The county data communications target program "KülaTee" (Village Road, further KülaTee) is a program in the field of information technology, initiated in co-operation of county governments, Department of State Information Systems of the State Chancellery and Estonian Informatics Centre. KülaTee is one of the programs of the Estonian Information Policy Action Plan and has been included by the Government of the Republic among the programs preferably developed in the years 2000 and 2001.
Developing of the program
Already in 1995 the IT managers of county governments, in co-operation
with the Department of State Information Systems of the State Chancellery,
were dealing with the problem, how to realize the data managing model
with the help of contemporary data communication networks, so as to
ensure the formation of a data exchange infrastructure and possibilities to
use the data communication services to all public institutions in the county.
At the end of 1997 it could be stated, that the need and the readiness for
KülaTee were present. As a result of a joint project analysing the data
management of county governments it became evident, that 60% of the
functions of county governments are directed to local governments and
90% of the processed information is located in communes and towns. Also,
the new development schedules of general national and state registers
provided a digital data exchange between different levels of the register and
persons submitting data. As a result of implementation of the project
"PeaTee"
the data communications backbone network —
EEBone
— of
governmental agencies already existed
(see
article 1.1).
In 1998 discussions were started to clarify the possibilities of creation of a
county data communications service for all local governments. As a final
objective was defined the linking of information systems of local
governments with public administration information systems on the central
level. For this purpose it was necessary to ensure co-operation possibilities
for organizations, geographically located separately from each other, thus
for all governmental agencies in the counties and local governments to
provide the conditions for using services of the data communications
infrastructure.
The State Chancellery in its letter to the Ministry of Finance seconded the
proposal to include into the state budget for 1999 funds for financing the
county data communication program in the value of 15.1 mill. EEK,
bearing in mind the disposition of these funds in the IT expenses of county
governments as sums for specific purposes. As a result of this the needed
assignments were included into the 1999 state budget, the final amount
after the approval of the budget being 10,6962 mill. EEK.
Goals and strategy of the program
The aim of KülaTee is the development of data communications services in
country areas. Under special attention of the program are the local
governments, since these are the primary levels of data compiling and
institutions offering direct services to the citizen. Therefore the goal is fixed
to fit out all local governments with data communication connections. But
the target group of the program is not confined only to the local
governments. Every local government can decide which users can be taken
along to the target group.
To achieve the goals of KülaTee a consolidation of different target groups
is necessary. For this purpose in the counties working groups, consisting of
representatives of different parties concerned have been created. To a
working group belong: a representative of the county "Tiger-Leap"
working
group, a county representative of EENet; a representative of the county
government (as a rule the IT manager of the county), representatives of
local governments and local entrepreneurship.
The working groups elaborate an organizational scheme for solving
problems of data communications. Thanks to this, co-operation between
different concerned parties increases and opportunities and means are used
more expediently.
The building up of the infrastructure of data communications is arranged
through the ordering of services. Since to the creation of infrastructure
contribute local IT-companies, the realization of the project acts at the same
time as a catalyst to the development of entrepreneurship in the country.
Investments by the state induce long-term co-investments by companies
(e.g. the co-investments of Eesti Telefon to setting up the data
communications infrastructure). In case of a well-developed infrastructure
the rendering of data communication services becomes cheaper, and this in
turn brings along an increase in the number of users.
In the course of the program schemes of financing for different users and
for different functions are elaborated, keeping in view the principle, that the
end user pays for the service. The previous experience is collected and
distributed anew and training of users organized.
Managing structure of KülaTee
In managing and co-ordinating the KülaTee program two levels can be
distinguished — the county and the medium level.
County level
On county level for the carrying out of the program the county co-ordinator
is responsible. In addition to this in the county an advisory KülaTee
working group is formed, to which representatives of different target groups
and experts belong. Since the representatives of the county level know best
the local conditions and opportunities, this level has the final right of
judgement.
Medium level
The aim of the medium level is co-ordination of county working groups,
representation of the program, organizing co-operation with different
institutions and companies and elaboration of the strategy. In the strategic
management of the program the KülaTee Program Council is engaged, to
where on the one hand the representatives of different government IT and
data communications programs belong and on the other hand the
representatives of target groups of the program. The medium level activities
are organized by the project manager, who operates as an acting officer in
realizing the set up by the Program Council objectives. The project
manager is accountable to the Program Council.
Financing
The direct sources of financing of the program are the state budget and the
financial assignments of local governments. Indirectly co-finance the
KülaTee IT-companies because to the building up of infrastructure they
mostly take along quite a large amount of their own resources. The
financial assets of the program are used only in the interests of development
of infrastructure, current expenses must be covered by the users of services
themselves. The diagram below
(Figure 1.5.)
depicts the financing of the
program in 1999. The table shows the amounts of money applied for from
the budgets of each county, the assigned sums, and the final remainders
after the approval of the budget of saving. The sums are shown in
thousands of kroons per local government (LG). The column
"Application/LG" shows the sum applied by the county per one unit of local
government, the column "Assigned/LG" marks the sum assigned in the
state budget law per one unit of local government, and the column
"Remainder/LG" shows the sum left to the county per one unit of local
government after adopting of the budget of saving.
Activities
The foremost performance in launching the program was the
carrying out of an initial study in every county. In the course of
it, the institutions in need of data communications were
charted, the present situation in data communications in the
county and the possibilities of further development were found
out. The initial study served as a basis for the drawing up of a
development plan of the data communications infrastructure of
the county. In this plan the action plan was depicted — when
and which institutions should be supplied with a data
communications connection. In most of the counties also
requirements were elaborated, to which a county government
must conform so as a data communications connection could
be offered to it. Of the county government the existence of a
local network was assumed (otherwise it would be more
reasonable to use an Internet dial-up service), also the
existence of an IT specialist (or a contractual maintenance
service).
The necessity of the program was acknowledged also by Eesti Telefon (the
only company, possessing all-Estonian backbone network of
communications cables), which, in the KülaTee
program framework,
established special prices for the rent of data communications channels,
which were lower than the prices applied to commercial clients, and what
was most important, the price did not depend on the physical length of the
data communications channel. This price, nevertheless, was considered too
high by many counties, and in every possible case attempts were made to
find alternative solutions. The development of data communications in
counties, the possibilities and financial assets were very different and
therefore very different variants of solutions were developed both in
physical build-up of infrastructure and in the choice of management
organization.
In the overwhelming majority of counties there were no sufficiently
developed data communications companies (except Eesti Telefon), which
could have been capable to take on the setting up and maintenance of
permanent connections and offer data communications services to the
client. Therefore the building up of data communications channels and
supplying of equipment was mostly arranged directly by the county
government or then by local governments. In counties, where a powerful
company offering data communications services was present
(e.g. Lääne
County), or it was decided to use the service offered by
Eesti Telefon (Võru
County), the data communications were ordered as a service (i.e. a
servicing contract with the data communications company was concluded
and the building up and maintenance of the infrastructure was left to the
provider of the service). An alternative to this was the direct supplying of
equipment. In that case the maintenance of equipment and the data
communications channel was ordered directly by the local government, or
the creation of a foundation for maintenance and development of the
formed infrastructure was planned.
Since the financing was very different by counties, also the achievement of
the main goal — providing all local governments with a data
communications connection — turned out to be very different. The
achievement of goals is characterized by the following bar chart
(Figure 1.6.).
In it by counties the percentage of local governments which have data
communication connections at the beginning and at the end of the year is
presented.
Future
As a result of the implementing of the target program the organizational
structure and the financial scheme of paying for the data communications
services will be worked out. In counties providers of services are
developed. The development of infrastructure brings along a cheapening of
the data communications service and the buying of services becomes
feasible also to small enterprises and private persons.
A well-developed infrastructure enables progress of other programs of the
information society — a state information system in local governments,
remote working and training, Virtual State etc. All these programs in turn
promote life in country places and contribute to the diminishing of
inequality between the development of towns and countryside. Summing up
one can say — the KülaTee
acts as a catalyst to the development of country
life.
Figure 1.5.
