Estonian Information Society Yearbook 2011/2012

Karin Kastehein

In these two years (2011-2012) the 10th anniversary of two of the primary cornerstones of our e-State were marked in Estonia. On December 17, 2011 we celebrated the 10th anniversary of X-Road – a middleware allowing secure data exchange between different databases. By January 2012, ten years had passed from the issuing of the first ID-card in Estonia. It is a pleasure to acknowledge that the mentioned projects initiated at the end of 1990-ies have proved to be a success and a millionth digital signature was given on December 3, 2012. The yearbook also focuses on other areas of significant developments during the two recent years, such as open data, green ICT, cyber security and development of high-speed Internet. The yearbooks about Estonian information society developments are published since 1996 and can be found http://www.riso.ee/en/publications/natpublications

A brief chronology of information society 2011 – July 2012

January 2011

A survey is published by the Praxis Center for Policy Studies and the eGovernance Academy at the behest of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications regarding the possibilities of use of digital TV and mobile telephones for providing public services. http://www.riso.ee/et/files/DigiMobi_uuring_2011_final.pdf (in Estonian)

February 2011

The electronic public procurements environment is launched, consisting of an information website and public procurements register, that allows all operations related to public procurements to be conducted electronically in one place.

https://riigihanked.riik.ee

The state begins issuing mobile-ID certificates. Mobile-ID is an alternative to the ID card and enables electronic identification and digital signing by mobile phone. Mobile-ID can also be used for electronic voting at elections.

http://www.politsei.ee/et/teenused/isikut-toendavad-dokumendid/mobiil-id

(in Estonian)

Garage48 is held: over one weekend, developers of Internet services come up with public services of benefit to society. The winner is 112 Mobile – a mobile and web service that can be used to contact emergency responders without making a call. http://garage48.org/blogger/garage48-public-services-ideas-in-process

March 2011

Elections for the Riigikogu (Estonian Parliament) are held. For the fifth time, Esto-nians can vote for candidates electronically. The share of Internet voters sees continued growth, this time reaching 24.3В % of all voters. For the first time, mobile-ID is one of the options for authentication, making voting especially convenient, as no ID card reader connected to the computer is required.

http://www.vvk.ee/valijale/e-haaletamine/e-statistika (in Estonian)

The Estonian Development Fund starts the Fututuba blog devoted to future trends. Foresight experts bring readers coverage of ideas from world-leading think tanks and research centres. http://www.fututuba.ee (in Estonian)

April 2011

The Government Office adopts use of the new information system for draft legal acts (EIS), which allows bills to be tracked as they make their way toward becoming law. Documents in the information system can be retrieved and opinions on documents can be submitted during the public comment period. EIS can also be used by drafters to submit a draft legal act to the participatory website http://www.osale.ee for public comment before the endorsement process.

http://eelnoud.valitsus.ee (in Estonian)

A study conducted by the American human rights organization Freedom House ranks Estonia #1 in the world for Internet freedom. Estonia is followed by the US, Germany, Australia and Great Britain.

http://www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/freedom-net-2011

May 2011

The Estonian version of the open office software site LibreOffice meant for public use is launched, with Estonian-language user support and containing a wealth of interactive study resources. http://www.libreoffice.ee (in Estonian)

An analysis of the Riigikogu elections’ onli