ESIS Extension / Israel / IS Promotional Activities / Update Report 6

The Central Bureau of Statistics (http://www.cbs.gov.il) published the new statistical annuary for Israel (26.9.2000). The number of university students in 1999 reached 112,920 ; among them 74,280 are studying for the first degree; 30,470 for the second degree; and 6,700 for the third degree. Students at post secondary institutions that are not universities was last year 53,089, and increase of 12% in comparison to 1998.

The occupational distribution of services workers in Israel is the following: Business Services (30%); Commerce and Auto Repair (26%); Transport, Storage and Communications (11%); Social, Personal and Other Services (10%); Catering and Food (9%); Education, Health and Commercial Welfare services (8%); Banking, Insurance and othe Finance Institutions (6%).

The population density in Israel is one of the highest in the world: 278 inhabitants per square kilometer at the end of ’99. There are regional differences with the highest density in the Tel-Aviv Region – 6,700 inh./sq.km and the lowest, 61 inh/sq.km, in the Southern Region. The population is mostly concentrated in urban settlements with 91% living in towns with 2,000 or more inhabitants. Only two european countries have an higher density than Israel: The Netherlands and Belgium. Only a few other countries in the world have an higher population density: Bengladesh; India; Srilanka; Japan and Taiwan.

A survey carried out by the Gallup Research Institute in the Jewish population of Israel indicates that 29% (478 thousand) of the households are connected to the Internet; the main users of the Internet in 272 thousand households are the youngsters 13-17 years old (that is in 56.8% of the connected households). There are great gender differences: 42.4% of the households said that the boys are the main users and only 14.4% said that the girls are the main users. 48.2% of the youngsters said that they understand better the Internet than the average user. Time spent by youngsters in the Internet is mainly at night, between 22:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m. (58.4%) – this explains the drop in TV viewing at these hours. The survey indicates that Internet Zahav and Netvision with 33% each are the main ISP and Bezeq International is the third with 14.2% of the private market.

A survey by the TGI Institute jointly owned by Gallup Israel and Teleseker among a representative sample of 2,160 respondents representing a population of 495 thousand jewish youngsters aged 12-17 years old found that 86% of them reported having a computer at home. There are some gender differences as 89% of the boys and 84% of the girls so reported; also 60% of the boys against 50% of the girls said they were connected to the Internet.

The survey also checked the newspaper reading habits of the youngsters and found that during the week 48% read Yedioth Aharonot; 31% Maariv and 5% Haaretz. At weekends 67% read Yedioth Aharonot; 44% Maariv; and 8% Haaretz. Haaretz, 11.8.2000, C4.

The Chief Scientist Office of the Ministry of Trade and Industry announced that a conference targeted at the participants in the Research and Development programs will be held in November 2, 2000. The conference will serve as a forum to discuss with interested parties the preparations of the CS office for the year 2001. The office is the channel for the main source of national support for R&D programs. The R&D policy will be presented by the Chief Scientist, Carmel Vernie and the different programs discussed: the Technological Incubators (Rina Pridor); the Generic Technologies (Magnet) Program (Ilan Peled); the new services offered for entrepreneurs in the Tnufa program (Jacob Fisher); the Israel participation in the EU RTD 5FP (Marcel Shaton); the Israel-US programs (Yoram Rahav and Dov Hershberg); the Israel-Britain programs (Tony Warwick); the other international cooperation programs (Yair Amitai and Haia Miler). Also in the program keynote presentations by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the director of the Prime Minister Office (Yossi Kuchik) and the Minister of Finance (Avraham Shohat) and two sessions of opene questioning and discussions with the Chief Scientist, Carmel Vernie.

The Peres Center for Peace Board of Governors Conference: Khadouri Technology Development Center and the IT for Peace Conference

The Peres Center for Peace http://www.peres-center.org/ held its annual meeting in Tel Aviv the 10-12 September. Two important events have taken place during the conference related to applications of ICT to promote development and consolidate peace in the region. A working group including high level Israeli and Palestine officers and directors of Israeli, regional and international risk capital and hi tech corporations discussed ways to advance the Khadouri Technology Development Center. Located in Tulkarem on the Palestinian Authority it is very close to the centers of Israeli hi-tech and is expected to attract Israeli-Palestinian joint ventures in software and technology-based industries involving international partners. The discussion focused on the comparative demands of old and new economy industries and the advantages that may accrue from the current deficit for hi-tech workers in the Israeli hi-tech industry.

A session of the conference was dedicated to the theme of "Information Technology and Modern Peacebuilding" with outstanding participants from Israel, the region and International corporations chief officers.

The Ministry of Education nominated a Committee to discuss the different aspects of the preparation of the educational system for the computer age. The draft of the Committee recommendations were published at http://www.education.gov.il/vaadot . Draft recommendations have been published in the areas of technological infrastructures,_contents_and_ethics.
The public was invited by the Ministry through newpaper announcement to react comment on the draft. The rationale published is the following: "The strenght of Israel depends on its capacity to be a potency in the ICT area. Investments in the future generation and its preparation to live in the new age is essential for the prosperity of the country. The educational system should be the spearhead of this process so it should have the responsibility for most of the investments necessary to this purpose." Haaretz, 8.8.2000, A6

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://eumedis.org.il) . Its immediate mission is to support actions for the development of the regional Information Society and promote Israel participation in the EUMEDIS regional pilot projects:

Regional Tourism Project Workshop: A workshop was carried out with Israeli corporations and institutions interested in the Tourism and Cultural Heritage strand of the presently open call for IS regional pilot projects in the Mediterranean. The event has taken place September 17, 2000 and counted with the presence of Fabrizio Fassio and Andrea Nicolai from the T6 cooperative which has a leading role in two main European tourism projects: FETISH and EnjoyEurope; they presented these projects and the KNITE tourism knowledge base and discussed the parameters for a wide Euro Mediterranean initiative.

E-Learning: Advantages, Technologies and Applications: The EUMEDIS call was presented in this workshop organized by the STATUS Managers Magazine in cooperation with Tack International, IBM, Aruzei Ieda, Arel, BezeqKol and Learn-Net. Opportunities for Euro Mediterranean cooperation in pilot projects in the strand of Education and Training and in the other areas requiring e-learning applications were presented to the participants.

MALTA Eumedis Focal Point Delegation visit Israel: A delegation from Malta visited Israel, 4-5^th October, to establish partnerships in joint proposals for the EUMEDIS call. Areas covered included Tourism and Cultural Heritage; E-Commerce and Research Applications in Business and Industrial processes. Intensive work was carried out with the Israel Bar Code Association.

Mediterranean Network of Ministries of Education: In the wake of the Jerusalem Workshop held in June to advance regional educational IS projects intensive consultations are being held in view to establish an ICT network of the Ministries of Education of the Mediterranean Region based on the extensive EU experience in this area.

An Hebrew version of the Star Office package is being prepared. Star Office is a software package with components similar to those of Microsoft Office that is distributed freely through the Internet by Sun. Boaz Yehuda, manager for business development of Sun for the Middle East, said that its translation to Hebrew will take more time than expected and will not be completed this year. The fact that the code has been liberated leads him to expect the participation of additional developers in the process of adapting the package to Hebrew. Haaretz, 10.8.2000, C6.

A book written specially to be read and downloaded through the Internet was announced. Written by the popular writer Ram Oren, it has 100 pages and a price tag of NIS 15. It will be available from October at the new site http://www.ibooks.co.il of the Steimazky Book Stores chain and the Tapuz Portal. Haaretz, 20.9.2000, D2.

Netvision inaugurated (20.9.2000) a service of the ASP (Application Service Provider) category. In this new service the Exchange Microsoft system of Microsoft will be rented for business customers. Soon to be included among the ASP services is the CRM (Customer Relations Management) software developed by the TefenSoft company. The general manager of Netvision, Gilad Rabinowitz said that the public views Netvision as an Internet Services Provider although the company changed its business model and is re locating itself as an online solutions provider. Haaretz, 20.9.2000, C7.

The EUN – European Schoolnet (http://www.eun.org )is a network established by the european Ministries of Education that connects the main national educational networks. It was established in 1999 by an initiative of the Ministry of Education of Sweden. Among its projects a Virtual School, a Virtual Teachers Colleges, several initiatives to facilitate the access to educational resources through the network. The EUN Steering Committee convened in September 20 in Brussels approved the incorporation of Israel as a full member to the network . Among the considerations of the SC for this decision were the advanced stage of the introduction of ICT in the education system in Israel and its active participation in the 5FP programs. Israel already participates in several EUN lead projects like the European Treasury Browser (http://etb.eun.org) ; the ENIS – European Network of Innovative Schools (http://enis.eun.org) through the MAKASH Institute. The EUN Teachers Newsletter is now being translated to Hebrew and distributed in Israel (see: http://netdays.org.il/eun and subscribe eun-israel-l at listserv@listserv.ac.il ). The national correspondent for the EUN is the Directorate for Science and Technology of the Ministry of Education directed by Mrs. Yaffa Vigodsky (http://www.education.gov.il/sci-tech).

Israel will participate again in the Netdays Europe 2000 events organized by the European Commission, DG Education, Youth and Culture to increase the awareness of the value of ICT for education and culture. It will culminate in the week of the 20-27 November and will be inaugurated during the Salod de l’Education in Paris, the 23 of November. This is the largest worldwide event in this area with more than 35,000 schools participating. Israel in 1999, with 109 projects was among the countries which presented the largest numbers of ICT educational and cultural projects. The event is patrocinated by the Directorate for Science and Tecnhology of the Ministry of Education and endorsed by the Israel Internet Associatio (ISOC-IL). Israel participation is organised by MAKASH http://netdays.org.il .

Many conferences and exhibits related to Information Society issues were held in Israel in the last months. Some of them:

The COMDEX exhibition included many targeted conferences. Among them: Fast Internet, The Fight for the Broadband; SEYBOLD – Publishing 2000 Conference of the Printing and pre-Printing industry; The conference of the Israel Chamber of System Analysts; Women On-Line; E-Business analysis and limiting risks;IT Opportunities in the Palestine Authority; . The international plenary sessions dealt with: ASP; Linux; eCRM; Fast Internet; eLearning; mCommerce, WAP and Bluetooth; Data Security.

The Internet as a Tool for Managing Real State Projects
13.9.2000 http://www.iscraper.com

Conference of the Third Generation Internet
19.9.2000 Chayon Distribution Group, INTEL and Microsoft, Hotel Dan Tel-Aviv +972.3.5630578 fax: +972.3.5630553

Communications in the Broadband Age
6.9.2000 FOCUS Haaretz David Intercontinental Hotel +972.3.5121396
Opened by the Director General of the Ministry of Communications, Danny Rosenne and with the participation of Dr. Jonathan Levy, FCC and Michael Bryan-Brown United Pan-European Communications and chief officers of Bezeq, Netvision,Tevel, Microsot, Foresight, Chello, Discount Investments, UPC, the Council for Cable and Satellite Broadcasting.

Business Tech 2001: The Exhibition of Innovation and Technologies for Business
4-5 December The Israel Business Institute and Business Net (Israel)
phone: 1-800-800-888 fax: 1-800-800-111

The Ministry of Finance established a self learning site providing courses for making the acquaintance with the Internet; tips and tricks for using Microsoft Software and the Ministry’s system MAOR; setting up distributed learning courses and more. The site targeted to the Ministry’s workers is of general interest for the public. http://www.mof.gov.il/learn.htm

The Orthodox Center for Training Hi-Tech Human Resources
Yehezkiel Fogel the director of the Center says: "Why seek in India the solution that is here under our nose?". He was refering to the acute deficit in human resources for the hi-tech industry in Israel. Instead of importing foreign workers it is possible to train Yeshiva students. The center is now training 1,200 students and 400 have already been succesfully absorbed by the industry. The center was established as a joint initiative of Mahon Lev (Jerusalem Institute for Technology); the Cardin Communications Group; the Bayaan brothers and the hi-tech Orthodox corporation JBE. The initiative came from the brothers Paul and Jan Baayan, orthodox Calvinists from Holland, who asked the Jerusalem city major to connect them with ultra-Orthodox Jews (Haredim); the contact was established through the Mahon Lev; later JBE was established to absorb students in the industry. The initiative has to overcome many obstacles: the knowledge of Mathematics and English of the Yeshiva students is very low (4^th grade); some rabbis instructed that the use of the Internet should be restricted and more. Haaretz, 10.9.2000, C5.

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 Commission, 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.