ANEC Report

“Consumer Requirements in Standardisation relating to the Information Society” January 2003

 

 

Source:                 ANEC

Status:                   Input into the DATSCG meeting  of March 2003

 

The ANEC Report

 

Message by Chiara GIOVANNINI, Programme Manager of ANEC - European Association for the Co-ordination of Consumer Representation in Standardisation:

 

“To be able to influence standardisation in the fast moving high-technology ICT sector, ANEC, the consumers voice in standardisation, elaborated this report on Consumer Requirements in Standardisation related to the Information Society (ANEC IT008-03.pdf). The document provides a number of generic consumer requirements and priorities for standardisation activities in relation to the Information Society to be taken into account when producing ICT standards and new deliverables. For ANEC, standardisers should focus their attention on the following  key requirements among other:

 

·                     Accessibility and Adaptability

·                     Child safety issues

·                     Consistent user interface

·                     Cost transparency

·                     Design for All

·                     Ease of use

·                     Environmental issues

·                     Interoperability and compatibility

·                     Privacy and security of information

·                     Quality of service, system reliability and durability

 

ANEC suggests to endorse these generic consumer requirements as a joint CEN/CENELEC/ETSI memorandum to ensure their application across all the standardisation work in the ICT sector. This would contribute to the production of a coherent and consistent catalogue of standards and new deliverables even when consumer representatives are not directly involved in the technical work, in accordance to the objectives of EU policies as reflected in the e-Europe 2005 initiative as well as the Consumer Policy Strategy 2002-2006 of the European Commission calling for the opportunity for consumer organisations to make an input into wider EU initiatives, which have a consumer dimension. Proper consumer participation at all levels is vital to ensure that the public interest is taken into account.

 

Moreover, we think it would be a very good idea to make a link between your organisation web-site and ANEC web-site where the document is easily accessible.

 

It will be a great pleasure for us to answer all the questions you should have on ANEC Report on Consumer Requirements in Standardisation related to the Information Society. Please do not hesitate to contact us.”

 

The ANEC Report “Consumer Requirements in Standardisation relating to the Information Society“ can be downloaded from the ANEC home page http://www.anec.org/homepage.htm

(detailed URL is http://www.anec.org/public/comments/cm2003/IT008-03.pdf)

 

 

Next Steps

 

The Report will be discussed at the meeting of the ISSS Forum on 12 February 2003. It is also on the agenda of the ICTSB meeting of 19 March 2003.

 

An immediate action for DATSCG is to include a reference to the report in the paragraph on ANEC under the DATSCG web-site.