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MINDS: European news agencies create a new generation of mobile information services

Hamburg/Luxembourg (08.01.2004) - Five leading European news agencies have founded a consortium to create a new generation of information and new services for mobile communication. The project MINDS (Mobile Information and News Data Services for 3G) is funded by the EC through its eContent programme.

MINDS is aiming to present innovative information services for mobile phones and
to define technical and commercial standards. The consortium will work together with the European media and telecommunications industry in order to accelerate the market penetration of mobile media services. The MINDS partners are planning to develop at least a dozen mobile information offers for European consumers, enterprises or public authorities. Until summer 2005 they will be presented live in the UMTS testbed at Fraunhofer Fokus institute in Berlin.

The consortium consists of the coordinator Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) through its information service subsidiary dpa-infocom (Hamburg), and the news agencies of Austria (APA), the Netherlands (ANP), Switzerland (sda-ats) and Hungary (MTI). Complementary partners are the German software company CoreMedia AG, the world publishing association Ifra, the German IT service company arvato systems and the Fraunhofer FOKUS Institute.

It is the intention of the MINDS partners to further remove the barriers that still restrain mobile media services from turning into a mass market. Still a broad diversity of incompatible technical standards, complex and often one-sided business models, or the lack of usability from the consumers perspective prevent the breakthrough of mobile data services in all European countries.

The national news agencies are serving both the media and telecommunications industry. The MINDS partners will therefore cooperate closely with mobile operators, publishers and broadcasters in order to integrate all players of the mobile media business and to mediate a process of standardization.

The EC is funding MINDS through "eContent". The European Commission has set up this programme to support the production, use and distribution of European digital content.