E-ESTONIA

• IT Agency’s road to Estonia
• Estonian export of E-services
• A very “wired” nation
• The courage to test new technologies
• Internet delivered by air
• Digital song festival

IT Agency’s road to Estonia

Estonia, a distinguished IT nation, wishes to host the Europe’s IT systems agency. “Estonia hopes the IT agency will be established here,” the Foreign Minister Mr Urmas Paet confirmed after the meeting with Alexander Alvaro, shadow rapporteur of the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, on June 4th. (Media+, 07.06)

Paet assured Estonia’s readiness to be the host of the IT agency to Alvaro. Estonia is prepared to invest €20 million into setting up the agency. Urmas Paet confirmed that if the agency will be set here, they are ready to cooperate with France. (La Lettre, 08.06)

Clearly Estonia is hoping for a peaceful solution with France, the only other contender in the race to host a new European Union agency for the management of police databases. Estonia’s Interior Minister Marko Pomerants said Thursday (7 October) that the IT agency is meant for Estonia as a state – they have the right environment for it, it’s their everyday life – doing it all online. In Tallinn you can “smell” IT in the air, says the Minister. Mr Pomerants says his country is trying to find “common ground” with France and avoid a vote in the EU Council of Ministers, which would divide countries into two camps over the matter. France is bidding because two European databases are already located in Strasbourg. But the Estonians point to the fact that a third one, Eurodac, is based in Luxembourg and that many companies such as Microsoft or Google have servers and databases scattered all over the world. The Estonian Government has also set aside around €17 million for the new agency’s headquarters and support team. As for now, it is still too early to speak about an agreement between France and Estonia. (Euobserver, 11.10)

Estonian export of E-services

Tiny IT-titan Estonia is exporting its e-government technology and expertise across the globe, currently preparing new projects for the Palestinian territories, Afghanistan and Haiti. The Baltic state of 1.3 million people has already helped fellow ex-communist democracies Armenia and Georgia to implement Internet-based government and services common in Estonia for years, but still not widely available elsewhere. “It’s common to use Internet-based solutions in Estonia, everywhere on the level of central government, the municipalities and of course business,” Estonia’s Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said, as he showed off the oval cabinet table equipped with a laptop for each minister to a group of foreign journalists. Estonia is keen to export its e-government savvy and associated transparency around the globe with a special focus on developing democracies. ”We are very grateful for the help Estonia has provided for Palestine. Estonia has been a true success story in this area and we would like to be one day a similar success story in our region,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki said during a recent visit to Estonia. (Ladero Sun, 29.06)

E-government was born in the 1980s, when many countries sought to break down the walls that separate the government from the governed. Many nations are looking to Estonia for leadership. It is exporting its digital-democracy technology through its e-Governance Academy, which has trained bureaucrats from 36 countries, including Sri Lanka, Senegal, Pakistan, Namibia, and Tajikistan. (Newsweek, 16.08)

A very “wired” nation

As all bureaucracy is taken online, the only place you can find paper, will soon be the toilet. At least this seems to be the case for Estonia, an IT pioneer. The county is the birthplace of Skype – a computer communication tool enabling you to call anywhere in the world. In Estonia all personal data and patient’s medical records are digital. People can use the ID-card to pay for parking, a bus ride and to vote in the elections. By 2015 they plan to complete the fibre optic network covering the whole country. Ministries and public offices share a database – confidential, of course. People have the privilege, though, to access information concerning them. Many Frenchmen would not even dream of something similar. The local culture must have contributed to the high internet use as Estonians spend much time indoors and are not known for being overly social. And doesn’t the Internet give you almost everything you need! (La Voix du Nord, 17.06)

Skip the lines, forget about bribes. E-gov gives anyone with a web connection direct access to public services. Had Franz Kafka been born in 21st-century Tallinn, instead of 19th-century Prague, some of the gems of modernist literature might never have been written. The man in his short story, who spends years trying to get past an implacable gatekeeper, would only need a government-issued electronic ID-card in Estonia. He could go online or stick the bar-coded ID into a card reader and, moments later, sign a contract with an international corporate partner, pay a traffic fine, and file his taxes. No lines, no bribes, no forms in triplicate, and no need to plead his case “with one doorkeeper after another, each more powerful than the last,” as in Kafka’s hellish vision. Such is the promise of electronic government, or using technology to deliver public services. (Newsweek, 16.08)

The courage to test new technologies

The Korea Times gives a good reason why Estonia is much closer to Koreans than most think, that is, many here benefit from Estonia-made services almost every day when they use Skype. Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said in an interview to The Korea Times in Soul that Korea and Estonia can share experiences in IT sector. What is the secret behind Estonia’s success in IT? The Minister said the country allows people room to experiment. “Our society is very open, so it is easy for young people to try new things and get results," Paet said talking about the reasons for the country to become the birthplace of Skype and other technologies. (The Korea Times, 14.01)

Juho Rahkonen, a doctor of social sciences and market research fellow, continues on the same note in the Finnish media, saying that although Estonia is not a technology-developing mega power, the use of new technologies is encouraged. Quite contrary to Finland. What would it feel like to have a say in a public debate while on the train to work or to cast your vote via mobile phone from the comfort of your living room? It might seem utopian but it should be real in Estonia next year. No wonder Estonia is one of the savviest information societies. As early as 2005 the Estonians could cast their votes online, being the first in the world. By the next 2011 Parliamentary elections, they probably carry the voting tool around in their pockets. The author finds that both mobile and internet voting could raise the voter turnout and believes that this should eliminate the “Election Day weather factor”. (Aamulehti, 18.02)

Although Estonia has been keen on leading the way in the field of IT, the Finnish daily Kaleva points at several drawbacks the IT activist has lately suffered. The most recent was the chaos concerning a new system of digital prescriptions launched at the break of this year. According to Kaleva the first IT mishap took place in autumn last year when the Ministry of Social Affairs introduced some incomplete IT solutions to update the user program of the Estonia’s smart ID card. As the developer was a few days late with delivery, the state terminated the contract. The developer took the case to court but it’s put on hold. However, the daily finds that despite these stumbling blocks there are also success stories, e.g. the digital tax return form or e-elections. (Kaleva, 24.04)

International media, too, has faith in the future of Estonian technology companies as the list of ten promising European young technology companies published in The Wall Street Journal late 2010 included an Estonian company ERPLY. The enterprise software company is founded by Kristian Hiiemaa and Kristjan Randma and focusing on retail and point-of-sale technology that would normally be out of reach for SME-s. It won the Seedcamp competition in London in 2009 and was called “the Skype of business software”. The company is already profitable and is acquiring a larger client base. (The Wall Street Journal 08.12)

Internet delivered by air

Starbucks recently started giving out something for free – free wireless Internet access. Well, Starbucks might make a big deal out of this, but in Estonia’s capital, Tallinn, free public Wi-Fi access is pretty much expected. And that's largely due to one man, Veljo Haamer. Having visited places offering free Wi-Fi in New York City he decided to take this idea to Tallinn and the entire country. Many cafes and bars in Tallinn thought it was a great idea, and these days, Veljo reckons, free Wi-Fi is set up in about 75% of the bars and cafes in Tallinn’s Old Town. Now there is free Wi-Fi also on long distance bus lines, one from Tallinn to Riga, Latvia, and on another from Tallinn to St. Petersburg, Russia. He’s also teamed up with a local cellular provider to pilot test a 4G data service. (Discovery News, 11.07)

On top of the list of Tallinn’s tourist attractions is free Wi-Fi. You can surf the Web in cafes, department stores, sushi-restaurants, bars or even nightclubs. The city is almost entirely blanketed with free Wi-Fi coverage. Convenient, indeed, for a tourist – to check the opening hours of a museum, find the closest ATM or a taxi number. You can do it in Helsinki, too, but not to the same extent as in Tallinn. You simply cannot escape Wi-Fi in Tallinn. The leading Finnish newspaper adds that every now and then, if not daily, Estonia makes Finland and the Western countries look like developing nations. Besides free Wi-Fi, the opening hours of shops in the Baltic countries are a step ahead of the others, too. (Helsingin Sanomat, 18.01)

Digital song festival

Years-long tradition of song festivals is something Estonia is known for and now the first online festival will take place. On August 20th an Internet song festival will be held, enabling choirs from more than a hundred locations to sing the same songs together in real time. Estonians have held song festivals since 1869. In every five years almost 24,000 singers gather for two days to form a single choir. The digital festival, however, is the first of its kind. The event marks the 19th anniversary of Estonia’s regained independence and joins two facets Estonia is known for abroad – the tradition of song festivals and IT innovations. Everyone looking to join the choir can register online . (Le Figaro, 16.08)

Choirs from 100 locations across Estonia will be able to link up in cyberspace on August 20, with singers at the main venue in central Estonia. “We will be happy with 10,000 to 100,000 singers participating in the digital song festival and any number above it will be miracle,” festival organiser and TV producer Artur Talvik said. Choirs are to sing eight songs beloved by Estonians at traditional song festivals. (Yahoo News, 17.08)