Brussels: 14 November 2008

Viviane Reding the Member of the European Commission responsible for Information Society and Media delivered a keynote speech to the European Internet Foundation Special Event titled: A view of the Digital World in 2025.

The speech (Speech/08/616/) titled: Digital Europe: the Internet Mega-trends that will Shape Tomorrow's Europe outlines the Internet Mega trends as:

“First Megatrend: a shift from "Web 2.0 for fun" to Web 2.0 for productivity and services. Web 2.0 is all about social networking, which so far has been low definition video and entertainment driven. But Web 2.0 is now being applied as a business tool and as a way of delivering government services. Properly channelled, Web 2.0 means connecting minds and creativity on a scale never before imagined.”

“Second Megatrend: a phase shift from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0. The coming years will see the Internet move beyond being a network to connect computers together to being an Internet that connects everything together: cars, machines of all sorts, household appliances, energy meters, windows, lights, whatever you can think of, it can be connected. There are two great implications of this new "Internet of Things". First, this new world wide web of "things that think" will create a sensory network that will allow a leap forward human knowledge about the world we live in. It will lend itself to all sorts of new applications such as energy efficiency, health and welfare services, efficient transport and so on.”

“Third Megatrend: the emergence of the wireless web. Already today applications of wireless technology are a major driver of economic value in the EU economy. These are estimated at 250bn€ or 2-3% of GDP and rising. Moreover it wireless is a lighthouse of European technological leadership. Early next year it is expected that 5bn or three quarters of the planet's population will have use of a mobile handset. This is an unprecedented technological development exceeding the diffusion rates of technologies such as television or even pen and paper not only in terms of penetration and use but in its speed of take-up.”

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