Research overview

The project brings together members of academia ranging from communication sciences (SMIT, MICT and CUO), sociology (CEMESO) and law (ICRI, LSTS) to economics (MOFI-ECON, Infonomics-EC/DC, TNO-ICT) and hence establishes an apparent interdisciplinary approach, which includes social, legal and economic expertise on technical disciplines.

The main objective of this project is *to identify, understand and prospect the changing role of information and communication providers and users in a networked society*. Ultimately, the research aims at building *a Flemish knowledge platform on E-Publishing*, pursuing a social finality. To this end, FLEET is engaged in mapping the development of the professional e-publishing sector in Flanders. It identifies its actors and analyzes their range of (un)successful products, services and killer applications, their strategies adopted and the business models used. Furthermore, it identifies the changes affecting the labour force within this e-publishing sector, concentrating on *the role, function and work division of the journalist* as an individual and as being part of a larger editorial and managerial institution. It aims at understanding *user behaviour* towards and user response on new online products and services and pays attention to the user as producer of content. It investigates how new technologies like *P2P* have an effect on the distribution and use of news and usergenerated content. In addition, the project investigates the most important *legal issues* affecting the e-publishing sector in the field of *copyright and liability* (and if occurring, in other legal fields like privacy and data protection). Lastly, but equally important, FLEET aspires to translate, in an interdisciplinary manner, the research results in recommendations for *policy formulation* and regulation in terms of legal, technical, economic, pedagogical and social issues, and in recommendations for the sector in terms of business models.

The work programme of FLEET is structured in 5 work packages, lead by different participants in the consortium.

*Work package 1* focuses on *production* and is headed by EC/DC. Research in this package aims to identify actors, products and services in the Flemish e-publishing sector and focuses on business models of e-publishing.

*Work package 2* is lead by CEMESO and concentrates on content generating and investigates more specifically the education and training of journalists, *the position and role of the journalistic profession and work organisation*, task division and function descriptions in digital newsrooms.

In *work package 3*, SMIT coordinates user-oriented research. There is an urgent need to understand the consultation of news and information via online media substituting or complementing the more traditional forms of news consumption. Therefore the goal of this task is to get a clear picture of the Flemish online news *user*.

All research groups participate in *work package 4*, which is lead by the project management team. Research in this package intents to identify trends that are shaping the changing landscape and to discover what the actual impact is from new technologies and their application in the digital publishing sector. *Cross issues* like privacy, copyright, liability, embedded publishing and integration of mayor research results will be put in place.

*Work package 5* comprises the management of the FLEET-project. The *project management* team stimulates and ensures the interdisciplinarity and cohesion of the group by organising intermediate events and setting up appropriate procedures across the research teams (such as thematic internal workshops, common papers etc.) and makes sure the external contacts and communication with mayor stakeholders is assured.