Tallinn beats Estonia in "e-race"

TALLINN - Tallinn's city administration held its first e-session on Aug. 1, using a recently completed infosystem. And it is said to be superior to the famous "e-government" system for Estonia.

According to the administration's press service, Raepress, the capital's infosystem has its roots in 1999, when the officials used to share session materials with the help of the ill-famed MS Outlook. At the beginning of this year, the computer company Datel developed special software for the city that not only provided group access to the routine work materials of the mayor's office, but also enabled officials to put them online on the Tallinn city website, tallinn.ee.

The second stage of the IT reform was to create a radio (wireless) network in the city administration building at Vabaduse Square and replace desktop computers with laptops. But only the city administration's top management received laptops.

One of the main advantages of Tallinn's e-administration is that the majority of documents are being created in digital form from the very beginning, so making their usage more convenient and accessible.

That level of electronic awareness was already achieved by the national government's e-session system in August 2000. However, Tallinn city's press department claims that technologically, the e-city beats the e-state.

"But we cannot forget the difference between the tasks of the city and national governments and the volume of documents they have to process," admitted a city administration spokesperson.

The new infosystem has brought new expenses to the city budget. "The new furniture totaled 87,000 kroons ($4,915), and rent for each of the 16 laptops (they decided not to buy them) adds 10,000 kroons annually," said Vaino Olev, IT service director of city administration.

The old chairs remain due to a lack of available funds. But by October the city administration will get a new digital file management system, which will mark the completion of the whole infosystem.

The national government analog is older, though. The Estonian Government Session Infosystem, or VIIS, turned one year old on Aug. 8. The ultimate objective of VIIS is to prepare all materials digitally and reduce copying costs and delivery time.

The only thing that still weighs heavily on e-state fans' hearts is the lack of digital signature usage in Estonia. Although the law on digital signature was approved last December, the country so far has no regulations regarding the who and how of issuing the signatures to civilians and institutions.

Reet Ringo, session department head of the state chancellery, whose daily work is arranging the governmental e-sessions, said the Cabinet members have quickly got used to VIIS despite rumors that the system might prove to be too complicated for the ministers.

"The system turned out to be an indispensable tool in the everyday work of the government," she said.

Estonian officials vigorously distribute information about the e-state concept, with the latest promotion being Estonian Regional Affairs Minister Toivo Asmer's meeting with Latvian State Reform Minister Janis Krumins in Tallinn on Aug. 3, to share the Estonian experience in e-government management.