Departing Digital Commissioner's exit speech:
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release...-14-710_en.htm
Reported on at Tech Dirt:
https://www.techdirt.com/blog/innova...ion.shtml#c101
Of note:
Quote:
I ask myself why did Europe stop inventing and investing? Why did Europe lose interest?
The answer? Legacy industries, seeking to hold back innovation.
We have a problem today of two Europes: a digital Europe and an analogue Europe. Of digital mind-sets and analogue mind-sets.
These are two Europes that rarely talk to each other. Two Europes that hold back all of Europe because they are not in sync.
There is a Europe that is full of energy and digital ideas. We have a growing start-up scene with thousands of people who are the smartest in the world at what they do. From Skype to Spotify to SAP, from Rovio to Booking.com to Campus Party. We have a young generation that uses their digital devices and apps and new ways of building communities and businesses.
This Europe is optimistic. This is the Europe where half of new jobs come from – the ICT-enabled jobs. This Europe is mobile and flexible. This Europe hates barriers and looks for new opportunities. This is the Europe that likes innovation – and is happy to use Uber and Air BnB.
But there is a second Europe. It is a Europe that is afraid of this digital future. They worry about where the new middle class jobs will come from. They don’t want to jump off what they see as a digital cliff. They like the comforting idea of putting up walls; to many people it makes sense to restrict Americans and Asians and protect against their innovations. They tend to be older. They tend to want strong regulations protecting what they know, instead of taking a chance on what they don’t know.
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Quote:
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It comes down to this question: is Europe’s leadership class willing to be excited about innovation and start-ups? Or is Europe going to be exhausted by using up its energy safeguarding vested interests, and holding up ancient barriers?
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She's correct, especially when it comes to ebooks, but...
She comes too late to this "realization", methinks, considering she spent years in squeezing Microsoft (to extort $1B-plus) and others as part of the establishment, protecting vested interests and holding up barriers, so I can only wonder what's her angle now.
Elective office, perhaps?
Anybody know what her game is?