A new innovative services laboratory for Giudicarie established

“It is essential to be prepared to use the new opportunities and broadband connections, made possible by the installation of optical fiber throughout the Trentino region. In the coming years new technologies will foster a strong innovation in the productive structure locally, with the opportunity to create new jobs, especially among young people, but providing adequate training in the new professions is critical. With this protocol, we will be able to develop a synergy between public administrations such as Valley Government and Municipalities, education and vocational training, and Research. The skills and knowledge, especially in the areas of innovation, research and experimentation, will be made available by FBK, Trentino Network and Trentino Sviluppo, each in their specific fields of expertise. ”
(Eng. Andrea Simoni, FBK’s Secretary General)

SCENARIO OF REFERENCE

The gradual completion of the optic fiber network infrastructure opens in Trentino, as well as in the Giudicarie Valley, the opportunity to use broadband ultra-broadband connectivity to create innovative services for public administration offices and for businesses.

The Giudicarie Valley Government, in this context, is interested in starting a local project that, in addition to defining the timing of the infrastructure, will outline applications and possible strategies to create an environment where concrete services (e.g. the ability to use the cloud for data storage, video conferencing and telecommuting systems, to use open data to develop everyday-use applications, to use “Internet of Things technologies” to support smart services, etc.) can start being experimented and awareness of municipalities, schools, local businesses, tourism agencies, etc. on the use of such services cam be raised.

For the first phase, the starting of a “service laboratory” in the Giudicarie Valley has been hypothesized, that will explore some forms of advanced services involving the Valley Government, the Municipalities, schools, local businesses and hotels, which will be a first approach to project definition; later stages of study and the identification of services targeted to the specific needs and demands of the local communities will be provided, that will be defined during the local experimentation.

To implement the activities of the project and pursue their aims, the Valley Government requested the collaboration of FBK, Trentino Network and Trentino Sviluppo, each according to its own statutory areas and competence.

The goal of the project is to establish a “Services Lab”, with locations across the local area, with three fields of application:

1) In “Schools” – with the establishment of information and learning sessions and with the design and the start of a Fab Lab, with the following purposes:

create a resource for the local area in which people, especially young people, and companies can experiment and find ways of innovation;
“Catch the digital industry train”, based on innovative technologies, but above all on business processes increasingly multidisciplinary;
rethink the role of mountain areas in a key innovation that is sustainable for the places and for the people;
so that businesses in our area can find a place of innovation connected with an international network.
2) in the “Valley Government and Municipalities» – Starting services related to:

the use of the latest social media to foster communication and dialogue with citizens;
the use of the latest free messaging programs to create an instant communication channel at no cost with all interested citizens that can also be used for unexpected and emergency situations;
the preparation of a project for the use of video conferences with at least one access point in each of the four locations across the Giudicarie;
broader remote access for the employees of the Municipalities and the Valley Government;
3) in the “Business realm» – With the development of services for businesses and for hoteliers so as to enable them to receive and deliver services aiming to new communication technologies.

To achieve these goals, the Giudicarie Valley Government with its President Giorgio Butterini, FBK, represented by Secretary General Andrea Simoni, Trentino Network, with President Alexander Zorer, and Trentino Sviluppo, represented by managing director Sergio Anzelini, signed this collaborative agreement, important for the innovative actions to be taken in theGiudicarie Valley and that will affect public entities, persons, associations and enterprises.

The Laboratory provides for the use of the optic fiber infrastructure set up by Trentino Network for the public administration and the cooperation of telecommunications operators for businesses and hotels, to create the connectivity requirements for Ultra-broadband on which the developed services should transit.

The Valley Government emphasizes the strategic value of this agreement, functional to seize the opportunities arising from technology, and makes available for the project a contribution of up to a maximum of € 70,000 per year for 3 years, of which € 20,000 per year related to its staff, premises and equipment.

“The goal is to limit the not surprising issues of the most remote areas, taking advantage of computer networks. I believe that the use, extension and strengthening of ‘virtual roads’ is not less important than the improvement of the physical lines of communication: technologies now offer real opportunities to bring people closer and thus to enable the suburbs to take part in the economic development processes. On the one hand, we want to speed up the completion of the infrastructure works, on the other hand, we wish to let the Giudicarie Valley population grasp its full potential. ”
(Giorgio Butterini, President of the Giudicarie valley Government)

“This form of cooperation between local institutions, organizations and service companies is to be considered a good practice that will allow our community to contribute to the use of the optic fiber network, and to see services in action, that bring more value to the local area so as to better focus our action and the development strategy of network services. ”
(Alessandro Zorer, President of Trentino Network)