New Media, Technology and Everyday Life in Europe Conference

The Fifth RTD Framework Programme of the EU, Creating a User-friendly Information Society, has as its main objective the realisation of the "benefits of the information society for Europe both by accelerating its emergence and by ensuring that the needs of individuals and enterprises are met".

The New Media, Technology and Everyday Life in Europe Conference addressed this agenda directly. It asked three crucial questions which technology-driven conferences generally fail to address:

• What does a user-friendly society mean?
• What are the facilitators of, and the obstacles to, its realisation?
• What are the consequences for markets and policy making?

The Conference built on and expanded a range of research activities funded by the EC 4th and 5th Framework Programme (2000-03), COST actions and IST Programmes. It was timely in its situation at the interface between 5th and 6th Framework Programmes. Above all, it drew on the research experience of the EMTEL network (http://www.emtel2.org).

The conference was intended as a forum for a high-level encounter between leading European academics in the field of media, new media and society, and more than forty doctoral and post-doctoral researchers (under the age of 36) presented their research on the areas and themes covered by the conference.

The conference was financed by the EU, under the Improving Human Potential, High-level Scientific Conferences, and took place at The London School of Economics and Political Science between 23-26 April 2003.

The conference attracted around 100 participants, half of which were be European Young Researcher working on new media and everyday life in Europe.