Update July 2000: Israel
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Update July 2000: Israel |
1. Introduction
1.1 Israeli Internet users reach 1.1 million
David Shedmon, the General Director of the Teleseker Corporation announced that from the data obtained by omnibus surveys since the end of 1999 the number of Internet users is 1.1 million. Among the adult population, 18 years old and more, the rate is 26% of users; in the age bracket of 13-18 the rate is 50%. From the Telesker Internet Monitor (TIM) survey held in June, 88% of the users reach the Internet from their homes while 12% reach it only from places like the school and the workplace (sample 1,007 respondents aged 13 or more among the Jewish population). Most of them (29%) are new users (last 12 months) and only 12% are veteran users (more than 3 years).
The survey points out also that 32% of the households in Israel are connected to the Internet. Most users (49%) use it up to 4 hours a week; 29% from 4 to 10 hours a week; and 22% more than 10 hours. (Haaretz, June 21 2000, page C2).
2. Organisational Awareness Aspects
2.1 International Conference: Education in the Age of the Information Revolution – Opportunities and Challenges.
The conference, organised by the Direcorate for Science and Technology of the Ministry of Education included the annual meeting of MOAH – The Israel Association for Computers in Education from the 26th to the28th of June. With more than 1,700 registered participants the conference was a significan expression of the activities developed in Israel related to the integration of ICT in education. Two exhibits at the conference presented on the one hand the Israeli multimedia educational industry and on the other a dynamic expression of a selection of the schools initiatives in the area of ICT in edudation.
Among the different session: International Cooperation through ICT in Education; The Internet, a source of development or a danger to the educational system?; The Evaluation of Learning and Teaching Processes in an ICT Environment; The contribution of research for computerisation in education; Mutual relations between the industry and the educational system; The influence of the Internet on the Society and Culture; Home, Community and School in the ICT age; Teacher Education and Training in the ICT age; ICT Curricular Applications. The final plenary panel compared different national approaches for computerisation of the educational system with presentations from Denmark (Dr. Birte Christensen-Dalsgaard, UNI-C); Roger Blamire from the EUN who presented the UK; and a detailed presentation of the Israeli national program by Yaffa Vigodsky, director of the Directorate for Science and Technology of the Ministry of Education in Israel who chaired the conference.
The conference counted with a significant presence of participants and lecturers from abroad. Several parallel events have taken place, among them:
ENIS Schools meeting: Roger Blamire, responsible for Innovation in the EUN, European Schoolnet held a seminar with the Israeli schools candidates to participate in the ENIS program – European Network of Innovative Schools.
ETB - The European Treasury Browser project is a EC funded initiative establishing an European wide digital library for educational resources. It will connect the main national educationa repositories and provide access to Metadata information; quality ratings; and curriculum adequacy of the accessed resources. The members of the consortium are leaded by the EUN and come from Italy, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Israel. They held their periodic meeting prior to conference and actively participated in it.
2.2 Promotional Activities of the Export Institute
The Israel Export Institute (http://www.export.gov.il ) runs a large number of promotional activities also related to Information Society issues. Some examples of events held in June 2000: (1) The production of a CD with a catalogue of Israeli companies that deal with Communications and Internet to increase their exposure among technologies companies, distributors, agents, investors, integrators. Thousands of copies are to be distributed by direct mailings, exhibits, conferences, Israel representations abroad and more. The person in charge is Oren Mendelsohn – oren@export.gov.il (2) Workshop for building a business model for start up companies . Contact Or Shtadler (or@export.gov.il) (3) National stand established by the Export Institute at the Internet World Conference in New York (25-27.10.2000). Start up companies will enjoy special conditions and support in establishing their booths at the exhibit. Contact Eyal Meshulam (meshulam@export.gov.il).
2.3 Land Holdings of Israel to be published in the Internet
The Land Holdings Book for Israel is expected to be published in the Internet as soon as the Economic Committee of the Knesset approves the regulations allowing it. The ammendment to the Law of the Israel Land Authority was already approved by the parliament. In the first phase the data on the 147,000 properties for which full information is available in the Authority; in a second phase another 300,000 properties, information on which are still incomplete, will be published. In the last phase the Authority intends to publish the complete books of the Land Registrar, The "Tabu", including those properties not registered at the Authority, that is private properties. The publication of this data will enable the public time to get information on the status of a property or a parcel prior to the transfer of ownership; the Authority intends also to supply certificates and accept payments through the Internet.
The publication of the book is an additional phase in making the workings of the Land Authority transparent to the public. It is already possible to get the results of tenders and a list of all its decisions. The General Attorney to the Government authorised the publication of the protocols of the meetings of the Board of the Land Authority; these decisions, taken in closed meetings, weren’t published till now or were published without explanations. An additional important decision is to held public tenders for land through the network. An simulation experimental tender was held two weeks ago in the network; if its results are similar to the true tender then the Authority will start having public tenders in the network. These innovations were introduced by Avi Drecsler, the General Director of the Israel Land Authority who is now leaving his post. (Haaretz, June 25 2000, page C2).
2.4 IDF Intelligence Division acts as an Incubaror for Start Ups
Gen. Amos Malca the head of the Intelligence Division of the IDF (AMAN) stated that start up companies, Israeli and international, are established on the basis of know how acquired by their founders during their service in the Division. He said that the military technology is "civilized" and serve as the basis for start ups. Among such technologies he counted data mining,understanding of natural languages and more. Their capacity to profit from these technologies is due to the fact that AMAN in general does not register patents or limit the use of the its Intellectual Property. He said that the success of many Israeli projects is due to the fact that service in AMAN is carried oun in a development environment that educates to complete projects strictly in time. Malca spoke at the Fifth Meeting on Knowledge Management held in Herzliya in the first week of June. (Haaretz, June 14 2000, page C3).
3. IS National / Regional Strategies and Action Plans
3.1 The EUMEDIS (Euro MEDiterranean Information Society) Program
The European Commission launched in February, 1999 the EUMEDIS Program for the development of the Information Society in the Mediterranean Countries. The program include its strand one the creation of a network of Mediterranean Information Society Focal Points which will develop a harmonised governmental strategy for the development of the Euro-Mediterranean Information Society. EUMEDIS will also fund an Internet based interconnection between the European research network and the Mediterranean research networks; this will create a large "high bandwidth ring" all around the Mediterranean region which will transport all the co-operative applications developed by the participants.
In the second strand of the initiative EUMEDIS will fund regional pilot information society projects in five sectors of intervention. The call for these projects was issued in March 2000 and will close in early January 2001; a budget of 35 million EURO have been allocated for projects in the five sectors: Health Networks; Electronic Commerce; Tourism and Cultural Heritage; Research applied in industry, business, and innovation; Education.
The EUMEDIS Focal Point for Israel was established, in May 2000, at ISERD – The Israel Directorate for the Fifth Framework RTD Program of the European Union (http://www.iserd.org.il) . ISERD is a joint office of the Ministries of Trade and Industry; Ministry of Finance; Ministry of Science, Culture and Sports; Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and the Council for Higher Education and is in charge of representing Israel in the 5FP Committees and supporting Israeli participation in the program.
The Focal Point began immediately its activities. Its immediate mission is to support actions for the development of the regional Information Society. This is translated in the Isaeli context into the promotion of the participation in the EUMEDIS regional pilot projects. Among the promotional activities carried out so far:
The Web site for the EUMEDIS Focal Point for Israel was established (http://eumedis.org.il). Promotional materials are being distributed through email distribution lists, press announcements and as printouts at the different events. Several events have been already carried out:
4. Information Content Stimulation
4.1 Checking the Electricity Bill
The Gad Engineering company established an Internet site that enables, for the first time, home consumers to check by themselves their electricity bills (http://www.gadnet.co.il) . Any user can enter the data of his bill and receive the results of the checking carried out by the system including an analysis of the results. The site has two components: one for home consumers including comparative data, general and statistical informatio and calculations related to the consume of energy and electricity. The other component is aimed at the professional public with tables and calculations related to energy and electricity for engineers, students, maintenance managers and electricians.
4.2 Other tools
4.2.1 Many conferences and exhibits related to Information Society issues were held in Israel in the last month. The following have been entered in the ESIS II Database:
4.2.2 Innovative actions / initiatives
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