ESTIA system and the definition of the plan for its commercialisation.

Milestones: In the initial phase the project will provide the functional specification and design of initial ESTIA prototype and market analysis. This is followed by the delivery of the final ESTIA prototype and the consortium’s exploitation plan. ESTIA will publish its Technology Implementation Plan within the scope of the project.

Contact point: Name: CALOTO Luis Organisation: SCHLUMBERGERSEMA, SOCIEDAD ANONIMA ESPANOLA Address: ALBARRACIN 25 28037 MADRID SPAIN Tel : 91-4408334 Fax : 91-754 3252 e-mail : [email protected]

List of Participants Participant Name SCHLUMBERGERSEMA, SOCIEDAD ANONIMA ESPANOLA CYBERCE INTEGRATED ELECTRONIC COMMERCE SOLUTIONS LTD. FUNDACION IBIT INTRACOM S.A. HELLENIC TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND ELECTRONICS INDUSTRY LAHTI REGION BUSINESS CENTER LTD (LAHDEN SEUDUN YRITYSKESKUS OY) LAMBRAKIS RESEARCH FOUNDATION MUNICIPALITY OF ATHENS DEVELOPMENT AGENCY S.A. NOKIA CORPORATION RESEARCH CENTER OF THE ATHENS UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS

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SOCIEDAD DE IMAGEN Y PROMOCION TURISTICA DE GALICIA, SA TEKNILLINEN KORKEAKOULU

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Start date: 01-Oct-2000 Duration: 26 months Total Cost: 3,508,704 EURO EC Contribution: 2,020,948 EURO

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E-TOUR IST-1999-20447 A hand-held assistant for electronic guided tourism Key Action: KA1 Action line: Systems and services for tourism Project Abstract: E-Tour will develop a value-added service providing mobile access to a multimedia integration of the tourist information. The information will be presented to the tourist through a handheld device connected to Tourist Information Systems through the Internet. The device will be composed of a handheld computer enhanced with add-ons suitable for tourism. IT can provide important benefits to tourists in terms of services and information only if the interaction between the tourist and the computer will be developed according to ergonomic, user needs and acceptance criteria. E-Tour will exploit and provide open source interoperability modules to contribute to the consolidation on the European Information System. A clever diffusion of tourist information will also draw to a better utilisation of the human and material resources and to the enhancement of the European cultural patrimony.

Objectives: The main objectives are: to develop, according to user-centric design criteria, a HMI able to convey easy to exploit powerful information and services to tourist; to develop a technical architecture that provides positioning/communication/voice facilities and is open to incremental development; to develop and/or integrate the hardware/software components of the Tourist Digital Assistant (TDA); to prepare a software toolkit for developing new HMI structures for tourist applications; to prepare multimedia information for the involved tourist areas, to prepare software modules for tourists services; to prepare format translation modules for interoperability with European Tourist Information Systems; to perform field tests of the prototypes, evaluating users' acceptance, verifying logistic issues and elaborating information about tourists' behaviour patterns.

Description of the Work: The first step of the work will consist in the field test of TDA "alpha" prototypes in various test areas (e.g. cities, museums, regional areas) and in interviews to administrators/managers in order to evaluate their degree of acceptance of the new information instrument. A statistical and sociological analysis plan will be prepared for studying the results of this initial investigation phase. The evaluation of the tourists' needs and of the experts' opinions will provide useful information for the business development area strategy. In parallel, the basic technical components will be defined according to behavioural specifications and subsequently developed according to cost/performance and strategic considerations (phase 2). The feedback on users' acceptance will drive the HMI design, aimed at harmonising the presentation of multimedia contents. The development phase will end with the integration of the hardware/software modules. Specific tourist services (travel, weather, booking, payment etc.) will be implemented. Modules aimed at providing personalised services will be studied and implemented. Open distributed databases will be prepared for the management of the information. Interoperability modules will be developed and provided as open source for integrating the information/services developed for E-Tour in the broader European tourist information network. To this end the advantages of

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the JINI technology will be exploited. The third phase consists in the deployment of the prototypes in the tourist areas selected by the partners. The deployment will be realised according to a pilot plan that will define the logistical and technical infrastructure. Data of various types will be collected, possibly from existing databases, in order to build local tourist information systems that can be exploited by the TDA. The analysis of the deployment's results will give important feedback on logistic issues and on the acceptance of the service.

Milestones: Technical component specifications (month 4); Guidelines for User Needs and Business Development Strategy (month 6); "Beta" prototype presentation (month 10); TIS Review (month 10); First release of the TDA (month 14); HMI architecture (month 14); Multimedia specifications (month 14); Deployment review (month 18); Business plan (month 18); Final Project Report (month 18).

Contact point: Name: DE GLORIA Alessandro Organisation: DEPT OF BIOPHYSICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING Address: VIA OPERA PIA 11A 16145 GENOVA ITALY Tel : +39 010 3532785 Fax : +39 010 3532785 e-mail : [email protected]

List of Participants Participant Name DEPT OF BIOPHYSICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING BINOMEN AB CONSORCIO EUROPEO DE TECNOLOGIAS TURISTICAS, S.A. COSTA AQUARIUM SPA ELOQU - METABASIS GMBH VERKEHRSMANAGEMENT, COACHING, TELEMATIK INTELLIGY APS MICROIDEA S.R.L. POINTSTAR A/S TELESPAZIO S.P.A. UDDEVALLA MUNICIPALITY

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Start date: 01-Oct-2000 Duration: 18 months Total Cost: 3,113,384 EURO EC Contribution: 1,618,412 EURO

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EUREAUWEB IST-2001-34182 European Waterways Networked Information System Key Action: KA1 Action line: Ambient intelligence application systems for mobile users and travel/tourism businesses

Project Abstract: Europe’s waterways are a focus for a wide range of tourism and leisure activities boating, angling, walking, cycling, ... EurEauWeb aims to develop products which will help increase commercial viability of Europe’s waterways and leisure related businesses, preserve the heritage and environment of Europe’s waterways, improve accessibility by the disabled, elderly and socially disadvantaged, and attract future generations of users. The products are intended for use on and beside the waterways but could be used anywhere. The product set will consist of a Portable Audio-Visual device providing location sensitive multimedia information (including digital maps) on all aspects of waterways use and allow feedback from the users; a European Waterways Portal Web Site which will bring together all aspects of Europe’s waterways for world-wide user access, The project will also aim to encourage the start-up of new SMEs in the waterways related sector.

Objectives: The main objectives of EurEauWeb are aimed at providing solutions to the following problems/issues/market gaps, etc:· The need of users to find localised information quickly and easily while on the move. - The EurEauWeb portable device (to be called the EurEauMap) will provide waterways users with multimedia-capable locationsensitive information tailored to their user profiles that can be used with a demonstrable high quality of use as measured by quantitative indicators. EurEauWeb will not only detect and distribute existing internet based data via the EurEauMap, but will also be building databases of information that can be pre-loaded prior to visits/journeys, or pre-fetched at various locations around the waterways/downloaded from the internet at set periods/locations. This data will be available via the EurEauWeb Portal web site or directly importable to the EurEauMap database. EurEauMap will present not only good Efficiency and Effectiveness for users, but also acceptable levels of user Satisfaction, measured by quantitative, baselined metrics. · Waterways authorities and associations and the waterways leisure industry need to have increased access to existing and potential users, including the disabled, and to improve their services and increase revenue.

Description of the Work: EurEauWeb is a concept using state-of-the-art as well as state-of-the-market technology and equipment to provide location and user profile-sensitive information quickly and easily to the wide range of leisure and tourism users of Europe’s inland waterways environment. The concept encompasses a number of components usable by waterways visitors of all types as well as those seeking information at home, in the office, at tourist centres, etc. The concept will develop two major products as follows:1. The EurEauMap will be a hand-held device that can be mounted on a boat, cycle, wheelchair, etc., providing users with locationally aware information such as:places of interest, refreshment/entertainment establishments- retail outlets, marinas, chandlers, fuel, water and refuse points, etc.- angling/rambling/cycling/jogging/

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wildlife information- disabled access standards and information on accessibility. It will be triggered by GPS or bankside devices to provide the user local information. The EEM data will be accessible interactively, pre-fetched at key points or pre-loaded from the Portal prior to a visit/trip. The design will be based on state-of-the-art 3G telecommunications, PDA and positioning systems.2. The EurEauWeb Portal: will establish a single point of entry for worldwide access to information on European waterways. It will link European waterways authorities/associations web sites and other web sites connected with leisure use of waterways.- The EurEauMap will aim to provide 2-way communications, so that in addition to information provision to the user, they will have the means to contact relevant authorities, associations, etc. for problem/incident reporting, etc. This should enable waterways authorities and the like to improve their ability to properly maintain the waterways environment. This functionality should also help in safeguarding the waterways environment for all users.

Milestones: The major milestones are associated with delivery of the main project components and the output validation and verification results. These are (end of month):Month 04: Requirements Specification by Project Advisory Committee Month 07: High Level Design and Test Plan Month 06: Technology Implementation Plan, first version & Marketing Strategy Month 08: Digital mapping first version Month 12: Use of Portal prototype for initial web-based marketing activities Month 19: EurEauMap prototype Month 25: EurEauMap demonstrator Month 26: Services Detection and Distribution demonstrator Month 31: Portal final release Month 32: EurEauMap final release Month 33: Final demonstration system, integrated with the databases and service functionality Month 37: Delivery of the populated database Month 42: Successful demonstration of EurEauWeb system to users; Technology Implementation Plan.

Contact point: Name: KELLY Michael Organisation: UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK - NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, CORK Address: WESTERN ROAD CORK IRELAND Tel : 214904594 Fax : (353-21)4902996 e-mail : [email protected]

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Participant Name UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK - NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, CORK BRITISH WATERWAYS BOARD FRAUNHOFER GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V. LANCELL SYSTEMS S.L. RADICALMEDIA - DESENVOLVIMENTO, PRODUCAO E COMERCIALIZACAO DE MULTIMEDIA SA SOCIETA CONSORTILE A RESPONSABILITA LIMITATA CENTRO DI RICERCA, SVILUPPO E STUDI SUPERIORI IN SARDEGNA

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Start date: 01-Mar-2002 Duration: 42 months Total Cost: 4,809,306 EURO EC Contribution: 2,833,642 EURO

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FETISH - ETF IST-1999-13015 Federate European Tourism Information System Harmonization - Engineering Task Force Key Action: KA1 Action line: Systems and services for tourism Project Abstract: FETISH will support the definition of architectural solutions for an interoperable network of European information systems and services, the development of interoperability modules between information systems and services and the cluster vertical RTD project to place in action interoperable mechanism in the most sensible areas of Tourism Information Technologies. This action will establish an ETF (engineering task force), preferably composed of scientists, engineers and business experts. FETISH project aims to provide the mechanisms, the infrastructure, the knowledge and the means to the projects which would to participate to the Federated European Tourism Information System. The system will appear as a set of services that are available, simply and uniformly regardless of how they are implemented or where they are. By providing a well-established distributed computing platform which takes advantage of the possibility to share application and services running on a variety of platforms, users will see performance and reliability gains from applications designed to use this approach. To promote a self-sustainable set of IST-based services which use the existing network of information, FETISH aims to define the high level open architecture model that supports and encourages the production of reliable distributed platform-independent services. It will define interoperability and interconnection mechanisms enabling information systems, services, users to share services, resources and information over the network, without modifying the structure of the information or the technical system.

Objectives: The overall goal of FETISH is to turn the fragmented tourism information systems and the IST-based value-added services (the ones produced by the EC-funded projects together with existing and future ones) in a federated distributed group of resources that appears to the users as a single system, demonstrating the possibility to provide an easy and common access to a critical mass of European resources and services. While these components are distinct, preserving their brand, ownership and business, they are interrelated, which can blur the distinction from the user level. The Federated European Tourism Information System will be the result of this action, with a critical mass of distributed information and services, providing a strong impact at European level. The development of an open federated network of IST systems and services is viewed at EU level as means for the growth of tourism industries, offering more specific and tailored tourism solutions for them.

Description of the Work: The federation will have a major impact if numerous separated and distinct "federation citizens" participate. A "citizen" of the federation could be anything or anybody which/who provides and/or offers information, services or resources to the federation. The outcome will be a network of services and applications which enable the re-use and sharing of the same components, methodologies, and information in a European picture. The cluster approach suggested for the IST and tourism area aims 33

to cluster the R&D projects implementing IST-based value-added services launched within the action line I.6.3, making them join the federation on a volunteer basis to exploit and complement other federated services (20 are envisaged). A large set of regional tourism information servers (more than 30) are already federated and could provide information to new services. In addition, the new services offer the information servers new opportunities for information to be exploited, and the clustered European projects will act as initiators and catalysts of the federation process. FETISH aims to support the project by providing the federation infrastructure; an analysis of the additional interoperability modules needed to be implemented by the project for joining and interacting with the federation; the guidelines and the funding to allow them to implement these interoperability modules; and the guidance and the knowledge to define new distributed business models for exploitation alongside other "citizens" of the federation. An Engineer and Business Task Force (EBTF) will be set up to assist the project in the integration of the technological systems, and to provide the implementation of distributed business processes and the implementation of virtual enterprise mechanisms. FETISH aims not only to integrate data but will have as its main objective the seamless integration of processes and services, identifying a service community in a context where processes and services will be shared.

Milestones: Characteristics of the information systems which are federated (semantics of data, conceptual data model, business references and agreements, contact points, interoperability modules implemented, and services provided). Characteristics of the value-added services which are joined to the federation. A repository and a description of a semantic harmonised sets of data. The archive of implemented interoperability modules. High level architecture and federation mechanism. Quality control rules guidelines.

Contact point: Name: GIORGETTI Mauro Organisation: T6 PICCOLA SOCIETA COOPERATIVA A RESPONSABILITA LIMITATA Address: VIA GENOVA 30 00184 ROMA ITALY Tel : 06 478 23 286 Fax : 06 478 82 798 e-mail : [email protected]

List of Participants Participant Name CONSIGLIO NAZIONALE DELLE RICERCHE FUNDACION IBIT HELLENIC TELECOMMUNICATION AND TELEMATICS APPLICATION COMPANY S.A. ICEP PORTUGAL - INVESTIMENTO, COMERCIO E TURISMO NEWTRADE TECHNOLOGIES INC. SUN MICROSYSTEMS IBERICA, S.A. UNIPERSONAL UNINOVA - INSTITUTO DE DESENVOLVIMENTO DE NOVAS

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TECNOLOGIAS UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM DEUTSCHES ZENTRUM FUER LUFT- UND RAUMFAHRT E.V. T6 PICCOLA SOCIETA COOPERATIVA A RESPONSABILITA LIMITATA

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Start date: 01-Jan-2000 Duration: 30 months Total Cost: 1,746,645 EURO EC Contribution: 1,453,514 EURO

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GUIDEFREE IST-1999-21055 Guide by Telematics to Enable Tourist Freedom at Sites Key Action: KA1 Action line: Systems and services for tourism Project Abstract: GUIDEFREE seeks to bring customised site information to the independent tourist traveller, every time and at every location, focusing on visits of tourist sites. The user will access the information prior to or during a trip, at any geographical location, to receive immediate description of a site during a visit or decide on a total tourist visitmobility schedule, i.e., how and when to visit a site and each station/exhibit, or not to visit at all. By supporting intelligent searching and integration of information from different sources, the project maximises individual freedom, increases the effectiveness of all types of tourist visits, promote rationalisation of tourist travel, and allows the reduction of negative effects from structured guidance or lack of information on tourist freedom.

Objectives: The objectives of GUIDEFREE are to: - integrate tourism, access, geographical, multimedia and other data for use by tourists prior to and during visits at sites, - adjust and transform the integrated data to suitable format for flexible use by tourists, - assist tourists in using the integrated data, - develop customised data mining methods to aid searching by tourists at sites, and - test and assess the new interactive methods on site, based on mobile and fixed access.

Description of the Work: The project will develop and test off-line or on-line: - Integrated databases for use prior to and during site visits by tourists, to improve the effectiveness of tourist information and management systems as indicated by the richness of the project archive and other tourist measures of performance. - Improved customised data mining methods to aid searching by tourists at sites. - Integration of tourist information and management strategies, which, aided by personalised support methods that allow service interaction, could lead to more-extended, operational integration of tourist services. - Interoperable components to be adapted to an evolving federation of interconnected services. Such components will be integral parts of services of specific scope in content and quality, and will lead to increased potential for commercialisation. The project will assess its product at four sites, two in Greece, one in Italy, and one in Austria.

Milestones: The project will develop data integration disciplines, data transformation schemes, methods for guiding users in the use of the integrated data, customised data mining methods, and mobile-access and fixed-access methods for integrating the new personalised, interactive services for advanced tourist information and management. Further, the project will develop the open architecture that includes the above methods and tools, design a prototype, and conduct testing and evaluation of the prototype with off-line and on-line field data. Preliminary results, including preliminary versions of the testing method and the prototype under development, will be available at the end of the first year of the project. 36

Contact point: Name: STEPHANEDES Yorgos Organisation: HELLENIC TELECOMMUNICATION AND TELEMATICS APPLICATION COMPANY S.A. Address: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PARK OF CRETE, VASSILIKA VOUTON 71003 HERAKLION ,CRETE GREECE Tel : +30 81 391200 Fax : +30 81 391207 e-mail : [email protected]

List of Participants Participant Name HELLENIC TELECOMMUNICATION AND TELEMATICS APPLICATION COMPANY S.A. CENTRO PER LO STUDIO DELLE LETTERATURE E CULTURE DELLE AREE EMERGENTI MOSER REISEN GESELLSCHAFT MBH PORI PUHELIN OY PORI SCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY AND ECONOMICS SYSTEMA TECHNOLOGIES S.A. KION MELETITIKI LTD Start date: 01-Oct-2000 Duration: 18 months Total Cost: 2,045,833 EURO EC Contribution: 1,095,497 EURO

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HARMONISE IST-2000-29329 HARMONISE Key Action: KA1 Action line: Intelligent Systems for Improved Tourism and Travel Services Project Abstract: In today's Internet based economy, several major actors and an enormous number of small and medium operators are acting in the tourism environment, working separately but using few large standardised platforms provided by few key actors. One bottleneck of the whole system is that the taxonomy identification of the tourism domains and their semantic description are not able to relate the existing architectures in a unique robust structure. On the other side, the Web with its huge possibilities for newcomers creates new standards where it is nearly impossible to impose standardized communication protocols on a semantic level. Following the past initiatives, it seems clear that it is impossible trying to solve this situation creating a meta standard of the tourism, by standardising the main protocols and ontology. Our strategy is to operate a semantic reconciliation able to harmonize the semantic and technological differences existing among the structures, developing an ontologybased solution. The tourism services will be able to cope with different existing standards thanks to the created mapping among each of them.

Objectives: The aim of Harmonise is to develop: a consensus process that will compose an enlarged task force on Tourism Standards; identification of a minimal set of concept as a starting point for a mediating tourism standard; a reconciliation that allows the different partners to keep their specific ontologies and proprietary data formats, and carry on effective interactions. This solution appears in opposition to previous attempts to gather all these diverse systems under a unique new standard. The central point of the project is the use of a tourism mapping tool representing core concepts of the tourism domain as well as free software mapping algorithms and software that allows the translation between some of the different concrete concept representations. In other words, it will allow the communication partners to keep their proprietary data formats and simultaneously allow interaction. The aim is to allow a dialog among those different protocols, transforming the fragmented services, data and events in a common environment, where those can be easily and transparently distributed with the help of a freely available mediator module.

Description of the Work: A reconciliation among tourism standards will be the result of Harmonise, integrating a critical mass of information and services that are, until now, disperse and supported by non communicating standards, and to others as well. In order to reach this goal, HARMONISE should provide the means for the set-up of technological interoperability and for implementing co-operation models for software processes and for business processes. The work packages are: WP0 Integration of players; WP1 Analysis of tourism standards; WP2 Consensus Process and Minimum Ontology; WP3 Technical and Methodological Support; WP4 Reconciliation methodology, prototype development and validation; WP5 System development and validation; WP6 Marketing, dissemination, networking, business plan and on line access; WP7 Project management. The project is divided into 3 areas. The Umbrella structure and

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the ontology system: WP0, WP1, WP2. The WP0 is the crucial task of Harmonise. During the first six/seven months the proposers will set up the Umbrella structure, i.e., Consortium, gaining the critical mass of key actors of the tourism sector. These actors will join the project as test standard providers. In order to better develop the mapping, it is crucial to have the real perception of the standards in use, trying to understand the existing differences and, thus, the typology of differences, in terms of definitions and process, to be covered by our tool (WP1). Once achieved a critical mass of standards the process will go on trough an analysis, done by the members of the consortium (WP2). Scope of this process is the identification of a minimum set of common terminologies, or also a minimum ontology, described by the means of common objects and their different syntactic description. System development and tool implementation: WP3, WP4, WP5. As a first part, WP3 will identify the proper modelling methodology, used to describe the minimum ontology, which will also serve as the interface means to WP4. Th en we will set up a process in order to merge the ontology and Consensus System with the tourism language (WP3). The following step will develop the basis for the implementation of a real reconciliation tool (WP4) merging the ontology process with the algorithm structure. Finally a real mapping tool (WP5) will be used on the standards collected during the first months, the tool will be an operative engineered product available on the market. Dissemination and Management: WP6, WP7. These two WPs are horizontal WPs that will support the process to link itself to the market. The role of the WP7 is, of course, also a management task for the entire project, and its aim is to integrate the different souls of the project.

Milestones: The main expected results and milestones of Harmonise project are: 1. Set up an integrate process with the main European tourism key actors (month 6/7). 2. Produce an exhaustive analysis of existing tourism ontologies (month 6/7). 3. Reaching a Consensus System among the actors involved in the process (month 12). 4. Setting up and testing this mapping algorithms with a prototype (month 14). 5. Develop ontology mapping among several standards, demonstrating and verifying the tool effectiveness in some important tourism standards (month 18).

Contact point: Name: WERTHNER Hannes Organisation: ISTITUTO TRENTINO DI CULTURA Address: VIA SOMMARIVE 18 38050 POVO - TRENTO ITALY Tel : +39 - 0461-314578 Fax : +39 - 0461-302040 e-mail : [email protected]

List of Participants R Cou ol ntry e C I O C I R C P R

Participant Name ISTITUTO TRENTINO DI CULTURA CONSIGLIO NAZIONALE DELLE RICERCHE ICEP PORTUGAL - INVESTIMENTO, COMERCIO E TURISMO

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INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND TOURISM (IFITT) - INTERNATIONALE FOEDERATION FUER INFORMATIONSTECHNOLOGIE UND TOURISMUS

A

LINK CONSULTING - TECNOLOGIAS DE INFORMACAO S.A.

P

C R

C R C I R M SF B M A B M F B EU M R B

T6 PICCOLA SOCIETA COOPERATIVA A RESPONSABILITA LIMITATA FINNISH TOURIST BOARD FORSCHUNGSVEREIN E-COMMERCE COMPETENCE CENTER - EC3 MAISON DE LA FRANCE NATIONAL TOURIST ORGANISATIONS

Start date: 01-Jul-2001 Duration: 24 months Total Cost: 1,942,906 EURO EC Contribution: 1,942,906 EURO

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HI-TOUCH IST-1999-57452 E-ORGANISATIONAL METHODOLOGY AND TOOLS FOR INTRA-EUROPEAN SUSTAINABLE TOURISM Key Action: KA1 Action line: Transport and tourism Project Abstract: The marketing of tourism products to customers currently proceeds through sales assistants of travel agencies. The tools are brochures, flyers, or publicity media. Tourism products are very numerous. Customers have a large variety of wishes and needs. The adequacy between the desires of the customer and the products proposed, strongly depends on the extent of the sales assistant experience. In addition not all sales assistants are able to take the psychology of the customer into account. The aim of the Hi-Touch project is to develop software tools to be used by travel agency sales assistants for providing a tourist prospect with the best adapted offer. As a matter of fact, large tourist operators have already set up homepages or market places. But they are mostly aimed at selling tickets. Complex, standard or customised packages are hardly to be found on the net. The new tools to be developed will not only be of direct use in travel agencies but will also be accessible on-line for staff. They will namely benefit to customised and regional tourism.

Objectives: The general objective of the Hi-Touch project is to deliver a range of assistance tools, based on ITC new tools (XML, Java, Flash, ..., ontological data bases and semantic descriptors, multi-lingual thesaurus) allowing a potential client to select efficiently and rapidly a set of products matching his concrete wishes and expectations. In the meantime, to provide incoming tourism organisations and travel agencies tools able to develop appropriate responses -even complex- based on regional resources, selling more efficiently their own products and assessing the general trends of the tourism demand. Main industrial and economic objectives are to propose prototypes of: 1. An interactive game process allowing a prospect to express his real desires and expectations with behavioural descriptors. 2. A software engine able to create the relation between the profile of a prospect and a small set of regional products proposed by different actors. 3. An electronic and multimedia book showing a list of selected products adapted to the profile of a prospect; 4. A tool allowing receptive organisations to collect on the regional information bases characterised by the above items and to feed a structured hierarchical database. 5. A database of prospects profiles for travel agencies aimed to the design of new local tourism offers precisely adapted to different types of requirements. 6. A collaborative tourism platform based on semantic web technologies. Hi-Touch is based on a tourist problem solving approach and must lead to operational and qualified services; it will not address all interesting services: the platform will be open, allowing implementation of further modules which will be implemented in a next step (ex: Geographic Information system, fully electronic sales, etc.).

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Description of the Work: Hi-Touch includes 7 end-user SMEs from the tourism sector in Spain, Italy, France, the UK, and Norwegian that will specify, test and exploit the results provided by 3 RTD performers in France and the UK. The project comprises the following workpackages: 1. Refinement of specifications as to the goals and functionalities required in the tools and in the integrated platform 2. Develop an interactive profiling tool for the characterisation and qualification of desires and expectations of tourists. It will allow an Internet surfer to specify and refine his questions according to the answers he already received 3. Semantic database: multi-lingual thesaurus, inventory of tourism resources etc. Implementation of authoring tools on the semantic database 4. Conception of the query process and distributed data bases, will result in query tools using metrics content structure as well as the selection of a tool for managing the parallel processing of queries on semantic data bases 5. Development of a multilingual thesaurus to be used for queries and for delivering an answers to prospects 6. Development of a tool for basic products profiling and of a tool for matching prospect desires with product profile 7. Design of an interface for the presentation of answers and proposals to the prospect. The data will be automatically fed into a Kee Boo and sent on-line, in real time to the prospect 8. Integration of all the components into a collaborative tourism platform for direct use by tourism actors and Internet surfers 9. The full system will be first implemented at two partners for checking that the HiTouch prototype meets its objectives. Other partners will then test the system on regions they are working with. An assessment and evaluation of the project results will be made. Preparation of validated e-learning material as well as of manuals for executives and trainers 10. Management of the project, preparation of a consortium agreement with exploitation and IPR clauses. It is expected that its results will progressively be disseminated to other EU member States than those of the consortium, in particular those which are large providers of Trans-European tourists such as Germany or the Netherlands, and those which are significant incoming countries such as the southern European countries.

Milestones: Functional and technical specifications at month 3. Mini thesaurus at month 4. Tested profiling tool at month 8. Semantic database at month 8. Designed interface at month 10. Answer generation at month 11. Query tools at month 14. Collaborative tourism platform at month 20. Validated system at month 24.

Contact point: Name: DECONCLOIS Daniel Organisation: VISIOLAB Address: RUE DU CHANT DES OISEAUX 5 78360 MONTESSON FRANCE Tel : +33 1 30 15 78 82 Fax : +33 1 30 15 78 01 e-mail : [email protected]

List of Participants Participant Name VISIOLAB AM SYSTEM, SOCIEDAD LIMITADA EVENT TRAVEL GROUP AS FRANCE-ANGLETERRE LIMITED

Country F E N UK

Role CO CR CR CR

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SISTEMA TURISMO S.R.L. VIRGINIA TOUR, SOCIEDAD LIMITADA VOYAGE EN FRANCE ADVANCE E-WAY LIMITED CERAM SOPHIA ANTIPOLIS MONDECA

I E F UK F F

CR CR CR RP RP RP

Start date: 01-Sep-2002 Duration: 24 months Total Cost: 572,000 EURO EC Contribution: 286,000 EURO

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HYPERGEO IST-1999-11641 Easy and friendly access to geographic information for mobile users Key Action: KA3 Action line: Content management and personalisation Project Abstract: HYPERGEO aims at providing technical tools to enable value-added information services related to geographic information, HYPERGEO will: study and develop advanced information technology components to improve information systems efficiency and user friendliness, study new methods to make efficient use of remote geographic information, in particular for mobile users, demonstrate the performances of the developed components through a representative scenario, show possible extension to other information systems applications and define possible models for deployment and operation.

Objectives: HYPERGEO aims at providing technical tools to enable value-added information services related to Geographic information. HYPERGEO name shows that the project handles both information (HYPER or Hypertext) and geography (GEO). The technical objectives are to develop and integrate, in single system, innovative software components enabling the users to formulate advance requests, to access information in both pull and push modes, and to display the information in efficient "multi-layered" form. The business objective is to prepare the way for innovative services offerings for primarily for mobile needing to access geographic information for their activity. Mobile users is the main, but not exclusive, target. It will also be applied to fixed users, being interested in geographic information. Detailed objectives are: Study and develop advanced information technology components to improve information systems efficiency and user friendliness. Study new methods to make efficient use of remote geographic information, in particular for mobile users. Demonstrate the performances through a Tourism Information system because its requirements are very representative. Show possible extension to other information systems applications and define possible models for operation.

Description of the Work: The HYPERGEO workplan includes the following activities: Research and development activities: Research and development activities for “human centred” information technology in following areas : - Distributed information access and management (data mining) - Advanced request tool, including natural language processing. - User profile and preferences, including geographic location. - Improved Information presentation (with geographic attributes) and access (security/privacy). Four components, covering the above issues, will be developed. Their definition, the technological solutions and the interfaces will allow reuse in various applications. Prototyping activities: A Tourism Information Service prototype, built on the above components combining: - A server, linked to distributed and remote information resources. - A terminal, for exploitation before the travel (fixed terminal at home or for professional users) and during the travel (mobile terminal). Market and business activities : developments will be made after a users needs synthesis. It will be validated during demonstrations, in which end users and operators are involved. 44

Results and performances assessment task will also show how HYPERGEO results contribute to various information services. Two ways of promoting these results are foreseen: through technological products development, or through information services deployment.

Milestones: HYPERGEO milestones are: a requirement review (users requirement, system design), a mid term review (first version of the software components), a review of the first experimentation activities, a final review (final experimentation results, exploitation plan, results dissemination). The project duration is 24 months The project team groups 9 partners, including Information Technology suppliers, research laboratories, and users.

Contact point: Name: DENIS Gil Organisation: EADS SYSTEMS & DEFENCE ELECTRONICS Address: FRANCE Tel : 5 62 19 55 05 Fax : 5 62 19 59 59 e-mail : [email protected]

List of Participants Participant Name EADS SYSTEMS & DEFENCE ELECTRONICS ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI CAS SOFTWARE AG CITY UNIVERSITY LONDON INSTITUT JOZEF STEFAN MAP & GUIDE GMBH NOUVELLES FRONTIERES ESPANA, S.A E DO MINHO UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION IN HRADEC KRALOVE, FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CENTRE EUROPEEN DES TECHNOLOGIES DE L'INFORMATION EN MILIEU RURAL

Count Rol ry e F CO GR CR D CR UK CR SI CR D CR E CR P CR CZ

CR

F

AC

Start date: 01-Jan-2000 Duration: 24 months Total Cost: 2,854,834 EURO EC Contribution: 1,693,376 EURO

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MTM IST-1999-11100 MULTIMEDIA TERMINAL MOBILE Key Action: CPA Action line: CPA1: Integrated applications platforms and services Project Abstract: The MTM project will design and produce a multimedia terminal which includes the general functionality of a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a Wireless Telephone, a Video camera, and a portable personal computer (PC). This terminal will be tested through the implementation of enhanced wireless services that will be deployed by private and public companies as well as by end users.

Objectives: The main objective is to introduce the next generation of terminal communication. Through a multimedia terminal, it will be possible to talk using a new technology broadband transmission (third generation of GSM) and in the meantime to watch the person with whom the user is talking. MTM will integrate technologies with the aim of demonstrating the development of a terminal with added value services geared towards the emerging of applications such as data and video signal exchange based on IP protocol, Internet access, e-mail, voice messaging, teleradiology for remote consultation.

Description of the Work: The work plan is based on four basic activities, and hence of work packages: Management Work package - it represents activities that are general to the project or need to be conducted for the full duration of the project; it includes project management, contacts with the European Commission, meetings and reviews. Technical Work packages - these represent specific development activities of service applications, which are necessary in order to fulfil the objectives of MTM in the different user areas. The applications will demonstrate that different environments may use the same terminal, which represents the integration of several technologies. Technology Development Work package - this represents the base on which to build the wireless broadband transmission, from HW PDA to W-CDMA circuits, to RF modules for UMTS connection. User Test-Bed Work package - It represents the most important milestone for this project in order to validate and demonstrate the usability of the terminal.

Milestones: The major result expected by MTM project is to build a prototype that will be the platform on which to implement a range of functions in the next future. This project will produce a solution that is directly exploitable to the customers. The most important steps are to develop a high layer on W-CDMA, service application development and system integration, and a UMTS connection terminal prototype.

Contact point: Name: Organisation: Address:

Carla Cirillo Comune di Roma Dir CentrServizi Tecnologici e Reti Informative Europeo Piazza del Campidoglio 1 00186 Roma ITALY

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Tel.: +39/066/7103884 Fax: +39/066/9941582 Email: [email protected]

List of Participants Participant Name COMUNE DI ROMA DEUTSCHES KREBSFORSCHUNGSZENTRUM MATLA SYSTEM, S.L. POINTERCOM SRL SIRIUS COMMUNICATIONS NV SISTEMAS EXPERTOS, S.A. STEINBEIS GMBH & CO. FUER TECHNOLOGIETRANSFER POLITECNICA DE MADRID UNIVERSITE DE AVIGNON - LIA CLINICA FEMENIA CLINICA NUESTRA SENORA DEL ROSARIO

Country I D E I B E D E F E E

Start date: 01-Jan-2000 Duration: 24 months Total Cost: 4,619,548 EURO EC Contribution: 2,625,000 EURO

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Role CO CR CR CR CR CR CR CR CR AC AC

MOBILE TOURIST GUIDE IST-2001-36004 Mobile Tourism Guide Key Action: KA1 Action line: Best practice and trials in transport and tourism Project Abstract: The m-ToGuide project is targeted for the European tourism market and will offer tourists a broad array of information and services. A portable, handheld terminal is used to exchange information between the m-ToGuide system and the tourist. GSM/GPRS cellular telephone networks and the Internet provide the transmission backbone of the system. All information and services delivered to the tourist will be relevant to his/her specific location (location-based) and tailored to that end-user's personal profile. Three European cities will host the system's field trials Ultimately, the m-ToGuide project is striving to achieve the commercial implementation of an end-to-end, state-of-the-art, mobile tourist service. Tourists require accurate, current and relevant information about a multitude of topics, e.g. sites, accommodations, restaurants, performances, schedules, routes, guide support, history. Such need clearly indicates the great potential for use by tourists of travel and touring information and related services. The innovation of the m-ToGuide service is that it is a current, comprehensive and mobile electronic tourist information guide. The tourist has available to him/her the most relevant and current data. Use of m-ToGuide enables its user to gain immediate access to information or services that he/she is seeking, e.g. attractions, shopping, places of interest, directions. For instance, the m-ToGuide can show the tourist his/her location, using the most suitable format of map or photograph. It might then direct him/her to the next point and identify the best method of available transportation. Further, m-ToGuide would propose a list of worthwhile attractions or entertainment options which are near-by and relevant in time. Should the tourist accept, m-ToGuide would propose purchasing him/her tickets or placing a reservation. The m-ToGuide system incorporates intelligent decision processing. This capability accounts for an individual's needs, based on established personal criteria, and then delivers information tailored for the recipient. The system can suggest service promotions and deals to the tourist, again, relevant to his/her location, available time and personal profile. m-ToGuide's strength is in its completeness in addressing the tourist's information needs, thus dramatically improving the satisfaction that one can derive from his/her trip.

Objectives: The aim is to promote the development and deployment of innovative 2.5G and, eventually, 3G wireless applications & services for mobile tourists at a pan-European level, thus promoting the use of 2.5G/3G cellular networks. It requires combining the needs of the tourism market with the existing commercial 2.5G GPRS networks, expanding the use of broadband wireless data. This will naturally promote the need for 3G UMTS, once commercially available. While designing the m-ToGuide system, specific attention will be paid to forward compatibility with UMTS. Technology objectives of m-ToGuide are: end-to-end value-added services implementation on 2.5G GSM/GPRS while accounting for future, 3G UMTS compatibility; support 48

mobile roaming for wireless data providing tourists with a seamless data service; service customization for the tourist, based on defined personal profiles; mobile commerce, multilingual environment, privacy and security; trial the system in diverse tourist environments. As system application, m-ToGuide must integrate a mobile, location-based tourist info service that supplies personalized content from multiple providers. Info personalization is provided by "intelligent" decision processing and content can be audio, video and text. The m-ToGuide application objectives are: maintain up-to-date information; location-based services related to the tourist's status in place and time; high quality multimedia format; tour planning; audio-visual tour guiding; routing and orientation capabilities; reservation & ticketing services; promotions, special offers and discounts. The final intention is an economically sustainable model of commercial value. The opportunities the system creates for effective information delivery, its utility and ease of use must appeal to two groups: the tourists and the tourism industry, the system's primary customer. The business objective then is to verify the validity of the service model and generate market demand for such a system.

Description of the Work: The m-ToGuide work plan divides the project into 10 work components (Work Packages); these components distinguish between business related processes and technical related processes. 6 components are business processes and 4 components are technical processes. The components reflect a logical, step-by-step process flow. Initially, a thorough analysis is performed in order to define the system requirements and the business model (WP2, 3). This effort feeds into the system design process (WP4) which then results in the development of each of the major entities (WP5, 6). Upon completion of the previous two work components, a full system build-up and integration in the lab occurs (WP7). Following this lab integration is the system's field trial (WP8). The measurement and evaluation component (WP9) will be used to monitor the field trial, analyze its results and evaluate the system. Project management (WP1) provides overall, project process control, synchronization and monitoring. Knowledge transfer of the project's products and experiences is accomplished by the exploitation and dissemination component (WP10).

Milestones: M1: m-ToGuide Business Model Design Review (BDR); M2: m-ToGuide System Critical Design Review (CDR); M3: Integration of the system's application and content; M4: Final Evaluation of the Trial

Contact point: Name: GABAY Chanan Organisation: MOTOROLA ISRAEL LTD. Address: KERMENETSKI ST. 16 67899 TEL-AVIV ISRAEL Tel : 972 (51) 204 568 Fax : 972 (3) 565 9554 e-mail : [email protected]

List of Participants Participant Name MOTOROLA ISRAEL LTD. AMTEC SPA DMR CONSULTING (ESTRAGEGIA Y TECHNOLOGIAS DE LA

Countr y ISR I E 49

Role CO CR CR

INFORMACION) S.L. FUNDACION ROBOTIKER ISO GMBH INGENIEURBUERO FUER SOFTWARE-ENTWICKLUNG UND EDV-BERATUNG LOCATIONET SYSTEMS 2000 LTD. REGULUS S.P.A TELEFONICA MOVILES ESPANA S.A. WIND TELECOMUNICAZIONI S.P.A. ANTENNA AUDIO LIMITED RACE NET S.A. STIFTELSEN STOCKHOLM INFORMATION SERVICE TARGETIZE INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS LTD. THOMAS COOK AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT TRAVELFUSION LIMITED UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI SIENA YELLOWMAP AG

E

CR

D

CR

ISR I E I UK E S ISR D UK I D

CR CR CR CR MB MB MB MB MB MB MB MB

Start date: 01-May-2002 Duration: 18 months Total Cost: 10,135,992 EURO EC Contribution: 5,644,371 EURO

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ODIN IST-1999-70498 Geographic Distributed Information Tools and Services for the Mobile Information Society Key Action: CPA Action line: CPA1: Integrated applications platforms and services Project Abstract: The ODIN project aims at developing innovative paradigms for the design of open, distributed, and networked tools to boost the integration of an entire new class of justin-time, interactive, value-added, map-based and personalised services for the mobile citizen (tourist, entrepreneur, commuter, farmer, etc.). ODIN will provide citizen/tourist/SMEs in rural areas with easy mobile access to just-in-time, geo-spatial Web applications (intelligently integrating administrative, business, environment, transport, weather, culture & leisure information with e-commerce purchasing, booking and payment) to improve quality of life and raise business in the regions targeted by the project. The industrial strength of ODIN lies in the collaborative work of a complementary set of medium-sized IST System Integrators, Mobile Telecommunication Operators and major IST Developers in digital information and Geographic Information Systems. ODIN also includes committed Regional Service Providers [Public administrations, local authorities] with a deep interest in the rationalisation and cost-effectiveness of their operations through the use of the ODIN platforms and services.

Objectives: The ODIN project aims at developing innovative paradigms for the design of open, distributed, and networked tools to boost the integration of an entire new class of justin-time, interactive, value-added, map-based and personalised services for the mobile citizen (tourist, entrepreneur, commuter, farmer, etc.). ODIN will provide citizen/tourist/SMEs in rural areas with easy mobile access to just-in-time, geo-spatial Web applications (intelligently integrating administrative, business, environment, transport, weather, culture & leisure information with e-commerce purchasing, booking and payment) to improve quality of life and raise business in the regions targeted by the project. The industrial strength of ODIN lies in the collaborative work of a complementary set of medium-sized IST System Integrators, Mobile Telecommunication Operators and major IST Developers in digital information and Geographic Information Systems. ODIN also includes committed Regional Service Providers [Public administrations, local authorities] with a deep interest in the rationalisation and cost-effectiveness of their operations through the use of the ODIN platforms and services.

Description of the Work: With the cellular market in Europe reaching its maturity, the growing competitive pressure is causing mobile telecom operators to increasingly target the mass market, yet also paying particular attention to the needs of their high-value business subscribers, by launching tailor-made services to suit the needs of everyone. Innovative offerings, launching of new ranges of voice and data value-added (internet) services targeting the growing market of handheld digital wireless devices, are issued at rocket speed. In parallel, the development of new map-based web-service paradigms based on high degree of integration information (resulting from different, 51

networked information), interactivity, and personalisation (while delivered on conventional fixed network and devices) such as those issued by the IA 1011 TITAN project (4th Framework Programme), have been proven successful in large European rural areas. Within the long-medium term future, we envisage a situation where a growing demand of just-in-time, map-based, integrated and tailored Web-based information services will be arisen by the increasingly mobile citizen (worker, tourist, entrepreneur, farmer, etc.) As a matter of fact, this situation poses a number of new integration problems to be tackled. ODIN is to satisfy these emerging requirements. The project will firstly undertake the definition of a global system architecture for the delivering platform and services compliant to the guidelines ISO/ODP (Open Distributed Processing) 10746, and, specifically contributing to the work of the ISO TC-211/OpenGIS Consortium set up to define standards on spatial data interoperability (some of the ODIN participants are active partners within this Consortium). Then, the specification and implementation of an integrated ODIN Toolkit able to access spatial and non-spatial information sources by means of the XML/Java power and to visualise them just-in-time and dynamically over wireless hand-held devices, will be carried out.

Milestones: ODIN is based on concrete work to be carried out in four European regions, and the expected main results include the 1) Specification and implementation of the Information Connector, Information Manager and Information Visualisation networked and interoperable tools 2) Specification, implementation and validation of advanced services to improve citizens quality of life through the provision of applications specifically devoted serve the mobile user. Extensive Demonstration (6 months) of the services being provided, establishing project benefits (covering assessment of technical results, usability, and cost-effectiveness, and impact as well) and innovation’s transferability to other places will be performed.

Contact point: Name: FONDENES Jostein Organisation: FYLKESMANNEN I SOGN OG FJORDANE Address: Skrivarvegen 3, 6863 Leikanger Norway Tel : +47 57 65 50 00 Fax : +47 57 65 50 55 e-mail : [email protected]

List of Participants Participant Name FYLKESMANNEN I SOGN OG FJORDANE AAT ANALYSIS AUTOMATION TRADING SRL AUTODESK GMBH EIRCELL LTD EMPHASIS SYSTEMS AE STIFTINGA VESTLANDSFORSKING T&T S.P.A TELECOM ITALIA MOBILE S.P.A. TELENOR COMMUNICATION AS THE NATIONAL MICROELECTRONICS APPLICATIONS CENTRE LTD

Country Role N CO I CR D CR IRL CR GR CR N CR I CR I CR N CR IRL CR

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AGENZIA REGIONALE PER LA PROTEZIONE AMBIENTALE DELLA TOSCANA EGNATIA EPIRUS FOUNDATION ENNIS INFORMATION AGE TOWN LTD REGION OF EPIRUS SOGN OG FJORDANE FYLKESKOMMUNE T & T TARDITO IMPIANTI S.R.L.

I

AC

GR IRL GR N I

AC AC AC AC CS

Start date: 01-Apr-2000 Duration: 30 months Total Cost: 956,848 EURO EC Contribution: 350,959 EURO

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PALIO IST-1999-20656 Personalised Access to Local Information and services for tOurists Key Action: KA1 Action line: Systems and services for tourism Project Abstract: Tourism is one of the major European economical, cultural and social enterprises. However, information and services are often inadequate to the user needs and requests. Tourists are usually projected into an unknown environment where it is difficult to identify services points. At the same time, information and service needs are commonly in real time. At present, tourist information is mainly based on paper guide or on information points in relevant tourist positions. Therefore, this is a static source of information. The PALIO project will design an open communication and information architecture to support tourists for an efficient navigation and interaction in a physical space. It aims to permit the implementation and the usability of new services in a transparent way for the user.

Objectives: The aim and ambition of this project is to provide new and free tourist services, directly available for tourists and citizens by developing and implementing complex data systems with user friendly and personalized interfaces. The design of the PALIO service is driven by the combination of some new concepts as: personalisation, accessibility anytime, from anywhere and with any communication technology, realtime interactions. These objectives will be achieved through the development of some technological and service innovations and in particular: - Integration of mobile and fixed telecommunication networks; - Methodologies and technologies for the design of scalable and personalised access, information and services; - Tools for service personalisation and for interaction through mobile and portable terminals.

Description of the Work: The PALIO system is based on the concurrent adoption of the following concepts: Integration of different (wireless and wired) telecommunication technologies to offer services through both fixed terminals in public spaces and mobile personal terminals (e.g., mobile phones, PDAs, laptops); - Location awareness to modify dynamically the information presented, according to user position; - Adaptation of the contents to provide automatically various presentations depending on user requirements, needs, preferences; - Scalability of the information to different communication technologies and terminals. - Interoperability between different service providers in both the envisaged wireless network and the World Wide Web. The possibility of having mobile access to the Internet will allow the development of a virtual Geographic Information System (GIS) that will assist tourists during their visits. PALIO will allow a mobile access to multimedia services through both well deployed technologies, such as the GSM phase + standard (which provides high bit-rate packetswitched data services with the General Packet Radio data Service, GPRS) and new mobile technologies, as the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, UMTS. In particular, an open architecture will be designed that will be able to inter-operate with both GSM (in a first phase) and UMTS (in a second phase). The integration of emerging technologies will permit scalability and flexibility of the communication 54

architecture. The new information service will be specifically tailored for the mobile environment envisaged by the PALIO project. The Augmented Virtual City (AVC) system will be able to adapt the information contents to the access technology used (e.g., PC, kiosk, PDA, mobile phone), network characteristics (e.g., GSM or UMTS) and the abilities, requirements and preferences of individual users, freeing them from technological and physical constraints.

Milestones: For PALIO realization four main phases have been identified, mainly oriented to the foreseen experiments: - Identification of user requirements and applications: context analysis, scenarios, user requirements, application requirements; - System design: hardware and software platforms, system architecture, adaptation of communication and information technologies; - Implementation of hardware and software modules of the information system; - Integration, test and validation of the whole system.

Contact point: Name: RAVIZZA Riccardo Organisation: ASSIOMA S.P.A. Address: VIA FLAMINIA 160 00196 ROMA ITALY Tel : 06 326 4981 Fax : 06 323 1127 e-mail : mailto:

List of Participants Participant Name ASSIOMA S.P.A. CONSIGLIO NAZIONALE DELLE RICERCHE FOUNDATION FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY - HELLAS FRAUNHOFER GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V. GMD - FORSCHUNGSZENTRUM INFORMATIONSTECHNIK GMBH HELLENIC TELECOMMUNICATION AND TELEMATICS APPLICATION COMPANY S.A. MA SYSTEMS AND CONTROL LIMITED TELECOM ITALIA MOBILE S.P.A. UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI SIENA COMUNE DI FIRENZE COMUNE DI SIENA

Countr y I I GR

CO CR CR

D

CR

D

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GR

CR

UK I I I I

CR CR CR AC AC

Start date: 01-Nov-2000 Duration: 30 months Total Cost: 3,380,591 EURO EC Contribution: 1,814,839 EURO

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PARAMOUNT IST-2000-30158 Public SAfety & CommeRcial Info-Mobility Applications & Services in the MOUNTains Key Action: CPA Action line: CPA3: Ubiquitous and intelligent info-mobility and geo-information systems

Project Abstract: Hiking is one of the major sporting activities in mountainous regions, e.g. the Pyrenees or Alps. PARAMOUNT is a project funded within the European Commission IST fifth framework program with the main objective to develop a prototype for an info-mobility service for mountaineers and hikers. Therefore a combination of telecommunications (GSM/UMTS) and satellite navigation (GNSS) with geographic information systems (GIS) is used for delivering various information to the user and increasing the safety of the user. The two major components of the system are a mobile device carried around by the user and a set of services provided by the PARAMOUNT servers. The communication between those two components will be assured by state of the art telecommunication technologies. Furthermore research will be made on the regional availability of GSM, GNSS and GIS data in the Pyrenees and Alps to identify regions in which such a service could be tested and commercially exploited.

Objectives: PARAMOUNT aims at developing a prototype for a user-friendly info-mobility service for over 150 Mio mountaineers in the EU by combining telecom (GSM/UMTS) and satellite navigation (GNSS) with geographic info systems. A mobile digital TourGuide (a smartphone like) device which is carried around by the users and several server based functionalities will allow them to use the following services and features. Communication between the mobile component and PARAMOUNT servers will be based on state of the art technology (e.g. GPRS). The services offered to hiker's include: · Download and visualization of appropriate maps depending on the current user's position; · Displaying the user's position on the map as well as numerically; · POI (e.g. huts) and additional information about them; · Offering routing assistance; · Provision of other information like weather forecast; · 3D-like visualization of the user's surroundings; · Providing safety-increasing functionalities, e.g. tracking and warning the user in critical areas (e.g. critical weather changes). From the system's viewpoint, 3 service packages will be developed. INFOTOUR will provide various information, e.g. maps, POIs etc. It will be visualized in different ways - even in 3D - on the mobile device. SAFETOUR aims at increasing the safety of the users by providing the above functionalities and being designed to be suitable for usage during SAR operations, e.g. guidance to a distressed person or assisting in the coordination of different SAR teams. The objective of the third service package DATATOUR is to reduce maintenance costs for updating the database of the whole system. Data from willing users, mainly positioning information, is captured and automatically verified against existing information in the database and used to derive new trails from the captured data and perform necessary updates of the database.

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Description of the Work: Within PARAMOUNT a straight approach for developing the prototype of the above described system is taken, subdivided into three main stages. At the beginning of the project the user requirements will be defined, which have to take into account that the project involves two different user groups, normal hikers and SAR teams. From the users requirements appropriate uses cases will be derived. This first stage is accompanied by investigations on the feasibility of these envisaged services and by analysing the availability of the three different components (G3), necessary to provide operate the system: - GNSS (GPS, Galileo etc.) availability in the Pyrenees and Alps GMTS (GSM, UMTS) availability in the Pyrenees and Alps - GIS availability and usability in the Pyrenees and Alps. The G3 analysis will generate various results, as for example a so-called G3 availability map (all G3 components simultaneously available), which will help to identify those regions in the mountains, where the test and demonstration of the PARAMOUNT system can be performed. Also these areas should be preferable candidates for the commercial exploitation of the services. Within the second stage of the project the overall service system architecture will be designed. During this phase, the three service packages INFOTOUR, SAFETOUR and DATATOUR will be defined and decomposed into the required components and modules. In addition, interfaces definition ISO and OGC specifications will be considered. An important task during this phase of the project is a trade-off between off-board and on-board navigation. Since there may be mountainous areas with no or only limited GMTS availability, a certain kind of autonomous navigation capability of the mobile client may be necessary in order to fill GMTS service outage holes. The design task will be followed by the system development and detailed specification phase (third major stage) in which the necessary software modules for the INFOTOUR, SAFETOUR and DATATOUR service packages are developed. Furthermore the databases for the Pyrenees and Alps will be established. Another task within this stage is the hardware and software development for the mobile digital TourGuide. The project will end with intensive field test and an evaluation phase, where potential users, especially search-and-rescue teams, are involved. A successful project completion can immediately lead to a commercial exploitation of PARAMOUNT. Thus, appropriate dissemination of the results obtained will be considered throughout the project.

Milestones: M1: Definition of user requirements, GSM/UMTS+ GNSS+GIS availability analysis (feasibility report), test scenarios for evaluation (3 months) M2: PARAMOUNT service and system architecture (5 months) M3: PARAMOUNT prototype with software (14 months) M4: Final Report (18 months), including - tested and evaluated PARAMOUNT prototype - dissemination and use plan, implementation plan on exploitation.

Contact point: Name: LOEHNERT Erwin Organisation: IFEN GESELLSCHAFT FUER SATELLITENNAVIGATION MBH Address: ALTE GRUBERSTRASSE 6 85586 POING GERMANY Tel : ++49 8121 2238-17 Fax : ++49 8121 2238-1 e-mail : [email protected]

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List of Participants Participant Name IFEN GESELLSCHAFT FUER SATELLITENNAVIGATION MBH INSTITUT CARTOGRAFIC DE CATALUNYA UNIVERSITAET DER BUNDESWEHR MUENCHEN BAYERISCHES ROTES KREUZ OESTERREICHISCHER BERGRETTUNGSDIENST

Country D E D D A

Start date: 01-Feb-2002 Duration: 20.5 months Total Cost: 1,797,908 EURO EC Contribution: 1,180,088 EURO

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Role CO CR CR AC AC

REGEO IST-2001-32336 Multimedia Geo-information for e-Communities in Rural Areas with Eco-Tourism Key Action: CPA Action line: CPA11: Regional and sectoral pilot actions and demonstrations for the digital.

Project Abstract: REGEO wants to develop a geo-multimedia data content management system for rural regions. It will provide a link between existing regional geo-multimedia data sources to establish a regional e-community. Based on the virtual regional geomultimedia data base different customised applications with focus on eco-tourism, including the aspects of Nature and National parks will be developed. To keep the system open interfaces to other e-platforms and access to on-line and off-line systems will be supported. The system will provide simple GIS functionalities to make use of spatial data content. In addition it will use advanced technologies for presentation and data assessment. A regional geo-multimedia content management system will serve different user groups: administration, public and private enterprises or institutions as well as single customers like visitors. A strong evaluation and exploitation process will be provided.

Objectives: (1) REGEO will define a system that leads on one hand to a geodata based tourist information system including different offline and online media and on the other hand can be used in the region as geodata pool. (2) The basis for this system is a virtual geomultimedia database that organises distributed information and that will be flexible enough to serve other tasks than tourism as well. (3) This concept will serve several levels of users as there are administrations with their planning tasks, visitors that want to have an information system and enterprises that are interested in ecommerce: Tourists get an optimised visual presentation of the region and its offers (all information geo-referenced for optimised orientation) on different media (online and offline).The local administrations will get publicity for the tourism sector of their region and regional organised geo-multimedia data through REGEOs virtual database for their own use. Regional SMEs will get the possibility to present themselves and their products in this system. (4) REGEO will find financing possibilities for such a system and will (v) provide a business plan, publicity material and workshops for dissemination.

Description of the Work: Four different regions in four different countries have been selected for the project: national parks in Austria and Czech Republic, a landscape park in Poland and a nature park in Germany. So the concept of this project can be tested in different countries with different infrastructure and regional specifications. Nevertheless in all regions the development of eco-tourism is a common major task. The work has been divided into 6 work packages (WP): WP 1 will provide a strict project management. WP 2 will analyse the user situation and the user requirements in each region. Based on the results of work package 2 and the system design outlined in the proposal in WP 3 an adjusted system architecture will be defined that takes into account the specifications of each region. The system design will focus on a fast geo-multimedia data 59

assessment, a network for a regional virtual geo-multimedia data pool, customised applications in the field of eco-tourism, an advanced presentation and visualisation, as well as interfaces for on-line and off-line systems. WP 4 will develop and implement the aforementioned system by integrating real data for tests. Missing geodata will be processed based on fast methods using GPS, satellite data and aerial photographs. WP 5 will provide prototypes to be tested in two phases, a limited test phase for prototype 1 in one region and a comprehensive test phase for prototype 2 in all regions. For the final test phase an extended evaluation with selected user groups will be provided. WP 6 will be responsible for the dissemination and exploitation of the developed concept and the results. In WP 6 intensive publicity work will be carried out and interest groups will be contacted. The exploitation will be developed in form of product definition, business plan and financial concepts.

Milestones: (1) analysis of the regional infrastructure; (2) REGEO system design by adapting the presented design to test site infrastructure; (3) REGEO prototype 0 as an initial version; (4) REGEO prototype 1 and test in one region; (5) REGEO prototype 2 will be tested in all regions; (6) REGEO evaluation trials by end user; (7) REGEO final project results - business plan to design products for the market.

Contact point: Name: KOCH Barbara Organisation: ALBERT-LUDWIGS-UNIVERSITAET FREIBURG Address: TENNENBACHERSTR. 4 79085 FREIBURG GERMANY Tel : +49/761-2033694 Fax : +49/761-2033701 e-mail : [email protected]

List of Participants Participant Name Country ALBERT-LUDWIGS-UNIVERSITAET FREIBURG D AGROLAB GMBH D GEO KONZEPT GESELLSCHAFT FUER UMWELTPLANUNGSSYSTEME D MBH INSTYTUT GEODEZJI I KARTOGRAFII PL JOANNEUM RESEARCH FORSCHUNGSGESELLSCHAFT MBH A LESPROJEKT SLUZBY S.R.O. CZ TAXUS SI SPOLKA Z OGRANICZONA ADPOWIEDZIALNOSCIA PL USTAV PRO HOSPODARSKOU UPRAVU LESU BRANDYS NAD CZ LABEM Start date: 01-Apr-2002 Duration: 30 months Total Cost: 3,250,501 EURO EC Contribution: 2,054,097 EURO

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Role CO CR CR CR CR CR CR CR

TELLMARIS IST-2000-28249 Development of a 3D-map interface for tourist information on mobile computers Key Action: KA1 Action line: Intelligent Systems for Improved Tourism and Travel Services Project Abstract: TellMaris will focus on tourists and citizens on the move, and their need for tailor made tourism information using mobile terminals and an existing Destination Management System (database) as ambient intelligence environments. The scientific objective is to develop new data structures for representing interactive 3D maps on mobile terminals, combined with mobile location services. The end user objective, using boat tourists in the Baltic Sea Region as a case, is to improve the quality and the easiness of getting land based tourism information.

Objectives: The main objective of TellMaris is to develop a generic 3D-map interface for access to tourist information on mobile terminals. To reach the objective of the project the following partial research objectives should be obtained: 1. Understand the market preferences and the best solutions through market survey and benchmarking. 2. Develop 3D data structure for geodatabase storage capable for storing terrain and city models coupled to geographical features relevant for tourism. 3. develop a 3D-map based local data structure for the mobile computer that is a subset of the geodata stored in the geodatabase. 4. Develop necessary middleware technology for data communication and technology for effective network streaming of 3D terrain and city models. 5. Develop technology for 3D rendering and visualisation of 3D map data on mobile. 6. New means for interface interaction in 3D space. 7. Carry out two demonstrations to get feedback on user friendliness.

Description of the Work: The innovative aspects of TellMaris are based on an integration of recent technological and scientific advances within telecommunication, geometric modelling, geospatial technology and computer graphics to provide better means for information retrieval on mobile terminals. The 3D map interface prototype will be integrated into the Tellus™ Destination Management System. This system will be installed in seven Destination Management Organisations in the Baltic Sea Region and tested on a sample of boat tourists as a case. There will be two demonstration periods to ensure a user friendly development of the prototype. The research is organised into eight workpackages and the project is divided into four phases: 1) User requirement phase, 2) Design phase, 3) Development phase and 4) Assessment and evaluation phase. Workshops will be held at the end of each of the phases. The project will be managed by two boards, the Project Co-ordination Board and the Project Technical Committee.

Milestones: Expected results: *Include the 3D map interface as a new application into the Tellus Destination Management System and sell the system to the major harbours in the Baltic Sea Region; *Commercialise other products based on terrain models; *Promote m-commerce related technology; *Increase the knowledge within 3D city models and m-commerce for future RTD projects. 61

Contact point: Name: Organisation:

Jan Rasmus SULEBAK Stiftelsen For Industriell Og Teknisk Forskning Ved Norges Tekniske Hoegskole Department of Geographic Information Technology Address: Strindveien 4 7465 Trondheim NORWAY Tel.: +47/220/67410 Fax: +47/220/67350 E-mail: [email protected]

List of Participants Participant Name SINTEF - STIFTELSEN FOR INDUSTRIELL OG TEKNISK FORSKNING VED NORGES TEKNISKE HOEGSKOLE FRAUNHOFER GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V. NOKIA CORPORATION POULIADIS ASSOCIATES CORP TEKNILLINEN KORKEAKOULU TELLUS IT LOESNINGER AS AARHUS AMT EHRVERVSAFDELINGEN DESTINASJON VESTFOLD INGO JAICH OESTFOLD FYLKESKOMMUNE OSLOFJORD INFO PAVILOSTA TOWN MUNICIPALITY ST. PETERSBURG CITY TOURIST INFORMATION CENTER THE CITY OF TURKU

Count Rol ry e N

CO

D

CR

SF GR SF N DK N D N N LV RU SF

CR CR CR CR AC AC AC AC AC AC AC AC

Start date: 01-Jun-2001 Duration: 31 months Total Cost: 3,489,370 EURO EC Contribution: 1,881,043 EURO

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TOURSERV IST-1999-20414 Personalised Tourist Services Using Geographic Information Systems via Internet Key Action: KA1 Action line: Systems and services for tourism Project Abstract: TourServ will enhance competitiveness of all players in alpine tourism by integrated multimedia-information on accommodation, travelling, weather, cultural arrangements allowing booking and payment, tour guidance including rescue consulting. This services will be personalised if appropriate, e.g. for preparation and adjustment of rented sports equipment to the consumers' body physiques. Threedimensional maps of mountaineering / skiing / hiking regions will be made available via the Internet. When accessing by mobile platforms, e.g. personnel digital assistants (PDA), the tourist will see maps selected according to his position gained by GPS, containing information about the holiday area, e.g. the co-ordinates of lifts and according information, latest route information like the condition of ski runs and hiking tours, e.g. about danger of avalanches, and other rescue information services.

Objectives: The objectives are to enhance competitiveness of players in alpine tourism by integrated multimedia-information via Internet on accommodation, travelling, weather, cultural arrangements allowing booking and payment, tour guidance including rescue consulting; to increase the customer base of tourism service providers; to reach advantages in the competitive markets between holiday regions courting young persons open for new technology; to focus tourist information and services for travelling, accommodation, sports by use of Internet access points in hotels, in public places, from home, or from mobile platforms; to support the tourists during their sporting activities supplying 3D-Maps and video conferencing with information about rest points, transportation and rescue; to improve planning possibilities for accommodation, rental, and other services increasing preparation time available leading to increased customer satisfaction.

Description of the Work: The proposed system will be a portal for tourist service providers and public organisations of geo-graphic regions. It will derive the information necessary for this and for tourist guidance using 3D-maps in a data repository. The mobile and stationary tourist access points benefit from the User Interface Plug-In. Geographic information is managed by the TourServ 3D-interface. The tourist service providers interact with consumers by the Tourist Information Presentation . The Help Desk service advises by means of CSCW technology. The Booking / Order processing module interfaces in-house order processing systems of the service providers. The Security / Payment module supports IOTP standards and existing electronic payment methods. The workplan has seven main phases. Phase I analyses the requirements of users in depth. A parallel phase establishes benchmarking via a roundtable, identifying best practice processes. Best practice and interoperability adoption measures and actions will be performed. Phase II about the data structure and software module concept is concerned with the software function, software tools, and data repository specification. The implementation of results will be done by well-tried 63

rapid prototyping methods in phase III. The Pilot Integration phase will result in a demonstrator. A demonstration by service providers and tourists will be done to allow for the next phase. Evaluation. Characteristics of the result will be checked to give hints for further tuning needs. Dissemination and Exploitation, phase VI takes centres on awareness of European tourism service providers and tourists. It is stimulated by WWW presentations, industrial and scientific publication as well as by dissemination and cross fertilisation workshops and TV reports. A post-project exploitation phase will be initiated. In phase 7 Project Management administrative, exploitation and project technical management will take place.

Milestones: The project will result in a toolkit for Internet presentation and interaction of cooperating partners and customers in a holiday region. Project progress will be measured against the following milestones: benchmarking roundtables; requirements workshop; system architecture workshop, cross fertilisation workshop; software demonstration workshop; user training workshop; co-operative system demonstration action; and the TourServ industrial final workshop with round table discussion.

Contact point: Name: KNACKFUSS Peter Organisation: MEGATEL INFORMATIONS- UND KOMMUNIKATIONSSYSTEME GMBH Address: UNIVERSITAETSALLEE 18 28359 BREMEN GERMANY Tel : (49-421)220950 Fax : (49-421)2209516 e-mail : [email protected]

List of Participants Participant Name MEGATEL INFORMATIONS- UND KOMMUNIKATIONSSYSTEME GMBH COMUNE DI SCOPELLO MOSER REISEN GESELLSCHAFT MBH PRODUTEC INGENIEURGESELLSCHAFT MBH TEAM TECNOLOGIA ENERGIA AMBIENTE MATERIALI S.R.L. UNIVERSITAET BREMEN WINTERSTEIGER GMBH

Country Role D

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I A D I D A

CR CR CR CR CR CR

Start date: 31-Aug-2000 Duration: 27 months Total Cost: 2,119,207 EURO EC Contribution: 1,200,000 EURO

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TR@VELSMART IST-1999-20015 Intelligent, smart card and Internet-based Customer Relationship Management Service for European Tourism destinations Key Action: KA1 Action line: Systems and services for tourism Project Abstract: Tr@velSmarT represents an innovative business concept - a loyalty programme - for regional tourism (destinations and their small and medium sized tourism enterprises SMTEs). It is based on CRM, smart cards and the Internet. Tr@velSmarT offers to tourists travelling in Europe a unique payment means which is accepted by hundreds of SMTEs of a number of European tourist destinations (six destinations during the two year pilot operation). The usage of the Tr@velSmarT card is linked to a series of services and advantages (immediate reductions, privileged access, insurance), and to a loyalty programme which rewards the tourists when returning to one of the member destinations. The collection of client data (profiles, preferences, consumption, ...) combined with an intelligent data mining enables destinations and SMTEs to develop their offer and to better respond to the increasing demands of the tourists while launching direct and targeted marketing campaigns. The technological challenge represents the integration, the interpretability and deployment of three different technologies existing today separatly: Internet - Smart card - CRM. Five technological partners (RTD and business experiences in loyalty programmes, smart card development, electronic purse operation, tourism marketing and research) and six tourism destinations in five EU member states will develop and test jointly a userfriendly, reliable, affordable and profitable service and payment device of general and individual interest. Beneficiaries of Tr@velSmarT will be the SMTEs as well as the tourists - members of the programme. Tr@velSmarT provides a series of tools and services (smart card, federated European database, a central communication platform) and is managed by a network of regional offices linked to a European office. The regional and European offices are responsible for promotion and marketing campaigns in co-operation and on behalf of the SMTEs and the tourist destinations.

Objectives: Tr@velSmarT‘s overall objective is to contribute to the economic development of European tourist destinations by providing their SMTEs with a high potential electronic commerce tool as well as with a state-of-the-art means for direct and relational marketing. Tr@velSmarT wants to exploit a loyalty scheme combined with a smart card based electronic purse with the aim to bind tourists to European destinations. This concerns two major business innovations : the integration and the interoperability of three different technologies existing today in separate forms and their enrolment throughout a series of European tourism destinations : Internet - Smart card - Customer Relationship Management CRM. Tr@velSmarT targets all citizens (everybody is a tourist) by providing a user-friendly, reliable and profitable service of general and individual interest. A pan European CRM tool and an electronic purse for tourism destinations and their SMTEs (incorporating and respecting generally approved privacy data as well as secured transaction models approved by the banking

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sector) will be developed and tested through a large scale demonstration with six tourist destinations constituting approx. 600 SMTEs and 30 000 cards. The Tr@velSmarT services will also be accessible for any other tourism destination or tourism service provider via the FETISH platform.

Description of the Work: WP1 (Market Analysis and Marketing) investigates the needs of the future users/beneficiaries, i.e. SMTEs and tourists. It analyses also the existing technical infrastructures in the regions on which Tr@velSmarT will be based. The basis for the operational phase will be created through extended promotion towards regional SMTEs with the aim to recruit and contract SMTEs following a quality charter. User needs and the generic CRM / smart card functionality's will be matched into the CRM & smart card specification (WP2). Within WP3 (Database development), the core of the RTD work, the CRM will be developed together with the communication services and the operational service interface for the loyalty programme. Within WP4 (Smart card development), the smart card will be designed and the card reader software developed. WP5 (Technical and operational validation) concerns the prototype testing with up to three destinations and a limited number of commercial partners and "tourists". WP6 (Operational structure) is responsible for setting up the right operational team in each pilot destination and the preparation of the back office operation. WP6 is also responsible for the establishment of a banking network for secure financial transactions of the electronic purse. WP7 (Operation-Field Trial) covers all items related to the large scale testing of the system with approx. 30.000 distributed smart cards. External experts evaluate in WP9 (Evaluation) the user satisfaction and the achievements in view of the project objectives. The evaluation report will contribute to the finalisation of a comprehensive business plan in WP8 (Business Plan). WP10 deals with Project Management.

Milestones: - Contracts with regional SMTEs - CRM & smart card specifications - Delivery of the CRM application - Launch of Tr@velSmarT Internet and Intranet site - Operational and viable smart card software and processor - Prototype testing - Successful overall Tr@velSmarT system testing - Back office in place in each pilot destinations (incl. back office staff and banking network) - Launch of large scale demonstration Business plan

Contact point: Name: LAUBENHEIMER Michael Christian Organisation: AGYS Address: RUE DU GRENACHE 8 34090 MONTPELLIER FRANCE Tel : +33 467 609341 Fax : +33 467 048857 e-mail : [email protected] Name: LAUBENHEIMER Michael Christian Organisation: AGYS Address: RUE DU GRENACHE 8 34090 MONTPELLIER FRANCE Tel : +33 467 609341 Fax : +33 467 048857 e-mail : [email protected]

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List of Participants Participant Name AGYS APPIUS AB ASK AUFBAUWERK REGIERUNGSBEZIRK LEIPZIG GMBH CENTER FOR IT IN NORTHERN SWEDEN HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL INSTITUTO DE ECONOMIA PUBLICA, S.L. MACROMOON SOLUCIONES MULTIMEDIA, S.L. MADEIRA TECNOPOLO SA NOUVEAUX TERRITOIRES RIMINIRIVIERA SPORTIVE WERBEAGENTUR ASSOCIACAO TURISMO LISBOA

Country F S F D S UK E E P F I D P

Start date: 15-Sep-2000 Duration: 25.5 months Total Cost: 3,461,520 EURO EC Contribution: 1,384,608 EURO

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Role CO CR CR CR CR CR CR CR CR CR CR CR AC

VMART IST-1999-20674 Virtual Market Place for Rural Tourism Sales, Development and ICT Services and Applications Key Action: KA1 Action line: Systems and services for tourism Project Abstract: ICT developments are no less a threat to the Rural Tourism Micro Enterprise (RTME) sector than current trends in mergers in tourism products and sales channels and in increasing customer demands. VMART will develop an open, ICT-based European infrastructure for sales and development of RTME. Quality of information for trade and public buyers will be the strategy for system sustainability. The system will provide ICT applications for real time sales, for quality control, invoicing, feasibility studies, promotional databases. It will elaborate brand concepts for RTME and provide a platform for promotion at European level. It will adapt booking and information applications to emerging WAP technology. The system will encourage broad uptake of ICT, encourage continuous improvements in quality, will provide statistical data for research, will disseminate expertise and is conceived as a profitable business enterprise in its own right.

Objectives: 1. To create an innovative, commercially sustainable European infrastructure for the Rural Tourism Micro Enterprise (RTME) sector that serves the public, the trade, research institutions, advisory services and policy makers. 2. To forge a human interface between RTME providers and ICT and thus improve their competitiveness and pave the way for their use on WAP and other emerging technology in the next years 3. To raise the quality of electronic information on RTME products and thus open sales channels and expand markets. 4. Create a range of ICT applications for RTME business including real time booking systems. 5. Facilitate Europe-wide participation of national or regional RTME sales agents as strategic facilitators for linking the system to the sector.

Description of the Work: The project will advance in the following steps: 1. VMART will start with a business process analysis to quantify commercial aspects of the RTME sector, including identification of sales channels. This analysis will also cover the commercial marketing activities of RTME associations and identify constraints on market expansion and higher occupancy. 2. There will also be a study of the state of the art in ICT applications for RTME providers and for their sales and development agents. 3. Systems architecture and semantic models development work will then commence, both for the data distribution systems and for the individual applications to be produced, such as real time booking systems. 4. Research will concurrently be done on trends in data transfer technology including Internet, satellite and WAP or combinations of these methods. 5. Data transfer system prototypes will be tested, including WAP and Internet by linking to the user partners who are active in the business of RTME sales. 6. The applications to be tested will include real time booking systems for Internet and WAP, differing interfaces for trade and public, billing and accounting, on-line feasibility studies, quality control and definition databases, databases for collection of statistics for research and development. 7. 68

Information on the system and applications will be disseminated on the Internet and at trade fairs concurrently with the commencement of exploitation - which will be based on achieving broad participation throughout Europe from specialised national or regional RTM agents. Sale of statistics requires a shared, consolidated pool of information gathered from enterprises across Europe. Advertising revenue also depends on broad and well-defined participation. 8. At the end of the project some consortium partners will continue to expand operations as a private commercial organisation under the name of country-holidays.com.

Milestones: Significant milestones will be: 1. State of Art research completed: business process analysis, ICT applications in use, data transfer practices. 2. ICT application prototype demos operational. 3. Data Transfer Projection 4. Dissemination commenced at Trade Fairs and on Internet 5. Exploitation commenced. Expected results: Operational and sustainable infrastructure for RTME sales and development. Wide participation of commercial players at European level. Socio-economic benefits for the RTME sector.

Contact point: Name: BEGMANN EIRIKSSON Eirikur Organisation: HASKOLI ISLANDS Address: TECHNOLOGY COURT 107-IS REYKJAVIK ICELAND Tel : (354)525 4900 Fax : (354)552 8801 e-mail : [email protected]

List of Participants Participant Name HASKOLI ISLANDS BO SIA L CELOTAJS KOMM AUFS LAND E.V. PEHMO SOLUTIONS OY RAQOON EHF RED ANDALUZA DE ALOJAMIENTOS RURALES RIT EHF UNIVERSITY OF SALFORD HRINGIDAN EHF/VORTEX INC. MATKATOIMISTO MATKA-RUKA OY PRODEC CONSULTORES, SOCIEDAD LIMITADA

Country ISL LV D SF ISL E ISL UK ISL SF E

Start date: 01-Nov-2000 Duration: 30 months Total Cost: 1,205,026 EURO EC Contribution: 763,996 EURO

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Role CO CR CR CR CR CR CR CR AC AC AC

WEBPARK IST-2000-31041 Geographically relevant information for mobile users in protected areas Key Action: CPA Action line: CPA3: Ubiquitous and intelligent info-mobility and geo-information systems

Project Abstract: Imagine you are hiking in the Swiss National Park and wonder if you are entering an area where a delicate habitat should not be disturbed. Or walking through the tidal floor on the northern coast of France, and want to check when the tidal wave will be approaching. Or boating along the maze of canals and small lakes in the Netherlands, and looking for a harbour for the evening. The European project WebPark focuses on providing visitors of protected and recreation areas with location-aware services. These services can enhance the quality of the user experience and facilitate the protection of habitats and natural resources by better informing users on their surroundings. Visitors of protected and recreation areas, such as coastal, rural and mountainous areas, need to have access to the correct and most up-to-date information regarding their location and points of interest around them in order to enhance their experience. At present, these geographic information needs of walkers, sailors, mountaineers, cyclists, and tourists are met through many informal and asynchronous channels of communication. However, the widespread availability of mobile internet devices in the next few years with location capabilities will create an opportunity to meet the information needs of this user group through the provision of location-based services.

Objectives: Several personalized value-added Location Based Services (LBS) will be developed within the WebPark framework. They build upon existing information currently delivered to tourists and professional users of recreation and protected areas via CD, kiosk and web. These services will enable users to request information from several databases from their mobile phone or PDA and filtering the information based on location, time and user profile relevance. A distinction is made between general, freely accessible services and pay-per-use services. Micropayments are based on an Internet wallet account where individuals can establish a cash balance. Premium services, that require a user subscription, will provide additional personalization capabilities and also push services, such as weather changes or avalanche alarms. These services build upon the extensive experience of the WebPark consortium. This consortium includes commercial partners and University institutions with a proven track-record in location based services, IT, and geographical information research. The consortium is completed by the participation of end user organizations, such as park administrations.

Description of the Work: WebPark is based on OpenGIS, 3-tier architecture and web mapping technology. The services are accessible from any HTML/WML/i-MODE enabled browser. The WebPark services interface to multiple location technology, from GPS to location determination technologies of mobile operators. All communication, storage and

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interfaces are based on open standards such as OpenGIS for spatial data, and LIF for location information processing and management.

Milestones: (1) Technology: Mobile service platform test bed; Personalisation based upon knowledge discovery; Place- and time-sensitive GI brokering and push; (2) Market: recreation and tourism G-commerce products determined from surveys; a GI integration strategy for LBS provision; G-commerce value-chain models for charging mobile users; (3) Demonstration: Valued added LBS for leisure/tourism users in recreation/protected areas; G-commerce integration with charging models.

Contact point: Name: BEINAT Euro-Ranieri Organisation: GEODAN MOBILE SOLUTIONS B.V. Address: PRESIDENT KENNEDYLAAN 1 1079 MB AMSTERDAM NETHERLANDS Tel : +31 20 5707300 Fax : +31 20 5707333 e-mail : [email protected]

List of Participants Participant Name GEODAN MOBILE SOLUTIONS B.V. CITY UNIVERSITY LONDON EADS SYSTEMS & DEFENCE ELECTRONICS LABORATORIO NACIONAL DE ENGENHARIA CIVIL PARC NAZIUNAL SVIZZER UNIVERSITAET ZUERICH

Country NL UK F P CH CH

Start date: 17-Oct-2001 Duration: 36 months Total Cost: 2,703,378 EURO EC Contribution: 1,175,023 EURO

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Role CO CR CR CR CR CR

WHAM IST-1999-20676 THE WORLD IN YOUR HANDS ON THE MOVE Key Action: KA1 Action line: Systems and services for tourism Project Abstract: Travellers in general and tourists in particular are expecting services that are customised to their individual needs and preferences, are available to them in a timely and accurate manner, and are available to them when they are on the move. WH@M strategic goal consists in responding this need by providing on-the-move, real time, location-dependent, customised tourism & travel information and Value Added Services that any individual at certain point of time may require. This strategic goal is translated into a project objective, namely the development of an innovative services platform and software modules. WH@M will be validated in three pilot sites in Spain, Greece and Finland.

Objectives: WH@M’s project objective is the development of an innovative suite of software modules and services capable of gathering multi-source (public, private, sponsored) information (tourism, travel, weather, etc.). Capable of processing this information (aggregation, customisation). Capable of disseminating this information, through the web and personal mobile services. Capable of customising the information dispatched by means of advanced user profiling techniques. Capable of supporting the advanced user interaction. Capable of supporting the provision of Value Added Services (VAS). Linkable and/or transferable to other EU sites and tourism actors by means of the relevant emerging standards. This project objective will be achieved operationally by means of three prototypes of the system to be validated in three different Member States. A city information and service centre based in Madrid and its metropolitan area. A intercity/regional multimodal tourist/traveller information service in Greece. An information and service centre serving Levi, a major tourism resort in Lapland (Finland).

Description of the Work: The WH@M work plan is structured in seven work packages combining the technical implementation with the other necessary tasks for project management, as well as for disseminating and exploiting the project results. The user needs and requirements will be performed by means of a user survey identifying stakeholders, reviewing existing technologies and best practices and formalising the user needs and requirements by means of identifying and classifying different user groups. An accurate analysis of the user needs and requirements will be the next step. In parallel to the identification of user needs and requirements the information structures to keep track of the innovations on integration of tourism data sources will be identified. In this context, the Consortium aims at participating in the consensus formation on standard and portable tourism data technologies and architecture. This will be done through two phases. The first one that will rely on the identification and definition of the data sources and structures and also to the design of the module of data gathering and information. The second one will address the EU connectivity issues. The requirements will then be traced into technical specifications, both of the services platform as a whole and of the individual software modules. The final result will be a

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system architectural design that will follows an object oriented modelling methodology, it is expected to use UML. The development of the modules will be done on the basis of the previous analysis and design work already mentioned. It will be carried out the implementation and integration of all WH@M software modules: content gathering and integration, user profiling, info broadcasting and intelligent value added services. Once the first prototype will be finalised, it will be evaluated in laboratory conditions. Issues as the integration of the modules, the compliance of the operation of the system with the technical specifications, the robustness, reliability, etc will be assessed. · A verification plan will be created providing training period where the user of WH@M service centre will develop test scenarios with the evaluation criteria defined at the first stage of the project. The whole integrated services platform will be evaluated in three different sites. The final product will be exploited by the Consortium partners.

Milestones: The main expected result of WH@M proposal is the production of a suite of software modules and services. It will be associated to milestones M5. This prototype will be installed, evaluated and refined in three European pilots located in Spain, Finland and Greece. Other important milestones related to project progress are the User needs & requirements M1, modules specification M2, modules design M3, Implementation and first prototype M4, Evaluation and final prototype M5.

Contact point: Name: MARQUES MORENO Antonio Organisation: ETRA INVESTIGACION Y DESARROLLO, S.A Address: TRES FORQUES, 147 46014 VALENCIA SPAIN Tel : (+34) 96 313 40 82 Fax : (+34) 96 350 32 34 e-mail : [email protected]

List of Participants Participant Name ETRA INVESTIGACION Y DESARROLLO, S.A ATHENS INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT S.A. RESEARCH CENTER OF THE ATHENS UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS TAMPEREEN VIATEK OY ASSOCIATION OF GREEK TOURIST ENTERPRISES CONSORCIO REGIONAL DE TRANSPORTES DE MADRID HELLENIC CIVIL AVIATION AUTHORITY LEVIN MATKAILU OY PORT OF PIRAEUS AUTHORITY TURMADRID

Countr Role y E CO GR CR GR

CR

SF GR E GR SF GR E

CR AC AC AC AC AC AC

Start date: 01-Dec-2000 Duration: 26 months Total Cost: 2,451,455 EURO EC Contribution: 1,396,747 EURO

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XML-KM IST-1999-12030 XML-based Mediator for Knowledge Extraction and Brokering Key Action: KA4 Action line: Methods and tools for intelligence and knowledge sharing Project Abstract: XML-KM realises an XML-based framework for flexible knowledge mediation in the extended enterprise, supporting access, enrichment, delivery and personalisation of heterogeneous data sources. For this purpose, XML-KM will design a rule-based wraper, collecting data from heterogeneous sources and transforming them into valuable information. The project will develop a Java suite composed by an information collector, a knowledge mediator and an information diffuser.

Objectives: The project will enhance and use the tools developed in the ESPRIT IV project MIRO-Web. Through a rule-based XML wrapper, information from corporate databases, HTML files and office applications will be collected in a data warehouse. Using classical data mining tools interfaced to this warehouse, the various information sources will be intelligently integrated and knowledge will be extracted in the form of derived information and rules. With XML-based query tools, users will be able to subscribe and received desired information in an appropriate format, on various devices including portable computers, phones, and faxes. Two large applications, one for a chamber of commerce, the other one for a tourism information provider, will be used to demonstrate and validate the framework.

Description of the Work: The project develops three suites of software components:- The FIRST one is called the 'information collector' suite to collect and integrate information in the data warehouse. Source adapters will capture the required information through production rules applied to the selected data and tag them with semantic labels. The labels are in an ontology to allow unified and intelligent tagging. The rules will be generated by a visual tool based on examples. The extracted data will be mapped to XML with the relevant labels extracted from the ontology. The SECOND suite constitutes the 'knowledge mediator', managing XML translated sources for each application. It will provide algorithms for text mining, concept discovery, further tagging and knowledge discovery. Integrated views of the sources will be generated in the form of XML documents integrated with object-relational tables. A limited transaction manager for supporting updates from information analysts will also be implemented. The THIRD suite provides the required functionality for 'information diffusion'. A profiler component will allow the configuration of different types of subscribers defined through a query and presentation language (XML-QL) and support the registration of users. The presentation engine will diffuse the integrated information derived from the views in a correct format, using XSL style sheets. Furthermore, a browser with limited query and update facilities will allow to consult and modify the information and knowledge. Two APPLICATION demonstrators will be developed to prioritise development and to improve dissemination. The first one (Commermark) implements an Intranet information warehouse deriving and disseminating integrated information and knowledge to newly created or existing enterprises for a national Chamber of 74

Commerce. The second one is a Tourism Information System developing a virtual tourist information and reservation server for generating tourism information packages on the Internet.

Milestones: The project will be carried out in two phases, and will include: - Java components to collect, integrate and diffuse information in the extended enterprise. - Two start-up companies are integrated in the project to commercialise the whole knowledge suites and all the associated components. One of this company is currently being founded in France, the second one is planned in Germany. - Two applications will be developed in the project and will operate as demonstrator sites.

Contact point: Name: LOPEZ RODRIGUEZ Javier Organisation: IBERMATICA S.A. Address: AVENIDA DEL PARTENON 16 28042 MADRID SPAIN Tel : (34-91) 384 9108 Fax : (34-91) 384 9144 e-mail : [email protected]

List of Participants Participant Name IBERMATICA S.A. CAMARA OFICIAL DE COMERCIO, INDUSTRIA Y NAVEGACION DE GUIPUZCOA E.XMLMEDIA ESRI-ESPANA GEOSISTEMAS S.A. FRAUNHOFER GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V. GMD - FORSCHUNGSZENTRUM INFORMATIONSTECHNIK GMBH OSIS S.A.R.L. SISTEMAS DE INFORMACION TERRITORIAL S.A. TIS - TOURISMUS INFORMATIONS SYSTEME GMBH

Countr Role y E CO E

CR

F E

CR CR

D

CR

D F E A

CR CR CR CR

Start date: 01-Jan-2000 Duration: 27 months Total Cost: 2,683,232 EURO EC Contribution: 1,341,615 EURO

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Further information is available from the European Commission Directorate-General Information Society - C5 Transport and Environment Phone: +32-2-295-67-71 Fax: +32-2-296-95-48 e-mail: [email protected]