Our world is facing significant challenges. As players in the Internet industry, we are part of the solution. eco’s Managing Director Alexander Rabe how member companies can get involved in the campaign “We are part of the solution – the Internet Industry”, which focuses on the positive sides of digitalisation.

Whether it’s vaccination certificates, ID cards, driving licences or school reports: Our everyday life is still too heavily reliant on physical documents, thus inhibiting digitalisation. This is the view expressed in interview by eco Board Member Prof. Norbert Pohlmann. But with Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI), processes in public administration, business and society can be massively simplified and many processes can now be digitalised in a trustworthy manner.

At the invitation of three German ministries, the inaugural meeting of the German AI Standardisation and Conformity Coordination Group took place last week. With immediate effect, Alexander Rabe, Managing Director of eco – Association of the Internet Industry, brought the voice of the Internet industry to this 21-member committee.

In many different spheres, Digital Germany has made great strides, especially during the Corona pandemic. But where do we currently stand and what still needs to be addressed in terms of sustainable digitalisation, digital sovereignty & education or IT security? In the run-up to the 2021 German federal election, we present various Internet industry and digital policy perspectives. In the current interview: Inger Paus, Managing Director of the Vodafone Institute for Society and Communication in Germany.

In November 2019, with the goal of revolutionising stationary retail through the Internet of Things, Oliver Vosshenrich founded neoalto GmbH alongside Rene Bredlau. In a short interview, Vosshenrich reveals more about the company, how it is dealing with current challenges, and his expectations of eco.

Scaleuplab is a leading consultancy for startups and scale-ups in Germany and a member company of the eco Association. In a short interview, Sebastian Janus reveals more about the company, how it is dealing with current challenges, and highlights his expectations of the eco membership.

Andreas Weiss, Head of Digital Business Models at the eco Association, explains in an interview why we need a trustworthy digital space that is consistently oriented towards European standards and values.

A good portion of interested participants, cherry-picked speakers, and two pinches of networking – that's all you need for the perfect online event. The right software also determines its success. In 2020, we as the eco Association digitalised around 100 events with a wide variety of online tools. Christiane Skiba, eco Branch Manager in Cologne and Head of Marketing, takes stock and gives valuable tips for the coming year.

Andreas Weiss on Uptime Punks Podcast – offering an update on the GAIA-X project.

The quintessential message of eco at the German federal government's Digital Summit, titled “More Sustainability by Means of Digitalisation”: Digitalisation holds enormous potential for sustainability and climate protection.

Reducing technological dependencies and networking linear value-added chains in the digital single market more easily – GAIA-X creates the self-determined and sovereign data space for this. Andreas Weiss spoke to a committee of the German parliament about how exactly the initiative will do so.

In this issue, dotmagazine looks at how the world has changed in recent decades, how the Corona crisis has turned our world upside-down, further changes that are still needed to make society and business more equitable, and how digital infrastructure is supporting us in mastering the challenges of this transformation.

Working groups, meetings, round tables, workshops: Many events that can no longer take place in the real world due to the COVID-19 pandemic are being recreated online. For online collaboration to be as productive as live on site, it takes more than video telephony and chat functions. The eco expert for online work and managing director of aixvox GmbH Detlev Artelt explains the secret of successful online events.

eco is celebrating its 25 years of existence this year under the motto of “Internet with Responsibility”. At the same time, the concept of digital sovereignty is being discussed increasingly in the media, politics, and parts of the Internet industry. But what does digital sovereignty actually mean and how does it relate to the anniversary motto? We asked Alexander Rabe, Managing Director of eco – Association of the Internet Industry, for his thoughts.

Planned well in advance or quick and dirty? An interview with Jens Weller, Managing Director of toplink GmbH, explaining how companies can master the challenges of working from home. toplink is a sponsor of the eco birthday campaign, 25 Years of eco – Internet with Responsibility.

“Remote work is easier than you think, you just need up-to-date technology and the courage to adapt,” says Detlev Artelt, eco topic expert for remote working and author and editor of numerous publications on the topic. Artelt suggests five simple steps to provide practical assistance to SMEs looking at introducing remote work in light of COVID-19.

Andreas Weiss, Head of Digital Business Models at the eco Association, explains what AI is currently capable of, and what impact it will have on the world of work in the future.

In this issue, dotmagazine sheds light on the business potential of AI, and investigates what Europe needs to do to develop a thriving AI industry and support digital innovation.

Trust in digital has become business critical, Lars Steffen, Director of eco International, says - because bad user experience does not induce customers to buy. Read more on dotmagazine.

Worldwide, artificial intelligence (AI) is the uppermost digitalization topic of the future, and is one with which policy-makers must also get to grips with on a consistent basis.  eco – Association of the Internet Industry is driving forward the political dialogue on the responsible handling of data for new innovative AI business models.

Member of the eco Association Presidency Committee Stefanie Kemp reports on the state of trust in online services and its impact on business. Read more on dotmagazine.

Kevin Wittek from if(is) outlines the possibilities for creating a federated blockchain operated by infrastructure providers who are eco members. Read more on dotmagazine.

Digital economist Holger Schmidt explains the three waves of digital transformation and how platform-based business models evolve. Read more on dotmagazine.

Volker Zinser from Ubisecure looks at how best to implement customer ID management sustainably and how to leverage the process for greater business success. Read more on dotmagazine.

Sebastian Beyer from CERTIVATION GmbH explains how digital identities and blockchain could make our lives easier. Read more on dotmagazine.

dotmagazine explores the interplay between online and offline identities, identity management & authentication, and compliance with eIDas & the GDPR.

Katrin Ohlmer from DOTZON explains how a city can develop and exploit a stable digital identity through a GeoTLD. Read more on dotmagazine.

eco – Association of the Internet Industry are delighted to welcome their new team member Sebastian Kluth, Technical Lead with the Certified Senders Alliance (CSA). In a brief interview, Sebastian gives us an insight into his background – and what this can contribute to the CSA.

Our #LiT Ladies in Tech interview series features outstanding and inspiring female professionals and executives from the Internet industry. This time: Katja Tietze, Blockchain Consulting and Business Development at T-Systems Multimedia Solutions.

Magnus Eén from Westwing and Dr. Conny Junghans from 1&1 spoke to Julia Janssen-Holldiek (CSA) about introducing schema.org to enhance commercial emails. Read more on dotmagazine.