SPOCS NEWS
Publisher: Gov2U, Issue No: 3
Dear reader,
Welcome to the third newsletter of the SPOCS project, a large- scale pilot project launched in May 2009. SPOCS aims to build the 2nd generation of online portals (Point of Single Contact or PSC), which every European country now has in place, through the availability of high impact cross-border electronic procedures. SPOCS will provide seamless electronic procedures by building cross- border solutions based on your country's existing systems.
For SPOCS 2010 has been an exciting year with great achievements:
- SPOCS common specifications made public September 2010 following a public consultation:
- Taking technical work to the next step by developing the modules.
- Collaboration with STORK, PEPPOL, epSOS.
- Aligning the work in preparation for the integration of the building blocks.
- Beginning the customisation of the building blocks for the pilots and preparation of the service provision building blocks.
- Starting the work on the national connectors.
- Re-structuring the communication activities.
- Working hand in hand with DG Information Society and DG Internal Market.
- Preparing a clear marketing strategy for the pilot activities.
The way forward:
- Early bird pilots starting in May. Marketing the pilots.
- Working on sustainability and standardization.
- SPOCS is extending its work by welcoming new partnering European countries to increase the SPOCS footprint across Europe. SPOCS enlargement to Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom is pending final contractual arrangements.
- Continuing the active collaboration with other LSPs and other stakeholder groups such as standardisation bodies (e.g. ETSI) resulting in hands-on collaboration on common interests and building blocks.
- Pursuing the fruitful collaboration with DG Information Society in preparing the next eGovernment Ministerial Conference.
- Collaborating further with DG Internal Market on collecting information about the implementation of the Services Directive.
- Supporting the new Large Scale Pilot e-CODEX addressing e-Justice.
All interested parties have the opportunity to influence developments, provide feedback and make proposals by participating in one of the following groups while registering at www.eu-spocs.eu:
- Member States and PSCs
- IT Industry and Standards Bodies
- Large Scale Pilots
- Business Representatives and End User
- Local Government
To keep in touch, please register here. This will enable you to access further information regarding the latest developments.
Kind Regards,
SPOCS Newsletter team
SPOCS newsletter thanks all those who contributed to this issue and welcomes comments and contributions at:
info@eu-spocs.eu 
SPOCS newsletter is published by Gov2u. The views expressed are purely those of the authors and may not in any circumstance be regarded as stating an official position of the whole consortium or European Commission. Neither Gov2u nor any person acting on its behalf is responsible for the use that may be made of the information in this publication.
© Gov2u, 2011
Reproduction is authorized provided the source is acknowledged.
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SPOCS specifications: Final version of deliverables online
The deliverables with the SPOCS specifications are:
- D1.1 and D1.2 - SPOCS Survey of Syndication Solutions & Multilingualism
- D1.3 - Standard Exchange Schemas and Relations to Open Specifications
- D2.1 - Inventory of standard documents and relations to open specifications
- D2.2 - Standard Document and Validation Common Specifications
- D3.1 eDelivery Assessment of eDelivery Systems and Specifications Required for Interoperability
- D3.2 - Common Specifications eDelivery and eSafe
- D4.1 - Assessment of national approaches and interoperability
- D4.2 - Specifications for Interoperable Access to Public service Directories
- D5.1 - Methodology and selection of professions for the pilot
- D5.2 - Piloting Requirements.doc
SPOCS: Extending its work to 9 new European countries
SPOCS is welcoming new partnering European countries. The first phase of SPOCS encompassed 7 Member States for a total number of 13 partners. Today, the extension has brought SPOCS with another 9 European countries (Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia, United Kingdom) for a total number of 16 new partners; thus increasing not only the geographical coverage of the project but also its visibility and sustainability. SPOCS enlargement to Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom is pending final contractual arrangements. Click here to view the press release
SPOCS specifications factsheets now available!
The SPOCS pan-European interoperability layer is composed of 5 building blocks: Syndication, eServices, eDocuments, eDelivery, eSafe.
SPOCS New Factsheet
The new factsheet (December 2010) is ready with all the latest information on SPOCS achievements and next steps.
SPOCS New Leaflet
The new leaflet is ready with all the latest information on SPOCS achievements and next steps.
SPOCS 1st Sustainability Task Force meeting
The first SPOCS sustainability meeting will take place on 20th January in London, UK (closed meeting). As the name indicates, a task force is a small group of "activists" who are committed to address the issue of sustainability by dedicated time to work and produce results.
SPOCS booth at Lift-off towards Open Government, Brussels, December 15th-16th
The Belgian Presidency hosted a Conference in Brussels on December 15th-16th entitled "Lift-off towards Open Government". SPOCS had a booth there and was presented in one of the sessions (Plenary session 6: Putting the internal market in practice).
SPOCS Website - Collaborative environment: New Design!
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www.eu-spocs.eu |
SPOCS presented at BUSINESSEUROPE's working group on the Free Movement of Services
On Wednesday, March 9, 2011 the SPOCS Programme Director had the opportunity to participate in the BUSINESSEUROPE' working group on services which deals with various issues such as innovation and standardisation, free movement across borders and of course implementation of the Services Directive and the functioning of the Points of Single Contact (PSCs).
SPOCS present at the 4th STORK Industry Group Meeting
Ana Karla Alves de Medeiros, SPOCS Technical Coordinator, gave a short presentation focusing on how SPOCS can use STORK solution during the session "Beyond STORK - take up by other Pilots" at the 4th STORK Industry Group Meeting (Thursday 17th March 2011, Leuven, Belgium).
Digital Agenda: pilot projects show the way in easy access to online public services across the EU
The five-year eGovernment Action Plan 2011-2015 presented by the European Commission builds on experience gained with the 2006 European eGovernment Action Plan and in particular on the results of several ongoing EU large-scale pilot projects. For example, STORK fosters the EU-wide interoperability of electronic identities whilst procurement and communication with governments have become simpler with PEPPOL and SPOCS. These innovative projects centre on the needs of citizens and businesses and make life easier through better access to more efficient and cost effective public services.
Towards interoperability for European public services
The European Commission adopted an initiative to encourage public administrations across the EU to maximise the social and economic potential of information and communication technologies. The Communication 'Towards interoperability for European public services' looks to establish a common approach for Member State's public administrations, to help citizens and businesses to profit fully from the EU's Single Market.
Interesting STORK deliverables available online
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Interesting and newly approved STORK deliverables have now been released for public view. |
European Commission publishes video on "Points of Single Contact"
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More people across the EU now have access to public services online, according to Europe's 9th e-Government Benchmark Report
The report reveals the best and worst performers in the EU, focusing on two essential public services: 'finding a job' and 'starting a company'.
European Commission publishes video on "Points of Single Contact"
The survey provides a key indicator of whether the main operational element of the directive has, from a business perspective, been delivered in a timely, complete and correct manner.
'Unleashing cross-border services' report on the implementation of the Services Directive
BUSINESSEUROPE's report evaluates the concrete opportunities that the directive has created for businesses. It provides a practical assessment of how the points of single contact are perceived by companies and gives recommendations for improvement.
- Neelie Kroes Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda Where are we with the Digital Agenda? CEBIT 2011 Hannover, 1 March 2011
- European Parliament adopts report on implementation of Services Directive
- Digital Agenda: Commission launches public consultation on eSignatures and eIdentification
- Commission launches ambitious programme to deepen the Single Market for services
- ePractice workshop: Open Source Software for Public Administrations
- Government Leaders Forum
- Eris@Annual Conference 2011
- ePractice.eu workshop-Collaborative production of eGovernment services
- FET11 - The European Future Technologies Conference and Exhibition
- CeDEM11 Conference for E-Democracy and Open Government
- 9th Eastern European eGov Days
- European Identity Conference 2011
- LSZ Technologie Kongress
- European Business Summit 2011, "Europe in the world: leading or lagging?"
- ICT Proposers Day 2011 - Networking for European ICT Research and Development
- European Forum on Electronic Signature (EFPE 2011)
- The European eIdentity Management Conference
- European Conference on eGovernment
- 1st Digital Agenda Assembly
- European Commerce Register's Forum (ECRF) 2011
- International Conference on Information Society (i-Society 2011)
CONTACT US: info@spocs.eu
Important Information: All classifieds in this publication are published free of charge
Published by www.eu-spocs.eu 2011. All rights reserved