Online Business: The Greek Perspective

Athens.
I'm now in the business session of this first day of WebSci '09 - it brings together a variety of Greek business leaders and politicians. The session will be in Greek, but there's a simultaneous interpreting service - we'll see how that turns out. The first speaker is the representative of the Greek Minister for Development, who points to the importance of life-long learning, the decline of distance, and new modes of working which are associated with the move to a digital economy; this is also associated with new forms of e-commerce and electronically mediated cultural activity.

There is a deep social change associated with this, too - the means of generating and sharing information are njow no longer in the hands of a small social elite. There is significant research taking place in this area, and broadband uptake in Greece has also been strong. In 2007 Greece was first in the European Union in broadband Internet development. This provides the nation with an opportunity to act as a pioneer in this field. There is further work to establish a nationwide fibreoptic network as well. Practical benefits of such work apply in medicine, education, cultural activity, and in many other fields, and a variety of further projects, some with European Union support, are planned.

Up next is PASOK MP Anna Diamantopoulou. She also notes the opportunities in this field, especially also for culture and economy, and points to the fact that in the digital economy field, Greek entrepreneurs still tend to work for the international market rather than for the domestic one. There is a great need to develop greater online entrepreneurship in and directed at Greece itself. in contrast to the minister's view, she also points to the fact that Greece runs last in the European Union for the use of the Internet in schools. There is a lack of a concerted government policy framework for investment in this field; this is further complicated by the current gobal economic crisis, which requires long-term planning in addition to current short-term measures.

Lagging substantially behind should not keep Greece from aiming to be substantially ahead in the future, however - and Anna suggests that creative innovation comes not least out of the anarchy and turmoil of crisis; she suggests that the country should aim to become Smart Greece (and if I've understood the translator right she's written a book with that title - wonder if she's been to Queensland?). This should be achieved by setting and working towards ambitious targets now.

The next speaker is the chair of the Athens Chamber of Commerce; he too points to the Net as a key driver of change, and compares this to the industrial revolution - but the speed of change is substantially faster in this information revolution than it was in back then. Take-up of radio or television, too, was substantially slower in Greece than take-up of Internet services.

What does this mean for the economy and for entrepreneurship, however - and here, particularly for small to medium enterprises (SMEs), the backbone of business activity in Greece and Europe? For them, the Net means that anyone with a workable idea is now able to reach a global market for their work; small businesses were amongst the pioneers in Internet uptake, but they also have much to learn in this environment. Where small stores tend to be eliminated in the offline world, they have a much brighter future online.

What's missing from this so far is a strong localisation component - today services are not yet substantially localised, and online SMEs compete directly with large generic brands like Facebook and MySpace. In doing so, they must address significant inequalities, of course. There is a further need to support such SMEs as well as overall broadband take-up through government policy. In 2008, 60% of SMEs in Greece used ADSL connections, twice the rate of 2007 - but such access does not mean that they are using the full capabilities of the network, of course. Similarly, legal frameworks for their and their customers' use of the Net still need to be further defined.

What is required are more effective actions in order to facilitate the use of the Internet by SMEs, and a speedy implementation of infrastructure measures, ecommerce frameworks, funding support programmes, and other elements. The state has an important role in supporting Internet use by businesses, then, but at the same time this does not substitute the role of the business itself - ultimately, it is up to businesses to determine how best to utilise the new technology. Any business wanting to operate online is first and foremost a business, and established approaches to developing business and marketing plans continue to apply. The Internet revolution does not absolve business operators of such responsibilities. The Internet empowers consumers to exercise greater choice of products, however.

The next speaker is Christoph Tsangos, General Manager of Microsoft Greece. He runs through some general statistics on Internet use now - noting for example the 185 milion people who have started a blog, or the 174 million Facebook users. Microsoft itself receives some 10 billion pageviews for its MSN site, and facilitates the exchange of some 240 billion Messenger messages per month. There is now a gradual transition in computing from the server to the cloud, but this will lead to a balancing of content location between both options - content access wll take place anywhere, at any time, through any device.

This has led to substantial changes within Microsoft's organisation as well. There is now a greater focus within Microsoft on information sharing and on providing employees with information on current company strategy - which helps democratise company organisation and provides employees with greater confidence in the future direction of the company. The technologies used in this context are all online, of course, and have give rise to a new set of services and projects.

We move on to Nikos Koulouris, the Vice President of the Greek telecommunications commission EETT. He picks up on the theme of anarchy - how can this apparent anarchy be regulated in an effective way? The Internet provides for the free movement of ideas, but what if that potential is abused? What legal actions can be taken?

Broadband today is what electricity was in the late 20th century, Nikos suggests, and it is an ongoing revolution; it has become an important source of information, substantially drives economic development, and provides new forms of employment. But it provides regulatory challenges: competition should be strong, but takes place against the backdrop of a convergence between telecommunication and mass media, with challenges to net neutrality, the need to move to the IPv6 framework, and the need to manage the Internet service provider industry.

There is also a need to develop new forms of access, including fibreoptic options and bundles with other telecommunications platforms. In Greece, competition in this market takes place especially in the local loop market, and ISPs lease lines from the central telecommunications company LTE. There has been some improvement in the speed and pricing of broadband options, but there's still a way to go. (We're missing some of the translation here - I don't think the interpreter is a telecommunications expert, and she seems to be chewing gum?)

Net neutrality is also a problem in Greece - this is the well-known question of whether particular forms of information should be priviled over others online, and it is a debate driven in particular by some of the incumbent mainstream media organiations wishing to protect themselves from smaller competitors. Especially as we move towards the Internet of Things, where Internet-based communication is also used for communication between devices and may massively increase the amount of information exchanged, this discussion may come to a head.

Further, there are questions about the appropriate frameworks for protecting minors from inappropriate content, and some call for the deployment of content filters (doesn't that sound familiar...). All such issues need to be addressed through a combination of regulation and self-regulation.

Finally to Theodoros Fessas, the President of InfoQuest. He says that the world is now interconnected, instrumented with smart devices, and is infused with intelligence - well beyond 'Smart Greece', this is a smart planet. Greece is ideal for new technologies as it has educated people and a lovely climate that attracts other smart and educated people, Theodoros says... He runs through a summary of the major points of the previous speakers, and wishes that these efforts may be coordinated for a better future.

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