European Data Forum 2013

EDF is the yearly meeting place for industry, research, policy makers, and community initiatives to discuss the challenges and opportunities of Big Data in Europe. These aspects have both a technical - in terms of technology and infrastructure needed to master the volumes, heterogeneity, and dynamicity of Big Data - and a socio-economic component, speaking about emerging types of products and services and their commercialization, innovation and business models, but also policies and regulations.

Our aim is to bring together all stakeholders involved in the data value chain to exchange ideas and develop actionable roadmaps addressing these challenges and opportunities to strengthen the European data economy and its positioning worldwide. The roadmaps will be offered as a contribution to the definition of research, development, and policy activities at the level of the European Union institutions and those of its member states.

An equally important goal of the European Data Forum is to create and foster a truly European Big Data community. This emerging community will enable promising ideas to move from the stage of research questions all the way to successful deployment and the acquisition of capital; in the same time, its stakeholders will mutually reinforce commercial strategies that require a forward looking, dynamic, and well-integrated EU-wide venture capital and industry. This will in turn depend establishing in the European Data Forum a culture of evidence based reasoning and positive criticism where ideas from any part of the community acquire value by being examined and discussed in the context of reliable quantitative information (e.g. about industrial trends or availability of data resources) from other parts of the community.

Following a successful launch in 2012, this year's edition of the European Data Forum will put together a program consisting of keynotes, selected talks, as well as hands-on and networking sessions, addressing in particular the following topics:

• Is the European economy ready for Big Data? From novel innovation and business models for open and Linked Data, to platforms and marketplaces, policies. What are specifically European challenges and opportunities in this space?

• Are we reaching out to relevant stakeholders? Application scenarios and specific technical and non-technical requirements of Big Data providers and consumers in sectors such as Smart Cities, Environmental Research, Geo-Spatial Information, eScience, social media, etc.

• What does Europe provide in terms of innovative Business Intelligence solutions? SMEs and other technology providers offering tools to make use of Big Data, taking into account issues such as heterogeneity, quality, reliability, etc. and what is or should be its competitive advantage in this domain