Heading for Europe -- electronically, fast and efficiently

03/24/2003, 22:00

On Monday, 24 March, Hradec Králové will once again become the "world's capital of information and communication technologies" for representatives of state administration, local self-government, technology suppliers and experts from the Czech Republic and a number of other countries. The sixth annual conference, "Internet in State Administration and Self-government" (ISSS) is commencing on that day. Over the past few years, the ISSS has become a sought after venue of business meetings and a forum that regularly evaluates the progress in the use of modern information technologies at the local, regional, national, and even European level.

This year's conference takes place under the auspices of the Minister of Information Technologies, Vladimír Mlynář. Traditionally, the main organiser of this get-together of state administration and self-government representatives, politicians and ICT vendors is TRIADA. Tbe other partners of the event include the Association of Municipalities of the Czech Republic, Association of Regions of the Czech Republic, SPIS, and ExMise Public Relations. The general partner of the 6^th annual conference is Česká spořitelna, a.s.; the main partners are Český Telecom, IBM, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, and T-Mobile; and partners are AutoCont, PVT, SAP and SUN Microsystems. The Březen -- měsíc internetu association (March -- The Month of the Internet) participates in a part of the programme.

Attractive agenda

This year's ISSS will focus on a number of topics, including the financing of IT penetration in the Czech Republic, building the communication infrastructure for information systems of public administration, and issues of IT deployment at regional authorities, and at municipalities with extended competency. A very important part of the programme will also be the first "public" presentation of the new Ministry of Information Technologies of the Czech Republic.

Streams focusing on IS and data transmission security and on the role of IT in crises will be among the sought-after topics at the ISSS 2003. Traditionally, also geographic information systems for self-government and state administration, seminars on websites of towns and villages, and examples of the forms of public authorities' communication with the citizens and media will also be found there.

The discussions will also focus on the issues of ensuring the functioning of the information technologies and their financing in the system of self-governing units in the Czech Republic, development of public administration infrastructure, and the development of IT deployment at regional authorities and in municipalities with extended competency. These topics are closely tied to the second stage of the public administration reform. Following a period of legal and organisational preparations, this year sees the transfer of the largest part of the agenda from district authorities, which of course entails a number of personnel, material, and financial processes.

Competitions and awards

The official announcement of the winners of several prestigious competitions will form an integral part of the ISSS 2003 conference. The most important ones include Zlatý erb (Golden Coat of Arms) -- competition for the best municipal, village or regional website called by the Ministry of Information Technologies of the Czech Republic under the personal auspices of Minister Vladimír Mlynář. The co-organisers are the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic and the Association of Municipalities. This competition is one of the first of its kind in the world, and it was appreciated as a finalist of the Stockholm Challenge Award in October 2002. The competition attracts the attention of hundreds of mayors and webmasters and thousands of Internet users every year.

"As usual, publication of the results is part of the social event on Monday night," notes Mr Tomáš Renčín, director of the ISSS. "Each of the juries always try to find the best in the competitions and categories, and to offer a comprehensible example for other towns and villages for developing their own websites and entire information systems. The awards are also a form of thank you to all those involved, for the excellent work they do throughout the year in promoting modern technologies and new trends in public administration."

The ISSS has traditionally included the contest titled the Geo-application of the Year organised by the Czech Association for Geo-Information (CAGI) under the auspices of the Vice-Minister of Interior responsible for the reform of public administration and in cooperation with the ISMO committee of the Association of Municipalities of the Czech Republic.

For the fourth time, Czech librarians will compete for the best web presentation as part of the "March -- the Month of the Internet" national event. The objective of the Biblioweb contest, called by the Association of Librarians and Information Employees of the Czech Republic, is to increase the quality of libraries' websites. One of the important assessment criteria this year is how the websites are accessible for the visually impaired (see the 'Blind-friendly web' document at www.blindfriendly.cz).

The conference enjoys exceptional interest

The number of applicants for the ISSS this year will again exceed the capacity of the ALDIS conference centre, which seats an audience of approximately 1,500. The conference's dedicated Internet radio, SOLON, will broadcast live for all those who cannot attend the conference and for other people who are interested in the issues of IT in state administration and self-government, enabling them listen to most of the important papers, including the opening ceremony and press conferences. A record of the complete programme of the ISSS 2003 and the Internet radio SOLON itself will be available at the well-known address, www.isss.cz.

"As in previous years, we expect a number of important guests from all over the Europe in addition to the representatives of state administration and self-government from the Czech Republic, technology vendors, journalists, and experts from both the public sector and the academia," adds Tomáš Renčín. "The support and excellent rating of this event on the part of the European Commission will again bring many experts from the candidate countries and the EU member states, as well as representatives of similar initiatives and international projects."