Disclaimer
The full report and this summary WWW based information have been prepared by a project team set up by the ICT Standards Board in response to a request by the Commission. The project team was administered under the auspices of CEN/ISSS. The documents produced and presented reflect the independent and collective views of the project team and its conclusions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the ICT Standards Board. Neither the full report nor this WWW information are official ICT Standards Board publications.
Commissioner Bangemann said of the Information Society in 1994: "the impact of information and communication is being referred to as a revolution, much like the past industrial revolutions" .
One oft he key issues to be addressed is the consumer's place in this period of change. What are consumer issues in relation to the Information Society? Up till now our concerns relating to the consumer have been concerns over product safety; are there now other issues that are just as important?
In 1998 the European Association for the Co-ordination of Consumer Representation in Standardisation (ANEC) produced a detailed report titled "Consumer Requirements in Relation to ICT Standardisation" which detailed consumer priorities within key ICT sectors. This has led to concern among the standards makers and their supporting organisations that consumer requirements are being ignored in the rush towards a technologically based society.
Yet it is clear that we are moving into a society that is being led by the citizen as they are being empowered both by technology and through legislation. In this society empowerment equates to equality and the concept of Design For All guarantees equal opportunity for all, that is men and women, all ethnic races, the aged and the disabled. But without technology that is easy to use, consistent in operation and with intuitive interfaces, this goal will never be achieved as the population becomes divided into two groups, the technofiles and the technophobes, the can-do's and the can't-dos.
There is clearly a problem that has to be solved.
The ICT Standards Board recognised the importance of this issue and set up a Project Team to investigate how consumer requirements may best be taken into account by the three de jure European standards bodies. The approach of the project team was to build on the work carried out by ANEC. The project team's role was to take this work to the next stage and report on the actions that are required, both in general terms and with respect to specific ICT sector requirements.
In formulating the work to be carried out, the project team also took into account other reference material and work done to date in the area of relating standards to consumer requirements. In particular, the project team noted the work of the ETSI User Group and the report it has produced "Guidelines on the Consideration of User Requirements when Managing the Standardisation Process" - EG 201 219.
The project team was tasked with examining consumer requirements issues in the following ICT sectors:
