Is a large-scale field operational test the missing link for commercial success and deployment of co-operative systems?

CVIS, Safespot and COOPERS the three IPs on co-operative services and integrated systems in Europe's Framework Programme 6 have successfully accomplished significant progress in terms of sounding-out what is technologically feasible and valued by selected European drivers. In a next step, EC has successfully called for large-scale FOTs on co-operative services. However, the concept of a large-scale field operational test on co-operative services is not only a new project-type within European telematics research and deployment but is itself an instrument for setting the scene and lobbying for specific stakeholders' interests. The resulting concept-space for field operational tests is however not yet entirely clear. The purpose of this paper is to draw a landscape of what is out there in terms of competing concepts for field operational tests in order to make large-scale FOTs on co-operative services an attractive work environment for the best key individuals who are currently rather shying away or on inner retreats. This is highly important and claimed to be the key question on marketing co-operative services in the years to come. We first describe the situation in Europe from a strategic gap analysis the perspective of Geoffrey Moore's concept of inside the tornado or in more general terms from a diffusion-of-innovation-theory point of view. We then discuss different stakeholder groups' emerging strategies to shape and influence the concept of field operational tests for co-operative services and systems. Given the limited space we present six rather different concepts on how a field operational test obviously is seen. From a discussion of these different approaches we prepare the ground for condensing the perspective on what is helpful or more helpful for cooperative systems from a take-up and deployment perspective. We elaborate on a first SWOT analysis of the given European status quo.