Update October 1999: Estonia

As the period between July and October 1999 was the time for holidays, the number of events aimed at increasing awareness about information society was relatively smaller; the most important events can also be found from the events data base. The main tendencies were as follows.

1. Events aimed at increasing awareness (workshops, www-services, information exchange)

The most grandiose event aimed at increasing the public awareness and organised during the reporting period was a road-show the Tiger Tour (Tiigrituur) that took place on August 22-29. The Tiger Tour introduced the Internet, computers and information technology as means for enhancing education and intelligence. The tour made its way through eight towns and county centres of Estonia. The focus was set on the "mobile and public Internet access point" equipped with 40 computers. There were also lectures and demonstrations delivered by information technology experts at the Internet point.

The innovative content and good results of the Tiger Tour have won international recognition: Estonian Tiger Tour 1998 took the main prize at an international information technology competition The Global Bangemann Challenge in "The Equal Opportunities for Using Internet" category.

Another major event aimed at increasing awareness took place on Saaremaa island: on July 19-25 in Kuressaare there was an all-Estonian week of science the purpose of which was to enhance the popularity of science and knowledge. The week of science in Kuressaare was also aimed at summarising scientific achievements of the ending century and giving some innovative and applicable scientific ideas to enliven up the life on the islands.

On July 2 the Government Press Bureau (Valitsuse pressibüroo) made a public announcement on the first hundred days of the Government (Valitsus), the summary called "The Government for People" also included the following statements:

• The Government Coalition will make the state apparatus more efficient: the citizens will be provided with an opportunity to take a closer look at the process of preparation and passing of legal acts, using both the press and the Internet for that purpose, and making the co-operation with non-governmental organisations more efficient;
• Will subordinate the executive authorities under a requirement of active provision of information to keep the public constantly informed about the decision taken and being in process;
• The Government has decided that the draft laws and draft regulations initiated by the Government will be made available through computer network during the period they are being harmonised by the ministries;
• To implement the Tiger Leap in public administration the coalition will make use of opportunities provided by information technology – the option of electronic signature will be given a legal basis;
• No support will be given to VAT differentiation, except information technology.

In addition to that the ministers have discussed the situation of information technology in Estonian education, considering the possible backwardness as one of the main obstacles for the development of Estonian economy. One of the possible solutions could be the establishment of Estonian IT-college.

To respond to the anxiety about possible problems with coming of year 2000 expressed by the State Control (Riigikontroll) and Estonian public, the Government has started to increase the public awareness about the situation. Different information materials have been published and distributed to the public (for example, during the Tiger Tour).

As Internet is relatively popular and highly available, the public sector keeps on suggesting different projects related to information dissemination:

• The Ministry of Finance (Rahandusministeerium) has made a public statement about the financial status of the Government on a website of the Ministry (Riigikassa).
• Websites of the Ministries give people an opportunity to learn the contents of draft laws initiated by the ministries during their period of harmonisation or after they have been submitted to the Government for their opinion.
• The Ministry of Finance has completed a list of students with outstanding students’ loan and since August it can be found from the Ministry web-site. The list is made up of names of students whose loans and loan interests have to be covered by the state – that is, the taxpayers.
• To develop tourism the Tallinn City Government (Tallinna linnavalitsus) started co-operation with an Internet portal (internetivärav) meant for Finnish tourists, using the Internet homepages to disseminate information about the cultural events taking place in the capital city.

A number of fresh projects have also been developed in co-operation between the public and non-profit sector:

• The Institute of Baltic Studies (Balti Õpingute Instituut) in co-operation with the Office of European Integration (Eurointegratsiooni Büroo) published on the Internet the European Union legal acts data-base Celex including about 200,000 legal acts.
• The Institute of Baltic Studies started the dissemination a CD-ROM version of a popular Estonian legal acts data base. The Estonian Legal Acts Data Base (Eesti õigusaktide andmebaas) available on the Internet has more than 27,000 users who view more than 15,000 documents every day. The data base is being administrated by the State Chancellery, The Institute of Baltic Studies and the Supreme Court (Riigikantselei, Balti Õpingute Instituut and Riigikohus).

Therefore, as public information becomes easily accessible, the population will have more opportunities to participate in the organisation of public life. One of the positive examples would be a meeting to analyse Estonian draft law on telecommunications – the event took place on August 18 and was initiated by citizens. The meeting focused on issues related to domain registration and suggested amendments to the draft.

Meetings of "computer people" have also become a tradition. During the reporting period there was an event called "OK Fest" (has been taking place for five years in a row). This is a gathering of Estonian computer companies and in 1999 it was organised in Võrumaa, Kurgjärve, July 23-25. There were discussions, sports and entertainment events within the framework of the gathering.

Tallinn Technical University (Tallinna Tehnikaülikool) organised an international summer school "Telecommunications & Computer Networking", that took place on August 1-15. Students were introduced to the construction of telecommunication networks and related applications. The summer school was organised by Local Committee of European Technical Students, BEST-Estonia, professors of Tallinn Technical University and other specialists of this field.

On June 14-18 in Tallinn there was an international training seminar of a global education and science program GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit Environment) for schools. The seminar program included lectures, computer classes and practical environmental measuring. Estonian secondary schools have been taking part in a global environmental program GLOBE managed by US scientists already since 1996.

In addition to events aimed at increasing awareness organised by public and non-profit sector the private sector has also initiated several activities this summer:

• AS Eesti Telefon (Estonian Telephone Ltd.) gave all the students entering 8th Grade this year, Internet connection packages enabling them to establish an Internet connection via telephone network making use of a modem or ISDN-equipment.
• Levicom BroadBand will start to offer an Internet access service called TELE2 (free of charge) since September 6. The purpose is to win over customers and be prepared for termination of special privileges of Estonian Telephone Ltd. on 01.01.2001. TELE2 intends to provide its customers with a telephone service in the future.
• Microlink and Hansapank initiated an extensive campaign where the persons concluding an Internet contract for three years will be granted one thousand computers and credit cards on favourable lease conditions.

To fight computer software piracy that characterises the Estonian market, an international organisation Business Software Alliance (BSA) has enforced its activities. It has:

• organised training courses for police officers;
• BSA attorney has litigated lawsuits for software producers that have joined BSA;
• Software legality control raids have been organised in co-operation with different organisations.

2. Research activities

In September there was an introduction of an extensive collection of ideas (ideekogumik) that tries to promote an unique development strategy for Estonia for the 21st century. The materials in the collection are used to show the public different development trends and decisions that would help Estonia to pursue the ideas of sustainable utilisation of both natural and mental assets of the state.

The publication prepares a background for a balanced, adjustable and competitive national strategic action plan that Estonia should follow in the 21st century. It introduces development strategies, new ideas, presents visions of professionals, scientists, journalists, entrepreneurs and writers and verbalises the first-priority choices that will determine the development capacity of every Estonian citizen and the country as a whole during the next one hundred years to come. The objective of the catalogue is to initiate social discussion on Estonia’s future, choices and decisions that the decision makers have to take now in order to have Estonia we’d all like to see tomorrow.

There were also published results of a survey on social and market trends carried out by a research company Saar Poll. It turned out that almost every Estonian citizen (93% of the respondents) wants the more important draft laws to be introduced in newspapers, Internet and information days.

3. Invitations for Tender and Results

Open Estonian Foundation (Avatud Eesti Fond) announced more competitions. The objective of a research grant for 2000 was to support innovative research of scientists of Central and Eastern Europe, Caucasus, Central Asia and Mongolia done in spheres of social and humanitarian sciences. The fields supported also included economy, environmental sciences and sustainable development, law and urban and population surveys

There will be changes awaiting Open Estonia Foundation, the organisation that has to a great extent helped to guide Estonia’s development towards the information society (for example, by supporting establishment of Public Internet Points, web-site creation, organisation of workshops and training courses, etc.). The focus will shift from supporting the development of a certain sphere to more indirect support measures, that is also reflected in the new possible name suggested for the organisation – the Institute of Open Politics.

During the reporting period the results of several tenders and competitions were made public:

• Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Eesti Välisministeerium) will start to communicate with the embassies, using Privador systems developed by Küberneetika AS. The system will establish one common and safe computer network by using the Internet. Kybernetics Ltd. won a government procurement for three years and during that period the Ministry will acquire 30 Privador cryptography systems and system administration software.
• As a result of a vocational school information technology procurement tender organised by the Ministry of Education (Haridusministeerium) five companies were selected. These companies will get contracts for a government procurement in an amount totalling to 4 million kroons. Hardware procurement contract will be concluded with Assert Ltd., for networks and network facilities with Helmes Ltd., for presentation equipment with Datel Ltd. and for software procurement with GT Software.

4. Summary

In general it can be said that Estonia is moving towards the information society. Such a tendency was stressed by Intel Deputy Manager Rob Eckelmann, who used Estonia as a good example for other countries, especially to the countries of Eastern Europe. In addition to the advantages, Eckelmann also pointed out the dangers: "In a way, Estonia is in a complicated situation. Of people aged 15-19 83 per cent are using computers – such an estimate is fantastic anywhere in the world. But people mostly play computer games; advantages provided by the Internet are not being used for education and business. At the same time the Swedes take more advantage of Internet facilities".