Forbes magazine: Estonia’s e-republic ahead of richer European neighbours (1)
Archived Articles | 07 Jan 2005 | EWR
An authoritative voice of the international business community, Forbes magazine claims Estonia is outpacing the rest of Europe in information technology usage and development. The December 20, 2004 issue notes Estonia’s appetite for innovation and change make it an ideal environment for others to test leading edge IT applications.
Forbes focuses on several examples of this high-tech moxie:
* per capita internet and mobile phone usage is higher than in France.
* more than 50% use their mobile phones to pay for street parking, the first system of its kind anywhere.
* wired, public Internet access points are scattered throughout the country.
* 52% use the Net regularly.
* the government’s weekly cabinet sessions are run on computer, saving crucial time.
* in 2005 the official record of government business will exist solely on the Web, except for one printed copy for the archives.
* an optional ID card, introduced two years ago, makes documents and money obsolete in an increasing number of transactions; in European Union travel, on busses, subways, in filing taxes via a computer-attached card reader that delivers refunds within five days; in many instances signatures have been replaced with these smart cards; even though the card isn’t mandatory, 620,000 out of 800,000 working-age Estonians have applied for one. It makes life easier.
*traditional customs processing has been supplemented by an e customs system eliminating annoying back-logs.
* SEB, Sweden’s colossal bank, recently relocated most of its code-programming operations to Estonia.
* peer-to-peer networks Kazaa and Skype have been developed in Estonia. Kazaa lets PC users worldwide share recorded music; Skype offers free telephone calls over the Internet.
Forbes explains Estonia’s fertility for IT advances: during the Soviet occupation computer science, cybernetics, artificial intelligence and information technology were officially nurtured at Estonian universities over social science, philosophy and the like. Communist authorities feared that the humanities would only exacerbate yearnings for freedom and independence amongst the patriotic Estonians.
Furthermore, the nationwide government/industry program “Tiger Leap” instituted in the mid-1990’s, was designed to “weave computer literacy and IT into the fabric of the new nation, rather than just promoting them as specialized skills for a technological elite”.
The United Nations Development Program administrator Mark Malloch Brown has said: “If the Internet was born as a country, it would be Estonia.”
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I was surprised to learn the Soviet Government actually encouraged the study of computer technology in Estonia because, initially, it was viewed as a weapon for revolution. Like the photocopier, a computer could be used to disseminate information efficiently and without controls; a threat to a government obsessed by secrecy and much to hide. I'd be curious to learn more about this.
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