About the authors

Giuditta De Prato and Daniel Nepelski joined the Institute for Prospective Technologies (IPTS), European Commission, Directorate-General JRC, the in-house think tank of the European Commission in January 2009 to contribute to projects on economic aspects of the information society and on the impacts of information society technologies, mainly focusing on ICT R&D, the software sector, patents, and innovation dynamics in the context of the knowledge economy.

Giuditta De Prato worked in the industry as a software developer and IT consultant from 1992 to 2005. From 2005 to 2009, she focused on research activities on local development, evaluation, ICT, and open source at the University of Bologna.

Daniel Nepelski worked at DIW Berlin, the German Institute for Economic Research, as a research associate and policy consultant between 2002 and 2008. His research interests are in the area of industrial organization with a particular focus on innovation economics and competition policy.

Jean Paul Simon runs his own consulting company. He worked as a senior scientist at the IPTS from 2010 to 2012 on ICT in BRIC countries, as well as on the economics of the media and content industries and the impact of digitization. He has held senior posisions in the telecom industry. He has written several books and articles on communications and public policy. He is a frequent speaker on telecommunications and media in Asia, Europe, and the U.S.A.