No. 73 - New challenges for the Video Game Industry
Communications & Strategies - 31/03/2009
1st Quarter 2009
The choice of video games as the central theme is justified by the growth of its various markets. It is no longer a marginal sector in terms of size, nor limited to only a niche population. It is expanding in several directions which are both enhancing it and intertwining it with a number of ICT markets (digital entertainment, Web services, mobile services, e-training, …) – and so helping to further spur the momentum.
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Dossier
New Challenges for The Video Game IndustryEdited by Edward CASTRONOVA & Laurent MICHAUD
General Overview
Edward CASTRONOVA & Laurent MICHAUD
Entering the Economic Models of Game Console Manufacturers
Nabyla DAIDJ & Thierry ISCKIA
The Dynamics of Co-Creation in the Video Game Industry: The Case of World of Warcraft
Myriam DAVIDOVICI-NORA
Case Study: Australia's Computer Games Audience and Restrictive Ratings System
Jeffrey E. BRAND, Jill BORCHARD & Kym HOLMES
Pervasive Gaming: Testing Future Context Aware Applications
Annie GENTÈS & Camille JUTANT
PlayMancer: Games for Health with Accessibility in Mind
Elias KALAPANIDAS, Fernando FERNÁNDEZ-ARANDA,
Susana JIMÉNEZ-MURCIA, Otilia KOCSIS, Todor GANCHEV,
Hannes KAUFMANN & Costas DAVARAKIS
Interview with
Dan MILLER, Joint Economic Committee of Congress, USA
Other paper
Charging Regimes for Interconnection Services
Future Options and Potential Outcomes
Paul PISJAK, Stefan FELDER, Ernst-Olav RUHLE, Martin LUNDBORG & Matthias EHRLER
Features
Firms and Markets
• Casual Gaming - Games for Everyone
Laurent MICHAUD
Technical Innovations
• Electronic Paper - New Screens, New Uses?
Vincent BONNEAU
Public Policies
• Local Authorities and FTTx - What Role for Local Players?
Pierre-Michel ATTALI
Use Logics
• New Communication Uses: Is Mobile Poised to Grab it All?
Use-IT Europe: Survey of Young Early-Adopters
Sophie LUBRANO
Book Review
• Jean-Marc CHADUC & Gérard POGOREL,
The Radio Spectrum
By Erik BOHLIN
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Nabyla DAIDJ & Thierry ISCKIA
Entering the Economic Models of Game Console Manufacturers
Key words: video game console, business model, core competencies, two-sided market, platform.
This paper deals with the video game console market. We are not interested here in portable consoles nor in PC games. Our work focuses on the role of core competencies in console wars, analyzing the way these competencies are activated within the firms' business models. The home console market also exhibits crossed network externalities, which requires console manufacturers the ability to conciliate the interests of both developers and gamers. From a strategic point of view, core competencies are closely related with market performance. Today, Sony's and Microsoft's business models are quite similar. However, Microsoft and Sony remain far behind Nintendo and its Wii, which suggests that core competencies do not discriminate on performance as much as the positioning choices made upstream when the strategy is crafted. The link between core competencies, economic model and strategy is at the heart of this study.
Myriam DAVIDOVICI-NORA
The Dynamics of Co-Creation in the Video Game Industry: The Case of World of Warcraft
Key words: open innovation, online community, video game, innovative user, customization.
These latest years have seen both an increasing development of Users Generated Content (UGC) on the Internet and a growing number of free transactions of these contents through online communities. The video game industry shares this general trend and we shall examine it in detail through the example of a worldwide success game, World of Warcraft (WoW). This massively multiplayer online (MMO) game exhibits two specific economic characteristics. The first one is that the original content is produced by a game developer who keeps intellectual property rights while leaving open to players some possibilities to modify that original content into an enhanced content. We call this innovation process, which involves both the participation of the producer and of consumers, co-creation. Based on a typology of the different UGC in WoW, we specify the meaning of co-creation and put forward some arguments on the players' motivations to co-create and their consequences on the attractiveness of the gameplay to the players' community. The second characteristic is that co-creation is not limited to the design of the game before its marketing. It is a continuous interaction between players and developer even after its marketing. This dynamic process requires both regulatory actions by the developer and a new industrial organization to distribute these UGC through the WoW players' community.
Jeffrey E. BRAND, Jill BORCHARD & Kym HOLMES
Case Study: Australia's Computer Games Audience and Restrictive Ratings System
Key words: Computer Games, Ratings, Audience, Australia.
Computer and video games are big business in Australia, just as they are in many other developed economies. However, Australia is unique among developed states because there is no R18+ or "Adult" rating for computer game content in Australia. The present case study represents a snapshot of a larger national audience study of 1614 homes and 4852 individuals within those homes. The research presents demographic, behavioural and attitudinal data by which the largely functioning ratings system may be judged. The data show that the typical gamer is 30 years of age, often a parent and actively engaged in content selection and exposure. By presenting these data in the context of the unique regulatory regime in Australia, this report seeks to demonstrate that consumer power exceeds the control of the state and such control may function to enhance rather than stifle the health of the computer games industry.
Annie GENTÈS & Camille JUTANT
Pervasive Gaming: Testing Future Context Aware Applications
Key words: pervasive games, content production, game design, geolocalised technologies.
More and more technical research projects take place that weave together elements of real and virtual life to provide a new experience defined as pervasive. They bank on the development of mobile services to drive the expansion of pervasive applications and in particular pervasive games. Using geolocalisation, local networks and short range radio frequencies technologies like RFID or other tagging technologies, pervasive games rely on a close relationship to the environment and thus explore the space between fiction and reality. This is their main quality but possibly their main weakness as the development relies on the production of specific contents in relation to the context of use. In this article, we propose to explore what this entirely new paradigm for game design implies in terms of production and how to overcome the limitations due to this dependency of contents and context. Based on our experience of three pervasive games developed within research projects on adhoc wifi (ANR-Safari and ANR-Transhumance) and RFID networks (ANR-PLUG), this paper presents different options to reducing the cost of content production relying on either traditional editors or grass root contributions.
Elias KALAPANIDAS, Fernando FERNÁNDEZ-ARANDA, Susana JIMÉNEZ-MURCIA, Otilia KOCSIS, Todor GANCHEV,Hannes KAUFMANN & Costas DAVARAKIS
PlayMancer: Games for Health with Accessibility in Mind
Key words: Computer games, video games, accessibility, e-Inclusion, serious games, Games for Health.
The term Serious Games has been used to describe computer and video games used as educational technology or as a vehicle for presenting or promoting a point of view. Serious games can be of any genre and many of them can be considered a kind of edutainment. Serious games are intended to provide an engaging, self-reinforcing context in which to motivate and educate the players towards knowledgeable processes, including business operations, training, marketing and advertisement. Serious games can be compelling, educative, provocative, disruptive and inspirational. The potential of games for entertainment and learning has been demonstrated thoroughly from both research and market. Unfortunately, the investments committed to entertainment dwarf what is committed for more serious purposes. In this feature, we will argue that the motives, incentives and expectations of the computer game industry differ from one cultural and economic environment to another. As the game industry is dominated by US companies, computer game products are targeting user groups mostly informed by the marketing departments of those companies. This process creates marginalised user groups and game types that are not addressed effectively by the computer game market. Accessible games and games for health comprise this underdeveloped niche. Research project PlayMancer is a multi-partner effort to tackle both of those issues in a coherent way.
Paul PISJAK, Stefan FELDER,Ernst-Olav RUHLE, Martin LUNDBORG, Matthias EHRLER
Charging Regimes for Interconnection Services
Future Options and Potential Outcomes
Key words: Interconnection, NGN, charging principles, CPP, Bill&Keep.
Over the last few years, many discussions have centred around the issue of interconnection rates and their economic impact on the market. Interconnection charging in Europe is still based mainly on the calling party pays (CPP) principle combined with element based charging (EBC). Due to the convergence of the classical PSTN/ISDN and the IP world to next generation networks (NGN), the different charging principles and systems are being reviewed to determine the optimal solution for the future.
In its working program for the year 2008, the Austrian Regulatory Authority (RTR) launched an industry working group on charging principles and systems for wholesale services. This paper highlights some of the central issues of the discussions that have taken place and contains the authors’ views and conclusions . Further, the paper identifies possible charging systems, as well as economic assessment criteria for these systems and how the different charging systems may be evaluated with respect to those criteria.
Regarding the usefulness of industry working groups, the work has shown that these lead to a higher degree of transparency between regulator and market players as well as a better understanding between the market players themselves. The main drawback is that working groups are time consuming and that it is almost impossible to agree on meaningful outcomes.
Regarding the assessment of the charging models it was possible to derive a set of 10 criteria according to which charging systems can be evaluated. There was a rather broad consensus on the delineation of charging models as well as the economic criteria. When it comes to the results of the evaluation, the discussions brought forward very controversial views amongst the participants. No common views could be achieved on which the charging model fulfills the defined criteria in the best manner. |
Pierre-Michel ATTALI joined IDATE in 2000, and now heads the Networks and Local Authorities Practice. He assists chairpersons or CEO of local authorities (regions, cities and metropolitan areas) in their strategic decision-making process when planning IT deployments in their area, helping to draft broadband and ultra-broadband development plans. He also conducts assignments for telecom operators, civil engineering companies or financial firms which want to develop telecom networks and offers, in particular by addressing local authorities calls for tender. Before coming to IDATE, Pierre-Michel worked as an Information and Communication Technologies engineer and in the creation and financing of innovative start-ups for the Languedoc-Roussillon's Regional Department of Industry and its Research and Environment Department (DRIRE). He has also worked as an engineer for national energy company, EDF, in charge of overseeing the Vidéopole cable network's construction and maintenance in the Hérault region, after having been responsible for the technical-economic feasibility study for cable in the region, on behalf of operator Vidéopole (since taken over by UPC and then Numéricable). Pierre-Michel holds a Telecommunications Engineer degree from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications de Bretagne.
pm.attali@idate.org
Erik BOHLIN is currently Head and Professor in Technology Assessment at the Division of Technology & Society, Department of Technology Management & Economics at Chalmers University of Technology. He has published in a number of areas relating to the information society - policy, strategy, and management. He is Chair of the International Telecommunications Society; Chief Editor of Telecommunications Policy; Member of the Scientific Advisory Boards of Communications and Strategies, Info, International Journal of Management and Network Economics, and Nordic and Baltic Journal of Information and Communication Technologies. He obtained his graduate degree in Business Administration and Economics at the Stockholm School of Economics (1987) and his Ph.D. at Chalmers University of Technology (1995).
erik.bohlin@chalmers.org
Vincent BONNEAU is Senior Manager, Head of Internet Services Practice at IDATE. He is in charge of issues relating to the IT and Internet services industries' impact on the telecommunications market's offers, consumption and business strategies. His assignments focus on technological and marketing innovations in these two industries. Before coming to IDATE, Vincent worked as the "Internet Software and Technologies" attaché to the French Trade Commission (DREE) in San Francisco, in addition to having gained strategic operational and marketing experience working for Noos, Wanadoo and France Télécom in Paris. Mr. Bonneau is a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique (1997) and the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications (2002), and holds a Masters Degree in New Technologies Management from the HEC business school (2002).
v.bonneau@idate.org
Jill BORCHARD is a Ph.D. candidate at Bond University. Her research focuses on the social-psychological effects that news reports of drug use have on audience perceptions of elite athletes. She works as a postgraduate research fellow in the School of Communication and Media.
Jeffrey E. BRAND (Ph.D., Michigan State University) is Associate Professor of Communication and Media at Bond University, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. His research focuses on electronic media, audiences and policy, mainly centred around computer games. He serves as consultant to government agencies such as the Australian Communications and Media Authority and to industry organisations such as the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia.
Edward CASTRONOVA (Ph.D., Economics, Wisconsin, 1991) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Telecommunications at Indiana University, Bloomington. He is the founder of scholarly virtual world studies and an expert on the economies of large-scale online games. Among his numerous academic publications on these topics are two books: Synthetic Worlds (University of Chicago Press, 2005) and Exodus to the Virtual World(Palgrave, 2007). Professor Castronova teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on the design of games, the virtual world industry, and the management of synthetic societies. He has created two virtual worlds: Arden, a small-scale replica of a Shakespearean virtual world, and Greenland, a large-scale stone age society. Outside his academic work, Professor Castronova makes regular appearances in mainstream media (60 Minutes, the New York Times, and The Economist), gives keynotes at major conferences (Austin Game Conference, Digital Games Research Association Conference, Interactive Software Federation of Europe), and consults for business (McKinsey, Vivendi, Forrester). Professor Castronova's longer-term goals are to develop virtual worlds for studying human society at the macro scale. While many of today's problems exist the large scale (terror, disease, global warming, poverty), social scientists do not have a tool at that scale for doing simple controlled experiments. Virtual worlds may be that tool: A macro-scale petri dish.
Nabyla DAIDJ is Associate Professor in Strategy at TELECOM & Management SudParis (an international engineering and business school). Her teaching and research interests are corporate strategy, inter-organizational relationships (strategic alliances) and conglomerates' performance and corporate governance in a context of coopetition. She has published a book with A. HAMMOUDI in 2008 about cooperation, games theory and strategic management (Le management stratégique par la théorie des jeux. Une introduction, Hermes, Lavoisier, Paris). Currently, she is studying the sources of value creation in international firms within media and video games sectors.
Costas DAVARAKIS was a post doc researcher and an adjunct lecturer at the Computer Technlogy Institute, the University of Patras, the University of Pireus and the Athens Polytechnic, from 1985-1995. He has been acting as an ICT expert in the fields of Human Computer Interfaces at the CEC Ivth Framework for RTD, in the fields of Virtual Reality and Assistive Technologies at the EU Vth Framework for RTD, and in the fields of networked audio visual systems at the EU FP6, participating in various CEC consultation meetings, evaluation panels and RTD referenced activities. He has acted as an independent expert on ICT for the National Ministries of Development and Education. He has published articles and edited scientific book chapters on 3D modelling, and on technology based learning and has co-ordinated several EU projects. Dr. Davarakis has often acted as session chair at International Conferences and Workshops e.g. 2004 IFIP/WCC, VR World Congress.
Myriam DAVIDOVICI-NORA is Assistant Professor in Economics at Telecom-ParisTech. She is in charge of a course on basic principles of economics and of an advanced course on management of innovation. Her research deals with the relationships among intellectual property, digital goods, industrial organization and innovation organization.
myriam.davidovici@telecom-paristech.fr
After graduating in Economics from the University of Münster, Germany, Matthias EHRLER (born 1969) worked from 2000 to 2003 at the regional fixed network operator NetCologne GmbH, Cologne, as a consultant in the fields of law and regulation. From January 2004 until June 2007, Mr Ehrler was Senior Regulatory Counsel Economy & Strategy at O2 Germany GmbH & Co. OHG in Munich. In this role he was responsible for all issues relating to regulatory economics and regulatory strategy and, from 2006, fixed network regulation, particularly in relation to DSL. As a certified project manager (IPMA level D) Mr Ehrler was additionally responsible for internal projects. Since 1 July 2007, Matthias Ehrler has strengthened the team at SBR JUCONOMY Consulting AG, focusing primarily on the issues of network expansion and broadband provision from a technical and economic point of view.
Stefan FELDER holds a Master Degree from the Technical University of Vienna and a Doctoral Degree from Vienna University of Economics. After he had been working for a Telecommunications Equipment Company for 10 years, Dr. Stefan Felder joined Vienna University as an Assistant Professor in 1995. Since 1998 he has been with the Economics Department of the Austrian Regulatory Authority (RTR) mainly involved in the regulation of mobile markets. Among other duties he is in charge of market analysis, mobile termination regulation and spectrum auctions.
Fernando FERNÁNDEZ-ARANDA was born in 1963 and since 2003 has been Head of the Eating Disorders Unit at the Dept. of Psychiatry (IDIBELL) and Associated Professor in Psychology, University of Barcelona, since 2000. He obtained his Ph.D. in Psychology in 1996, at the University of Hamburg (Germany), his BP in 1990 (Clinical Psychology) at the University of Barcelona. His previous appointment was as a Consultant Psychologist at the Behavioural Therapy Unit at the University Hospital of Hamburg (1994-1995) and Long-term Predoctoral Research Fellowship in Hannover, Germany (1992-1993). He has extensive expertise in research into the psychological and therapeutic aspects of Eating disorders, being active participant in many multicenter Spanish and European research projects. He gave more than 150 invited lectures in International or National professional Psychology or Psychiatry Conferences and is actively involved as recognised Supervisor in Continuous Teaching in ED, and relevant member of several international professional Associations (AED, ED Research Society). Until 2007 he was board member of the American Academy for Eating Disorders (AED) and co-chair of Continuous Teaching in the AED. Associated editor of European Eating Disorders Review and awarded with the Meehan Hartley Award for Public Service and/or Advocacy-2004.
Todor GANCHEV received his Diploma Engineer degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University of Varna, Bulgaria, in 1993. From February 1994 to August 2000, he consequently held engineering, research, and teaching staff positions at the same University. During that period he participated in numerous research and development projects. Since September 2000, he has been with the Wire Communications Laboratory, University of Patras, Greece. He has more than 40 scientific publications. He has participated in a number of EC IST projects (GEMINI, INSPIRE, AMIGO, MOVEON, etc.).
Annie GENTES is Associate Professor of Information and Communication Sciences, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications in Paris. She is also associate researcher at the "Pierre Francastel" Centre for research in Contemporary Art, Paris-Nanterre University. Her research focuses on the design of IT services and on new media art, combining engineering with the perspectives of aesthetics, ethnology, sociology, and semiotics. The issues emerging in technology-based services are considered in terms of multi-competence project management, product culture, and user interface and awareness. The integrated design approach is called in to bridge the gap between engineering and the final product. She participates in the design of mobile services within the National Agency of Research (ANR) and cooperative EU projects (SAFARI, Transhumance, Popeye). She is in charge of a curriculum in service analysis and design and teaches two courses of multimedia art, and strategic design (in collaboration with the MS in design and environment - University Pantheon-Sorbonne and the Department of Digital Design at ENSCI).
Kym HOLMES is a graduate of Bond University with degrees in Commerce and Law. He is completing a degree focused on computer games publishing. He works as a postgraduate research fellow in the School of Communication and Media.
Thierry ISCKIA is Associate Professor in Strategic Management at TELECOM & Management SudParis. Professor Isckia spent 8 years in France Telecom R&D Labs (ex CNET) in Paris. His teaching and research interests deal with business ecosystems, open innovation and R&D management, collective strategies in the ICT sector. Currently, he is studying innovation strategies in mobile ecosystems. He is also participating in an international industrial research program in the field of mobile operating systems.
Susana JIMÉNEZ-MURCIA was born in 1964 and since 2002 has been Head of the Pathological Unit at the Dept. of Psychiatry (IDIBELL) and Associated Professor in Psychology, University of Barcelona, since 2006. She obtained her Master in Clinical Psychology in 1992 and Ph.D. in Psychology in 2004, both at the University Autonoma of Barcelona. Her previous appointment was as a Consultant Psychologist at the University Hospital of Bellvitge since 1996. She has extensive expertise in research into the psychological and therapeutic aspects of Pathological gambling, being active participant in many multicenter Spanish research projects (genetics, and risk factors research). She gave more than 80 invited lectures in International or National professional Psychology or Psychiatry Conferences and is actively involved as recognised Supervisor in Continuous Teaching in psychology. 2005 she was as invited professor at the University of North Carolina (USA).
Camille JUTANT is a Ph.D. student in a joint program of the University in Avignon and Pays de Vaucluse - in the Culture and Communication laboratory - and the University of Quebec at Montreal. She also works with the department of Economic and Social Sciences of Telecom ParisTech (Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications) on museums and ICT technologies. From 2004 to 2007, she worked as coordinator of the Department of Temporary Exhibitions in the Cultural Center Circulo de Bellas Artes in Madrid and currently studies the evolution of practices in cultural institutions, in particular the development of customized visits.
Elias KALAPANIDAS holds an Electrical Engineering Degree and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, University of Patras, Greece. He has participated in the European–funded research projects LAB@FUTURE as assistant Project Manager and MoveON as Technology Manager, and he has a long experience in Knowledge management, distributed AI, data mining, environmental applications, machine learning, multi-agent and distributed problem solving systems.
Hannes KAUFMANN is assistant professor at the Institute of Software Technology and Interactive Systems at Vienna University of Technology and head of the VR group since 2005. After completing his Ph.D. thesis in 2004 on "Geometry Education with Augmented Reality", he did postdoc research in the EU-IST R&D project Lab@Future. He was project manager of national research projects and participated in projects in the fields of virtual and augmented reality, spatial abilities, geometry, educational geometry software and published more than 25 scientific articles to date. Since 1999 he has developed Construct3D, a virtual reality application for mathematics and geometry education. He initiated the development of the low-cost optical tracking system ioTracker.
Otilia KOCSIS received her BSc degree in Physics from the University "Al.I. Cuza" Iasi (Romania) in 1996, the MSc degree in Medical Physics from the University of Patras (1998), and the PhD degree in Medical Physics from the University of Patras (2004). From November 2002 until February 2008 she was working as a consultant for speech-based systems integration at SingularLogic A.E. (Greece). At the same time she was actively involved in a number of IST R&D projects (e.g. GEMINI, AMIGO, POLIAS). Since March 2008 she is a senior researcher at WCL, University of Patras. She is author and co-author of more than 30 publications in the areas of quality assessment of medical digital imaging systems, multi-modal interaction and user modelling.
Dimitri KONSTANTAS is Prof. at the University of Geneva (CH) heading the OSG group since 2002. He has been active for the last 17 years in research in the areas of object oriented systems, agent technologies, multimedia applications, e-commerce services and mobile systems, with numerous publications in international conferences and journals. Prof. Konstantas has a long participation in European research and industrial projects and is a consultant and expert to several European companies and governments and has served (for over 10 years) as managing director and executive research VP in a few companies His present research interests include networked and mobile applications specifically in the area of e-health. Prof. Konstantas was the scientific Project Coordinator of the MobiHealth IST-2001-36006 project and the Scientific Manager of the HealthService24 project.
Tony LAM is General Manager of NetUnion. He founded the company in 1997, and has led the strategic development of the company over the last 10 years. He has wide ranging experience in research and management, and was the technical coordinator of the European research project SALUT. He is currently on the management steering committee of the FP6 integrated project ENABLED. Mr. Lam has an undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley, and a Master of Business Administration degree from the Hautes Etudes Commerciales in France, and has held appointments with multinational corporations in San Francisco, Lyon, Singapore, Shanghai, and Beijing.
Sophie LUBRANO is Senior Consultant at IDATE, specialised in demand analysis, particularly in the area of consumer applications. She also contributes her expertise in supply analysis, notably companies' Internet service strategies. Her assignments focus on various aspects of the telecom industry: Internet, media, landline and mobile telephony. Prior to joining IDATE, Sophie was an economic consultant for B.I.P.E., where she was in charge of telecom market monitoring. Ms. Pernet is an economist, with a post-graduate degree from ESLSCA (Ecole Supérieure Libre des Sciences Commerciales Appliquées).
s.lubrano@idate.org
Martin LUNDBORG, born in 1976 in Jönköping, Sweden, joined SBR JUCONOMY Consulting AG team in August 2004 as a senior consultant. He studied Business Administration at the Jönköping International Business School and at the Christian-Albrecht University in Kiel, completing his studies with the degree of "Master of Science in Business Administration". After his studies, Martin Lundborg worked as a freelance consultant in the venture-capital branch in Sweden. His clients included the venture-capital subsidiary of a major Swedish incumbent and various start-up enterprises in the Swedish IT branch. In 2000, he moved from Sweden to Germany where he worked as a consultant for Eutelis Consult GmbH. During this time, Martin Lundborg was responsible for various projects for a large-scale European operator and for an alternative carrier. In 2003, he moved on to Arcor AG & Co. KG, where he was employed until July 2004 in the Regulation Economics Department, concentrating on the data sector (DSL, ATM). In the course of his professional career to date, Martin Lundborg has gained considerable experience in the sectors of regulation, carrier management, market and competition analysis and monetary business case analysis
Laurent MICHAUD is Head of Digital Entertainment Practice at IDATE. Laurent acts as project manager for market reports on digital home & entertainment. He conducts as well studies guiding digital entertainment start-ups to set up and develop their business. He provides OSEO Innovation (a national business development and support organisation) with expert technical-economic analysis of strategic issues relating to video games, TV, internet and video. Laurent has also created the International Video Game Forum, which has been taking place in Montpellier every year since November 2002. Prior to coming to IDATE, he worked as project manager for the Centre d'Études et de Projets, Montpellier University's Economic Sciences research laboratory. He holds a post-graduate degree in Economic and Financial Regional Project Engineering from the Université de Montpellier.
l.michaud@idate.org
Dan MILLER currently works as an economist at the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, on the Republican staff. Most of his professional career has been at the JEC, but he has also spent time working at the Republican National Committee and Arthur Andersen Business Consulting.
http://danmiller.org/home
Paul PISJAK studied economics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (focus on monetary and currency economics) from which he received a Master Degree. He started his professional career first as a counselor at a banking institution. From 1989 until 1997 he was with the Institute of Technology Assessment at the Austrian Academy of Sciences where he focussed on telecommunication and participated in several national and international (EU) projects. In 1997 Mr. Pisjak joined RTR, the Austrian Regulatory Authority for Broadcasting and Telecommunications in which he is director of the economics department. Amongst his duties he is responsible for market analyses according to the existing EU-framework.
Ernst-Olav RUHLE, born in 1969 in Oslo, worked until 1995 for the WIK Institute after completing his studies in Economic Science at the University of Hanover (1988-1993). He continued his career in the Strategy and Regulation Division of RWE Telliance in Essen to conduct preliminary work to prepare for the opening up of the German telecommunications market. From October 1988 until March 2001, he assumed the function of Head of Regulation with special statutory authority at Telekom Austria AG, Vienna. From April 2001 until June 2002, Dr Ruhle was Director of Interconnection, Roaming and Regulatory Affairs at 3G Mobile Telecommunications GmbH, Vienna, the Austrian UMTS subsidiary of Telefónica. From 1 July 2002 until the end of February 2004, he joined the law firm of Piepenbrock Schuster to provide support with respect to economically relevant issues. On 1 March 2004, he took up the post of Managing Director of JUCONOMY Consulting AG (today operating as SBR JUCONOMY Consulting AG). Dr Ruhle is a member of the board of directors of the International Telecommunications Society (ITS), where he also serves as secretary and has published more than 120 articles and papers in academic periodicals and books in the course of his professional career. As of the winter semester 2008/2009 he is part-time lecturer at the University of Cologne. |
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Sophie NIGON
