MEDIA-ISF (IST Project)
The MEDIA-ISF project (Media-Information Sans Frontières) was a European initiative funded under the EU Information Society Technologies (IST) Programme as a Best Practice Action. Coordinated by the European Journalism Centre (EJC) in the Netherlands, the project brought together a transnational consortium of 8 partner organisations across 7 countries (Netherlands, Ireland, Hungary, Austria, Belgium, Slovenia, and the UK). The partnership included key technical and dissemination actors such as ISCN, EurActiv, Memolux, BruxInFo, EON, Deloitte & Touche, and APS (whose long-standing EU project portfolio and expertise were transferred to Skills International GmbH).
Project Background & Objectives
European SMEs and regional media providers frequently face structural barriers to e-commerce and cross-border cooperation, including language boundaries, fragmented local markets, and a significant information gap between central European institutions and local newsrooms. MEDIA-ISF was launched to establish an interactive, pan-European virtual network organisation. Its goal was to facilitate direct business-to-business processes, enable multilingual content sharing, and boost cooperation between EU Member States and candidate countries during the EU enlargement process.
The Innovative 3-Level Architecture
At the core of MEDIA-ISF was an innovative 3-level information service delivery model designed to structure content flow, regional adaptation, and service deployment:
- Level 1 (Content): Pan-European digital content generation, featuring EU enlargement policy news and background data provided by EU-level portals such as EurActiv.
- Level 2 (Distribution): Regional Information Service Distributors providing localized translation, customisation, administrative support, and e-commerce platform management (e.g., BruxInFo in Belgium/Hungary, EON in Slovenia, Memolux in Hungary).
- Level 3 (Exploitation): Local contact points and dissemination networks offering user training, marketing, and community support (such as EJC and APS).
Technical Platform & Core Deliverables
- e-Working Infrastructure: Built on ISCN’s NQA (Network-based Quality Assurance) teamwork application integrated on a Hyperwave knowledge management server, enabling collaborative authoring, document versioning, and workflow tracking.
- Multilingual Content Portals: Interconnected regional media portals (e.g., in Hungary and Slovenia) providing localized, indexed EU policy information alongside online transaction support for content purchases.
- Journalist & SME Capacity Building: Tailored training seminars, “Eurocourses”, and online toolkits delivered by EJC to equip media professionals with digital research and cross-border reporting skills.
- Pan-European Outreach: Reached over 2,000 journalists directly via EJC, 30,000 IT managers through the EuroSPI network, and 200 Innovation Relay Centres across Europe via APS.
