6.6.1996
Heikki Lunnas
LOCREGIS
LOCAL AND REGIONAL INFORMATION SOCIETY
Summary of the
project
Background
Information society will greatly
change the ways how we live, work and move in the future. For different regions
round Europe the future economic and social well-being will to large extent
depend on how different areas are able to participate in the development of the
Information society and how they can take best use of such Information society
services and applications which contribute to better regional development
especially in the least favoured areas of Europe.
Goals
The aim of this project is to make
an inventory and analyse Information society projects that are or may be
implemented under programmes cofinanced by the European Union , especially the
Structural Funds, in the three new Member States, to organise contacts and
exchange of experience about best practice between those directly involved in
these and other IS projects, and between project organisers and those with
wider responsibilities for structural development in the administration, and to
establish and consolidate a self-sustaining network of practitioners in the IS
field in the three Member States and other parts of the Union, which could
serve as a launch pad for a constant process of generation of ideas and
projects in the IS field, especially in sparsely populated and less development
areas (Objectives 1 and 6).
Expected
results and products
The expected results and products of
the projects are e.g.
·an inventory of Information Society
projects in programmes cofinanced by the European Union
·identification of the best practice
features in the contents of projects and bringing them to the attention of
persons planning new projects
·transfer of expertise between the
regions
·a network of experts and projects
·evaluation of the usefulness of local
information society projects
·a self-sustaining network of
practitioners supporting a continuing process of generation of ideas, projects
and products in the Information Society
Partners
The partners in the LOCREGIS-project responsible for
achieving the aims and products are The Association of Finnish Local
Authorities, Federation of Swedish County Councils and Swedish Association of
Local Authorities. The Association of Finnish Local Authorities will manage the
administration of the project.
Arco Consulting has in LOCREGIS-project a support
function, which will especially provide a contribution to monitoring and
co-ordination with other Community policies and activities within the LOCREGIS
field of interests.
The steering committee representing all partners will
take care of the supervising of the practical work. The partners will seek
Austrian participation at the earliest possible stage.
The Association of Finnish Local Authorities
PL 200
FIN-00100 Helsinki
Finland
Contact person:
Heikki Lunnas
Tel: +358-0-7712511
Fax: +358-0-7712726
Email: heikki.lunnas@kuntaliitto.fi
The Association of Finnish Local
Authorities is a service and interest organisation for Finland's
municipalities. It represents and safeguards the interests of local authorities
and joint intermunicipal boards (incl. the Regional Councils), in addition to
offering a range of expert services. It provides training, engages in research
and development and publishes and disseminates information pertaining to local
government. The Association is also concerned with various branches of local
government: finance, education and culture, welfare and health, labour
relations, structural policy, town planning and infrastructure, environmental
protection, legal matters, information and international relations. It is
represented in the municipal labour market by the Commission for Local
Authority Employers. The Association owns and operates five service companies:
Audiator (auditing services), Efektia Service (consulting services),
Kuntakoulutus (training), Plancenter (architectural and engineering firm) and
Gustavelund (congress and training centre). The Association has a staff of 300
and its subsidiary companies employ 400.
Federation of Swedish County Councils
BOX 70491
S-107 26 STOCKHOLM
SWEDEN
Contact person:
Auli Strandh
Tel.+46-8-7024526
Fax. +46-8-7024303
Email:auli.strandh@lf.se
Federation of the County Councils is a service and
interest organisation of the 23 county councils and the municipalities of
Gothenburg, Malmoe and Gotland in Sweden. The county councils are independent,
political bodies on the regional level with their own right of taxation.
The main task of the Federation is medical and health
care in Sweden. Traditionally the county councils also are responsible for a
broad spectrum of regional activities in the field of education, cultural
affairs, tourism, environmental protection, support to SME, mass communication
and Information technology. Recently the questions dealing with regional
development and welfare have been paid growing attention in the Federation’s
work.
Federation of the County Councils is a member of the
CEMR and the Standing Committee of the Hospitals of the European Union and it
has, together with Swedish Association of the Local Authorities (SALA),
political representatives in the Committee of the Regions. The Federation, SALA
and The Association of Finnish Local Authorities also have an office in
Brussels. Federation also owns or participates in financing of 11 service
companies and organisations in Sweden operating in the fields associated to the
activities of the county councils.
Swedish Association of Local Authorities
S-118 82 STOCKHOLM
SWEDEN
Contact person:
Henrik Levinson
Tel: +46-8-772 46 58
Fax: +46-8-640 41 63
Internet: Henrik.Levinson@svekom.se
The Swedish Association of Local Authorities was
founded in 1908 and represents all municipal authorities in Sweden. The main
aims for the association are to:
·
Support and develop the system of local self-government
·
Defend the Swedish local authorities interest
·
Promote co-operation between local authorities in Sweden an with local
authorities in Europe an in the rest of the world
·
Assist local authorities through service and expert advice
The highest decision-making body is the congress,
which convenes every fourth year in the year following local authority
elections. The congress elects a board for the next coming four years. A
Managing director heads the Association’s secretariat and is answerable to the
board for it’s operations. In 1994 313 people were employed at the
headquarters.
Half of the association’s income comes from local
authority membership fees. The other half derives mainly from fees for
consultancy services and educational and Conference functions.
Operation focused on four main areas:
·
General municipal policy. Here the emphasis is on
"soft" questions: child care and primary school, upper secondary
school and adult education, elderly care, social policy for the individual and
families, culture and leisure activities
·
Community planning. The focus here is on
"hard" questions: energy, rescue services and civil defence, street
maintenance and traffic, physical planing, housing and environmental issues as
well as regional and industrial police
·
Municipal finances and personnel
policy.
This area of operations include the general matters which have an impact on all
sectors: finance, economic administration, statistic, research and development,
negotiating functions and employment
·
Legislation. The Association’s legal experts
advice on government and parliamentary proposals which affects local
authorities as well as answering all queries from municipals on point of civil
Law and municipal Law.
Arco Consulting
Avenue de la Brabançonne 19
B-1000 BRUXELLES
BELGIUM
Contact person:
Manuel Gigot
Tel. +32-2-7324703
Fax. +32-2-7324703
Email: 100632.565@compuserve.com
Arco Consulting is a company
specialised in consultancy and operational support on European affairs. It
provides its clients with knowledge and experience in this field. This allows
its clients to take into account the ever-increasing importance of the EU institutions
and policies, as well as helping them benefit from the opportunities that stem
from Community activities when preparing their company development plans.
Arco Consulting´s know-how is based
on two main factors:
· practical experience of the EU
institutions and their policies;
· an understanding of the links between
these institutions and the actors in European socio-economic activity
Arco Consulting has focused part of
its activities on New Information and Communication Technologies. Thus they
have built frequent contacts with the European Commission´s services in charge
of projects referring to the implementation of the In formation Society at
European, national or local levels. Moreover they have established a
partnership with Louis Lengrand & Associés (LL&A), proficient expert in
IT and local development, based in Paris. Their expertise consists in
management project, analysis, advice and technical assistance to socio-economic
operators.
Background to the project
Importance of regional and local action
Information
society will greatly change the ways how we work and live together in the
future. For different regions of Europe the future economic and social
well-being will depend to a large extent on how these areas are able to
participate in the development of the Information Society and especially on how
they can take best use of such Information Society services and applications
which contribute to better regional development.
In promoting the development of the information
society there are several elements which require uniform measures at the
national, Union and even global levels; examples of this include deregulation
of telecommunications, complex questions of copyright and data protection, and
telecommunication standards.
The role of various regional and local actors is of at
least equal importance, an argument in support of which the following aspects,
among others, can be cited:
1.
Differences between people's
opportunities to avail of the services of the new information society and of
the information that these services provide are growing, and a division into
Have´s and Have-Not´s is becoming one of the most difficult societal problems
of development. A central role in altering this trend, or at least in
mitigating its adverse effects, resides with schools and libraries as well as
with the local-government sector, which
still has power of decision concerning
most of those bodies' activities.
2.
The international content industry
can be responsible for only a part of citizens' needs. A strong local content
is also required in the services provided by the information society.
3.
In several contexts, for example the
EU's White paper on Growth, Competitiveness and Employment, the view taken is
that opportunities for growth reside specifically with SME´s. In many sectors,
networking and the associated use of instruments is a vital requirement for the
future of companies. The same applies also to new forms of employment like
distance working. On the other hand, especially in the case of many service
companies, one's own immediate surroundings are often the most important market
area of all. It is difficult to imagine that any instance very remote from
those companies or individuals could succeed in getting them involved in
various development projects.
4.
Besides possessing features unique to
their own areas, local and regional information society projects involve
different implementation-related processes, which make it impossible to
transfer them unaltered from one area to another.
5.
The industry associated with
information technology is becoming an increasingly important employer, physical
factors often mean little in determining its location. Thus regional and local
information society projects combined with an increase in the general use
opportunities available to citizens and companies can, if successful, make a
positive contribution to regional development.
A High Level Expert Group has been convened by the
Commission to identify and interpret the many opportunities and new risks of
the Information Society. In their first interim report[1] the Group recommended that
One main focus of regional cohesion
projects in LFRs, rural areas and distant areas should be on supporting
organisational learning through innovations with information and communication technologies.
These projects should have a demonstrable impact on the way the organisations
involved operate on a day to day basis. Advice and consultancy should be
available at all stages of the process, from initial project proposal to final
evaluation. SMEs, in particular, should be targeted for this action.
Goals and products
The aim of this
project is to make an inventory and analyse Information society projects that
are or may be implemented under programmes cofinanced by the European Union ,
especially the Structural Funds, in the three new Member States, to organise
contacts and exchange of experience about best practice between those directly
involved in these and other IS, and between project organisers and those with
wider responsibilities for structural development in the regional and national
administrations, and to establish and consolidate a self-sustaining network of
practitioners in the IS field in the three Member States and other parts of the
Union, which could serve as a launch pad for a constant process of generation
of ideas and projects in the IS field, especially in sparsely populated and
less development areas (Objectives 1 and 6).
The expected results and
products of the projects are e.g.
· an inventory of
Information Society projects in programmes cofinanced by the European Union
· identification
of the best practice features in the contents of projects and bringing them to
the attention of persons planning new projects
· transfer of
expertise between the regions
· a network of
experts and projects
· evaluation of
the usefulness of local information society projects
· a
self-sustaining network of practitioners supporting a continuing process of
generation of ideas, projects and products in the Information Society
Implementation
The principle on which implementation is based is that
of a progressive expanding process, the innovative character of which will be
ensured by defining the detailed contents of later stages only on the basis of
experience gained during the work. Thus the project plan to be drafted before
the actual inauguration will set forth the details of the first phase and will
be reviewed in early 1997.
The working language of the project will be English.
Phase 1
The first phase of the project will begin with making
an inventory of projects in September 1996 and continue until the end of March
1997.
The primary concentration will be on local and
regional information society projects in the new member countries (firstly in
Finland and Sweden) which have already been implemented or are currently being
implemented and which have been or are being financed through Objective 1 and 6
Programmes.
Some projects that would be considered of benefit in
developing and assessing best practice features would also be included from
other areas of the member countries.
To begin with, the regional information society
projects of the local and regional authorities in Finland and Sweden will be
listed and scrutinised and after that those that on closer examination appear
to offer most from the perspective of the results aspired to in the project
will be selected. At this stage, the number of projects to be examined in
greater detail ought to be about 20 (core projects).
The first network of experts will be formed from among
the persons running the aforementioned regional projects and by the end of
November 1996 a WWW web site accessible to all will be created to support the
work of that network. Already in the early stage an associated service will be
created for the purpose of helping to find suitable partners for other
projects, such as those within the R&D framework programme. All documents
generated within the project will also be publicly accessible at the same web
site.
In January 1997 a three-day seminar for about 30
experts will be arranged. The participants will be:
·
representatives of regional projects
involved at this stage
·
persons working on the project and
the project management group
·
representative(s) of the Commission
and Austria
Payment of the seminar participation costs, including
travel expenses, will be included in the project costs.
The seminar programme will include, inter alia:
1.
Description of the methods employed
in the local and regional projects and evaluation of those methods from a best
practice perspective.
2.
Scrutiny and evaluation of the
contents of the projects (case studies).
3.
The areas of focus of the groups of
experts participating in the next phase and a proposal to the steering
committee regarding organisation of their activities.
This phase will conclude with a report, to be
submitted by the end of March 1997, on the exploration and matters accruing
from the seminar. At this point, the preliminary best practice criteria with
respect to both content and methods will be available.
The products of the first phase will be:
·
a network of core projects and the
experts in charge of them
·
description of core projects and the
methods used in the planning and implementation
·
the information service in the
Internet
·
a database of ongoing projects
·
a publication including the
description of core projects
·
three-days seminar for about 30
experts
·
expansion of the network to Austria
Phase II
The second phase will begin in April 1997 and continue
until January 1998.
During this phase, the network will be expanded and
best practice experiences derived from projects in other areas. The subject of
attention would primarily be all ongoing local and regional information society
projects in less favoured regions of the new member countries. On the basis of
experience derived from the first phase, projects that would be considered of
to benefit developing and assessing best practice would also be included from
other areas of the Union.
The expanding of the project means that the primary
partners will seek third parties to bring wider dimensions to the work. Also
the local and regional projects will have more important status.
In the provision of information within the project
(especially between the regional and local initiatives), electronic mail and
possibly videoconferencing will be used in addition to the expanding WWW
service. External information will be developed in cooperation with other
equivalent projects.
It is in this phase that the work of expert fora will
begin, dealing for example with the following categories of themes:[2]
1.
public services in information
networks and the provision of those services especially from the perspective of
sparsely populated areas
2.
availing of information networks in
new models of working and networking (telework)
3.
making new educational and other
services accessible to citizens
4.
small and medium enterprises and
information networks
The costs of the persons conducting the expert fora
and of reporting will be included in the project costs. At least one open
seminar will be arranged on each category of themes; most of the costs of these
will be covered by participation fees.
Also to be commenced during this phase will be a
study, on the basis of experience gained from the core projects of the first
phase, of the relationship between local information society activities and
regional development, especially in sparsely populated and less favoured areas.
At the end of this phase a broader seminar relating to
the theme will be commenced. Here, too, the costs will be almost completely
covered by participation fees. During the latter part of the phase there will
be a report on the results of the work done by the expert fora as well as on
the general best practice criteria of the projects.
The products
of the second phase will be:
·
an extensive network of experts with
proposals for the links to other networks in the European Union
·
best practice criteria of the
projects
·
information about the project and its
results available on the World Wide Web
·
results from various theme categories
·
a self-sustaining network of practitioners supporting
a continuing process of generation of ideas, projects and products in the
Information Society
·
publication including the results of
the phases I and II
·
final report and evaluation of the
first two phases and a proposal, if relevant, for the third phase
Phase III (Optional)
The content of the phase III should be based on the
evaluation completed during the second phase.
The preliminary aims are
·
to widen and develop the network of
experts
·
to promote information exchange about
the results of the project
·
to create new links to other
Information Society projects within the European Union
·
to facilitate the partnership for
regional and local authorities
Phase III is currently optional and it’s costs are not
in the financial plans of the project. Phase III of the project could begin in
early 1998 and last 6-8 months.
Organisation
The project is coordinated by the Association of
Finnish Local Authorities. The Association will be responsible for
administrating the project, arranging meetings and seminars as well as for
reserving resources required for implementation of the project.
A steering committee consisting of representatives of
the partners will be set up to oversee implementation of the project. The
streering committee is responsible for reporting the results of the project to
the Commission.
The role of the national correspondence is to identify
relevant Information Society actions and national networking in the framework
of general guidelines established by the cordinators.
Arco Consulting has in LOCREGIS-project a support
function, which will especially provide a contribution to monitoring and
co-ordination with other Community policies and activities within the LOCREGIS
field of interests. They also will enable the Commission to keep abreast of
project development and append its knowledge of best practice achievements.
The innovative parts
The most innovative part of the project will be the
achievement of a constantly expanding network which will serve to mediate both
experience and expertise. Different kinds of best practice criteria approaching
the matter from various perspectives will have almost as important a role.
Already during preparations for the project it was
evident that both local and regional projects, on the one hand, and companies,
on the other, harboured great expectations that the formation of the network
would make it significantly easier to participate in, for example, various
projects within the IV R&D framework programme.
Evaluation
Broader joint evaluation of the products presented in
this description and itemised in the project plan will take place at the end of
each phase and, with respect to the entire project, generally when it ends.
Naturally, in a project based to quite an advanced degree on networking,
evaluation of a kind is constantly being conducted. The results and the
realisation of the project will be evaluated at the partner workshop at the end
of II phase.
We hope that also a representative of the Commission
could be significantly involved in the evaluation process so that we can be
certain that the contents of the products are of long-term use in making
preparations for the Objective Programmes. In the shorter term, it is important
to place the best practice criteria at the disposal of the officials deciding
on regional measures.
Dissemination
In the main, information about the project and its
results will be disseminated with the aid of the Internet World Wide Web
service and various other similar information channels at the disposal of the
Information Society Project Office. By using the partners' communications
organisations, the project will also be kept constantly visible in the
traditional media.
Publications, all in English, will be printed in runs
of about 3,000 copies. Half of each print run will be distributed to the
parties involved in the project, the other half to all parties.
Financial Information
1. Expenditures
Personnel costs
Personnel costs are including the average costs
(salary, wages, social charges and pension costs) of actual days worked on the
project by personnel directly employed by the partners and also eventual third
party assistance and external services (for example personnel of the local and
regional projects and managing of the expert groups in phase II).
|
Phase I |
days |
á ECU |
Total ECU |
Phase
total ECU |
|
Senior
Expert[3] |
49 |
420 |
20.580 |
96.030 |
|
Expert[4] |
282 |
250 |
70.500 |
|
|
Secretary[5] |
33 |
150 |
4.950 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Phase II |
days |
á ECU |
Total ECU |
Phase
total ECU |
|
Senior
Expert |
77 |
420 |
32.340 |
149.190 |
|
Expert |
438 |
250 |
109.500 |
|
|
Secretary |
49 |
150 |
7.350 |
|
Overheads
Overheads are including support personnel, office
supplies, infrastructure, utilities and services like computing and they have
been calculated to be 25 % of the personnel costs.
|
Phase I ECU |
24.008 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Phase II ECU |
37.298 |
|
Travel costs
Travel costs gather the work of the steering group,
arrangements of two seminars and fieldwork. For the phase II there is also a
booking for the travel costs of the expert groups.
|
|
Phase I |
Phase II |
|
|
|
|
|
Steering Group |
|
|
|
-meetings |
4 |
5 |
|
-members |
5 |
5 |
|
-average cost per member/meeting ECU |
500 |
500 |
|
TOTAL ECU |
10.000 |
12.500 |
|
|
|
|
|
Seminars |
Seminar I |
Seminar II |
|
-participants |
30 |
30 |
|
-average cost per participant ECU |
700 |
700 |
|
TOTAL ECU |
21.000 |
21.000 |
|
|
|
|
|
Fieldwork |
|
|
|
-fieldwork projects |
20 |
23[6] |
|
-visits per project |
3 |
2 |
|
-average cost per visit ECU |
300 |
300 |
|
TOTAL ECU |
18.000 |
13.800 |
|
|
|
|
|
Expert Groups ECU |
|
10.000[7] |
|
|
|
|
|
TRAVEL COSTS TOTAL ECU |
49.000 |
57.300 |
Other meeting and seminar costs
|
|
Phase I |
Phase II |
|
Seminars (hires, facilities, catering) |
|
|
|
-participants |
30 |
30 |
|
-days |
3 |
2 |
|
-costs per day and participant ECU |
170 |
170 |
|
TOTAL ECU |
15.300 |
10.200 |
|
|
|
|
|
Documentation ECU |
800 |
800 |
|
Expert Groups ECU |
|
8.000[8] |
|
|
|
|
|
TOTAL ECU |
16.100 |
19.000 |
Dissemination
|
|
Phase I |
Phase II |
|
Internet WWW Service |
|
|
|
-launching ECU |
2.000 |
|
|
-maintaining ECU |
1.000 |
1.000 |
|
TOTAL ECU |
3.000 |
1.000 |
|
|
|
|
|
Publications |
|
|
|
-pages |
100 |
120 |
|
-circulation |
3000 |
3000 |
|
-cost per publication ECU |
3.80 |
4.50 |
|
TOTAL ECU |
11.400 |
13.440 |
|
|
|
|
|
Translations ECU |
3.000 |
4.000 |
|
Distribution of information ECU |
1.000 |
1.000 |
|
Other advertising and dissemination costs ECU |
2.000 |
2.000 |
|
|
|
|
|
DISSEMINATION COSTS TOTAL ECU |
20.400 |
21.440 |
Consumables
|
|
Phase I |
Phase II |
|
Consumables |
|
|
|
-telephone,fax,postage ECU |
1.300 |
1.300 |
|
-office materials ECU |
1.000 |
1.000 |
|
-copying ECU |
700 |
700 |
|
CONSUMABLES TOTAL ECU |
3.000 |
3.000 |
Expenditure summary
|
|
Phase I |
Phase II |
|
Staff costs |
96.030 |
149.190 |
|
Overheads |
24.008 |
37.298 |
|
Travel costs |
49.000 |
57.300 |
|
Meeting and seminar costs |
16.100 |
19.000 |
|
Information dissemination costs |
20.400 |
21.440 |
|
Consumables |
3.000 |
3.000 |
|
TOTAL ECU |
208.538 |
287.228 |
2. Anticipated income
The anticipated income is
|
|
Phase I |
Phase II |
TOTAL |
|
Commission 75 % |
156.653 |
215.421 |
371.824 |
|
Association of Finnish Local Auth.13 % |
27.110 |
37.340 |
64.449 |
|
Other partners and participants 12 % |
25.025 |
34.467 |
59.492 |
|
TOTAL ECU |
208.538 |
287.228 |
495.765 |
[1] Building the European Information Society for Us All.
First Reflections of the High Level Group of Experts. Interim Report January
1996. DG V.
[2] the topics will be decided in the seminar of the
phase I
[3] the management of the project and the consortium
[4] fieldwork, writing and administration
[5] secretarial assistance
[6] the number of projects will increase in phase II
(Austrian projects)
[7] the issue and the number of expert groups will be
decided by the end of phase I. 10.000 ECU is estimated value of 8 meeting. Only
the travel costs of 2-3 members per expert group will be paid.
[8] the issue and the number of expert groups will be
decided by the end of phase I. 8.000 ECU is estimated value of other seminar
costs for 8 meetings (1.000 ECU per meeting)