http://www.itcork.ie/index.cfm?page=news&newsId=1010

The Institute of International & European Affairs (IIEA) has recently inaugurated the Digital Futures Group and Digital Competitiveness Stakeholders' Consultation, Paul Rellis is the Chairperson and Professor Joyce O'Connor is the Vice-Chair.

We believe the Digital Industry can be an economic growth force multiplier in the next 2 decades and we believe Government should be positioning Ireland to take advantage of the opportunities. In October 2008, the IIEA will present to the Irish Government a concise report based on the Digital Competitiveness Stakeholders' Consultation that synthesise key stakeholder inputs to inform the Government's strategic thinking and approach to the digital sector. This report, and your input into it, will be a key factor in enhancing Ireland's competitiveness in the future. We anticipate that this work will lay the foundation for new thinking on a uniquely Irish model of a digital sector which the rest of the world will want to emulate, similar to the Celtic Tiger of the 1990s.

Therefore, the IIEA is seeking input from stakeholders in the Digital Sector.
These will include communications regulators, actors in the ICT industry from multinational EMEA HQs in Ireland to indigenous start-ups, sub-sectors of the financial services, digital media content providers, game development, ICT R&D, web research, education, medical research, the media & culture sector, finance & capital providers, and foreign development initiatives. I would like to invite you to contribute your insights into the challenges and opportunities that Ireland faces. Please respond by E-mail of any length to these five strategic
questions:

   1. What are the current policy (or other) opportunities & challenges that Ireland faces in the digital sector?
   2. Which emerging trends are potentially dominant in the digital sector?
   3. In which niches can Ireland become a world leader?
   4. What is the most important strategic investment of relevance to the digital sector that Ireland could make at this point to enhance its competitiveness in the next 10 years?
   5. What are the next three steps that Government should take?

Please note your responses are completely confidential, unless otherwise agreed.
All participants will be acknowledged in the report.  Please send your responses at your earliest convenience by email to Johnny Ryan (contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ), who is the IIEA Project Manager. We appreciate you taking time to contribute to what we hope will be a seminal report, in terms of influencing government policy in Ireland.

For background story see: http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single11330