News Release - World Wide Web Consortium Launches Finnish Office

Tomorrow, W3C launches its 13th office in Finland to encourage Web 
Standards adoption and provide a central communications point. For 
questions on this or any other W3C issues, please contact Janet Daly at 
janet@w3.org.

Web Resources are listed at the bottom of this news release.

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World Wide Web Consortium Launches Finnish Office
W3C strengthens presence in Northern Europe through Finnish outreach

Contact Americas, Australia --
Janet Daly, <janet@w3.org>, +1.617.253.5884 or +1.617.253.2613Contact
Europe --
Marie-Claire Forgue, <mcf@w3.org>, +33.492.38.75.94Contact Asia --
Saeko Takeuchi, <saeko@w3.org>, +81.466.49.1170

(also available in French, Japanese, and Finnish on the Web at
http://www.w3.org/2002/10/fioffice-pressrelease)

http://www.w3.org/ -- 10 October 2002 -- Tomorrow, the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C) launches its W3C Finnish Office, based at the Digital
Media Institute (DMI) of the Tampere University of Technology in
Tampere, Finland. Among those attending the day's opening ceremonies at
the Tampere Hall are Dr. Daniel Dardailler, W3C Deputy Director for
Europe; Professor Jarmo Viteli, Director of the eTampere program; and
Professor Hannu Eskola, Director of DMI.

The Finnish Office is the newest W3C outreach center, and the second in
Northern Europe, joining the W3C Swedish Office at SICS in Stockholm,
Sweden.

The opening ceremony is a public event, with presentations from the W3C
technical Team including:

      * Dr. Daniel Dardailler, W3C Deputy Director for Europe: "World
Wide Web Consortium";
      * Dr. Marie-Claire Forgue, W3C European Communications Officer:
"The W3C Process";
      * Dr. Ivan Herman, W3C Head of Offices: "2D Web Graphics: SVG";
      * Yves Lafon, W3C Jigsaw and W3C XML Protocol Activities Lead: "Web
Services"; and
      * Dr. Marja-Riitta Koivunen, W3C Research Scientist, Technology and
Society and Web Accessibility Domains: "Semantic Web and Web Accessibility."

Finland's IT Industry is Established, Thriving

Finland holds leading positions both as a consumer and exporter of
information technology (IT). Within the country, more than 80% of the
population have a personal mobile phone; more than 50% have a personal
computer at home, and more than 60% have access to the Internet from
home, from school, or from work. In addition, public libraries and other
organizations offer free access to the Internet.

Finland's current prosperity is based largely on the global success of
its IT-related industries, notably in the mobile communications and
electronics markets. The variety and breadth of Finnish high-tech
expertise today lies largely in the high level of spending devoted to
R&D by industry and government alike. Finnish companies, universities,
and research institutes have invested heavily in R&D for many years. In
1999, they invested the equivalent of 3.3% of the country's Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) in R&D - ahead of Japan, Germany, France and the
United States, and second only to Sweden.

As the home of pioneering efforts in both mobile telecommunications and
the birthplace of Linux, Finland is an excellent choice for a W3C
Office, whose role is to encourage standards-based technology
development. W3C currently has 10 Finnish Members, including CiTEC;
Elisa Communications; Finnet Group; Helsinki University of Technology;
Nokia; Profium Ltd.; Republica Corporation; Tieke; the University of
Helsinki; and DMI of Tampere University of Technology.

DMI Provides W3C Connection and Outreach to Finland

As a vendor-neutral Member of W3C, and with an extensive contact network
and shared objectives for Web development, DMI meets the criteria for
W3C Office selection.

The Digital Media Institute organizes and carries on multidisciplinary
research in the field of digital media. DMI creates synergy and
stimulates world-class research in close cooperation with industry. The
Institute's areas of research include signal processing, multimedia,
digital and computer systems, software systems, communications
engineering, and hypermedia.

DMI operates under the Council of Tampere University of Technology. With
450 researchers and a budget of over 17 million euros, it is the largest
academic IT unit in Finland. Research at DMI is financed by the Finnish
Technology Agency Tekes, the Finnish Academy, and by companies.

About W3C Offices

As part of realizing the full potential of the Web, W3C partners with
regional organizations wishing to further W3C's mission. The W3C Offices
assist with promotion efforts in local languages, help broaden W3C's
geographical base, and encourage international participation in W3C
Activities. W3C currently has Offices in Australia, the Benelux
Countries, Germany and Austria, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel,
Italy, Korea, Morocco, Sweden, and the United Kingdom and Ireland.

About the World Wide Web Consortium [W3C]

The W3C was created to lead the Web to its full potential by developing
common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its
interoperability. It is an international industry consortium jointly run
by the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science (MIT LCS) in the USA, the
National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA)
in France and Keio University in Japan. Services provided by the
Consortium include: a repository of information about the World Wide Web
for developers and users, and various prototype and sample applications
to demonstrate use of new technology. To date, over 440 organizations
are Members of the Consortium. For more information see http://www.w3.org/

Web Resources

This Press release:
http://www.w3.org/2002/10/fioffice-pressrelease

Information on the W3C Offices:
http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Offices/

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Received on Thursday, 10 October 2002 00:08:26 UTC