Rapporteur: Risto KOIVISTO (Finland)

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EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

1. INTRODUCTION

More than six hundred local and regional representatives and experts from twenty-four European countries took part in the three Seminars on "Local and Regional Information Society", held in Helsinki, Finland (21-23 January 1998), Miercurea Ciuc, Romania (8-9 October 1998) and Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic (15-16 March 1999). The seminars were an important part of the work programme adopted by the CLRAE Working Group on Local and Regional Information Society, which defined the main objectives of the Group's activities as follows:

- to promote the development and applications of the Information Society, especially amongst regional and local authorities in the new Member States of the Council of Europe
- to organise a series of seminars in order to disseminate information with practical examples and demonstrations
- to implement a co-operation between the EU and the Council of Europe in promoting the Information Society.

To achieve these objectives, the Helsinki Seminar was co-organised with the LOCREGIS project, a programme initiated and funded by DG XVI of the European Commission with the following tasks:

- to make an inventory of local and regional information society projects in the new Member States of the European Union
- to identify and develop the best practice features in the contents of projects
- to support the cooperation between local and regional Information Society projects.

The purpose of the Seminars was to facilitate contacts and the exchange of experience amongst municipalities and regions which have already carried out Information Society projects and those which are planning them. The Seminars provided excellent opportunities to gain understanding, first of public policy's role in the promotion of information society applications, and secondly, based on the site visits and exhibitions, of the practical reality of Information Society for business, public administration and citizens.

2. LOCAL AND REGIONAL INFORMATION SOCIETY

The words Information Society - to choose a broad definition – describe an ongoing profound process of development in society at large. It has changed and will continue to change traditional forms of activity, whether they be work, study, living patterns, leisure, mobility or the way in which people wield influence. The process will also affect the present structures and future prospects of regions, urban centres and rural districts. This present area, the identifying features of which here in Europe are high unemployment and great uncertainty about the future, is a manifestation of the ongoing process of development, and there are no quick and lasting solutions to be found. On the contrary, we must be prepared for a long haul.

In the promotion of the Information Society to date, major attention has been focused on international actions with the aim of creating a good framework and operating conditions for global use of telematic services. That has been completely inescapable and also understandable. However, it is locally that the everyday aspect of the Information Society is encountered within companies, organisations, local authorities and in the regions. In the final analysis, it is the individual – you and me – who is the practical actor and avails of the opportunities that the Information Society offers. For that reason it is essential to concentrate more thoroughly on examining questions relating to regions, localities and also the individual in the work of building up the Information Society. It is, after all, on the local level that it is determined how well we cope, as a community or as individuals, in the process of change.

In our discussions here attention has been focused on the following viewpoints:

· Local administration possesses important instruments (such as schools and libraries) through which crucial influence can be exerted on how equally or unequally opportunities to use Information Society services are shared among citizens.
· The citizen’s opportunities for and skills in using Information Society services bring numerous direct and indirect benefits to a region.
· Given the circumstances of the Information Society, local administration often has good opportunities to assist in improving the competitive standing of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
· Local growth in demand for telematic services is increasing supply and thereby creating new jobs.
· Data industry jobs are increasing and are often not dependent on geographical location.
· Teledemocracy is also a new tool to widen public participation and to give better possibilities to affect decision-making processes.

Many other reasons also justify the need for active participation by local and regional authorities. Recently there has been discussion of the Internet’s deleterious and harmful content, for example. In spite of certain technical possibilities primarily connected to possibilities for parents to use functions which attend to censorship technically, it has been stated, with great justification, that the best way to have an impact on these problems is to produce enough beneficial and edifying content for the data networks. At this stage, Europe’s regional and local authorities should get into motion quickly if they wish to compete for souls with the international entertainment industry. At this point it is still possible to get the future generation interested in things which concern their own immediate regions, too.

The primary objective of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe is to support the development of grass-roots democracy, especially in the Council of Europe’s new member countries. The Information Society affords completely new direct and indirect opportunities for the development of local democracy. Many experiences have confirmed this. In this regard, unfortunately, the points of departure vary tremendously from one European country to the next.

In Finland, for example, some 40 per cent of all municipalities are already offering, via the Internet, services which can be viewed as meaningful from the standpoint of local democracy. Services of the regional and local administration are being offered via data networks to about 80 per cent of Finns. These services do not go unused: Finland presently has 70 Internet-linked computers for every 1000 inhabitants – the highest such figure in the world. Comparable examples of the usage of Information Society services are to be found in many other European countries as well.

The difference is great vis-à-vis the central and eastern European countries, where, for every 1000 inhabitants, there are 1-3 computers linked to the Internet. Further, it is to be expected that the gaps will continue to widen in the years immediately ahead. High demand will create new supply, which in turn will increase demand. The impact of this sort of trend on the democratisation process also may be destructive.

It is evident that, even in countries which are advanced in terms of their telematics, differences among people in terms of their opportunities and abilities to use the new services continue to grow. For that reason, there is cause to keep up the struggle to alleviate the dangers caused by this differentiation – be it a question of citizens, municipalities, regions or states. Some thoughts follow as to what the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe in particular might do in this respect.

We need to strengthen all manner of opportunities for international co-operation among local and regional authorities in the improvement of telematic services – especially services in which the Information Society development of central and eastern European countries is being set in motion and strengthened. In addition to financial resources, this will require co-operation in various spheres of expertise, training and culture.

It is essential that matters concerning the Information Society be linked more closely than before to all strategic planning of activities, be it a question of the European, national, regional or local level – or the level of even smaller units. The matter is especially important when the object of the planning is, or is fundamentally connected to, a public organisation close to the people and to SMEs.

It is important that the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe likewise focus more closely than before on the Information Society’s impacts on local and regional administration. While developments in recent decades have been considered swift, we are only now facing the swift and far-reaching social changes.

In most European countries there is a sharp decline in financial transfers from central government to regional and local government, as well as an increasing requirement for public sector fiscal discipline. At the same time the quality of the services provided needs to be maintained and customer oriented services and citizens' access to information need to be improved. Information society applications provide an efficient solution to this dilemma, as they make it easier to implement radical innovations in the provision of public services.

The cost and difficulty of providing public services in less favoured (e.g. rural or sparsely populated) areas is still greater. The small and unattractive labour markets make it difficult to maintain private sector economic activities. The emigration of the workforce further weakens economic potential and reflects a general dissatisfaction with the quality of life.

As many of the presentations during the seminars proved, information society applications can provide a solution to these problems: by an integrated delivery of public services; by distance learning and other remote services (for example in medical diagnostics or legal services); by the remote provision of cultural and other personal and leisure services; and by teleworking to compensate for narrow labour markets.

Local and regional politicians throughout Europe are now realising the impact that Information Society will have on citizens. Future economic and social well-being depends on how authorities optimize use of the new information technology: contributing to a more balanced regional development by allowing less favoured areas of Europe access to social, cultural and economic life at the local, regional, national and international levels.

Although practical information society applications do not require large amounts of public funding, central and regional authorities do have a responsibility in establishing the enabling conditions for their development. Whilst the infrastructure requirements should generally be met by telecommunication operators, support may be necessary in the more remote regions to ensure their full access to modern information technology systems.

The main obstacles to introducing Information Society applications are often cultural and societal in character. The participants agreed that the technology available today has great potential, but if it is simply applied to established ways of living and working, much of that potential may be lost. The main challenge is to rethink outdated attitudes and working methods in both public and private organisations, and to help citizens discover new ways of enhancing the quality of their private and working lives.

There will be a growing need to invest in education and training systems that enhance human capabilities and support cultural and social attitudes which are friendly to information technologies. In terms of topic areas, the current focus is mainly on applications in the field of education and information networks between local and regional administrations, followed by the health sector and telework.

Most of the practical applications presented during the seminars have developed as a series of independent local grassroots initiatives. This implied that although the role of central and regional authorities lies mainly in establishing the conditions necessary for the development of information society, concrete projects do not require large amounts of public funding. They mainly need small amounts of seed finance at the design and start up stage, before credibility is sufficient to gain access to normal market funding.

Regional policy makers, however, should play an active role in designing special schemes, tailor-made to support complex multisectoral actions. In this respect, regional policy needs to look again at its funding instruments to make them more effective. This implies a strengthening of the part of regional policy that aims to encourage the transfer of experience and understanding, and develops a capacity to advise and encourage in practical ways on how to meet the challenge of change.

Acting on local level becomes more and more important also in the context of Information Society. Several transnational and supranational processes have claimed to diminish sovereign powers and significance of national governments, and this makes IT development and promotion on regional and local level a question of vital importance. Regional and local authorities have always been, and are even more in modern times, the nearest level of the government to the ordinary citizen, which influences their lives from the maternity hospital till the cemetery.

Under the concept of Local Information Society, to the extent it concerns local administration, we can generally emphasise two important aspects. The first is the never-ending concern about the efficiency and effectiveness of public administration, and also the quality of its services. People, or in this context the customers, do not want to pay more for poorer services.

Secondly, developing Information Society is also praised for promoting values like openness, transparency and accountability of administration. In fact, many scholars have expressed their opinions that the new possibilities have given new breath in strengthening the democratic governance and its legitimacy.

Today we know that the governmental institutions are not always and necessarily the public as concerned its external aspects. This has been especially the case with the notorious authoritarian regimes in this century. As the contrast, democratic institutions assume and promote common participation and involvement, thus requiring considerable degree of openness. The democratic government is not an eternal gift from the heaven. It can and must be continuously supported and strengthened by several institutional and technological devices. This is especially so in relation to the new, more responsible position of local authorities as the result of decentralisation trend prevailing in Europe. This new position of local authorities can and must be supported and strengthened by several institutional and technological devices.

An alternative to the central co-ordination is the local initiative and co-operation (or one could say that central co-ordination is an alternative to the local initiative and co-operation, depends on the approach). However, the local initiative has two main advantages. First, they have better idea about their peculiar needs, resources and situation on places. Second, the locals do not usually sympathise with the ideas from the centre -- probably entrenched already for historical reasons. Therefore the local initiative has higher probability to ensure sustainability of projects -- still, the own blood and sweat put into.

Of course, the same rhetoric applies also to IT projects. The difficult task to co-ordinate and need to co-operate appears to be very important, because even for interlocal communication we need some level of standardisation of solutions. It promotes also the exchange of experiences to take over best practices and helps to avoid mistakes already made by someone. Individual action alone is a waste of resources and finally results in Babel of Information Society -- we all know what happened to the Tower of Babel after the Lord had confused the language of the whole earth.

The three main advantages of concentrated co-ordination and implementation, which in further perspective might find institutionalised solution to accumulate effort:

· clearly determined responsibility for action according to the objectives. In certain key aspects shared responsibility may prove to be ineffective. There must be somebody, who has complete overview of whole situation -- the process and problems;
· developing and inventing new solutions and practices. Accumulation of expertise and knowledge in the field of local government and Information Technology enables to elaborate strategical view, innovative approaches and standardisation to some reasonable degree. Under this point I would also locate funding -- know-how and information about the resources;
· co-ordination activity itself -- under that I would assort activities starting from representation of interests to training and promotion of ideas.

3. INFORMATION SOCIETY AND CITIZEN PARTICIPATION INPOLITICS

In many prevailing systems of government, citizens are allowed to participate only by voting once in several years, politicians are remote from their electors. Incompetence of politicians, corruption and bribery are not seldom and vital decisions are made behind closed doors. In some countries the introduction of citizens' rights to initiate laws, to call referenda and to be consulted on (mainly local and minor) decisions has gone some small way to compensate for these deficits of "representative" democracy.

The ideal that all members of a community or "polis" should be able to participate in reaching common decisions has often been dismissed as impractical (especially where large populations are concerned, but also for other reasons). A "town meeting" for Moscow, even for New York, is dificult to conceive. With modern technology it is theoretically possible to allow all citizens to inform themselves about public issues and to vote on them electronically. This was a dream since the early days of telecommunication and has been proposed in detail. For the citizen, modern ICT, especially computer networks such as the Internet, have vastly increased the speed and volume of communication, and the ease of access to information. Internet and Usenet discussion fora and the World Wide Web contain much political information and analysis. There is much talk "on- and off-line" about the chances of ICT to improve citizen participation in political life, which because of the new electronic media may assume new and surprising forms.

A description and evaluation of citizen participation and the new electronic communication media, must in my opinion be placed in the context of debate about democratic systems in general. (Many of the controversies in this debate are old or very old, some have been re-activated because of developments in ICT.) Firstly, the tension between representative (I prefer to use the term "delegatory democracy": delegates or elected groups may represent their electorate well or badly.) and participative democracy.

It has often been asserted that in social groups which are or become larger than a village or small town then it is impractical, inefficient, not feasible or even impossible to design and operate a system in which every enfranchised person has the right to co-decide on issues of public concern, e.g. policy, laws, implementation of decisions. Before the emergence of ICT these arguments against direct democracy seemed more convincing, especially for very large units such as cities or states. Without wishing to consider the controversy about direct versus delegatory democracy at length here, I offer the following. (Note: No doubt there are "hidden agendas" behind some of the different proponents' cases. For instance, politicians in favour of innovations may judge that electronic voting and easier communication with voters would enable them to more readily raise a majority for their own personal campaign. Others, opposed to innovation, may fear for their autonomy of rule or that their failures may be revealed. Lobby organisations or populist politicians or political movements may believe that it would be easier to convince a broad public to support their cause, were it to be formally empowered in a direct form of democracy, than it would be to persuade parliamentarians or government ministers.)

The delegatory model is by far the most prevalent. It appears that elites and publics, in many countries, quite unthinkingly, support a "representative" system as the only possible democratic form. Why is this? Often representative systems of governance arose in direct or indirect continuity with monopolies of power of one sort or another, which had been originally established (maybe centuries ago but in some cases recently) by violence, war and conquest, corruption, trickery, treachery or heredity (e.g. monarchies and aristocracies, juntas of one sort or another, leaderships of revolutionary parties). It may appear natural, having moved a little away from some type of dictatorship or other, and perhaps having struggled for more freedom and justice, to support a "new" system in which leaders may from time to time be rejected and replaced by popular vote. But many of the old institutions and hierarchy, usually patriarchy as well, have been taken over and accepted. Critically seen, because parliaments are often weak, the party system in modern democracies may be regarded as a form of government in which the people are allowed to choose a ruling regime, effectively consisting of a few dozen, or less, prominent leaders (or, in those countries in which the parliamentary system works well, perhaps a few hundred leaders). Having been elected, this "regime" is often criticised for being mainly responsive to its "entourage" (in modern times the powerful financial, industrial, sometimes religious lobbies) with the voter having almost nothing to say, with no effective contact to government, parliament or executive in the periods (during which all supposedly collective decisions are made) between infrequent elections.

My above picture has been painted in a "polarised" way for purposes of illustration. For instance, the partial, mediating, balancing role of organisations to which the interests of sectors of the community are delegated (e.g. trade unions), the specialised lobbies (e.g. to protect environment; for guns) and existing elements of direct democracy (e.g. referenda, mentioned elsewhere) have not been brought in. I leave the reader to judge whether the picture reflects her or his experience.

4. INFORMATISATION OF GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THE CITIZEN

Capacity of parliament to control government, and the degree of independence of MPs from party discipline (in some systems imposed by members known as "whips"!) vary from country to country. Matters of intra-governmental and parliamentary reform, and relations between legislative and executive, will not be treated at all fully here. Suffice it to say that ICT may extensively change the ways in which government works, and may alter the relationship between elected representatives and administrations, as illustrated in a Finnish municipality. Also, the "informatisation" of government and administration has considerable implications for the citizens who are the "consumers" and "owners" of these organisations. There may be some benefits in terms of ease of citizens' access to delegates, officials and to some forms of public information.

There will also be increased difficulty for "outsiders" (most citizens) because of increasing complexity of the information and the ICT systems used to store and manage it. The "corridors of power", already locked to the ears and eyes of most citizens, perhaps "Kafkaesque", become increasingly "virtual". Also, this informatisation of government and public administration (not to mention private and corporate information gathering) makes central control and manipulation of citizens and populations potentially much easier. There is the danger of "the glass human-being" and a system of "Orwell in Athens". This pithy book title implies that ICT can bring benefits but also dangers for freedom and democracy.

5. DIRECT DEMOCRACY AND POTENTIAL EFFECTS OF ICT

Elements of direct democracy are already practised. Only brief comments can be offered here. The rights of citizens to propose laws in parliaments, also to initiate and take part in referenda on local or national issues, and to be consulted about community planning etc. vary widely from country to country. Suffice to say that should the practice of calling referenda already exist then it would be relatively easy to introduce electronic voting and, in my opinion more importantly, also to enrich the processes of information, discussion and deliberation about the issue in question, during the run-up period to the referendum vote.

Note that high barriers to referenda are often set, or they may be allowed only when called by the ruling group. Consultation of constituents has usually only been possible in small units e.g. villages, towns, small districts, and often limited to relatively minor issues (e.g. tax and financial questions may be excluded). Also, referenda and results of consultation may be only advisory, not mandatory on officials or delegates.

It is of interest to note that in Bavaria, Federal Republic of Germany, a movement to introduce the citizens' right to call referenda organised a referendum (already allowed by the Bavarian constitution) on this question at federal state level. A law allowing community (city, town, district) referenda was successfully passed, against the wishes of the ruling political party. Secondly, although there are strong components of direct democracy in Switzerland, the Swiss government recently rejected a proposal to introduce the option to vote electronically in elections and referenda. The proposal was rejected because it was felt that security of voters' identity could not be guaranteed.

Many projects which aim to improve democratic systems relate only to representative democracy. There is little to be said against trying to improve existing systems. But ICT appears to offer the chance for citizens to begin to take over more responsibility for collective decisions, so reducing the need for indirect representation and allowing decisions, whether they be delegated or taken directly, to reflect more closely the will of constituents. How exactly the new models of governance will look can only be surmised. Some possiblities may be discerned in the decription of, and discussion about, participation projects and models of citizen participation, which I plan to mention later.

6. SOME EXAMPLES OF ICT APPLICATIONS IN DEMOCRACY AND POLITICS

Functions of these applications may be classified as follows

a) Provision by parliaments, governments and public agencies of information for citizens, public and private institutions.

b) Enhanced interaction between parliamentarians and citizens.

c) Initiatives which aim to promote public debate and communication on matters of general concern, including ICT applications to citizen participation in governance and direct democracy.

As an example of a) Provision by parliaments, governments and public agencies of information for citizens, public and private institutions, an extensive Internet service of The City of Tampere aims at a total rearrangement of interaction between the local authorities and the citizens, without physical offices or office hours. The idea of transparency is well integrated into public administration in Finland, so on-line availability of most municipal documents is natural in Tampere. Internet and e-mail are convenient channels for sending and receiving applications and other forms between authorities and residents.

The first City of Tampere web-site was opened in 1994. This was the starting point for an extensive system of information and services that was launched on the City's own server in the spring of 1995. The rate of usage is booming. In June 1995, the City recorded 914 visits to the web-site. One year later, monthly visits to all City of Tampere web-sites exceeded 50,000. Before Christmas 1996, the web-sites had over 100,000 visits per month; one year later, over 300,000. Today, the total number of visits at all the web-sites of the City of Tampere is 500,000 per month. The City's homepage alone (http://www.tampere.fi/) records a total of 50,000 visits every month. In total, there are some 10,000 pages in the City of Tampere web-site system.

The City Library and the opportunity to reserve lending material is the most popular of the Tampere Internet services. It is now possible to check the availability and location of a particular book or other lending material. Books that are unavailable because they are out on loan, can be reserved and collected at a later notice. Loan periods can be extended using the Internet.

Other popular services include: bus timetables (http://www.tampere.fi/tkl/aikat/), city maps (http://www.tampere.fi/kartat/), events info (http://www.tampere.fi/elke/mato/tapahtum.htm), and where-to-eat restaurant info (http://www.tampere.fi/elke/mato/ravintre.htm). For people outside Tampere, a real-time web-camera picture is available and shows the Tammerkoski rapids and park at the centre of town (http://www.tampere.fi/alke/mato/english/netcam.htm). Tampere started electronic trade services as a first city in Finland and sells nowadays via Internet some city publications for example.

In compliance with the transparency principle, the municipal committee agendas are also available on the Internet. They are automatically transferred to the Internet with the help of workflow management system of the city. Actually, even the members of the City Board have to collect their agenda on the Internet prior to a meeting (http://www.tampere.fi/poytakir.htm). Feedback can be given to the decision makers through a debate group.

User surveys indicate that most of the visitors to the Tampere web-sites use them for information retrieval. A small but active group of people hopes that the Internet helps to make an impact on municipal decision-making. For schoolchildren and students, the City Internet services are an outlet for creativity. All Tampere schools are linked to the network. The amount of pupils per one PC is 15 at the moment. School children are getting their own e-mail addresses and families use the low-cost school links at home via modems as well. Those without home computers and Internet links can access the City's services and the rest of the Information Superhighway via computers at public libraries or the City's "web cafe". Unfortunately, these 30 Internet connected PCs do not meet the demand at all and naturally the situation causes inequality among the citizens.

Examples of b (Enhanced interaction between parliamentarians and citizens) appear to be quite widespread, especially in USA. Many candidates for public office both at the State and Federal levels have Internet presentations and e-mail addresses. Private projects and NGOs offer services to voters, aimed to help select candidates in elections. The California Online Voter Guide (CVF), founded circa 1993, is mainly concerned with informing and, as their own description reads, "educating" citizens about matters closely related to the California state and United States federal elections. They write "In providing this service, CVF sought to increase voter participation in the1994 election, and in future elections, and to give voters greater confidence in their ability to make informed choices", while at the same time develop a prototype of an online voter guide which could be used in other countries, states, and communities. The Guide was also designed to be used as an educational programme for schools. Relatively simple but important matters such as how to register as a voter and how to vote are explained. Information about election candidates, campaign funding, public issues (controversies) in state and federal elections and also in state-referenda, candidates for official positions such as judges of law, are offered. For example, candidates were asked to provide biography and list their qualifications for office, press releases, endorsements (statements of support by other persons or groups), statements of policy, speeches, and finally detail of how to contact the campaign for more information, or how to volunteer for campaign work!

In Europe, a Belgian WWW-based site, Cybercrate, provides:

- background information about the system of government, with presentation of issues which have been debated in parliament, quoting the statements of MPs on the issues in question and showing how they voted on bills. Some issues are presented early, so citizens may add their voices to the debate before a vote.
- links to established citizens' groups concerned with social, environmental and political issues.
- electronic meeting space where users can bring in new topics, often resulting in lively debate.

Examples of c (Initiatives which aim to promote public debate and communication on matters of general concern, including ICT applications to citizen participation in governance and direct democracy) are the ones where "ordinary" citizens can start political initiatives from scratch with the aid of ICT.

Because of citizens low participation through the political parties, there is a need for a supplement system for today’s representative democratic system in Finland. Internet can be seen as a possibility for a new kind of participation at the local level. A new tool to combine traditional representative democratic system and network-based participation system can be developed. Citizens can, for example with the help of e-mail, have direct connections to the representatives elected and they do not need to deal with the political parties. Some elected representatives of the city of Tampere have already addressed their interest towards this idea.

Network tools for creating net communities are under construction at the moment. In the near future we shall see how these virtual communities can be utilised in creating new organisations for social life. At the moment we are planning how to combine this new technology to the democratic process of local government.

In these plans the key question will be how to increase the visibility of the preparation process. On the basis of studies done in Finland we know that only 5 % of the proposals done by the civil servants will change in the decision process. So, most of the decisions have been made before the matter comes to the official decision phase. To give better possibilities to influence in the process, why couldn´t we imagine that the preparations of some important decisions would start with an open process, where everyone interested can produce background information of the subject to the Internet and take part in the formulation of the decision alternatives? The technology, which can make everyone an information producer, already exists.

Transparency as one of the basic principles of local government has so far led to some vivid discussions at the Internet discussion forum of the city of Tampere. Nowadays there are about seven subjects under discussion and some hundreds of citizens have taken the floor. These subjects include for example the strategy and the master plan of the city. The problem is that the opinions expressed in these kinds of discussion forums can not always be taken too seriously.

The right for municipal services as well as the right for participation are connected to the citizenship of the municipality. So, there is also a need for new technological solutions for identification of the citizens in the web. At the moment these trials of the technology for electronic identification are underway in Finland and in Tampere and next year these identification cards will be widely accessible.

7. LIVING IN INFOVILLE - AN INTEGRATED APPROACH

The Infoville Strategy emerged as a set of actions integrated into the Strategic Plan for the Modernisation of Valencian Public Administration (PEMAV), launched by the Government of Valencia in February 1996.

Infoville has been developed within the Master Plan of Telecommunications of the Generalitat Valenciana (PLANTEL) in the framework of the strategic project to facilitate the transition of the Community towards the Information Society.

The first development of the Infoville project was launched in the spring of 1996 by providing the citizens and companies in the municipality of Villena with the necessary infrastructure and equipment. The programme was aimed at testing the effects and advantages of the new technologies, through the creation and development of an adequate environment in which the Information Society model could be developed.

The launching of Infoville in this municipality and its rapid dissemination amongst enterprises and citizens convinced the Government of Valencia to expand the project to other municipalities, institutions and environments, in a way that the “Infoville Effect” can easily spread within the whole the population.

This process would not have become a reality without the technological effort, which integrated the Broadband Network of the Generalitat Valenciana with the Corporate Services Network in a new Centre, which has the capacity to manage all the information and communications systems of public administrations.

The integration of resources and systems resulted in creating and launching InfoCentre in January 1998. InfoCentre is the largest Integrated Centre of system management, advanced communications services and applications of the country. It facilitates an effective control of the quality of the services provided by the administration, provides added value through the synergies and the scale factors, and a single and uniform point of access to information for the users.

Two years after launching the Infoville programme, it has not only given impetus to the modernisation of public administration, but has also generated a “Culture of change” amongst enterprises and citizens.

In Villena, around 1.500 housholds (25% of the total) benefit from the opportunities offered by Infoville. The new "Infocitizens" participate in newsgroups throughout the world, visit from their homes the best museums and libraries, use the electronic mail regularly, consult international news and media resources and shop electronically.

More than 123.000 hours of connections to the system by the Villena users, with more than 40 million hits per day and an average time of 20 minutes per user per day prove the success of Infoville.

Infoville has been expanded through the creation of “urban intranets” in the Vall d’Uixó (Castellón), Catarroja (Valencia) and Torrevieja (Alicante) areas, where 1.600 new terminals have been installed, that is 50 % of the equipment initially foreseen.

Three more Infoville cities will soon join the project, whilst a similar programme is under preparation in the City of Benidorm, with the participation of Telefònica Cable.

Since the end of 1996, Infoville has been presented to experts of the local and regional administrations as well as to the European Commission. As a result of those presentations an inter-regional working group was established with the main objective of adapting the project to other areas within the EU.

The European project "EuroInfoville" was selected by the European Commission to benefit from the “Digital Initiative” within the Telematic Applications programme and was granted a total budget of 12 million Euros. This project will develop an Infoville standard through the use of uniform computing tools, so as to facilitate European citizens' access to the services offered by their respective local and regional administrations

Infoville has also been extended to other socio-economic sectors in the Community of Valencia.

In the field of education, a digital community for the University Miguel Hernández is being developed. The system is called InfoCampus, and it provides students, teachers and administrative personnel with the information technology tools to access specific services. The first phase of the process covers about 1.500 users in 206 municipalities in three autonomous Communites (85 % in the Community of Valencia, 14 % in Murcia and 1 % in the Castilla-La Mancha).

The InfoCole programme is aimed at secondary education establishments, and it started with the installation of IT equipment in the 130 schools selected for the projects. The project –in its first phase- is addressed to students belonging to the first circle of secondary education (aged 12-13) and is focused on the transfer of knowledge about the use of the Information Society. InfoCole will continue to expand progressively to other schools in Valencia.

In order to integrate the Infoville strategy into the educational environment, a TV serial entitled “Infoville Stories" has been developed to offer students a supplementary tool to their studies and to promote the use of information and communications technologies amongst the general audience.

InfoMarket is a project that is being developed in collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce of the Community of Valencia. It will create an integrated platform of electronic commerce for more than 500 enterprises of the Community.

The modernisation process should not leave behind those that are already in retirement. The InfoSenior programme will benefit from the experience of elderly people in developing the infrastructure and services offered by community social centres for the elderly.

Infoville will also cater for the special needs of women who live in rural areas or who are otherwise deprived of equal access to information resources. The InfoDona project will develop a network of Equality Agents to support women with the necessary information, training and advice. The programme has a budget of 133 million pesetas and in its first phase will establish a network of 23 agents attached to rural municipalities and women's associations, to provide support to around 5.000 women in the area.

The Valencian health sector has been also integrated into the Infoville process during 1998: InfoMed is integrating the voice, data and image communications network of the Valencian health system, using the corporate ATM network of the Generalitat Valenciana. InfoMed also develops health applications and IT tools that allow health centres and their personnel to access information processed within its environment: the teleradiology service will allow to share diagnosis between hospitals, patients’ consultations can be implemented via videoconferencing, etc.

In order to disseminate information about the programme quickly to all municipalities and citizens, the Generalitat Valenciana, in collaboration with Telefónica, TISSAT and the OVSI Foundation has developed a Demonstration Centre called Infoville Mobile. The centre, equipped with 1.5 tones of computing hardware and around 2 kilometres of fibre optics operates with the latest technologies, which allows citizens, institutions and enterprises to test the programmes, services and applications developed.

The Infoville process is planned to be further expanded to all socio-economic sectors of the community. The rapid transition towards the “Information Society” model will be a source of competitive advantage for all Valencians before the end of the current millennium.

8. THE ROLE OF COMMUNITY NETWORKS IN PUTTING THE NEW INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES INTO THE HANDS OF ORDINARY PEOPLE

“Community network” is a phrase that has come to us from the United States. It describes a range of services that are available to local people that are usually provided by one particular organisation - the local community network. In Europe things are developing rather differently and there may be a number of organisations providing different parts of the overall community network. I therefore prefer to talk about community networks not as an organisation but as an overall description of the ways that a local community can use the new information and communication technologies to network together. I find it helpful to think of there being four main characteristics:

Firstly, community networks provide public space in cyberspace. In the European Community Networking Conference in Milan last year, the example was given of the Dome Square, right in the heart of the city. In the evening it is full of groups of people walking up and down and chatting about anything they want to. They can make business deals, they can share their experiences and ideas, they can plan campaigns to make their city better. Conversations can be serious or light-hearted, profound or “superficial”. No one is there to tell you what to do or to discuss. You go there when you want, you talk with whom you want and on what subject you want. There needs to be this public space in cyberspace so that people can use it for what they want. Whatever else community networks do, in terms of providing public service information, commercial services and so on, it is essential that they fulfil this role.

As public space it must be open to everyone, so community networks also have to tackle the issue of access. In the short term this means having a whole range of public access points which anyone can use and which must be free or at least affordable to all. However in the long term it must involve making sure that people can access cyberspace from their own home so that it becomes as much a part of everyone’s life as the telephone. It also means that community networks have to focus on training and support to ensure that everyone has the skills they need to utilise the technology for their benefit.

Secondly community networks recognise that communication is more important than information provision. Information is important, but people are even more interested in talking with each other. In fact one of the best ways to gain useful information is to meet up with and ask questions of an expert. It is interesting that in Blacksburg, “America’s most wired town” with over 50% of the population having Internet connection, the average person spends only 2 hours a week on the world wide web but 5 hours a week emailing. This means that it is not enough just to set up a web site to provide a comprehensive local information resource. Community networks have to involve email, newsgroups and email discussion lists if they are really meet the needs of the public.

Community networks have to be locally focused. This is not to say that there is no value in using the new technologies to link together communities of interest. I myself participate in several national and international email discussion groups and find them of great benefit. However the value of locally focused community networks is that we ourselves are locally focused. Most of us live, shop, work and engage in leisure activities in a particular locality and it is very useful for a community network to reflect that. It also makes it much easier for electronic communications to support and enhance the other ways we communicate if they are locally focused. For instance in Blacksburg, many senior citizens only “met up” first through the local community network, but because they live close to each other, now take part in many social activities together. Of course once locally focused community networks are set up throughout the country, then community of interest networks can easily link in with these, to the benefit of both.

The final characteristic of community networks is that they work best when they are comprehensive, covering all aspects of life. A community network is not complete if it simply addresses the needs of the so called community sector. The communities in which we live contain public bodies, businesses, schools and educational establishments as well as voluntary and community groups. All of us have to communicate with and interact with all these different sections of our local community. A community network needs to reflect this. This means that a community network is best provided by all the sectors working together to ensure that all are represented fully. This may be by a formal partnership arrangement that runs the whole network. It may equally well be done by different services being provided by different organisations, but with clear agreements as to each others roles and with links maintained with each other’s services.

In summary, community networks demystify the technology and give people immediate and obvious benefits from developing their IT skills. They provide a way for local people to use the Internet to do things that interest them and to make the use of IT as natural part of their everyday lives as is the telephone. By promoting local community networks we are ensuring an IT literate population that will be able to use the new technologies to help them work together to improve their communities, to utilise all the services that soon will be available online, to gain employment and to develop their businesses.
What kind of services could be part of a Community Network?

We have a growing list of services that seem to be important for community networks. They can be divided into: "Core Applications", which are central to the function of being a community network, "Essential Services" which, while not part of a community network’s core business are still essential to ensuring that it will succeed, and "Desirable Services which enhance the quality of service which can be provided within a community network.

Core Services:
· Area based information e.g. population information, crime statistics
· Co-operative purchasing
· Informal discussion on council decisions
· Online entertainment area - aimed at young people
· Distance learning programmes
· Events listings
· "For sale" notices
· Job offered and wanted
· Local history database
· Local LETS groups
· Local newspaper
· web pages and lists of local organisations and clubs
· Online shopping precincts
· Arrangements for local delivery of purchases from local shops
· Volunteer centre
· Local Yellow Pages to include all services

Essential Services
· Council information
· A way for the public to contact specific council officers
· Facilities for online management of the community network
· Technical Support to users
· Information & help regarding the community network
· Users personal home pages
· Welcome centre with Information, training, guided tours

Desirable Services
· Formal consultation processes by the local council
· "Find a friend" service
· Local radio station
· Local video programming
· Online conference services
· Online meeting services
· Teleworking services
· Translation services
· Transport information
· Youth parliament

By the year 2005, every resident of Europe would have easy access to a community network in their locality. That through this, they would not only have access to comprehensive information about their community, but, much more important, they would be able to link up with people of similar interests and join with them in making their local area a better place to live and work. As large numbers of people in every locality grow confident in using the new information and communication technologies to enhance their lives and their communities, the population of Europe would become increasingly IT aware. This would enable us to play a leading role in the development of the new information industries.

The best way for this to happen is by public, private, academic and community organisations working together in every locality to bring all their resources to bear in some kind of a common strategy. It is also essential that community networks should work closely together, sharing their experience and working together collaboratively in all sorts of creative ways.

I also see community networks on the leading edge of technology development. A huge amount of expertise would be generated on collaborative work which will be of benefit to industry, business and, in fact, every aspect of life. Who better than community networks to develop user friendly technology and to pioneer the use of audio and video conferencing.

This is a big vision, but I believe it is an achievable one. It is achievable because the benefits would be enormous and would affect everyone. It is also achievable because I don’t believe it would take a great deal of extra resources. The key is partnership and collaborative work. The enormous savings generated by the private, public and academic sectors working together as they all invest in new technology, would go a long way to pay for the public access and training and support needs to make sure that everyone was included.

9. CONCLUSIONS

The developments we are experiencing in our countries, in Europe and in the whole world, suggest a lot more than new and more effective means for communication: That is the general influence that Information Society will have on our lives, private and public, including our work, community and leisure activities.

As a result of the development of the Information Society, we have to change our ways of thinking and working. It will not only result in globalisation, but also in decentralisation, where initiatives are taken at the grassroots level, and action develops from bottom up. The role of municipalities and regions is fundamental in this process; it is largely our duty to create the enabling conditions for Information Society to develop in the right direction. Whilst we agree on the significance of equality, both between individuals and different regions, we have to be aware of the dangers and challenges these developments represent: the division of our societies into first- and second class citizens, in accordance with their means and competencies for using new technologies is a real danger, which has to be prevented by all means.

What may be predicted about participation of citizens in governance?

Information and communication technologies can contribute as follows:

- helping to alert and inform about public issues and associated law-making, also facilitating debate (e.g. citizens can be in a better position to intervene by approaching their MP before a bill comes to the vote).
- improving knowledge about candidates for parliaments and other public jobs, e.g. revealing their qualifications for office and political knowledge, their previous performance on election promises, campaign finance, which interest group they support (e.g. business, religion, "worthy causes" such as natural environment or political party).
- allowing the voter to vote in a more informed and critical way.
- enabling the citizen between elections to join in a public debate more easily, to intervene by writing to newspapers etc., even to start campaigns aimed at influencing public opinion and parliamentary decisions and to monitor election promises.
- allowing members of political parties to judge better the performance of their own delegates and candidates for public office
- encouraging and helping to empower citizens to be pro-active. Forms of expression may be: lobbying MPs, public officials and commercial enterprises; informing and educating others, publishing with WWW; moral appeals; protest and social movements, "non-governmental" organising; starting referenda or citizens' law-making; promoting the renewal of democracy itself.

The ease of communication and access to information now and in the near future has led some observers to predict that a new public arena or "agora" will emerge to aid collective decision-making. Some developments during the coming few decades may be:

- closer guidance of MPs and governments by public will, especially in the legislative periods between elections - compare "A political party guided by constituents?".
- direct decision-making by citizens on at least some issues. Gradual transformation of representative "delegatory" democracy into a process with more deliberation and more involvement of citizens.
- electronic voting (a) to select candidates in elections (b) on laws and public issues, with direct decision-making by constituents on some issues.

Of course, deep changes in established systems of governance should not occur too rapidly and are unlikely to do so. However, many citizens do wish to participate more in matters which greatly affect their lives and the future. Information technology can help, although many other factors are important too.