The Estonian Tiger Leap from Post-Communism to the Information Society: From Policy to Practice

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Acknowledgments

The research was partly supported by grants from the Estonian Ministry of Education and Science (0180017s07) and a grant from the Estonian Science Foundation (6526).

Notes

Notes

1 The Information Society sub-index measures how well ICTs are harnessed by various stakeholders through ‘variables such as the prioritization of ICT by the government, ICT penetration rates (Internet, PCs), Internet usage by business and the extent to which students have Internet access in school’ (World Economic Forum 2006, p. 2). In this sub-index Estonia is ranked fifth among European countries, quite noticeably outperforming its Baltic neighbors (Latvia ranks 22nd and Lithuania 18th in this index).

2 The success of Internet banking in Estonia has been explained by the fact that banking in general is only some five years younger than electronic banking and so there has not been enough time for customers to get used to branch services (Kerem 2003).

3 The Tiger Leap Program was launched in February 1996 to adjust the Estonian education system to the needs of the information society by equipping schools with information and communication technology, linking them to the Internet and providing ICT education for teachers. The program was called ‘Tiger Leap’ in order to symbolize rapid changes and technological change as Estonia's main agenda, referring also metaphorically to the example of Asian economic growth. In order to achieve this goal, a special foundation was created in 1997 by the Ministry of Education and private sector ICT firms.

4 TOM (Täna Otsustan Mina–Today I Decide) is a key Estonian initiative aimed at fostering participatory online activities (http://www.eesti.ee/tom/). It is a state-initiated forum website where registered users can propose legislative changes, which, after the selection process, are sent to the appropriate administrative unit. In Estonia, laws can be initiated by MPs, by the government or by the president, making this the only possibility for individuals to initiate legislation. The site was launched in 2001. Today, TOM has almost 7,000 users and more than 1,000 ideas have been discussed (TOM 2007).

5 According to a more recent study dealing with values in different population groups, technological development is still rather important, ranking more highly than, for example, ‘value’ categories like wealth, interesting life, or public recognition (Kalmus & Vihalemm 2004). Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt (2006a) also shows that very favorable attitudes towards computers and the Internet could also be perceived in 2003 and 2005.

6 The Foundation Look@the World (http://www.vaatamaailma.ee) was initiated by ten Estonian private companies with the aim of greatly increasing the number of Internet users and through this the quality of life of Estonians and the state's competitiveness in Europe. Some of this foundation's projects included training in basic computer skills for more than 100,000 people, starting the e-school environment and establishing roughly 500 Public Internet Access Points.

7 The Osale.ee portal (www.osale.ee, opened in July 2007) is managed by the state chancellery in order to facilitate the wider participation of citizens, and citizens’ organizations, in politics, and to create legislation through discussions and consultation according to development plans. In the future it will also allow user-generated content. Currently, participation web Osale.ee brings together the legislative domains of all ministries and is an attempt to consolidate different opinion seeking environments under one roof–there has been similar online initiatives in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications and Ministry of Justice.

8 On the 1–7 scale people were asked to mark how well the following activities characterized their Internet use: (1) seeking information from public institutions, courts, local governments, political parties and other official homepages; (2) seeking practical information (weather, timetables, etc.); (3) using Internet services (bank, tax office, forms, etc.); (4) seeking entertainment (games, music, movies); (5) seeking work and studies related information; (6) seeking interesting and exiting information; (7) seeking information and advice on relationships, family, children, health and other matters related to their personal lives; (8) shopping and gathering information about purchases; (9) seeking information about work, places to live, tourism, new acquaintances, etc.; (10) participating in forums, blogs, surveys, writing commentaries; (11) reading online newspapers and information portals; (12) communicating with friends and acquaintances; and (13) communicating within an organization (Intranet, mailing lists, etc.).

9 Data from www.rate.ee and the survey data gathered in the framework of Estonian Science Foundation Grant no 6526, autumn 2007.