Update April 2000: Czech Republic
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Update April 2000: Czech Republic |
There are a number of organisations in the Czech Republic, activities of which currently assist the promotion of the development of the Information Society in the Czech Republic. The key organisations in the Czech Republic, which participate in the promotion of the development of the Information Society in the country are particularly:
These organisations perform a number of activities, which contribute to the promotion of the development of the Information Society. Such activities are particularly:
The last quarter of 1999 has brought even wider range of activities of the state administration bodies, self-government bodies, professional and branch focused unions and associations, media, trade fair organisers and last but not least, of commercial entities from among providers of information and telecommunication technologies and services. Similarly, the first quarter of 2000 has traditionally culminated in March, with the enroofing project "March, the Internet Month" (see http://www.brezen.cz), within the framework of which a great number of promotional activities took place – activities, which effectively promoted the Internet and the idea of the Information Society, ranging from state administration and local governments to introduction of Internet to children.
Despite the continuous difficult political situation, a clear growing convergence could be seen among the activities of the state administration and self-government and activities of the non-governmental organisations and the commercial sector in the last quarter of 1999 and the first quarter of 2000.
I. Governmental organisations and their activities
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. (see http://www.vlada.cz/vlada/dokumenty/prohlas.win.htm). 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 appointing of The Privy Council for the State Information Policy of the Czech Republic in December 1998, followed by concretising 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 (see http://www.vlada.cz/rady/sip/dokumenty/sipcesta/sip.win.htm ). 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 (see http://www.vlada.cz/rady/sip/forum/dokumenty/csfrpis.win.htm),. 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, bring 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 (see http://www.vlada.cz/rady/sip/plan/plan.win.htm) 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 co-ordinate creation of the environment and conditions for development and application of the electronic commerce in the Czech Republic, while the same Decree has requested a 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 favourable environment for early accepting 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 of the Information Society. The possible contributions of all this are, unfortunately, still being degraded by both the consequences of the lasting stagnation of the Czech economy as well as the minority nature of the Government.
1.1 The political situation and its consequences for creating of the legislative framework of the IS
Approval of the state budget of the Czech Republic for 2000, the third version of which has been approved by the Parliament only in March 2000, based on agreement between the ruling Czech Social Democratic Party (http://www.cssd.cz) and the strongest opposition party, the Civic Democratic Party (http://www.ods.cz), which signed the "Opposition Agreement Amendment". (see http://www.cssd.cz/dohoda.htm), has had a three key consequences on the support of the development of the Information Society.
The first one is that in the approved third version of the budget of the Czech Republic for 2000 is missing the chapter dealing with financing of implementation of the Action plan of the State Information Policy. As can be seen from the Minutes from the 7th meeting of the Governmental Council for the State Information Policy, held on September 23, 1999 (for details see http://www.vlada.cz/rady/sip/zasedani/rok1999/zas007.win.htm), the practical implementation of the Action plan was actually postponed for 2001. Therefore, preparatory and co-ordination works are to take place in 2000, which are to be financed from other budget chapters. Submitting of the final version of the Action plan has also been further postponed until the second quarter of 2000.
The second consequence of the Amendment has been personnel changes in the Government. On March 23, Ing. Karel Brezina, the former head of the Governmental Office, has been appointed the new Minister without portfolio (see http://www.vlada.cz/1250/urad/urad_postaveni.htm). He has become the youngest member of the Government and he has taken over the membership in the Governmental Council for the State Information Policy (see http://www.vlada.cz/rady/sip/sip.win.htm) from the Vice-PM for economic policy and Minister of Finance, Ing. Pavel Mertlík. He has in return declared his support to the idea of development of the Information Society.
The third, rather indirect, consequence of the „Opposition Agreement Amendment" (see http://www.cssd.cz/dohoda.htm) has been the factual support (see http://www.ods.cz/000309-klubpcr.html), which was provided by the MPs of the strongest opposition party in the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Czech Republic (see http://www.psp.cz) to the Governmental draft of the Telecommunications Act (see http://www.psp.cz/sqw/text/tiskt.sqw?O=3&CT=390&CT1=0). The Parliament-approved version of the law expects that even after the long awaited liberalising of the telecommunications market in the Czech Republic as of 1.1.2001, the monopoly telecommunication operator will not only be not obliged to allow its customers free choice of operator (with the so called fixed number), but until mid-2002 the customer will not have the possibility of the less comfortable choice of operator (with the so called unrepeated choice) – despite the fact that the relevant EU Directive No. 98/61/EC does not allow postponement of choice of operator with the so-called urepeated choice.
This step, which maximizes the value of the state-owned share in the joint stock company, which is the monopoly Czech telecommunication operator and which affects the development of the competitive environment, has raised a strong opposition among Czech media as well as professional and general public, even before its discussion in the Upper Chamber of the Parliament, the Senate (see http://www.senat.cz). The professional nature of this oposition has been summarized in the statement of the Center for e-commerce (see http://www.e-commerce.cz/docs/st000331.htm). The stadpoint of the general public has been summarized in a document, called „Petition against monopoly" (see http://liberalizace.2001.cz/).
The not very good media presentation of the government activities in the sphere of development of the Information society was contributed to on December 6, 1999, when the government turned down the MP’s draft of the Electronic Signature Act (see http://www.spis.cz/ZEP/Elektronicky_podpis1.htm). Despite this disapproval by the minority government, the draft has been approved by the House of Representatives of the Parliament during the first reading on January 26, 2000, based on agreement between the submitters and initiators of the act with the representatives of the State Information System Office (see http://www.usiscr.cz) on common approach. This has somewhat increased the probability of this draft being approved soon, in such wording, which would correspond with the EU Directive, concerning electronic signatures, issued on 30.11.1999.
The other outcome of the activities of the State Information System Office, the draft of the Personal Data Protection Act (http://www.usiscr.cz/cz/dokumenty/diskuse/ochrana_vladni_navrh.html), has been returned by the Senate (see http://www.senat.cz) on February 25, 2000 to be re-drafted by the House of Representatives , particularly due to the megalomaniac concept of the Personal Data Protection Office, established by this act and due to insufficient protection against misuse of the personal data by the state administration.
This returning of the Personal Data Protection Act to the House of Representatives of the Czech Parliament has two key consequences. The first one is a postponement of the date of approval of this act, which is one of the key instruments of protection of rights and privacy of citizens in the age of Information Society. The other one is further discreditation of the official declaration of the minority government of its support of the Information Society, the negative publicity of which has been very much contributed to by the scandals, concerning activities of the State Information System Office
during preparation of the computer systems in the Czech Republic for the transition to the year 2000, which culminated in resignation of the head of this office and a member of the ruling Czech Social Democratic Party, Ing. Karel Berka, from his function.
1.2 Other governmental activities supporting the IS and reaction of the media and the public
The unfavourable reflection of the outlined reality in the media, unfortunately, degrades the way, in which the media and the public view (or ignore) other activities of the government in the field of support of the Information society.
One of the activities, which have drawn little response, was, e.g. the approval of the Concept of creation of the public administration information system (see http://www.info-forum.cz/ceske/doc/isvs/isvs.html), which has been elaborated by the above mentioned State Information System Office and which has been approved by the government in the Resolution of the Government of the Czech Republic No. 1059 from October 11, 1999 (see http://www.vlada.cz/cgi-bin/usnredir.win.cgi?8886). The aim of this concept, the content of which follows up with the document of the Concept of Reform of the Public Administration and the document State Information Policy is, among other things, creation of conditions for functioning and updating of the public information services through information centres, self-service kiosks or the Internet – i.e. information services to the general public, development of which is one of the key conditions of the development of the Information society in the Czech Republic
Unfortunately, no significant response has been drawn so far even by the first activities of the preparatory committee of the Information Society Forum CR (see http://www.info-forum.cz), which was, according to the model of the Information Society Forum EC (abbreviation ISF), established on June 7, 1999, based on the decision of the Governmental Council for State Information Policy (see http://www.vlada.cz/rady/sip/sip.win.htm), as a means of dialogue about the issue of Information society between the government and the public. The reason is that these first activities of the were focused at nominating of the members of the Forum according to an administratively set key (see http://www.info-forum.cz/forum/klic.html), based on which the individual members of the Forum have been selected from among the nominated applicants by the members of the preparatory committee, based on specified criteria.
Preparation of further governmental resolutions, measures and activities, therefore, continues to take place out of sight of the wider professional and the general public. One of the example is preparation of the „Proposal of the basic measures for support of the electronic commerce in the Czech Republic", which has been approved by the Governmental Decree No. 56 from January 12, 2000. This proposal was prepared for the government by the State Information System Office as a document, which concretises and deals in further detail with the „Proposal of the basic measures for support of the electronic commerce in the Czech Republic", approved by the Czech government on June 16, 1999, i.e. more than 6 month ago. The clumsy media, information and communication policy of the State Information System Office has been one of the key reasons for complaints to the representatives of the Government about the reaction of the Information System Office to the comments about the Electronic Commerce Act draft, which have been submitted after negotiations with this Office by the influential Industrial and Transportation Union of the Czech Republic. (see http://www.spcr.cz ).
1.3 IS supportive activities of other state administration bodies and reaction of the media and public
One of the activities of the state administration, which has been performed since 1997 and which demonstrates the elementary advantages of the Information Society, is establishing and operating of the publicly accessible online version of the Trade Register (see http://www.justice.cz/cgi-bin/sqw1250.cgi/or/l_hled.sqw). This online service of the Ministry of Justice of the Czech Republic (see www.justice.cz ) has been gradually extended with the possibility of searching of the individual entities by names of co-owners and statutory representatives, which meant decisive breakthrough for the increasing transparency of the Czech business sphere and thus for practical promotion of the opportunities brought by the Information Society.
During the autumn of 1999, the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic (see www.mfcr.cz ) made accessible a online system of providing of information for the Ares meta-register (see http://wwwinfo.mfr.cz ), 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.
Another contribution of the Ministry of Justice of the Czech Republic to making the Czech economic sphere more transparent was establishing of the Internet application List of defaulters in March 2000 (see www.justice.cz)
An important contribution to promotion of the advantages of the Information Society was brought also by the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic (see http://www.mvcr.cz), which has made publicly accessible an interactive Internet application Search of motor vehicles (see http://www.mvcr.cz/vozidla/default.asp). Those who intend to buy a used car can use this application to find out, whether the concrete car is included in the database of vehicles, theft of which on the territory of the Czech Republic has been reported to the Czech Police within the last three years and which have not yet been found.
Unlike some other, controversial steps of the state authorities in the field of legislative support of development of the Information Society in the Czech Republic, the above mentioned applications have been received in a positive manner by both media and the general public. This positive receipt has been demonstrated by extensive utilisation of these applications as well as fast growing awareness of the Czech public about the advantages of the coming Information Society.
2. Non-governmental organisations and their activities
While the idea of development of the Information Society received considerable governmental support only recently, this idea attracted attention of non-governmental branch-focused and expert-focused organisations already during early second half of 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, etc.), which have been dealing with the issue of development of the Information Society, particularly from the point of view of its consequences for the traditional public and economic structure.
Apart from these off-springs 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 establishing has already been directly connected with the development of the Information Society in the Czech Republic.
2.1 Branch-focused and expert-focused associations and unions
One of the first branch-focused associations, founding of which has been a direct reaction to the origins of the development of the Information Society in the Czech Republic, was Association of Content Providers (APO http://www.apo.cz ), 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 of the development of the Information Society is the Association for Information Society (SPIS– see http://www.spis.cz). 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 organisations 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.
The Association for Electronic Commerce (APEK– see http://www.apek.cz) and the Center for Electronic Commerce (CEO– see http://www.e-commerce.cz) have been founded in autumn, 1998. APEK, similarly as APO or SPIS, represents the interests 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 co-operation of individuals and organisations from the commercial sphere, state administration and universities in the field of information economy. The Center for Electronic Commerce as such constituted itself as a professional section of the Czech Society for System Integration (CSSI – see http://www.cssi.cz), which contributes financially to its operation and projects. One of the most important current activities of the CEO is, for example, co-operation with the Czech centre of FEMIRC-CZ (Fellow Member to Innovation Relay Centres for the Czech Republic – see http://www.femirc.cas.cz) in propagation of information about the possibilities of financing of projects, supporting the Information society, from the 5th framework program of the EU (see http://www.park.cz/fp5) or in taking the professional patronage over the regular meetings of the Czech "netbusinessmen" with the potential private investors within the framework of the First Tuesday project (see http://www.park.cz/firsttuesday), which have been taking place every first Tuesday of each month since October 1999.
The civil association „March, the Internet Month" (see http://www.brezen.cz)has also been very successful in promoting the idea of the Information Society at the end of 1999 and beginning of 2000. At that time the association started to prepare and promote the third annual event of the same name. The event has taken place during March 2000 and it has attracted a great attention of the media and general public. A number of different seminars, conferences, contests and other promotional events have taken place within its framework.
The increasing activity in the field of development of the Information Society has been carried out by the influential (see http://www.spcr.cz), activities of which have been strengthened particularly ion the second half of 1999, when the President of the Association for Information Society, Ing. Zbyšek Bahenský, have been elected the member of its Board. He immediately became involved in the development of the Information Society within the Industrial and Transportation Union of the Czech Republic and later within the Czech Forum for Information Society (into the preparatory committee of which he has been nominated on behalf of the Industrial and Transportation Union of the Czech Republic shortly after joining it. He has been receiving support particularly from the 1st Vice-president of the Industrial and Transportation Union of the Czech Republic, Ing. Pavel Prior.
2.2 Media and advisory companies
The issue of development of the Information Society attracts 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 has 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 late 1990’s has been thus substantially speeded up particularly thanks to opening-up of the on-line journalism of the Czech Press Agency (see http://www.ceskenoviny.cz), starting of the "Internet broadcasting" of the state Czech Radio (see http://www.cro.cz), opening-up of the on-line version of iDnes (see www.idnes.cz), one of the most frequently read Czech dailies or thanks to starting-up of the electronic version of the Hospodárské noviny daily, named iHNed (see http://www.ihned.cz). 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 (see http://www.profit.cz). The promotion of the Information society among the youth by the state-controlled media is represented particularly by a specialised Czech Television weekly called Zavin@c (http://www.zavinac.com) and a radio weekly of the Czech Radio, called Megabajt.
One of the popular online media is the independent "political, family and dog daily www-paper" The Invisible Dog (http://pes.eunet.cz), which has become the very first regularly updated Czech online daily in 1996. Among the services, which make researching of the requested content on the Czech Internet easier, the Centrum search engine (http://www.centrum.cz) has been founded and it has been competing with the well established services of the Atlas (see http://www.atlas.cz) and the Seznam (see http://www.seznam.cz).
The above mentioned trio of www-services is becoming more and more the so called Internet portals, which, apart from services of a search engine, provide also up-to-date news service and some other services. The information services, provided by other companies, such as the Mobil Server (see http://www.mobil.cz) and the M.I.A. (see http://www.mia.cz) are following a similar path. Particularly the financial and technological background of the last of the above mentioned companies has been strengthened in early 2000, when it has been taken over by the still monopolistic Czech telecommunication operator, which has officially changed its name from January 1, 2000 to Cesky Telecom (see http://www.telecom.cz).
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 ( http://www.idccentraleurope.com) focuses particularly on mapping of the development of the information and communication infrastructure in these countries, Deloitte & Touche company has already published e.g. the results of several waves of researches, which deal with the entrepreneurial aspects of the development of the electronic commerce in the Czech Republic.
Certain specialised 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 utilisation 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 (see http://www.eisf.cz), organised by the independent Czech consulting company EISF, or the Internet Users Survey (http://www.park.cz/pruzkum), 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 researches of the Acron (see http://www.monitor.cz/analyzy.html), GfK (see http://www.gfk.cz) and Medián (see http://www.median.cz) companies.
From among the latest researches, dealing with the state of development of the Information society in the Czech Republic, the greatest attention has been drawn to the results of the research of the development of utilisation of the Internet in the Central Europe. The results of this research have been published on November 10, 1999, by the multinational IDC company (http://www.idccentraleurope.com). The argument of the IDC company, according to which, there were 292 000 users of the Internet in the Czech Republic as of July 1, 1999, was challenged by the President of the Association of Providers of the Internet Network Content and two operators of some of the above mentioned important Czech Internet information services and their „Declaration of operators of the leading Internet servers about the number of users of the Czech Internet" (see http://www.lupa.cz/komentare/ukaz.php3?k_id=623) on November 24. According to this declaration, which was using information following up from information about number of visitors of their www-servers and from information from a representative Market & Media & Lifestyle research, organised by the Median agency, the number of Internet users in the Czech Republic is around 600 000.
2.3 Fairs exhibitions, conferences and seminars
The trade fair, extent and importance of which has very much exceeded the importance of any other similar event, is the information and communication technologies fair INVEX COMPUTER (see http://www.invex.cz), held in Brno for the fourth time between October 4 and 8. However, compared to the previous years, Invex 1999 has suffered not only a minor decrease in number of visitors but, what is more acute, substantial decrease in number of exhibitors, particularly from among the providers of complex solutions for business sphere and the state administration. This fact could be considered a signal that this event has been transforming from the original professional fair to a computer "hubbub".
Even though the organisers of INVEX COMPUTER trying to reverse this trend for obvious reasons by organising accompanying events, such as the "managerial" conference „Information for the 21st century" (see http://konference.cpress.cz), organised within the framework of INVEX COMPUTER 1999, or providing of above standard services for representatives of the large companies and the state administration, these efforts are jeopardised not only by the decreasing interest of the key participants, but also by the unsuitable or insufficient infrastructure of the trade fair organiser.
It comes as no surprise then that the potential exhibitors, who’s focus is on the clientele from the company sphere, prefer to take part in events with less mass character and they opt for smaller and more particularly aimed events.
A number of events of this kind took place in the last quarter of 1999 and the first half of 2000.
For example, between January 31 and February 1, the Czech consulting company Incoma (see http://www.incoma.cz) has organised another annual Conference on Development of Trade in the Czech Republic. This conference can be considered a true milestone in the development of trade in the Czech Republic, particularly because representatives of the most powerful retail chains, active in the Czech Republic (see http://www.incoma.cz/Pages/Press/2000022105.htm) presented a overall change of their approach to the issue of practical development of the Information Society – e.g. through presenting a new „Click & brick" of the Ahold company (see www.euronova.cz) or though presentation of utilisation of principles of e-commerce in the purchasing processes of the Makro CR company (see http://www.makro.cz). In view of the "dictatorship", these chains apply towards their suppliers, this was an important impulse for accelerated transformation of the production, information and personnel background of the Czech producers of consumer goods in order for them to be able to react to the development of the Information Society in the Czech Republic.
The third annual Enterprise Internet Strategy Forum (EISF’2000 – see http://www.eisf.cz/konference) conference took place between February 29 and March 3, 2000, as the opening event of the March, the Internet Month campaign. The participants of this conference come mostly from managements of Czech companies and Czech representations of foreign companies. One of the key contributions to the agenda of the conference was presentation of a complete e-commerce strategy of the largest Czech firm and at the same time the most important Czech exporter – the Škoda Auto car manufacturer (see http://www.skoda-auto.cz), which is a part of the multinational Volkswagen concern. Participants of the conference were given a strong impulse, when told that this car manufacturer has so far sold almost two thousand new and used cars over the Internet and when informed what will be soon required from the production, personnel and information background of the subcontractors of this Czech industry leader. This was a similar impulse to the one provided by the new strategy of the largest Czech retail chains.
Another event, which took place within the framework of the „March, the Internet Month" campaign, was the first annual conference Internet & Business LIVE 2000 (see http://vip.fce.vutbr.cz/firsttuesday/000307.htm), which took place on March 7, 2000 and which preceded the traditional evening meeting investors and implementers of Internet projects in the Czech Republic, called First Tuesday eXtra. This conference, which dealt with analysis of the selected sectors of the Czech Internet market, practical advice of the venture capital investors and a panel discussion "Internet Business, new economy?", hosted also a extensive contribution about the results of the ESIS II project in the Czech Republic.
Another conference, which took place for the first time within the framework of the „March, the Internet Month" campaign on March 11, 2000, has been a long-term focused conference for children(!), called Junior Internet 2000 (see http://www.juniorinternet.cz). This conference was opened to children up to the age of 15 and its participants were winners of the Junior Web contest (contest in creation of www-pages – see http://www.juniorinternet.cz/vyhlaseni_jw.html), Junior Text context (literary contest with topic connected to the Internet – see http://www.juniorinternet.cz/vyhlaseni_jt.html) and Planet of Internet (knowledge contest for school classes).
The third Internet in the State Administration and Self government conference took place between March 27 – 28, 2000 (see http://www.isss.cz) as the final event of the „March, the Internet Month" campaign. This conference was attended particularly by representatives of the state administration and self-government bodies, but also by representatives of professional as well as general media.
Further important promotional activities, which are due to be held in the second quarter of 2000 or later are for example the second annual fair of information technologies and communications - ITC Prague 2000 (see www.itc-expo.cz ), which is supposed to be held between April 4 and April 6, 2000.
Another important event is the third annual combined exhibition and conference, known as the Prague Internet World (see http://www.internetworld.cz/piw2000) which is announced for April 18 and 20, 2000. This event is organised within the framework of the worldwide Internet World cycle.
Information about the technologies, helping the development of the Information society, and about the possibilities and the consequences of their utilisation in the state administration as well as in the commercial sphere, will be available e.g. during the eighth annual trade fair of communication and network technologies ComNet Prague 2000 (see http://www.comnet.cz) held between May 23 – May 25, 2000 or during the eighth annual System Integration conference (see http://si.vse.cz), held on June 6 – June 13, 2000. The role of universities in the future Information Society will be dealt with during the eighth, traditional September RUFIS conference (see http://www.vutbr.cz/rufis99 ).
3. Commercial activities, impact of which considerably exceeds their commercial framework
The effect of all the previously mentioned activities, which substantially contribute to the promotion of the development of the Information Society in the Czech Republic, is further stressed by by-effects of several other commercial and non-commercial activities, total impact of which thus very much exceeds their originally intended framework. Among purely commercial projects, promotion of the advantages of the Information Society has been started at the end of 1997 by IBM company (see http://www.ibm.cz ), which launched a massive campaign promoting the commercial exploitation of the Internet.
The commercial entities, which have been contributing to the promotion of the development of the Information society in the Czech Republic the most since 1998, has been, in particular, the extraordinarily keen and medially very active Expandia Banka (see http://www.ebanka.com), which has contributed in the last quarter of 1999 to the practical promotion of the development of the Information society, by transferring of the eCity virtual city project (see http://www.ecity.cz) from the first, totally virtual stage (when virtual products were purchased with virtual money in the shopping zone of the virtual city), to the second "real" stage. Since October 4, 1999, the registered "inhabitants" of the eCity have had the opportunity to buy real products for real money in the virtual shops of the eCity. This activity, together with the massive long-term media campaign of the advantages of electronic banking and on-line shopping perhaps promotes the Information Society in the Czech Republic more than further expansion the Expandia Banka itself.
It was this bank, which acquired a strategic partner at the end of 1999. It was the Czech Insurance Company (see http://www.cpoj.cz), which at that time had been a monopoly provider of the obligatory car insurance and already since 1998 offered its clients the possibility to sign contracts and pay the premiums for this insurance via the Internet. The publicity, which this step received, could not be compared to what happened when the monopoly was about to end during the late 1999. The monopoly of the Czech Insurance Company for the obligatory car insurance has been terminated since January 1, 2000. During the last months of 1999, the competition for millions of Czech car owners started and a number of commercial insurance companies started offering payment of the obligatory car insurance premiums via the Internet.
One of the other activities, which contributed significantly to promoting of the development of the Information society in the Czech Republic in the last quarter of 1999 and at the beginning of 2000, is the increasingly harsh competition of the Internet connection providers, combined with the approaching full liberalising of the telecommunication market as of 1.1.2001.
When one of the most important Czech connection providers – the Czech OnLine company (see http://www.volny.cz) started offering connection to the Internet through a dial-up connection free of charge at the end of August 1999, another important Internet connection provider – the Internet OnLine company (see http://www.iol.cz) – rushed to the market with a similarly favourable offer of the Internet access. This offer of a dial-up connection to the Internet also applies for the users, who subscribe to the most read domestic daily MF Dnes (the Internet version of which, iDnes, is one of the most read Czech online media), or to those users, who purchase or lease a PC from the AutoCont company (see http://www.autocont.cz), one of the most important Czech producer and retailer of personal computers, offering its products also through its on-line shop.
The above outlined events were probably initiated by an information leak, concerning the background of a massive anonymous advertising campaign of the CONTACTEL company (see http://www.contactel.cz), which was supposed to prepare grounds for grand entrée on the fully liberalised Czech Internet market through leasing of personal computers with Internet access through a dial-up connection and with installation at the customer "included". In view of the above mentioned leak and counter steps by the competitors, the CONTACTEL company was forced to very quickly extend its offer of different PCs from domestic and international producers and to come up with another massive campaign in the press and television. It seems, however, that even this step did not bring the company the expected number of clients and thus in March 2000 it was forced to react to a very aggressive media campaign of its new competitor on the domestic market - the World Online (see http://www.worldonline.cz) – offering "free connection". It came up with its own "free connection" service, called Internet Raz Dva (see http://www.razdva.cz).
In view of the above mentioned facts and events, the Czech public has been overwhelmed by a number of very concrete offers of how to get an access to the Internet through dial-up connection completely free of charge or how to get all the necessities for the Internet access with monthly instalments from only CZK 1000 (i.e. approx. EURO or US$ 30). The main reason for this was, obviously, the very important step of the monopoly operator of the fixed telephony services networks - the Czech Telecom (see http://www.telecom.cz). This company, unlike in the previous years, cut the charges for using of dial-up lines to access the Internet in 2000. At the same time, it offered the Internet connection providers a commission from the revenues it collects from the Internet users. Of course, Cesky Telecom did not forget to use this step in its advertising campaign, which was probably designed as a preparation for the coming liberalisation of the Czech telecommunication market (even though with a certain limitation) from January 1, 2000.
The promotion of the Information Society has been substantially contributed to also by both mobile operators. at the end of 1999 and beginning of 2000. Both operators i.e. EuroTel (see http://www.eurotel.cz ) and RadioMobil (see http://www.paegas.cz ) launched massive campaigns as a reaction to starting up of the new network by Cesky Mobil, the third mobile operator, which started very aggressive promotion of its services at the beginning of March 2000. While in 1999 the campaigns of both EuroTel and Radiomobil focused on promotion of cheap international calls, utilising "Internet telephony", the advertising struggle of the two competitors in 2000, which has traditionally been taking place in television and newspapers, focused on promoting the possibilities and advantages of the direct Internet access through mobile phone, using the Wireless Access Protocol (WAP) technology.
4. The likely development in the coming period
The above mentioned facts show that the accumulation of various commercial and non-commercial ways of promoting of the Information Society in the Czech Republic at the end on 1999 and beginning of 2000 may hopefully lead to the desired change in the growing imbalance between rapid development of Internet utilisation by the Czech business sphere, which usually uses leased fixed lines and which is thus not that sensible to the prices of connection via regular dial-up lines, and much less dynamic development of Internet utilisation by home users, for whom dial-up connection is still the only realistic alternative.
It is the home users, who have since the fourth quarter of 1999 been motivated to mass utilisation of the Internet, not only by the increasing possibilities of access to the information through on-line media or the ever growing offer of secured on-line purchases at certified dealers, but also by the increasingly transparent structure of the Internet access cost. The advantages of the increasingly transparent cost structure (which will grow as the Czech telecommunications market gets liberalised as of 1.1.2001) are being promoted through media campaigns in mass media.
The outlined development cannot be jeopardised neither by lack of budget sources for active support of the further development in this sphere, nor by the continuous passivity of the state bodies in defining the legislative base of this development. The only factor, which can significantly delay this development, is definite implementation of the efforts of the ruling party and the strongest opposition party to maximise the value of the remaining state-owned stake in the monopoly fixed voice telephony services provider (Cesky Telecom, at least until January 1, 2001) by postponing of the full liberalising until the beginning of 2003.
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