The European Commission had a high profile last week at the Milia multimedia content show in Cannes. Its goal is to invest in multimedia innovation and development with the hope that it will lead to real jobs in the future. Multimedia is a fast growing sector and has the potential for creating new jobs, which is the goal of the EU, an EU spokesperson said. This move will help broaden awareness of the potential for this market. At the show it launched the Europrix MultiMediaArt award to encourage development of ‘multimedia for a purpose’ under the auspices of its Info2000 program. It also demonstrated, for the first time, work being carried out as part of its Multimedia Support Networks. The 12 projects are funded by the Commission’s Esprit program and provide a range of services and products to the European multimedia networks and related industries. Industrial sectors include electronic publishing, educational and training software, animation, online publishing of image databases, creation of digital archives as well as art and culture and textiles and clothing. The separate Europrix project is set to be a major focus for the Austrian Presidency of the European Union in the second half of this year. The award includes five categories including multimedia for small and medium enterprises in the workplace; improving democracy with multimedia and knowledge and discovery. The winners will be on show at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October. In addition, they will get a Europe wide promotion campaign. www.europrix.org.
