Seminar on Local and Regional Information Society
Helsinki, on 21 January 1998
 

There is a large number of information society projects in Finland compared with other countries. According to Sitra, the Finnish National Fund for Research and Development, approximately one billion FIM altogether is spent on these projects yearly. Most of the projects are regional and the EU’s Structural Funds play an important role in their financing.

The aim of the programme, Finland Towards the Information Society, was to apply information, information technology and information networks in a new way so that Finland would function as an advanced information society based on networking. The aim of the strategy was also to promote information technology and information industry so that Finland would be a world class competitor in these sectors.

According to Sitra, the matters presented in the proposals for measures have developed well in risk financing, State administration projects, telecommunications technology infrastructure and other technology infrastructures, school infrastructure and in research and development contributions.

Finland’s information society strategy has been criticized, for example for placing too much emphasis on technology, paying too little attention to the regional and local level, not specifying the aims of the content production, as well as for treating matters concerning the content and values too narrowly.

The criticism seems to be justified if the indicators are considered with which Finland is regarded as a developed information society. Finland is at the top, for example in the per capita figures concerning mobile communication and the use of Internet. The Finnish industry has gained a stronger position in high technology production, especially in the telecommunication sector very fast. But does this mean that Finland is “an advanced information society based on networking”?

Information Strategies of Education and Culture

A large part of the information society financing of the educational sector has been used for developing data-communication networks and acquiring hardware for schools and other educational establishments. The FUNET-network connecting institutions of higher education and research institutes is one of the best in the world as far as its capacity and services, which include for example supercomputers for scientific computing, is concerned.

The educational administration has also aided municipalities in procuring hardware for comprehensive schools and upper secondary schools. However, according to the evaluation in the follow-up report the support has been very small. On average the aid has been 10 % of the total costs of the information technology equipment, installation and software and in Helsinki the corresponding figure has been only 4 %. The small participation of the Government has resulted in an increase in differences between municipalities.

In the educational sector the problem is a shortage of educational materials. With the support of the National Board of Education the preparation of about 25 educational products has been started. These products are meant to be used over an information network or from a CD-ROM. However, the share of educational materials is only a few percent of the total investment.

In Finland private publishers are responsible for educational materials. Publishers of educational materials have produced multimedia and WWW-materials mainly to support their own series of books without wanting to take the risks connected with producing extensive materials that make use of the new technology for small language areas.

The demand for labour in the field of information and communication technologies has increased strongly. Availability of professional labour will limit the growth in the near future although education in the field has been increased during the last few years. One of the factors limiting the increase of education is a shortage of teachers. Improving knowledge of teachers at all levels of the educational system is also essential so that investments in information technology will be of real use to teaching and learning.

Regional Development

Development of information networks also has a centralizing impact. Services do not have to be placed physically near customers anymore. Due to information networks and data processing it has been possible to reduce bank offices considerably although at the same time the number of banking transactions has increased significantly. Technical support connected with the use of computer programmes is mainly produced in large support centres located abroad, and so on.

In tasks requiring special expertise information networks enable to do the work anywhere and any time in theory. However, in practice it does not seem that the need for personal contacts has decreased, but for example business travelling is growing all the time. Jobs requiring expertise seem to centralize still strongly. Companies benefit from the fact that there are other companies of the same field and services supporting them nearby. It is also tempting for an employee to settle in a city where there are  alternative employers in his/her special field. All cities cannot become technology centres, but development seems to lead to polarization.

Information networks can be used for levelling down regional differences, for example in education and health care. With the help of distance learning the curriculum of small schools can be expanded of which good experiences have been gained in practice, for example in Lapland. In health care X-rays and similar material have been sent for several years from health care centres to big hospitals for experts to analyse them. The need to send patients reduces and the work contribution of expensive experts can be utilized more efficiently.
 

Citizen Services

Joint citizen services of authorities have been developed to secure the supply of services. The Citizen Services Act enacted in 1993 gives considerable possibilities for this. In the autumn of 1997 four ministers and the executive level of the Social Insurance Institution and the Association of Finnish Municipalities recommended expanding the Citizen Services.

Nowadays, there are over a hundred Citizen’s Offices in Finland. Their services vary from full service to consultation and distribution of applications and other forms. Citizen’s Offices are generally located in the premises of a municipality. The home page of the Citizen Services Project can be found in the following address: http://www.yhteispalvelu.intermin.fi.

Well-functioning information technology is a precondition for Citizen Services. Information systems of different government agencies have been built for the agencies’ own use and their technical solutions vary considerably. In information technology solutions of Citizen Services the basis has been that Citizen’s Offices have separate connections to government systems that have been made especially for them. These connections can also be used as a basis for self-service solutions.

A major part of the customer services deals with simple questions, picking up applications or submitting them. The basic information on citizens’ rights and duties and public services are gathered in the Citizen's Guide that has been available in the Internet since August 1997 in the following address: http://www.opas.vn.fi.

The Citizen’s Guide is a good example of networking of authorities and organisations. The Guide consists of a start page that is centrally maintained and of pages that can be found through the start page and that are maintained by different sectors. Over 50 agencies and organisations participate in developing and maintaining the Citizen’s Guide, and through it you have access to network services of over 200 municipalities.

The next stage of the Citizen’s Guide is a service where you can get different kinds of forms. The aim is to offer various forms of different authorities through the service. At first, most of the forms will be for printing, but the aim is that a form can be filled in and delivered to authorities electronically. For this purpose identification and data encryption are needed in several cases. These are being developed in a project, Electronic Identification and Electronic Citizen Card, under the guidance of the Ministry of Finance.
 

Besides an actual office or information network many services can be offered as telephone services too. The use of telephone services does not have the same kind of problems concerning accessibility of services or how to use them as information network services. Therefore, telephone services offer better coverage. The service centre of the labour administration, Työlinja (Job line), is an example of the telephone services of the public sector. The Job line offers information on job and training opportunities with a price of a local call in the whole country. The Job line is located physically in the Town of Mikkeli and is therefore an example how information networks enable placing service centers not only in big cities but elsewhere as well.
 
 

The Role of the Government in Developing the Information Society

The basis for the project, Renewal of the National Information Society Strategy, that was started by Sitra is man and his survival in a rapidly changing environment. Particularly, preventing marginalisation of people, communities and regions is one of the biggest challenges of the information society development. Participation of municipalities, regions and organisations in the development of the information society becomes more essential than Government measures.

During the last few years electronic commerce has become a significant issue in international cooperation. A good example of this is the international minister level meeting held in Bonn under the leadership of the EU at the beginning of July and OECD's conference on electronic commerce held in Turku in November. The Commission's communication on electronic commerce and a few other communications related to it are under discussion in the EU.

Electronic commerce makes new requirements for the Government's basic activities and these requirements can be met only by means of extensive international cooperation. For example, realization of equal taxation in the situation in which products can be ordered and delivered over an information network is a big problem for Finland and other countries with high taxation.

Regardless of the market forces, electronic commerce will require international agreements. Agreements are needed, for example as far as taxation, consumer protection, copyright, data protection and cryptography are concerned. There are things to do in the fields of many ministries and cooperation between them has to be increased in order to make the legal base of electronic commerce and services efficient.

The aim of the State administration is to make good use of the development of information networks and information technology in the internal activities and service production. Networking enables more flexible administration - organisation structures can be changed flexibly if necessary and the boundaries of different administrative sectors can be removed in the services if that is wanted.

Barriers of electronic business are being removed at the moment and services that support it are being developed. The need for legislation required by the digital signature are being studied under the leadership of the Ministry of Justice. There are projects concerning electronic identification, electronic documents and directory services under way. These projects will create basic infrastructure of the information society for general use.

The development of the information society will bring new challenges and opportunities for the development of regions. The Government has tried to improve operating conditions of regions by transferring tasks to Regional Councils and by concentrating services directed to the business sector into Employment and Economic Development Centres. The State regional administration's internal activities, services and connections to municipalities and companies are being developed by the project, The Information Network of the Regional Administration 2000, that was started in the autumn of 1997.