ESIS Extension / Israel / IS Promotional Activities / Master Report

Awareness activities related to IS cut across a wide range of the Israeli scene. The Parliament (Knesset), the Government and the Judiciary system is one part of the picture. The press and other mass media is another important aspect in the education of the Israeli public. Israel has a strong civil society which is expressed in a large number of voluntary associations; some of these are directly related to IS issues. Their initiatives contribute to the awareness process. We list here focal points of such activity, most of them described in more detail in the report on Key Organisations.

The Parliament has been a pioneer in the establishment of a rich information service offering information to citizens and access to its members. The work of the committee on "Preparation of Israel for the Information Age" has been critical in the evolution of the IS in Israel (see below).

The Judiciary System through the Supreme Court of Justice evolved a sophisticated system allowing direct access to its jurisprudence through its Web site; the leadership of the Court's Presidents served as models for the introduction of IT in all levels of the system.

In Israel the Ministry of Finance has the strongest leverage vis a vis every other Ministry as it controls budget disbursement through its own officers at the different Ministries. The IT Policy Group established at the Ministry and the TEHILA (Internet at the service of the Israeli Government) has had a great impact in the creation of the adequate awareness at the government level. Training of government officers; supplementary budgets for demonstration projects at the different Ministries; documents dealing with issues of access, privacy, encryption, copyrights; guidelines for tenders in the IT area; a secure servers farm and more were some of tools used.

HILA - Preparation of Israel for Information Age is the team established in the P.M. Office for the promotion of IS in Israel the main results of its work so far having been the establishment of the Governmental Portal, starting the Computer for every Child program and establishing an IT prize.

The Ministry of Science hosts the National Committee for IT Infrastructures. The committee developed a program for demonstration projects in the Super Highway of Information, some of them having had a strong impact and demonstrated the feasibility and problems that should be circumvented when offering free information for citizens. Other projects injected funds into initiatives of community networking, distance education, GIS and statistical information, digital libraries, developing harvesting and search engines in Hebrew and more. New calls are being issued by the Ministry with special attention put into Hebrew support issues and the Internet II / New Generation Internet projects.

The Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports since 1993 has been involved in an ambitious programs for computerization of the school system; this program started its second phase in 1999 and there is a strong program for training and pedagogical development of IS programs. National networks are being established for administrative and pedagogical purposes (Kishurim).

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs pioneered the use of Internet for information distribution purposes. The Ministry of Communications in addition to its strategic role in setting the development and regulatory framework is one of the best examples of providing complete information on its activities to citizens through its Web.

Electronic Commerce: The director general of the Ministry of Trade and Industry established a joint committee with the Israel Industry Association for setting policy guidelines concerning electronic commerce in Israel. The committee was established last March.

Local Authorities play a role in financing large national education projects related to IS - the computerization program of the educational system and the establishment of national pedagogical and administrative networks. Some of the municipalities have established impressive information services for their citizens; Jerusalem leads in the sophistication and comprehensiveness of its services. The National Lottery, owned by the Local Authorities has had an important role financing the computerization of the educational system as well as with its own initiatives like the project now being planned for a National Digital Library.

The press in Israel, the radio and the different TV channels have had a very important role in setting IS issues as an integral part of the national culture. Every major national newspaper has a section dedicated to the Internet and/or a weekly supplement totally dedicated to IS issues. There are radio programs like Inter-Bet in the main national radio channel; TV programs for youth like Zombit and many other initiatives. Another aspect of the role of the press is a process of convergence - many radio and TV programs indicate their Web sites addresses where further information may be retrieved and are open for the participation of the audience in Web based forums.

The mass media, including outdoors, play an additional role in the advertising campaigns launched periodically by every new contender to a leading role as ISP. Such campaigns which involved large budgets and much creativity have contributed much to endear the Internet as an intrinsic part of mass culture.

1.3 The Universities; Academic, Regional and Teachers Colleges; Technological Networks

The post-secondary system of education have had an important role for development of the awareness of IS. They provid free access to the Internet for many of its students and faculty members .They pioneered the development of sophisticated information services. The basic training in the use of computers and networks offered or demanded as pre-requisites from the students creates a large cadre of people proficient as users and developers. These institutions and the technology education networks have been the site of many initiatives directed to the k12 educational system, to teacher and other target populations they try to outreach for IS purposes.

Many of the IS related actions in the Israeli context are based on voluntary associations or non-profit institutions associated to government initiatives. Outstand in matters concerning IS are ILA - The Israel IT Association and its affiliated organizations; The Israel Internet Association; MOAH - Israeli Association for Computers in Education; The Israeli Association for Information Systems in Medicine; ITA - The Israeli Teleworking Association; and many more.

Trade associations also play an important role like the Israel Industry Association; The Chambers of Commerce Association; The Israeli Software Houses Association; the Electronic Commerce Forum established by the Export Institute and the Chambers of Commerce; the SME Authority; ILTAM The Israel Association for Advanced Technologies in Electronics; the Electronics Industries Association; The Journalists Association; the Lawyers Council; and many more.

These institutions organise workshops, seminars and annual conferences that have increasingly been dedicated to IS issues. They are focus of education, support and self-help in IS related matters.

We may distinguish between the liberalization of the telecommunication services and infrastructures and the "open skies" policy in the area of broadcasting on the one hand and other concerns related to the IS like education, contents, citizen access to information.

The national strategy for the telecommunications and broadcasting markets is firmly grounded on principles of liberalization, privatization and technological innovation. It is fully described in the master regulatory report. The Ministry of Communications adopted a policy of public consultation as part of its policy planning and implementation. Citizens are called to provide their proposals and comment on standing issues to be decided and these are taken in consideration in establishing the policy.

The policy in the area of education was set up mainly in 1993 by the Harari report on Science and Technology education in Israel. It was followed by an energetic program of computerization of the educational system. It has been revised at the end of its first phase and the second phase began in 1999. The original element in this policy heavy investments in equipment; the introduction of computers in social and humanities subject matters in addition to the sciences; a stress on the training of teachers; innovative demonstration schools.

The blueprint for a national strategy for IS was delineated by the Eitan Committee report of April 1997. The main recommendations of the Committee has been implemented in the last two years as they relate to (1) Government readiness (2) Citizen access to the government (3) Legislation (4) Telecommunications infrastructures and regulation (5) Electronic commerce (6) Databases (7) Data security and protection (8) Hebrew and standards.

A legislative initiative having strategic consequences for the IS is the Freedom of Information Law. The law enforces the right of every citizen to receive information from public authorities; entered in force since the end of last May. It seems that the implementation of this law is creating a whole new information industry in Israel as the Ministries, Local Authorities and other public institutions very naturally are using the Web to comply with the demands of law for publishing their internal administrative procedure (in addition to other provisions opening access to information produced during the last seven years).

The Council for Higher Education (the umbrella organisation for the Universities in Israel) issued a call for programs of teaching and study using advanced learning technologies and specially the Internet. The rational is the possibility of setting study process of high quality and very efficient with no dependence of place, time and rate. The program set demands regarding continuity, inter-institutional cooperation, evaluation, training and development of faculty, basic training and support for students. The launching of the call has taken place in Jerusalem with a special workshop with international invitees that has taken place May 31 and June 1, 1999. During the workshop the chief consultant for the program, Ehud Or, former director of the Open University, said that the survey he has carried out indicated that the best projects in this area have been carried so far in the framework of the Teacher Education Colleges Network (that is not budgeted by the Council for Higher Education). The present program is under the responsibility of the Computing Committee of the Planning and Budgeting Board of the Council for Higher Education. http://www.che.org.il/lemida.htm

The HQ for the Second Phase of the Computerization of the Educational System (Directorate for Science and Technology in the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports) issued a call for special demonstration projects by schools and other educational institutions for the innovative demonstration of the use of computers and computer networking in education (Roni Dayan, Chief Inspector for Computers in Education; Nava Gilad, in charge of the special projects program). http://194.90.204.5/scitech/project/std80.htm

The National Teacher Education Colleges Network issued its annual call for the establishment of Virtual Learning Environments by faculty from the Colleges This is the third such call and several such environments are already available for the public. http://www.macam98.ac.il/chtml/svivot.htm

Netdays Europe 1999: Israel has been accepted as a participant in Netdays Europe 1998. More than a hundred Web pages of Israeli schools were presented in the national site and 47 special projects participated in the event. An special Israel Day was set by the Netdays Europe organizers in October 21, 1998. The kickoff for Netdays Europe 1999 (November 13-21, 1999) in Israel has taken place in the Conference for Computers in Education (July 6-7) in Tel-Aviv. Partnerships and the participation of educational and cultural institutions from Israel in the event is expected to be widened in 1999 http://netdays.org.il

ITN in Israel: The Interdisciplinary Center for Technological Assesment and Forecasting at Tel-Aviv University has just completed (June, 1999) a survey on ITN in Israel at the request ot the DG-III from the European Commission. Most respondents showed above average interest and a massive majority responded positively to the need of ITN services in Israel.

At the beginning of May (6-7) the Ministry of Science organised the first of two joint US-Israeli workshops on the Next Generation Internet technologies. The purpose was to foster the establishment of joint consortia and collaborations in high-risk networking technologies. The issues surveyed included the basic technologies; tele-working, tele-learning and tele-collaboration; applications; enabling technologies.

Two calls for proposals have been issued by the Ministry of Science regarding Internet II matters. The first one provides budgets of 20-40,000 dollars a year for innovative, applications and pilot research based on the the implementation of Internet 2. The second call seek to develop algorithms, protocols and innovative tools for broadband communications and offer budgets in the order of 60-90,000 dollars a year. The deadline for these calls is 31.7.1999. See: http://www.internet-2.org.il

Other calls from the Ministry of Science regarding Information Systems and Computing are open with deadlines set for 7.10.1999 . They are of the order of 400-600,000 a year for three years. One of them is for High Confidence Systems applications; the other is for Human Centered Systems . See: http://www.most.gov.il

Telemedicine: The Israeli Association for Information Systems in Medicine had its annual conference last June 3, 1999. A session was dedicated to teleradiology with presentations from a Health Insurance Cooperative, several hospitals (three) and one University based research institute. Other issues covered in the conference concerned health related databases (CPR; the Medical Record; Patient's folders etc); computerization in Intensive Care Units; HIS; EIS; and a commercial session that included a presentation on distance training in medicine. The 4^th International Conference on the Medical aspects of Telemedicine has taken place in Jerusalem, June 6-11 . See: conventions@kenes.com

The Electronic Commerce Forum was established by the Export Institute and the Chambers of Commerce Association. It provides a large email distribution list for innovations and initiatives regarding Ecommerce in Israel and the world at large. Training workshops and counsel are offered to SMEs for experimenting with marketing techniques appropriate for the Internet and advertise business propositions in the network. See: http://ecomm.inter.net/marketing/about_us.htm

Telecom: Telecom '98 was held under the auspices of the Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of Trade and Industry with exhibits of 234 companies (120 in the business section and 114 start-ups). There was massive international participation from Canada, USA, Great-Britain, The Netherlands, Russia and India. The target population were international corporate decision makers and foreign venture capital funds. Among the main product groups were: Cable Television; Closed circuit TV; Computer Integrated Telephony; Data Communications; Electro-Optics; Internet; ISDN; Micro-Electronics; Mobile Communications; Satellite Communications; Security Systems; Video Communications; Voice Processing and other related matter. The preparations for Telecom 2000 in Israel have already begun. See: http://www.telecom-israel.com/2000

The 32 International Conference of the ILA - The Israeli Association for Information Technologies has taken place in conjunction with Telecom '98.

Internet World: The second conference and exhibit Internet World has taken place in Israel last February, 23-25. The next one, Internet World Israel 2000 is planned for March 28-30 Tel Aviv, Israel. See: http://events.internet.com/

Info '99: May 2-5 1999 This is the annual event for the information industry in Israel. It is the traditional meeting of Librarians, Information Sciences specialists, databases producers. In the last three year the Internet has taken an increasing share of the presentation and the exhibits. The main issues in this conference and exhibit were Libraries and Information Centers (OPACs and Z39.50; copyright issues; future roles for information professionals); Electronic Publishing; Advanced Information Services; Online Update; Internet (including Services, Electronic Journals, Knowledge management, Data security); Internet Industry in Israel (Start ups; Technologies and Financing). See: http://www.teldan.co.il

W3C Consortium Seminar: The School of Computer Engineering at the Hebrew University (HUJI) and the Israel Interne Association jointly organised a seminar with the leaders of the W3C Consortium, Jean-Francois Abramatic, the Chairman of W3C and Daniel Weitzner, leader of the Technology and Society Domain. The seminar aimed at presenting the W3C activities to the Israeli industry and academy. It included conferences by Abramatic on "Leading the Web to its full potential" and by Weitzner on "Identity, Money and Property on the Web". This is a first step towards the establishment of a W3C Office in Israel. See: http://www.isoc.org.il/w3c/w3ce.html

MOAH: The 16^th Annual Conference of the Association for Computers in Education has taken place July 6-7, 1999 in Tel-Aviv. The theme was Technologies and Culture towards the Year 2000. The main sessions dealed with Active Learners in the Network; Virtual Worlds and Virtual Teachers; Computers in Early Childhood Education; Didactic Aspects of the Teaching of Mathematics; Forums and Teacher Communities in the Network; Simulations and Games; The Computer in Support of Humanities Studies; Databases and Search Tools; Text Processors; Models for Distance Learning in the Internet; Technologies for the Improvement of Teaching in Teachers Colleges; IT in English Teaching; Teaching Science in a Telematised Environment; Neighbours in the Global Village and many more.

Fifth Framework Program: Israel is a full partner of the 5FP of the EC. The IST program is the largest in this framework so the activities promoting the participation of Israeli companies in the program has important implications for the IS in Israel. A special inter ministerial support office has been established by the Ministries of Trade and Industry, Science. Foreign Affairs and Finance. The office carries out ongoing workshops, seminars, counseling and partners search services. See: http://www.iserd.org.il

Opening the Israeli Telecommunications Market for Competition: This conference was held on the occasion of the liberalization of the Israeli Telecom market which has taken place 1 June 1999. It was carried out under the auspices of the Minitry of Communications and organised by Globes Izum and IDC and has taken place last June, 22 in Tel-Aviv. The main presentation by the Director General of the Ministry of Communications Daniel Rosenne can be found at: http://www.moc.gov.il/new/documents/about/lecture_dr_220699.ppt

Israeli Internet Association Strategic Planning: The Association began a process of strategic planning regarding its role and activities. The process was triggered by the increased rate of expansion of the Internet and the new target populations expected to join following the liberalization of the telecommunication market and expansion of services. Key officers and decision makers at the national level are meeting with the Association board and expressing their views on the opportunities and problems to be expected. See: http://www.isoc.org.il

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.