Week 4: Ethics and Law in New Media

October 4-10

Topic 7: The Digital Divide

Investigate and describe an illustrative case of digital divide in your country. Analyse and describe Internet availability. How big is the availability difference for urban and rural regions? Do you consider this a problem?

Estonia has one of the highest Internet penetration rates in the world. In the first quarter of 2010, 75% out of 1.34 mln people in the country used Internet according to Statistics Estonia (compared to 28% in 2000, a decade ago). Only 2% of the million Internet users use dial-up connections. 97% of businesses use computers on a daily basis, and 99% of these use Internet.

Computerization and digital connection for people are encouraged and supported by the state. A program named KülaTee3 (VillageWay3) was implemented from 2005-2008 to bring the opportunity of broadband Internet connectivity to the rural areas of Estonia. The primary goal of the program was to ensure broadband Internet connectivity for 90% of Estonia. Today, an estimated share of 98% of Estonia has been covered with the help of this program. Still, it must be taken into account that households located in valleys or surrounded by forest may need additional equipment for achieving connection (for example, putting up an antenna on the roof).

However, the statistics shows that the percentage of households who have Internet access at home is lower than the EU's average (65%): 63% of Estonian households have Internet at home, compared to 78% in Finland, 79% in Germany, 86% in Sweden, 90% in Netherlands (Eurostat). Is it people's own choice to not establish permanent Internet connection at home? Perhaps it is. Just about every Estonian has access to the Internet if and when they want it. Internet is available in all schools and libraries. Of Estonia's 45,000 square kilometres, there are more than 1,140 publicly registered wireless Internet points, most of which are available without cost. It is difficult to find a café or restaurant without free, wireless Internet, and the majority of local governments are also covered by wireless. Even under the most extreme circumstances it is only a few hundred metres to the nearest signal.

The way a modern society exercises its right to free Internet in daily life can be admired in Estonia. Some digital divide will always remain between different generations, just as some people may choose not to use Internet on a daily basis or not to use it at home after a whole day of sitting at the computer in the office, like they may choose to live in the countryside rather than hectic (capital) cities. To reduce the digital gap and bring an active e-life to those who, because of their age or other reasons, might have otherwise remained behind, a program named Vaata Maailma ("Look at the World") continues to offer free computer and internet training courses throughout Estonia. Thanks to the Vaata Maailma program, IT-savvy pensioners are not a rare sight in Estonia. Many actively handle their affairs via the Internet.

Similarly, to reduce the generation gap between parents and children, eKool helps parents stay involved in student education goals, and keeps them informed through the 24/7 web access to student information. Parents can communicate with teachers, have access to homework assignments and grade reports, see notes and communicate with teachers, get information about field trips and other school events. (The photo above portrays an example of the digital gap between generations, probably still quite common also in Estonia.)

Under this light, I don't consider the digital divide or the Internet availability a real problem in Estonia. It can always be better and Estonia is surely working on the progress. To overcome the digital gap between urban and rural areas, the common communications network must be taken to a new quality level enabling large volumes of data to be transmitted to all consumers in Estonia, not only to the nearly 70% of the population who lives in cities. Therefore, the state-funded development project EstWin is to build a new generation broadband network which would reach every Estonian resident by the year 2015 with connection speeds up to 100Mbit/s.

According to The Global Information Technology Report 2009-2010 (that highlights the key role of ICT as an enabler of a more economically, environmentally and socially sustainable world), Estonia ranks 25th in the Networked Readiness Index and is the highest ranking Central & Eastern European country.

     

Topic 8: Ubiquitous Computing

Compare the current situation in Estonia to the four scenarios of "Estonia 2010". Which one is the closest to the reality? How important do you deem the social cohesiveness (or caring) in reaching ubicomp?

The four possible scenarios proposed in 1995 to predict and analyse future trends were:

1. "Militaristic information oasis" - "little angry country" (like the one in Middle East) with good technological progress but little openness and overall freedom. "Military Estonia".
2. "South Finland" - soft-spoken, well integrated into Europe (and decisively distanced from Russia), but with low innovation capacity. "Subcontractor Estonia" - perhaps the closest to current reality.
3. "The Ferryman" - well-developed, but fully transit-based economy. Innovation and ICT are only to serve the main goal and thus of inferior importance. "Merchant Estonia", which is quite alike to the 'Singapore' scenario of Himanen seen in a previous lecture.
4. "Grand Slam" - the best realisation of both geographical location (transit) and innovative and educational potential. "Innovation/ICT Estonia".

It is quite clear that neither the first nor the third scenario is the case of contemporary Estonia. While the last scenario of "Grand Slam" was seen as the most desirable, I agree that the second scenario of "South Finland" is perhaps the closest to current reality. Or perhaps the combination of these two.

During the last 20 years, Estonia has developed a well functioning and secure e-state (Estonia is the only nation in the world which has survived a full-on cyberattack, emerging unscathed by mounting a vigorous self-defence). For citizens of Estonia, e-services have become routine: e-banking, e-taxes, e-elections, e-healthcare, e-school, to be named some. Most Estonians would not even consider doing things the oldfashioned way by physically visiting an office. Their time may be devoted to other pursuits. Many solutions engineered in Estonia have been later exported, including e-elections, e-school, and m-parking. Estonia is exporting its e-government technology and expertise across the globe, currently preparing new projects for the Palestinian territories, Afghanistan and Haiti. The e-Governance Academy has trained over 600 participants from 36 countries. This shows sufficient grounds for Estonia's innovative and educational potential.

Many important and fundamental innovations in e-Estonia have already been accomplished, but easing up after establishing momentum is out of the question. Significant projects continue, including EstWin. Also in the works is the full application of our digital healthcare system. And there is the daily work of keeping the existing system of e-services up-to-date, simplifying it, and making it increasingly user-friendly. This coming week, from October 13-15, E-Health Tallinn 2010 conference is held at Swissotel to provide an overview of problems and successes related to the implementation of the Estonian National Health Information System. Estonia is also to host a new European Union IT agency, after a deal with France which was the only other nation in the race. The headquarters of the EU's future IT agency will be located in Tallinn and it is expected to become operational in 2012.

Four new (or revised) scenarios have been proposed for Estonia 2018: "South Finland", "Hanseatic League II", "Skype Island" and "Return of the State". You can listen to the descriptions of these scenarios on Estonian Development Fund's videocasts webpage (in Estonian). The vision for 2018 in brief would be globally competitive and locally attractive Estonia.

Social cohesiveness (or caring)

Pekka Himanen, a Finnish philosopher and a public intellectual, suggests a model for meeting the challenges to the global development of the information society. It's a model of the information society combined with the welfare state where caring (or the social cohesiveness) plays a fundamental role. It can also be called fairness or the inclusion of all. Caring means that we work to create equal opportunities for all. This is the key idea of the welfare state. In the global development, it means that we protect the equal opportunities of all the people in the world. In Estonia, every citizen is encouraged to offer proposals for new e-services or present questions via the e-participation portal, osale.ee. Thanks to this process, the state's actions serve the actual needs of the citizens.

Caring for people's needs is an important factor in reaching ubicomp. The value of any IT solution is greater the more useful it is in everyday life, e-services are only useful if the citizenry is aware of them. On the other hand, caring helps to prevent the negative consequences of overcompetitive scenarios. In Estonia's case, it means the necessity to build network society rather than the society of brilliant and innovative businessmen. According to Manuel Castells, power now rests in networks: "the logic of the network is more powerful than the powers of the network". It is something Estonians have still got to learn - to care for each other, socialize and share their knowledge and information rather than everyone pushing forward on their own career- and success-driven path. Because too often the success lies in good communication and co-operation. Quoting another wise futurist author, Robert Theobald: "In the future, the development of our own personal styles and skills will be central. We shall come to understand that satisfaction, and effectiveness, develop as we learn to play and work with others. The compassionate era will be defined in terms of relationships rather than individualism." The individualism can, however, be understood in a country that has been repressed for so long and has finally gained the long-awaited independence. The society will eventually mature.