i3, the European initiative for intelligent information interfaces, was created in 1997 in order to take a human-centred approach to the exploration of new, visionary interactive systems for people in their everyday activities. Consisting of two research programmes comprising twenty-five collaborating i3 research projects, and a supporting network of excellence, i3net, i3 currently carries out 75 Mecus (90 Mio. $ US) worth of multi-disciplinary research involving more than 300 researchers from approx. 100 organisations.

The i3 research programme CI - Connected Community and Inhabited Information Spaces - explores computing for communities of ordinary people, virtual communities as well as local and physical communities. The i3 research programme ESE - Experimental School Environments - focuses on new kinds of IT-based tools or environments designed to enable new approaches to learning in young children around the transition to literacy, typically in the age range of 4 to 8.