ESIS Extension / Czech Republic / IS Promotional Activities / Master Report

There are a number of organizations in the Czech Republic, the activities of which currently assist the promotion and the development of the Information Society in the Czech Republic. The key organizations in the Czech Republic, which participate in the promotion of the development of the Information Society in the country are:

These organizations perform a number of activities which contribute to the promotion of the development of the Information Society. Such activities are particularly:

Unlike the previous governments, which ignored the idea of the Information Society, the current Government has directly declared support of the development of the Information Society already in August 1998, directly in its mission statement. This mission statement has been gradually followed by concrete efforts for practical implementation. The support of the development of the Information Society by the Czech Government and other governmental institutions has so far been demonstrated particularly by appointment of The Privy Council for the State Information Policy of the Czech Republic in December 1998, followed by the agreement of the general proclamations contained in the mission statement through formulating of the state information policy. This state information policy has been approved by the governmental resolution from May 31. 199 in the form of an extensive document called The State Information Policy – The Way to the Information Society. The Czech Forum for Information Society has also been established for the purpose of dialogue between the Government and the public about the issue of the Information Society. It is designed as a professional workshop involving a wide range of external specialists from various spheres of the society.

What substantially helps the activities of the Government, in the field of support of the development of the Information Society, bringing practical results, is the fact that the Chairman of the Privy Council of the Czech Republic for the State Information Policy, responsible for implementation of the Working Plan of the Privy Council of the Czech Republic for the State Information Policy for 1999 has been appointed the Vice-Prime Minister for economic policy and the Finance Minister, Pavel Mertlík. Based on the Government Decree from June 1999, he has also been commissioned to coordinate the creation of the environment and conditions for the development and application of electronic commerce in the Czech Republic, while the same Decree has requested the support of this sphere also from the Governor of the Czech National Bank.

The steps, outlined by the Government of the Czech Republic, thus created a favorable environment for early acceptance of several key legislative measures, such as the Electronic Signatures Act, which is being prepared, as well as for starting up of concrete support programs aimed at supporting the Information Society. The possible contributions of all this are, unfortunately, degraded by both the consequences of the lasting stagnation of the Czech economy as well as the minority nature of the Government.

While the idea of development of the Information Society received considerable governmental support only recently, this idea attracted the attention of non-governmental branch-focused and expert-focused organizations already during the early second half of the 1990’s.

Already at that time, various committees and expert sections started to be established within the framework of the traditional branch and expert associations (such as The Economic Chamber of the Czech Republic, The Union of Editors of Daily Papers, The Czech Marketing Society etc.), which have been dealing with the issue of the development of the Information Society, particularly from the point of view of its consequences for the traditional public and economic structure.

Apart from these offspring of the "traditional" branch and expert focused associations and unions, several brand new associations have been established in the second half of the 1990’s and their establishment has already been directly connected with the development of the Information Society in the Czech Republic.

One of the first branch-focused associations, the founding of which has been a direct reaction to the origins of the development of the Information Society in the Czech Republic, was the Association of Content Providers (APO), founded in 1997. This association was founded with the aim of promoting the potential of the on-line media and other continuously updated information services, in a way, which would enable the further development to be financed mostly from advertising income.

One of the other branch associations, established with the aim of active support for the development of the Information Society is the Association for Information Society (SPIS). Unlike the Association of Content Providers, the members of this association mainly come from influential and economically very well situated entities from among the providers of information and telecommunication technologies and services. The activities of the Association for Information Society thus focus on intense lobbying in governmental and parliamentary organizations of the Czech Republic, which is, above all, carried out through regular discussions with the representatives of the state administrations within the framework of the so called Club Evenings of the Association for Information Society. A concrete practical result of the activities of this Association is the above mentioned draft of the Electronic Signatures Act, which has been prepared by specialists, engaged by the Association for Information Society, in cooperation with a group of the members of the House of Representatives of the Czech Republic.

The Association for Electronic Commerce (APEK) and the Center for Electronic Commerce (CEO) have been founded in autumn, 1998. APEK, similarly as APO or SPIS, represents the interests of rather clearly outspoken groups of commercial entities, in this instance, particularly of Internet shops providers. APEK has currently been preparing the project of certification of Internet shops. The Center for Electronic Commerce (CEO), on the other hand, has been established with the aim to facilitate closer cooperation of individuals and organizations from the commercial sphere, state administration and universities in the field of information economy. The CEO offers an open platform for coordination of projects, exchange of experience and sharing of information to a wide range of specialists. Together with similarly focused centers abroad, it provides information support, apart from others, for Internet projects within the framework of the 5^th Framework Project of the EU. The CEO exists within the expert section of the Czech Society for System Integration (CSSI) , which has been active since 1994 as a non-profit organization in the field of applied informatics.

The issue of the development of the Information Society has attracted a growing response throughout the Czech Republic not only from the governmental institutions and branch or expert associations, but also from the Czech media and consulting companies.

Even though the contents of the current issues, as well as archives of articles, from several important Czech dailies have been available on the Internet since 1996, the issue of the individual key and less important aspects of the development of the Information Society has attracted the attention of the mass media particularly, when such media started to provide full on-line information services via the Internet.

The development of the Information Society in the Czech Republic in the late 1990’s has thus been substantially speeded up particularly thanks to opening-up of the on-line journalism of the Czech Press Agency, the beginning of "Internet broadcasting" by the state Czech Radio, the opening-up of the on-line version of iDnes, one of the most frequently read Czech dailies and thanks to the beginning of the electronic version of the Hospodárské noviny daily, named iHNed. The promotion of the idea of the Information Society in the sphere of small business is also substantially contributed to by the paper and Internet form of the Profit economic weekly. A TV program Zavin@c, prepared and broadcasted by Czech state TV, is focused particularly on young people.

Even though the Czech media originally published almost exclusively information about the development of the key development indicators in the USA and some developed countries of the European Union, gradually more and more detailed information about the situation in the countries of the Central and Eastern Europe, as well as in the Czech Republic, began to appear.

While the multinational IDC company focuses particularly on mapping the development of the information and communication infrastructure in these countries, the Deloitte & Touche company has already published e.g. the results of the second wave of research, which deal with the entrepreneurial aspects of the development of the electronic commerce in the Czech Republic.

Certain specialized Czech entities publish information, structured in even more detail, concerning the current state and the further development of several key indicators of the development of the Information Society in the Czech Republic, in the media or directly on the Internet. An example of this approach can be e.g. periodical mapping of the state and trends in the utilization of information technologies in the individual segments of the Czech economy, which is carried out, based on personal interviews with representatives of the key Czech companies, within the framework of the EISF Inside project, organized by the EISF consulting company, or the Internet Users Survey, which has been carried out since 1996 by the Institute of Informatics of Brno University of Technology. The characteristics of the Internet users are also subject to the latest research by the GfK and Medián companies.

A traditional event, the importance of which, within the framework of the Central European region, exceeds the borders of the Czech Republic, is the autumn trade-fair of information and communication technologies INVEX COMPUTER, held each year at the beginning of October. As far as the exhibition area, number of visitors and its scope are concerned, there is no comparable event held in the Czech Republic and the other post-Communist countries of Central Europe.

However, the changes that are brought by the development of on-line communication, together with the consequences of the economic stagnation of the Czech Republic, and last but not least, the consequences of the improvident approach of the organizer of the INVEX COMPUTER show, are causing decrease in the interest of the professional public and exhibitors in the Czech Republic in the late 1990’s, which is clearly shifting to more intimate and more concrete, professional-aimed and branch-aimed exhibitions, conferences, seminars or to their combinations. The greatest number of such activities in the Czech Republic is concentrated into the period of the so called "March, the Internet Month", which is annually arranged by the editor of the economic weekly Profit and which is an umbrella project for a great number of specialized activities.

The introductory activity of this period is provided by the Enterprise Internet Strategy Forum (EISF) conference, participants of whom mostly come from the management of Czech companies and Czech representations of foreign companies.

The annual conference Local and Regional Information Society (ISSS), scheduled particularly for the representatives of the state administration and self-administration bodies, is held in mid-March..

The closing event of the "March, the Internet Month" is a combination of conference and exhibition Prague Internet World, which is a part of the worldwide cycle Internet World.

The various aspects of the development of the Information Society are, of course, reflected in a great number of other technologically or branch focused exhibitions and conferences, such as the annual trade-fair of communication and network technologies ComNet, held in May, or System integration, an annual conference, held in June. The role of the universities in the future Information Society is discussed during the September RUFIS conference.

6. Partial activities, impact of which considerably exceeds their commercial framework

The effect of all the previously mentioned activities, which substantially contributes to the promotion of the development of the Information Society in the Czech Republic, is further stressed by the knock-on effects of several other commercial and non-commercial activities, the total impact of which exceeds their originally intended framework.

Activity of the state administration, which has demonstrated the elementary advantages of the Information Society since 1997, is putting into operation the publicly accessible Internet form of the Trade Register. This on-line service has been extended during the autumn of 1999 with the provision of information from the meta-register ARES, which, apart from the information from the Trade Register, uses the information of other public registers, such as the Register of Economic Entities, the Business Register or the Register of VAT and Excise Tax Payers.

Among purely commercial projects, promotion of the advantages of the Information Society was started at the end of 1997 by IBM, which has launched a massive campaign promoting the commercial exploitation of the Internet.

Also an extraordinarily keen and active Expandia Bank has been contributing to the promotion of the development of the Information Society since 1998. This bank is one of the pioneers of the direct Internet banking in the Czech Republic and it thus contributes substantially to the development of electronic commerce through the Internet. It comes as no surprise that this entity also participated in birth of the eCity project, during the implementation of which tens of thousands of Czech Internet users had the opportunity to try out the possibilities of purchasing and entertainment in the virtual world.

Another factor, which very much contributes to the promotion of the development of the Information Society in the Czech Republic, is extremely tough competition amongst Internet connection providers. The by-product of the advertising battles, fought by the major Internet connection providers (such as SPT Telecom, PVT or CONTACTEL), is an increase in the general public’s awareness of the advantages which the development of the Information Society brings or may bring in the near future.

Please note that this report has been prepared under the sole responsibility of the ESIS II contractors.
It does not necessarily reflect the views of the Commision, nor does the Commission accept responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of information contained herein.
The ESIS Team of contractors welcomes any additional information or corrections.