Message from Chairs

Welcome to DigiBiz, the first ICST conference on Digital Business.

The scientific offering in e-business, e-commerce, and ICT in general is quite broad and spans many different research themes, involving several communities and methodologies. The growth and dynamic nature of these research themes poses both challenges and opportunities. The challenges are in having scientists and practitioners talk to each other: despite the fact that they work on similar problems they often use very different languages in terms of research tools and approaches. The opportunities on the other hand arise when scientists and practicioners engage in multidisciplinary discussions leading to new ideas, projects and products. These are the goals that guided us: we aimed at creating a unique, multidisciplinary forum that would allow the participants to cross the boundaries between research and business.

We hope DigiBiz 2009 will provide such a forum and that the participants will engage in discussions on the evolution of business models, the increased liquidity of competition through increased availability of information and the impact of redesigning the Internet for the current and future business landscape. With DigiBiz09 we will try to cover all aspects related to the success of digital business and present the opportunities for the specifications of novel models, products and services that are, use and/or rely on ICT.

We also expect that this meeting will focus on building bridges between the research and business communities and that it will provide innovative perspectives on the future of business ecosystems. This largely depends on you; being experts in the fields you can present and assess new research ideas, challenge business models and innovative applications that aim to drive the development of future products and approaches.

In this first year, Digibiz has attracted some excellent scientific papers, application ideas, demonstrations and contributions from industrial research teams all over the world. The conference emphasises European leadership by featuring keynote speakers from the European Commission and contributions from various Commission-funded research projects, exhibiting the strength of European industry in the field. It will also review innovative visions and ideas from key industry players like SAP, IBM, BT and Sole 24 Ore, without disregarding regulatory aspects related to the evolution of the mobile business arena.

Many people have contributed to the success of DigiBiz. It was a privilege to work with these dedicated people, and we would like to thank them all for their efforts. The organising committee as a whole created a collaborative working atmosphere, which made our task an easy one. Ian Cloete, Dirk Trossen supported us in the definition of the DigiBiz concept. Elmar Husmann actively contributed creating a challenging panel on Cloud Computing. Javier Vasquez gave an enormous contribution to the development of innovative workshops for the conference, while Katarina Stanoevska did a great job assembling the Technical Programme Committee and running the paper submission and reviewing process. Veselin Rakocevic was meticulously overseeing the preparation of the conference proceedings. Finally, we would like to thank all the distinguished members of the Programme Committee - the soul of our event.

We would like to express our appreciation for the keynote EU Commission talk by Cristina Martinez, as for the presentations given by EU research projects representatives. Our thanks also go to Leonardo Chiariglione for contributing an inspiring keynote on the media future. Special credit is due to our ICST colleagues, for their excellent support during the preparation of the event. Finally, we thank Imrich Chlamtac for his guidance during these months and for entrusting us with the task of building DigiBiz 2009.

Organising a conference which is the first of its kind is always an adventure. We are delighted to have been part of it.

In conclusion, we hope You find DigiBiz a stimulating and thought-provoking event, and that enjoy your time in London. Welcome.

Luigi Telesca & Gregory Kersten

DigiBiz General Co-Chairs