ISSS/LORIS/V4DIS Conference Press Release

04/08/2004, 13:00

The seventh ISSS/LORIS/V4DIS--Internet in Public Administration/Local and Regional Information Society/Visegrad for Developing IS Conference, held on March 29 and 30 in Hradec Kralove's Aldis Congress Centre, again confirmed that this unique forum plays an extraordinary role in local and regional information society development throughout Central and Eastern Europe. Over the course of the two days of the conference, 1,969 participants from the Czech Republic and another 24 European countries were in attendance. The programme, running in parallel in five rooms, comprised 230 presentations with 292 lecturers giving speeches. More than 80 exhibitors showcased their products, solutions and services for public administration.

"The seventh ISSS/LORIS/V4DIS conference has once again met expectations and I believe that it represents another important step towards information society development in the entire Central European region", Dr. Tomas Rencin, the Conference Director, said. "Complimentary words were this year heard not only from the European Commission and working teams who took part in the V4DIS meeting and the ELANET workshop, but also representatives of a number of European initiatives and regions."

The seventh ISSS/LORIS/V4DIS was again held under the auspices of the Minister of Informatics of the Czech Republic, Vladimir Mlynar. Over the two days of the conference, a host of representatives of public life, including Minister of the Interior of the CR Stanislav Gross, Vice-Chairman of the Senate of the CR Miroslav Topolanek, and MP and shadow interior minister Ivan Langer, appeared in Hradec Kralove. As for distinguished foreign guests, the conference was attended by representatives of the European Commission, among them Gerald Santucci, David Broster and Agnes Bradier, as well as representatives of the Global Cities Dialogue, ELANET network (Javier Ossandon), eForum (Baudouin de Sonnis, Etienne Combet), TeleCities (Eberhard Binder) and Major Cities of Europe (Irene Weithofer) networks. Delegations of the Visegrad Group countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) and Slovenia were headed by State Secretary of the Hungarian Ministry of Informatics and Communications Mihaly Jambrik, State Secretary of the Slovak Ministry of Transport, Post and Telecommunications Mikulas Kacaljak, chief ICT expert of the Polish Ministry of Infrastructure Kazimierz Bartczak, and State Secretary of the Slovenian Ministry for Information Society Jozsef Györkös. Also in attendance were representatives of associations of municipalities and mayors of numerous Central and Eastern European towns.

On Sunday March 28, 2004 at 5 p. m., on the eve of the opening of the Internet in Public Administration/Local and Regional Information Society/Visegrad Group and Slovenia for Developing Information Society (ISSS/LORIS/V4DIS) 2004 conference, representatives of associations of municipalities and representatives of cities of V4 countries and Slovenia, EU-acceding and other candidate countries, as well as Eastern and South-Eastern European countries, held a meeting in the Harmony Lounge at the Amber Cernigov hotel in Hradec Kralove. Also present were representatives of the European Commission and ELANET, TeleCities, Major Cities of Europe, eForum and Global Cities Dialogue networks. The meeting, at which e-Strategies of associations and cities and wider cooperation of regional and local authorities were discussed, culminated in the adoption of the eV4+/LORIS Declaration on joint action in building up information society at the regional and local level.

On Sunday March 28, 2004 at 7:40 p. m. the signing ceremony to mark the accession of new members to Global Cities Dialogue took place in the Satchmo Jazz Club in Hradec Kralove (the vice-chair city for Eastern Europe). By signing the Helsinki Declaration, three cities from the Visegrad Group countries have become new members --Banska Bystrica (Slovakia), Walbrzych (Poland), and Trinec (Czech Republic). Stan The Man Bohemian Blues Trio provided entertainment throughout the gala evening.

The cities that have joined the Global Cities Dialogue were involved in the wider initiative of cities' benchmarking, in which they presented their e-Strategy. This distinct initiative, introduced by the Association of Czech At, in cooperation with the Committee for Information Systems of Towns and Municipalities of the Union of Towns and Communities of the Czech Republic and the Informatics Department of Prague City Council, facilitates mapping and comparing public administration informisation in V4+, Eastern and South-Eastern European counties, as well as elsewhere around the world. The English-language version of the benchmarking of cities and associations was specially issued for the conference. It is a sound basis and a wide-ranging material the organisers would like to develop and continue supplementing in as wide a European scope as possible. Hence, the organisers call upon networks such as GCD, ELANET, TeleCities, Major Cities of Europe, eForum and others to join this project and cooperate with its initiators in its extension.

On Monday March 29, 2004 at 9 a. m. the proceedings of the Visegrad Group and Slovenia for Developing Information Society (V4DIS) 2004 conference got under way. In the introductory block, Minister of Informatics of the Czech Republic Vladimir Mlynar, president of the Czech Vysocina Region Frantisek Dohnal, representatives of the European Commission Gerald Santucci, David Broster and Agnes Bradier gave speeches, as did in conclusion Javier Ossandon, president of the ELANET network.

Following the morning block, at 1 p. m. there was an informal meeting of representatives of governments, associations of municipalities and representatives of regional and municipal authorities of all four Visegrad Group countries plus Slovenia. The meeting's objective was to inform representatives of the ministries responsible for information and communications technologies and information society development in the mentioned countries about the adoption of the eV4+/LORIS Declaration. The government representatives accepted this initiative and pledged their full support. In the afternoon blocks, which directly linked up with this brief meeting, Minister of Informatics of the Czech Republic Vladimir Mlynar, State Secretary of the Ministry of Transport, Post and Telecommunications of the Slovak Republic Mikulas Kacaljak, State Secretary of the Hungarian Ministry of Informatics and Telecommunications Mihaly Jambrik, IT chief expert of the Polish Ministry of Infrastructure Kazimierz Bartczak and State Secretary of the Ministry for Information Society of Slovenia Jozsef Györkös outlined the state (national) information policies of their respective countries. Following on from this programme section were the e-Strategy and international cooperation of cities blocks.

The ELANET/Prelude workshop held within the 2004 ISSS/LORIS/V4DIS Conference workshop was an unique opportunity to learn about successful ICT projects and solutions relevant to Local and Regional Governments. The workshop was chaired by Javier Ossandon, Elanet President. The core of the workshop was the presentation of the nine European clusters for innovation that the project PRELUDE, coordinated by ELANET (CEMR), has recently organised to bring forward the local and regional priorities in research, technology and innovation in the European arena. As for the other projects, the European Commission is strongly supporting the efforts of the PRELUDE Consortium (formed by Elanet, eris@ and nine European Regions) and, in particular the participation in these clusters of public-private actors from the EU New Member States.

Interest in participation again surpassed the possibilities of the organisers. Virtually everyone involved in public administration informisation--from ministers, politicians and heads of ministerial departments, through regional administrators, lord mayors and mayors, to officials, webmasters and employees of libraries and land-register authorities--was eager to use the opportunity of meeting colleagues, exchanging experience and acquiring the necessary know-how.

At the seventh ISSS/LORIS/V4DIS Conference, awards in the EuroCrest competition for the best websites of cities, municipalities and regions in Europe were presented for the third time. The competition was first announced and the awards handed over within 2002 ISSS/LORIS conference.

The third year of the EuroCrest competition was announced by Sdruzeni Zlaty erb (Golden Crest Association, Czech Republic) in cooperation with European networks and associations of municipalities. The Eurocrest competition issues from the experience gained during organisation of the Golden Crest competition in the Czech Republic, with consultations of the European Comission specialists also being taken into account.

Similarly as with the Czech national competition Golden Crest, EuroCrest's objective is to reward outstanding projects, promote mutual exchange of experience and appraise the endeavours of local administration and self-government representatives for efficient use of information technologies with the aim of improving the quality and accessibility of public administration services. In this way, the organisers strive to contribute to accelerating the development of services provided by European public administration institutions.

After thorough assessment, the professional jury chose this year's prize-winners from among the EuroCrest participants. They include the official websites of the cities and towns: Riga (Latvia), Panevezys (Lithuania), Zielona Gora (Poland), Lucenec (Slovakia), Nyiregyhaza (Hungary), Gabrovo (Bulgaria), Timisoara (Romania).

Placed among the main prize-winning projects was also the official website of the Vysocina Region (Czech Republic).

The Geoapplication of the Year award was shared by two solutions--OPRL of the company Help Service Remote Sensing and Regional Information Systems created by the Regional Development Centre of the Czech Republic. The winners in the Biblioweb 2004 competition were the Municipal Library in Usti nad Orlici (in the category of municipalities with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants), the Study and Scientific Library in Hradec Kralove (in the category of municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants and specialist libraries), while the special prize for accessibility for visually handicapped persons was awarded to the Chomutov Centre of Librarian and Information Services. The Prize of the Minister of Informatics of the Czech Republic was again won by the Czech Geodesy and Land-Register Office for the course-of-procedure electronic application.

Within the programme of the ISSS/LORIS/V4DIS 2004 social evening, an attempt at achieving a new world record in typing an e-mail message with the length of 1,500 characters was made. The five-time world champion Helena Matouskova managed to type the text at a speed virtually identical to that of her own world record from Rome, i. e. an incredible 928 keystrokes a minute. Her sparing partners were Minister of Informatics of the Czech Republic Vladimir Mlynar and junior world champion Milos Cernilovsky from Hradec Kralove.

As always, the main organiser of the ISSS/LORIS/V4DIS conference was the company TRIADA, the co-organisers the Union of Towns and Communities of the Czech Republic and the agency ExMise. Participating in part of the programme was the association March: Internet Month, while this year support was also given by the International Visegrad Fund and InfoDev. The major coordinator of the V4DIS 2004 project was the association Sdruzeni Cesky zavinac.