LOCREGIS Regional Information Society Profiles

One of the main products of the LOCREGIS II project is the regional information society profile. This innovative product of the project combines

Ø      regional background information
Ø      regional information available in the Internet
Ø      the project database, and
Ø      the project profiling information
Ø      analysis of the region and its potential.

The inventory and evaluation of projects are thus sources of information and essential building blocks of the regional profile. Other relevant information is formed from regional background information and an analysis of the region regarding the information society development.

At the end of the LOCREGIS II project, the regional profiles cover

Ø 30 countries (besides Europe also Canada and the United States)
Ø over 400 regions.

Profiles of the partner regions form ten pilot profiles with the best available content. Also the regional profiles on the other regions of the target countries (Austria, Finland and Sweden) are covering the main information. Other regional profiles are subproducts of the project with less covering information.

The regional information society profiles signify the change in focus that has taken place between the projects LOCREGIS I and II: while LOCREGIS I concentrated on projects, their inventory and evaluation, LOCREGIS II has focused its attention more directly on the regions themselves and their profiling. This change in focus is also evident in the development that has taken place in the project database and the tools.

Goal, uses and users

The goal of developing the information society regional profiles has been to create an objective tool that can provide as reliable a picture as possible of a region with regard to its information society development in the European information society landscape.

The potential uses or applications of the LOCREGIS regional information society profile are varied. In general, the profile can help placing a region and its information society development on the map of all other European regions. But it is also possible to use the profile as a tool for monitoring EU programming periods and their results in regions. The information society profile can be used as a tool in assessing the development of a region against itself, or other similar regions. The profile can also be used to provide a view of the extent to which given sectors in the region have been covered as far as information society development and projects go and also the extent to which the implementation of the ideas and projects has been innovative. The profile also provides information on what actors have been active and which ones less active in the region’s information society projects. Finally, the LOCREGIS database can be used as a marketing tool for the region or for finding new project partners and learning from the ways other regions have solved particular problems.

The potential users of the regional information society profiles are

Ø      regional decision makers and developers
Ø      local and regional authorities
Ø      project managers
Ø      financiers, and
Ø      enterprises seeking new locations.

The regional information society profile has been described as an especially useful tool and source of inspiration or ideas and examples by regional developers in the CEE countries who are planning regional information society strategies and developing information society projects in their regions.

Content

The LOCREGIS information society regional profile is formed from the following elements:

Ø      Regional background information
Ø      Regional Information in Internet (like tourism portals)
Ø      Project database
Ø      Project profiling information
Ø      Analysis of the region and its potential

Automatic data for the regional profile is obtained from:

Ø Population density

o Database includes the population and area of the most regions. The information is based on the Eurostat database.

Ø      GNP per capita
Ø      Number of projects
Ø      List of the projects
Ø      Results of the project profiling (LOCREGIS best practice criteria)
Ø      Number of projects according to EU funding source
Ø      Shares of transregional and international projects
Ø      Main sectors active in the region
Ø      Main partner regions
Ø      Main organizations participating in the project

In the last version of the profiles the possibility to “monitor” and compare the development on the both programming periods 1994-1999 and 2000-2006.

The last part of the profile consists of a written analysis of the situation of the region regarding its information society development.

Strengths and weaknesses of the profile

As a particular strength of the LOCREGIS information society regional profile can be mentioned the automatic accumulation of data mentioned above. A new or updated project has immediate effects on the whole of the regional profile. It can be expected that the more the database is updated, the more accurate the picture of the region as far as its information society development goes is.

There are, however, some weaknesses to be dealt with in this system. First of all, the database (and regional information society profile) can only be as accurate and reliable as the information that is fed into it. This means that already on the level of providing information on projects to the database, the persons in charge of this work should be aware of the need to feed as accurate information on all figures and details as possible. Sometimes this information is not easy to obtain.

Second of all, as the regional profile also built on information derived from the project profiling, this work should be done by persons who are familiar with the individual projects in the region.

And finally, the written analysis of the region and its potential requires specific overall know-how about the region and its information society development.