Mr. Constantijn van Oranje Member of Cabinet of Commissioner Kroes - European Commission
eGovernment: Challenged - Panel Discussion
eGovernment: Improved - Wrap-up
eGovernment: Improved - Welcome Speech
About Mr. Constantijn van Oranje
Constantijn van Oranje has master degrees in Law from Leiden University (1995) and in Business Administration from INSEAD at Fontainebleau (2000). He is Cabinet member and senior advisor of European Commissioner Kroes, responsible for the European Digital Agenda. Until recently Constantijn was Head of the Information Policy and Economics team at RAND Europe, and Head of Brussels office of the RAND Corporation. Past research projects include: for the Independent Dutch Telecommunications and Post Regulator - a review of models for independent Telco regulators in converging markets; for the Dutch ministry of Internal Affairs - assessing the need and possible design of a Dutch Interoperability framework, and a study into the eIDM and data protection developments in the EU; for the Dutch Ministry of Economic affairs - an assessment of the policy impacts of the future of the Internet, and a policy paper on eContent policy; for the European Commission/DG INFSO - a study on RFID technology applications in Health care; a future study on European eGovernance in 2020; a prospective view on the development of Pan European eGovernment Services; Impact assessment of the review of the Television Without Frontiers Directive; security in pan-European eGovernment - establishing the eIDM requirements for the development of pan-European services; conducting an ex ante evaluation on the impact of the Lisbon Review on Information Society policy. For DG Justice Freedom and Liberty - a support study for the impact assessment of the management of SIS II and other large scale data bases in the area of justice and home affairs; for the private sector: Deutsche Telekom - a future study on the role of ICT in society in 2015; and for British Telecom a study on defining private industry's responsibilities in the information age. Before joining RAND Europe, Mr. Van Oranje worked as an associate analyst for Booz Allen & Hamilton in London (2001-2003), where he worked on a variety of projects in ICT, and print media. Research work included a benchmarking study for the UK government on the readiness of e-Infrastructure, e-Commerce and e-Government. This was preceded by 5 years at the European Commission, working in the Cabinet of Commissioner Van de Broek (1995-1999). Mr. Van Oranje currently also advises the Dutch Foreign Ministry on European communication strategy (2003-).
About the session that Constantijn van Oranje will preside regarding semantic interoperability:
The European Digital Agenda is about ICT but above all about the transformation that it enables. My involvement with ICT stems from its socio-economic impacts, and its effects on the governance of our societies. eGovernment remains little 'e' and a lot 'government'. We sometimes focus too much on the technologies and forget that it is about a fundamental transformation, whereby government becomes a service provider, placing the user at its core. This transformation comes with a promise of more effective and efficient government, but it is also thoroughly disruptive and extremely complex. I had the privilege to explore this fascinating area as policy researcher at RAND Europe, addressing many interesting challenges, like interoperability, meta data, security and trans-European online public service delivery. This session will address one of the biggest challenges in building a seamless eGovernment: semantic interoperability. How can we ensure useful automated exchanges of information between distinct systems? This is as much the domain of linguists and organizational psychology, as of computer scientists, making it even more interesting. I currently work as Cabinet member of Commissioner Kroes, responsible for the European Digital Agenda and the eGovernment Action Plan. This session should help connect such high level strategies with the conceptual and implementation challenges on the ground.