February
2001
Czech Republic
Summary Report (1999 - 2000)
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Czech Republic Summary Report (1999 - 2000) |
This report covers organizations and persons playing the key roles in the Information Society development in the Czech Republic. It is divided into sections describing governmental organizations, associations and professional organisations as well as the most important activities within the commercial sector. Some of the described individuals or organisations are not included in the database because they have not agreed providing their data yet. Though they belong in any respect to the key information society players in the Czech Republic and they should be mention here.
1. Governmental organizations
All ministries have their WWW service, information about the government and the government office is available at
www.vlada.cz. The legislative power in the Czech Republic is performed by the Parliament, which constitutes of two chambers, see www.psp.cz and www.senat.cz. The coordination role in the area of Information Society has been transferred to the Minister without portfolio Mr. Karel Brezina.One of the most important milestones of development of the Information Society in the sphere of communication of the state administration with the public, has been publishing of the Index of Commerce on the Internet. The Ministry of Interior, which operates the most visited state administration WWW server, has started a unique service above the Police database "Motor vehicles search". The database contains more than 50 000 cars, stealing of which has been reported the Police of the Czech Republic within the last four years.
The official tool of the governmental communication strategy for interconnection of the Czech Republic with the EU is
www.euroskop.cz, organized in cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with other ministries.The public part of the ARES meta-register, which constitutes the superstructure of the Index of Commerce, Economic Entities index, Business index and VAT index and Consumer TaxPayers, has been put into test operation on the WWW server of the Ministry of Finance.
1.1. Governmental Council for State Information Policy
Established on October 19, 1998. The Governmental Council for State Information Policy has a permanent working group to implement the decisions and evaluate and measure achieved results. In March 2000 the Governmental Council for State Information Policy significantly increased it competencies in the area of IT procurement - it now oversees (together with the Ministry of Finance) the IT procurements of all state authorities.
It has also formed the
Czech Information Forum (an
advisory body of the
Governmental Council,
consisting of 57
representatives of the
relevant parts of the society)
in order to provide necessary
dialogue with the public and
discuss various issues related
to the Information society.
The first meeting took place
in February 2000. The chairman
of the Executive Committee was
Mr. Jiri Zlatuska who has been
recently replaced by Mr.
Zbysek Bahensky.
1.2. Other institutions
In 1996 the State
Information System Office (USIS)
was established. The office
was involved in several
activities covering the area
of Information Society. It
hosted the National
Coordination Center for Y2K
and played an important role
in forming the expert group
for developing the act on
electronic signatures. In May
2000 a new chairman of USIS
was appointed - Mr. Alexander
Kratochvil. As the main goal
of USIS in last years has
changed to coordinating the
interconnection of various
independent information
systems of the state
authorities, the office has
been recently renamed to the
Public Information Systems
Office (UVIS).
The
mission of the Czech
Telecommunication Office (CTU)
comprises, above all, of
providing of the observation
of the Telecommunications Act
along with legal regulations
issued to execute the Act and
regulations related, i.e. to
decide on the rights and
duties of physical and legal
persons within the
telecommunications sector. CTU
is a constituent part of the
system, which regulates
telecommunications in the
Czech Republic. The Director
is David Stadnik.
www.ctu.cz
In June 2000 the Personal
Data Protection Office was
established as required by the
newly enacted Personal Data
Protection Act. Mr. Karel
Neuwirt was appointed as the
Director. The major UOOU task
is supervision of the
institutions that collect and
process citizen personal data,
supervision and authorisation
of certification authorities.
2. Associations and professional organisations
Since 1994 Czech Society
for System Integration (CSSI)
has been associating providers
of information technologies
and informatic services,
organizations that are
utilizing such information
technologies, consulting
companies and universities and
colleges. The society supports
education activities focused
at the sphere of system
integration, and it organizes
professional seminars and
conferences on current issues
of development of the
information systems. The CSSI
is active in all regions
through its regional sections.
The society publishes the
System integration quarterly
for its members. In 1998 CSSI
initiated setting up the
Center for E-commerce (see
below). The CSSI president is
Mr. Jiri Vorisek.
The consortium of legal
persons NIX associates
Internet Service Providers in
the Czech Republic with the
objective of interconnecting
their networks. The memorandum
of association was signed on
August, 30th 1996. The
association has constructed a
Neutral Internet Exchange node
called NIX.CZ (Neutral
Internet eXchange) in the
Czech Republic, which
interconnects the Internet
networks of the individual
Czech providers. Their
interconnections are subject
to the terms of Operating
Rules of NIX.CZ. The chairman
of the executive committee is
Mr. Vojtech Vrba.
The
Consortium for Information
Society (SPIS) is a
professional association of
the top ICT companies (by
turnover), the aim of which is
promoting of the Information
Society. It has existed since
March 1998 and it represents
the Czech Republic (as the
only post-Communist country)
in EUROBIT - European
Association of Manufacturers
of Business Machines and
Information Technology
Industry. SPIS organizes
discussion clubs, to which
representatives of the
Government and Parliament are
invited. SPIS initiated
creating of the Electronic
Signature Act that was
approved last year by the
Parliament. The SPIS
president, Mr. Zbysek Bahensky,
has recently become the
chairman of the Czech
Information Society Forum (see
1.1.). The SPIS executive
director is Ms. Jitka
Pavlonova.
www.spis.cz
The
Center for Electronic Commerce
(CEO) was founded in November
1998 as an independent
professional platform allowing
closer cooperation of
individuals and organizations
from the commercial sphere,
state administration and
university institutions,
involved in information
economy. CEO represents the
Czech Republic in European
Telework Development
Initiative and, in cooperation
with similar centers abroad,
it provides information
support for Internet and
E-commerce projects within the
framework of the 5th
Framework Program of the EU.
Apart from cooperation with
VUT (Brno University of
Technology) in implementation
of the ESIS project, CEO is a
professional partner of the
First Tuesday initiative
(connects venture capital with
promising Internet projects).
In November 2000 it organised
the ESIS conference
"Information society and
new economy in the Czech
Republic". The chairman
of the board is Mr. Vlastimil
Vesely.
www.e-commerce.cz
The
Electronic Commerce
Association (APEK) associates
particularly operators of
Internet shops, with the aim
of promoting their services as
well as the whole field of
e-commerce. It also aims at
helping with improving and
standardizing of services,
provided by these entities,
and creation and enforcing of
professional codex. The main
project is certification of
the Internet shops based on
certification rules. The
executive director is Mr. Leos
Prusvic.
www.apek.cz.
In the late August 2000 the
Association for Internet
Advertising (SPIR) has been
founded. Its focus and
membership base placed it
among the earlier founded
Association of Internet
Content Providers (APO) which
has not carried out any
activities so far this year.
The chairman is Mr. Marek
Antos.
www.spir.cz
3. Individual companies
3.1. Telecommunication sector
The public
telecommunications operator is
Cesky Telecom (changed from
SPT Telecom in the beginning
of 2000). Its monopoly for
providing of long-distance and
international voice telephony
services ends on January 1,
2001. In December 1999, the
government decided to begin
the process of privatisation
of the 51% state stake. The
Czech Telecommunication Office
(CTU) has recently granted the
first competitive licenses for
the voice national and
international services. Though
they could not start their
activities yet because of
disagreements between them and
Cesky Telecom in the question
of interconnection fees.
Two GSM mobile networks are
operated by Eurotel,
Radiomobil (has firstly
introduced the phone-phone
type of Internet telephony
service in the country) and
Cesky Mobil. The number of
mobile phone users (resp.
activated SIM cards) has
reached 3 millions in middle
August 2000. That represents
almost 30% penetration.
3.2. Internet Service providers
CESNET is historically the
first provider of Internet
connection. Today, Cesnet is a
professional association of
legal persons (its members are
universities and academic
institutions). It is dealing
with the Czech part of the
European TEN 34 project –
the high speed Internet
connection for academic and
research purposes. After
successful advocacy of the
TEN-34 CZ project, CESNET has
become a direct member of the
QUANTUM consortium, which
operates the new TEN-155
network. The CESNET commercial
part of the network was
acquired by Contactel.
Eunet (acquired by KPNQwest)
has been appointed by the
Domain Administrator, CZ NIC
company, to operate the
technical solution for
allocation and registration of
the 2nd level
domains. The EUnet
Czechia-KPNQwest company has
accomplished its successful
entry to the NASDAQ stock
exchange and it has published
information about the
pan-European optical data
network. The Czech Republic
will thus become the first of
the EU-candidate countries,
that will have full access to
the high-speed pan-European
network (one of the junctions
of the last, sixth Euroring
circuit will be, apart from
Vienna, also Prague).
In April 2000 Czech On Line
(the Czech largest network
Video On Line operator) has
been acquired by Austria
Telekom. It was the biggest
venture capital transaction in
the Central and Eastern
Europe.
Other largest Internet
providers are Internet On Line
(division of SPT Telecom, with
the largest market share), PVT,
Czech On Line, Contactel and
World Online. Some of them
provide also free Internet
access.
In September 2000 CTU also
decided about the licences for
the FWA wireless networks that
have been granted to Broadnet,
GiTy/StarOne and Nextra.
3.3. Payment and logistics infrastructure
The Expandia Banka, pioneer
of the electronic commerce and
Internet banking in the Czech
Republic, which acquired 20
000 clients within 18 months
of its existence, accomplished
selection of a strategic
partner. The majority stake
has been acquired by Ceska
pojistovna (insurance company
with a dominant position on
the Czech insurance market).
Its eCity project (operated
by Expandia Banka, Radiomobil
and Internet On Line)
attracted tens of thousands
Net users to play a game
teaching them E-commerce
principles. The second phase
of the eCity project began in
October 1999. Real goods can
be traded for real money in
the eCity.
Komercni Banka is one of
the partners introducing SET
standard in the country (with
IBM and MUZO). CCS, a company
with a large base of CCS
petrol cardholders, is
offering another channel for
safe on-line payments.
CitiBank has offered
another way of Internet
payments – Juice Pay payment
card. Clients use the virtual
account at CitiBank that can
be charged any time from an
account at any Czech bank. The
solution is based on SSL
authorization. At Invex IT
fair and exhibition CitiBank
presented the Try me zona –
service integrating JuicePay
(the virtual bank account
operated by Internet or mobile
phones) with the courier
service.
3.4. Content providers
This category includes the traditional media, which provide their WWW service as an important part of added value, as well as providers of content, which is only available on the Internet.
Among the traditional media
it is particularly the state
Czech Television (broadcasting
weekly Internet program
Zavinac) and the Czech Radio
(broadcasting also via
Internet). Further, it is MF
Dnes publishing house, which
complements its daily with a
news server iDnes. From among
the professionally focused
publishers should be mentioned
in the first place -
Softwarove noviny (publishing
the monthly of the same name
and also Inside a Digital
revue). Other professional
focused publishers are, e.g.
Profit (one of the first
provider of information for
business people on WWW,
initiator of the March
Internet campaign), Hospodářské
noviny (complementing their
political and economic daily
with their iHNed information
service) and IDG (e.g.
Computer World, PC World).
As portals can be
characterized server farms of
companies, such as Seznam (the
most popular directory Seznam
and search engine Kompas,
news, on-line maps), Atlas
(the local operator of the
Microsoft Network), Centrum
(the first portal offering
comparison of prices of goods
in the Czech Internet shops),
MIA (Internet media agency and
operator of Trafika service,
offering full text search of
the most important Czech
dailies, weeklies and
monthlies) and Computer Press
(the publishing house and the
operator of the largest
Internet bookshop Vltava).
Swedish Spray has acquired 30%
stake in the Seznam, MIA has
been acquired by Cesky
Telecom, Atlas received
investment from EPIC Holding,
Centrum from Baring
Communications Equity Emerging
Europe and Intel Capital,
Computer Press from Bancroft
Internet US fund.
Very popular, and also
frequently visited, are
servers, such as Mobil
(focused at mobile
communication) and on-line
daily by Ondrej Neff -
Neviditelný pes (Invisible
Dog). The volume of
advertising on the Internet in
2000 is estimated to CZK
100-150 million. Taylor Nelson
Sofres Media provides auditing
the WWW servers attendance in
the Czech Republic.
The new monthly magazine
focused on new economy and
e-business has been set-up by
in Brno based Computer Press
publishing house. The editor
in chief is Mr. Pavel Pospisil.
3.5. Other
There are number of other
entities contributing to the
Information Society
development. These are,
particularly, the BMI
consortium, organizer of the
annual national campaign
"March – The Internet
Month". The BMI president
is Mr. Jaroslav Winter.
The 10th
international IT fair /
exhibition Invex organised by
Brno Trade Fairs and
Exhibitions (BVV) attracted
over 150,000 visitors (17%
growth) and 853 companies that
used almost 40,000 m2. The
specialised pavillon was
dedicated for the E-zone:
e-business solution, lectures
and presentations. The Invex
manager is Mr. Jaroslav
Hlousek.
Over twenty formal and
informal events for Internet
entrepreneurs, venture
capitalists and media
representatives in Prague and
Brno were organised by First
Tuesday CZ chapter of the
global networking
organisation. More than 2,700
registered visitors attending
First Tuesday CZ events can
benefit from matching
know-how, capital, ideas and
people in this new economy
community. The First Tuesday
CZ founders are Mr. Ondrej
Bartos and Mr. Vlastimil
Vesely.
As far as the academic
sphere is concerned, Prague
University of Economics (CSSI
co-founder and organizer of
annual System Integration
conference), Brno University
of Technology (CEO
co-founder), Masaryk
University of Brno (the
current Rector of the
university, Prof. Jiri
Zlatuska, was the chairman of
the Czech Information Society
Forum) and the Czech Technical
University in Prague (Mr.
Karel Kveton, member of the
preparatory committee of the
Czech Information Society
Forum) can be mentioned.
The Technology Center of
the Academy of Sciences, the
national contact point for the
5th framework EU
programme publishes (in
cooperation with the
Information and Automation
Theory Institute) the Czech
Republic Information Society
Technology Contacts. The
project has been realized
under the IDEALIST-EAST
project supported by the
Ministry of Education. The
contact person is Ms. Eva
Hillerova.
The professional public
also highly appreciates the
archive of articles by Mr.
Jiri Peterka, a freelance
journalist and pioneer of the
Information Society idea in
the Czech Republic.
Strong positions in the
sphere of e-commerce have
domestic companies from Brno
and Prague, such as Inet
(pilot partner of the SET
project in the Czech Republic
and operator of one of the
largest Internet shops in the
Czech Republic Shop.cz),
Computer Press publishing
house (operator of the largest
Internet bookshop Vltava, also
offers free rental of Internet
shop solution for third
parties), Zoner (operator of
the most widely spread
solution for Internet shops
rental), BrainSystems
(specializing in business
infosystems among companies,
CCS payment solution software
developer), Samba Digital
Media, Logos and Merlin. APP
Group, the Czech system
integrator, has currently been
implementing the project of
making the real estate
cadastre available on the
Internet.
Two new laws, on public
tenders and on auctions
require the authors of
important documents (for
example: public tenders,
auctions etc.) to publish them
also on-line, on a
"central address"
(technically a single and a
priori known location on the
Internet). In May 2000 the
Czech government decided to
appoint the Czech Post (Ceska
posta) to be the keeper of the
"central address".
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