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The Information Society Programme in Greece (2000 to 2006)

By Theodora Stathoulia - October 2000

The Information Society Programme in Greece, under the 3rd Community Support Framework (Koinotiko Plaisio Stirixis), is one of the eight key actions that comprises the programme, with a total budget of 2,839.1m Euro. It is the first time the country has proceeded with the implementation of such a specific programme for the information society. Theodora Stathoulia reports.

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Five Axes

Strategies, priorities and objectives are specified under a concerted key action in which sectors, those related to education and culture, the citizen and the ‘electronic government’, the new work models in the digital economy, the telecommunications and technical support, are well integrated into the programme. The research and development actions in the country for the 2000-2006 period concerning the specific technological transformation manifest new possibilities for the Greek society. The programme action is divided into five axes:

• Axis 1: Education and culture
• Axis 2: Services for the citizen and improvement of the living conditions
• Axis 3: Development and work in the digital economy
• Axis 4: Telecommunications
• Axis 5: Technical support (take-up actions)

The main points of the strategic goals for each of the above listed axes are as follows:

Education and culture will attempt to equip, network and instruct educators and create digital content for the development of the educational system for the 21st century by the use of new technology for the documentation and advance of Hellenic culture.

Services for the citizen and improvement of the living conditions will focus on the use of information and communication technologies. It will aim to provide sufficient services for the citizen in crucial public sectors as well as the improvement of quality of life with the introduction of new technologies in the health and welfare system, the environment and transportation.

Development and work in the digital economy will establish the conditions for the transformation to the ‘new economy’ with the advance of electronic commerce, research and its link with production, training to new technologies and tele-working.

Telecommunications will further the process of market liberalization through the development of the telecommunications infrastructure in remote areas for the improvement of advanced services at low cost and many access points for the citizens.

It is of interest here to refer to some background points from the description part of the programme. From the objectives of the first axis the attention is drawn to the necessity of connecting all schools to Internet by the end of 2001. To train all educators for the use of the internet and multimedia by the end of 2002, as well as to make all school leavers ‘literate’ to digital technology by the end of 2003.

In particular, some specific indicators for the success of the programme by the end of its duration include, inter alia, the following:

• increase of internet users in higher education from 40% to 100%
• increase of the connection speed to internet from 128Kbps-8Mbps to 100 Mbps-2,5Gbps
• increase of electronic visitors to Hellenic cultural content on the internet from 200,000/month to 1,000,000/month
• increase of tele-trainers from 2,000 to 50,000

In addition, the presentation of the Information Society Programme objectives and strategic goals will be better comprehended in the particular national context if more data on the current situation in the country concerning the information society is added.

This can be better understood in the light of some important figures:

• The total contribution of the gross domestic product to information technologies and telecommunications was 4% in 1998 (while in 1992 it was a mere 2.4%). However, the annual increase of the total contribution does not suffice if Greece were to reach the average European contribution, which is 6%. This fact is clearly manifested from the use of computers in Greece. According to the most recent data (1999) only 12% of the population uses computers, while the European average is 31%.
• Internet users in Greece amounts to 5% of the population, although there has recently been a large increase in this number. Regarding e-commerce in Greece, data shows particularly poor development. The average number of safe Web servers is 0.1/100,000 inhabitants, while the European average is 0.8.
• However, the small number of PCs used in the public sector (about 15 workstations/100 employees) does not respond to the efforts and the huge investment assigned in the last years in this area, which is of social and economic importance.
• In Higher Education, networks of advanced telematic technology were developed covering the information needs of more than 1/3 of the academic community.

Education and Culture

It is interesting to examine the objectives of the first axis, on Education and culture by the end of the programme:

This axis is divided into three activities:

1. Equipment and networking for all the educational levels
2. Introduction of new technologies in the education
3. Documentation, dissemination and furthering of Greek culture

The description of the first activity presents a number of interesting objectives:

• To equip all schools and administrative units of primary and secondary education with the necessary software, networking infrastructure and audio-visual material
• To complete and advance the National Educational Network (EduNet) concerning the infrastructure and services in order to ensure that, by the end of 2006, all schools will have their own intranet (the Education Intranet)
• To provide a ‘fast’ internet for researchers and students by advancing the Greek Academic Network (GU-Net)
• To create public information centres in remote areas for young people
• To cover all expenses for the necessary infrastructure for the tele-education which will be developed on the basis of a national plan for all educational levels

Surprisingly, there is no reference to libraries at all. Even in the detailed description of the three activities there is nothing linking their objectives to libraries.

The second activity, entitled ‘introduction development of new technologies in education, recommends that all involved parts focus on the development of educational software, the training of educators and tele-education, without any reference to the role of libraries in schools.

Furthermore, the third activity of the first axis, entitled ‘Documentation, dissemination and furthering of Greek culture’, is firmly linked to the development of digital content and the documentation of Greek civilization as well as the improvement of accessible portals and information services. In order to re-enforce the interrelation of culture with other socio-economic activities, a number of proposals are listed. However, the role of the libraries is not incorporated.

The absence of libraries’ role in the Information Society Programme does not mean that libraries will not be funded. In fact, all projects in which libraries were involved, under the 2nd Community Support Framework (1995-1999) will be re-examined under the 3rd Community Support Framework for further financial support. Of course, the criteria for the new research and development activities in libraries will be tightly linked to new goals and objectives of the Information Society Programme. However, libraries in Greece have to specify their own strategic goals in order to make possible that the new programme will correspond to their needs.

The 2nd Community Support Framework gave to libraries all financial assistance needed for building new services and reconstructing the old profile to a new more advanced. For instance, 89m Euro were given to higher education libraries in Greece under the 2nd Community Support Framework (75% the european contribution and 25% the national). It is a huge amount considering the number of libraries (32) and the number of users (about 400.000).

Today, the Greek library community has to proceed to a national strategic plan, which will be incorporated, into the Information Society Programme. It is of great importance to examine the new context under the 3rd Community Support Framework in the light of knowledge and information industry’s future in relation to libraries’ future.

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Author Details

Theodora Stathoulia, Ph.D.
Information scientist
Adjunct Professor
Library School
Technological and Educational Institute of Athens
Greece

tstath@central.ntua.gr

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For citation purposes:
Stathoulia, T. "The Information Society Programme in Greece (2000 to 2006)", Cultivate Interactive, issue 2, 16 October 2000
URL: <http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue2/greece/>

Date of Article: 16 October 2000

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