The developments in Palestine during the course of the ESIS II project have been primarily infrastructure developments in telecommunications and IT. The main IS promotional activities that have taken place have focused primarily on developing IT in the Palestinian Territories. This development is most prominent in the education sector, also most seminars have been to educate and train students in IT in order to have a skilled IT workforce in the country. The organizations responsible for most of these programmes and awareness activities have been Universities, Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI), the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction (PECDAR) and the Palestinian Information Technology Association (PITA). Some multi-national companies have also been active in IT training and education in Palestine.

The use of IT in Palestine is spreading among institutions, companies and individuals. The benefits of developing IT in Palestine are enormous. The main responsibility for those concerned with the development of IT in Palestine are to promote strategic development of the sector, and to influence decision and policy makers in giving IT a high national priority.

The Information Technology platforms’ extension and improvement is the main goal of Palestinian Universities. The key player in this is the Birzeit University. Under the auspices of Birzeit University, a Palestinian IT Special Interest Group (ITSIG) which consists of professionals in the IT field was formed about three years ago. Its objectives are to influence and promote the development of IT in Palestine, to create advisory bodies, to influence policy makers about IST and, in general, to raise awareness about IS.

In Palestine there are a few projects at the educational level. Birzeit University is responsible for many of the IS projects in Palestine. Amongst the educational projects are the IT Unit project being developed by Birzeit University which targets the professional and the university’s IT community, the Training Center of the Government Computer Centre (GCC) which primarily targets the Government employees, the FUTUREKIDS project by the Welfare Association which targets school children.

The Across Borders Project that was initiated in January 1999 by Birzeit University Information Technology Unit. It aims to bring Internet technology into Palestinian refugee camps across the Middle East and will see the creation of bilingual (English/Arabic) camp websites, including on-line news, oral history and stories from Palestinians refugees. The first bilingual website was ready one month later completely designed by a group of camp residents, including on-line news, oral history and stories from Palestinians refugees giving a meeting place and a window onto the world. The Across Borders Project also aims to facilitate the connection of refugees with each other. In late July, 1999 the first Internet training Center in a refugee camp in Dheisheh near Bethlehem, signaled the launch of the Across Border Project. The Across Borders Project also aims to facilitate the connection of refugees with each other. The second Across Borders Internet Centre was opened on March 31, 2000 in Khan Yunis camp, Gaza, at an opening ceremony attended by over 150 people at the Bonat al Ghad Centre. During the launch, Oxfam GB announced that it would support the establishment of five more centres in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The support for these centres was obtained through an agreement with the Australian government and Oxfam International partner, Community Aid Abroad.

A Call for Concept Papers has been issued by the DAI (Development Alternatives Inc) titled "Palestinian Internet Initiative" which the interests lie in the support and development of successful private sector e-business ventures through the USAID-financed Market Access Program (MAP). MAP is designed to build competitive Palestinian business to compete in global markets. DAI has adopted a mission to accelerate Information Technology sector growth, therefore is in close collaboration with the Palestinian Development Fund (PDF) to achieve this. Support and promotion will be offered for the Initiative by Palestinian Information Technology Association (PITA).

TOKTEN (Transfer Of Knowledge Through Expatriate Nationals) is funded by the Government of Japan and since its inception, a lot of missions with Palestinian Ministries, institutions, municipalities, universities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and research centers are operational, forthcoming or completed. TOKTEN has been proved beneficial in many areas addressing two prime challenges: the development of Palestine's priority areas and the opportunity offering to Palestinian professional living abroad to participate to the aforementioned development. Due to TOKTEN, it has taken place the establishment of a potential user roster (ministries, institutions) with a description of their technical needs and the updating of a roster of Palestinian professionals living abroad and willing to undertake short term missions to the West Bank and Gaza. Some of the areas where TOKTEN is active are: Computer Sciences, Urban Planning, Public Finance, Civil Engineering.

Mr Najah Husseini of the Government Computer Centre and EUMEDIS Focal Point Coordinator issued in June, 2000 a Call for Proposals for the EUMEDIS Initiative. A press release had been issued in both the Al-Quds and Al-Ayyam Newspapers announcing the call. The EUMEDIS Initiative was explained and Mr Husseini appealed to Palestinian companies to participate in "enhancing the Information Technology field" within Palestine (E-mail to ITSIG members).

A Call for Proposal was issued on September 28, 2000 for the establishment of "University Information Technology Centres of Excellence (UITCE)" through private and donor funding. The American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA), in collaboration with the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) and the Palestinian Information Technology Association (PITA), issued the Call. The demand for training stems from the potential seen arising within IT-orientated industries in the region. An information seminar is scheduled for early October.

Birzeit University developed a program targeting key Palestinian information providers, with and emphasis on official representatives (especially the Ministry of Information and the State Information Service), although major information providers especially from the NGO sector were also approached. The program is titled "Electronic Information Dissemination and Management". In the recent emerging need for electronic information dissemination, the program was developed to bring together key electronic information providers and for them to coordinate their efforts, to identify the areas of specialization, to network, and to interchange and exchange information, all within a training environment. The aim is to establish a sound Palestinian information service. The course outline entails: Information & the Internet, Web Design, Power of Language, and Media & the Web. The courses are carried out both in lecture and on-line format with the aid of the computer lab at the university providing the participants with access to the Internet. The program runs from December 1^st, 2000 until January 10^th, 2001.

The Birzeit University, Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI), the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction (PECDAR) and the Palestinian Information Technology Association (PITA) are the main bodies that have initiated a number of workshops/seminars and conferences in Information Technology. Most of these have centered around the importance of IT for education and economic development, the development of the Internet, and the importance of developing the necessary legal and regulatory framework in telecommunications. Some of the main ones having played a major role in IS development are as follows:

In mid-October 1999 a two-day conference devoted to IT in Higher Education, was held at Birzeit University. The conference focused on searching for solutions to link IT programs with the IT industry and the private sector. Plans for further development were presented from Ministries’ representatives. According to Mr. Marwan Tarazi, Director of BZU Computer Center, the conference achieved its objectives of highlighting the problems of the IT sector and identifying specific issues that need to be addressed on a national and university level by policy and decision makers.

The faculty of Science of the Birzeit University started a series of informal seminars on March 14, 2000 under the broad title "Science, Technology and Society". These STS seminars are meant to be a tool for the faculty and students to enhance there interaction and to provide a platform for the discussion of technical advances that are bound to impact the whole educational process. This seminars series will discuss such issues as the effect of the "computers and communication revolution" on science teaching and research, the Internet as a tool for science, and distance learning and distance collaboration. A "Science, Technology and Society" seminar was held on April 18, 2000 at Birzeit University. Dr Ghassan Qadah, director of the Government Computer Centre gave a speech on "The Government Computer Network: design and implementation".

Mr Abed A Al-Khooli from the BZU Law Centre held an STS informal seminar on "Information Technology and Science Education" on April 4, 2000 at Birzeit University. Mr Al-Khooli discussed the how IT will become the most affordable option for educational reform.

A seminar was held on April 19, 2000 at the Grand Park Hotel for the "Palestinian Internet Initiative". It was jointly organized by DAI and PDF and was supported by PITA and Paltrade. The Initiative was explained and presented to interested applicants.

On the 26^th of April 2000, Dr Mohammed Shtayyeh from PECDAR held a seminar on the topic "IT and Economic Development". Dr Shtayyeh touched on how vital economic development and IT go hand-in-hand in the improvement of the IT industry of Palestine.

On May 17, Professor Dr H.C. Karsten Schoeneborn, General Manager of IBM Jordan and General Manager of Professional Business Machines (Palestine), gave a speech at PECDAR titled: The 21^st Century- Trends in Technology. The emergence of e-business and e-commerce were discussed as was the Internet and the new concept of Net-revolution. Suggestions were made on which areas within Palestine should become focal points for development and the use of IT applications to aid the cause. The areas are education, legislation, the sponsorship of a national IT symposium and the Internet.

On June 6, Birzeit University held an opening ceremony of its new Advanced Networking and UNIX Laboratory. The event was held in the Kamal Nasir Hall at the University. The purpose of the lab is to produce highly specialized networking engineers, administrators and technicians. The lab has been equipped with RISC workstations and servers, which were donated by Hewlett Packard (HP), and also with PC's, hubs, servers, routers, switches and wireless modems, which were supplied by the University. In addition, HP, in cooperation with Safad Engineering and Electronics, have planned for a series of specialized training sessions on the equipment donated for easier utilization of these systems.

On June 10, a workshop was organized by DAI (Development Alternatives Inc) in collaboration with the GCC (Government Computer Centre) titled "The PS Domain and the Intellectual Property Rights" at Birzeit Univeristy. The objective was to discuss different aspects of having and running the Country Top Level Domain and the PS Domain with focus on the Intellectual Property Rights. Those who attended this workshop were MET and attorneys.

DAI/MAP and PDF, along with the cooperation of Paltrade and PITA organized a workshop on "Venture Capital & Equity Financing- creative options for business and economic growth". The workshop was held on June 19 at the Cleopatra Hall of the Grand Park Hotel in Ramallah. One of the objectives of the workshop is an update on the Palestine Internet Initiative (PI²).

Mr Hussam Najah Husseini of the Government Computer Centre and EUMEDIS Focal Point Coordinator held the "First EUMEDIS Workshop" on July 6 at the Grand Park Hotel in Ramallah. The main purpose of the workshop was to try and promote and in turn obtain Palestinian proposals within the EUMEDIS context. Not only were the objectives of the EUMEDIS Initiative presented but also the five sectors of application being information and communication technologies applied to education, e-commerce and economic cooperation, healthcare, multimedia access to cultural heritage and tourism, and information and communication technologies applied in industry and innovation. Mr Tareq Maayah from Hi-Tek Engineering gave a presentation outlining the ESIS II Initiative to the attendees of the workshop. On August 31, a presentation was made by Mr Niall Sclater, Manager of the Centre for Educational Systems at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland. The event was organized by Birzeit University as a means of acquiring interested parties to collaborate with them in proposals for the EUMEDIS Initiative. The university presented two ideas for projects, one being for a Multimedia Cyber Classroom and the other a Staff Development and Evaluation Program. Mr Sclater explained and highlighted the applications and the concept of the Cyber Classroom.

A Focus Meeting was held on September 13, 2000 at the PITA Office in Ramallah discussing the issue "The Current Status of Telecommunication in Palestine: Legal and Regulatory". PITA and the Public Affairs Office at the US Consulate General of Jerusalem jointly organized the Meeting. There were many participants from both the public and private sectors. PITa and the Public Affairs Office at the US Consulate General of Jerusalem also organized a lecture on the topic "The Current Telecommunication Law in Palestine". Guest speaker was Mr Craig Blakeley (Telecom/Internet Legal Expert). The lecture was held on September 13 at the Grand Park Hotel in Ramallah. Following this, on September 14 there was a round table discussion on the topic of "The Importance of an Effective Regulator in Palestine" which was held on September 14, also at the Grand Park Hotel in Ramallah. Some attendees were representatives from the Ministry of Post & Telecommunications, Ministry of Economy & Trade, Paltel, DAI-MAP and Birzeit University, to name a few.

On September 14, Mr Jeffrey H. Matsuura, co-author of "Law of the Internet" and "The Case Against Internet Law", was guest speaker at a public lecture on the topic "Developing The Internet in Palestine". The lecture was organized by PITA, in collaboration with the Public Affairs Office at the US Consulate General of Jerusalem and was held at the Al-Bireh Municipality Hall in Al-Bireh.

A seminar was held for the proposal on "University Information Technology Centres of Excellence (UITCE)" on October 9 at the Grand Park Hotel. ANERA organized the seminar, which included the participation from PITA and the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE). This seminar is a follow-up to the initial call for proposals issued on September 28. Applicants who submitted a proposal attended the seminar where they were further informed on the specific details of UITCE.

Management Consulting Services (MCS) was commissioned by Development Alternatives Inc (DAI) in July 2000 to develop a framework for Information Technology (IT) Human Resources Development. The scope of the study consisted of two distinct parts: the supply side (educational and training institutions producing skilled labor for the market) and the demand side (absorbing the skilled IT staff and defining the needs of the market). MCS assembled a consortium of organizations, primarily government bodies. These organizations are Applied Information Management, Birzeit University, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Labor, and TOKTEN consultant to the UNDP. The survey was completed in December of 2000.

Multi-national companies/organizations have been involved in developing IT primarily through equipment provision in the education sector of Palestine and have entered into agreements with Palestinian Universities. In the Palestinian telecommunications sector, Paltel has entered into agreements with global telecommunications companies/suppliers in order to develop its network and to provided enhanced telecommunications services. These public and private sector initiatives are provided in more detail below.

In the autumn of 1999 an Information technology and communication center was founded in Al-Quds Open University in order to help the university become self-sufficient in technology by the identification of university's needs in the area of information technology and communication, the computerization of university's production, the establishment of an electronic information bank and the linking of all the QOU centers.

Birzeit University signed an agreement, in early April, 2000 with CISCO Systems to become CISCO Regional Networking Academy in the Palestinian Authority Areas. The CISCO Networking Academies Program teaches university, college, high school students the skills they need to design, build, and maintain computer networks. On September 26, the Chairman of CISCO Systems Corporation, Mr John Morgridge, visited Birzeit University to inspect the Regional Cisco Network Academy residing at the university. The university intends extend the academy by opening and cooperating with ten other local academies that include five industrial schools and five other universities in the Palestinian Territories. Not only did Mr Morgridge make a speech, but also the Minister of Economy and Trade, Mr Maher Al-Masri, and the President of Birzeit University, Dr Hanna Nasser. Mr Nasser announced the new program being instigated at the university called BIT (Birzeit Information Technology Unit), and plans for establishing an IT Centre of Excellence and on-campus Technology Park.

In early April, 2000 Siemens Palestine donated Ethernet switches to Birzeit University. Birzeit will use these switches to handle networking traffic in critical areas of the network. Furthermore, a number o these will be used in the Mobile Networking Stations (MNS) which are units equipped with switches, hubs, patch panels, wireless modems and consoles that will be utilized in advanced networking training programs offered by Birzeit.

In early June 2000, a group of Israeli and Palestinian universities signed a landmark cooperation agreement on Information Technology, as part of a project backed by Sun Microsystems. The project entails Sun equipping three Palestinian universities (Al-Quds in Jerusalem, Al-Najah in Nablus and Al-Azhar in Gaza) with computer equipment and, in turn, will also establish two centers for academic dialogue between the Palestinian institutions, Tel Aviv universities and Technion (Isreal's leading technology academic institution).

Palestinian Telecommunications Company (Paltel) made an agreement with Startec Global Communications Corporation (an intergrated communications VoIP provider) where inbound and outbound VoIP services will be delivered to the Palestinian market. The agreement is the first between Paltel and the US Company. The agreement was made in early July in Ramallah. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafet expressed his support of Startec's efforts to provide other IP services, including e-commerce, in Palestine. In early November 2000, Palestinian Telecommunications Company (Paltel) acquired two international remotely managed digital switches from Nortel Networks, which were placed in Gaza (in the Gaza Strip) and the West Bank. This enables the Palestinian Authority to effectively operate its own separate telecoms network. Currently, Paltel has an agreement with Golden Lines Ltd (a Tel Aviv-based international service provider company) for handling its international traffic.