Open (source) aspects for realising an information society vision of Hungary

When preparing the attached document actually we were trying to answer the following questions. Under what conditions will IT be capable of meeting the challenge of modernising our society? The carrying out of what tasks the masterminds and organisations representing Inforum do consider to be essential for reducing the lagging behind of our country? The gap between Hungary and the developed states of the Union started to widen again, and the nightmare of a two-speed Europe became reality. Modernisation is a key task due to this as well.

In our vision there is a Hungary, a country which is able to surpass its past, which recognises that it has to step on the path of accumulation, profit generation, and becoming wealthier in order to be able to efficiently improve the quality of life of its citizens. A country, where success is not a disgrace, but a measure of profit and talent, and where jealousy will not be the main characteristic of our nation. A country, where for expressing an opinion, for creating a cultural masterpiece nobody has to be afraid neither from any political force, nor from any tax office, nor from any economic interest community. We would like: our country to start on its way on the path of knowledge, abilities, environment, culture, and honouring and appreciating the individuals and ownership. And this requires a significant civilisation and cultural shift.

Hungary has to find its place in Europe. It has to find the answer to the following questions: which will be the area, where our country will be the leading state of Europe, and which will be the production or service segment, where we may become leaders. The answer of Inforum is the following. Hungary cannot afford to invest today into immovable that do not produce material benefits directly. It can afford to invest only into people, export capable production, domestic services attractive to (foreign) consumers, which may be also very well promoted through the international media. Hungary, a state of healing power, a state that improves the quality of life, thanks to its spas, attracts tourists, it encourages higher quality services, it dictates a cleaner environment, it encourages development in the area of creativity, innovation, high and adult education, information technology, high level medical education, pharmaceutical industry, tourism and our civilisation norms. It cannot be forgotten that as a result of the ageing of the European Union the European Commission set the target of “ageing well” for the developers of the IT companies, and it supports, promotes and funds this target. Should Hungary miss this opportunity? Our small country may become the paradise of healing in Europe, the wellness-centre of Europe, the central research site of sciences that deal with ageing and the improvement of the quality of life.

No matter which path Hungary will choose, Hungarian Information Technology has to support its movement along its selected path. It is our joint interest: we are living here, we are raising our children here, we are paying our taxes here, and once we shall be buried here. But being aware of the global strength and the global role of IT, it is painful to see that Hungary dismisses enormous resources that are allocated to modernisation, economy development and efficiency improvements, when Hungary responds to IT challenges with delay, with the lack of trust or in certain cases with absurdly small amounts of support. And this raises the responsibility of politics. There is no evidence supporting that Hungarian politics as a whole understood the economy and society shaping essence of IT, in spite of the eight – civil and governmental – IT strategies that have been prepared since 1994. Seeing only the triumvirate of PCs, text editors and an obscure and threatening internet image, the politicians have not recognised yet that the key to governmental, local governmental modernisation, the reduction of bureaucracy, increasing the productivity of the economy, promoting primarily societal (digital) equal opportunities, solidarity and general improvements is destroyed by the accumulation of postponed tasks not taken seriously. Declaring the slogan “become wealthier” requires targets, methods and means, and in this regard Information Technology is a partner. In the areas of politics and governance there are only very few people, who do really see and do really understand the importance of the role of IT. People who are really committed to modernisation are the members of the e-Inclusion Committe of the Hungarian Parliament, the colleagues of the Electronic Government Centre, and some outstanding managers from among the bureaucrats of the National Development Agency.

The world is built on networks: on human, economic, communication contacts. Hungary cannot break out of these. Moreover, it has to build its international integration further in order to have a market for Hungarian services, and to have resources for the improvement of the quality of life. The presence of the international companies in Hungary ensures a contact, it ensures knowledge transfer, which may connect the domestic small and medium sized enterprises to the international circulation until they will be strengthened and they will be able to follow their own growth path. The purpose of supporting the domestic enterprises could be to make them capable of producing profit in the international arena.

The IT and communication technologies cannot be considered to be only services or public utilities. This structural approach has been already negated by time: the info-communication means and services are means for ensuring economic competitiveness and expansion, for increasing organisational efficiency, for renewing civilisation and ensuring social cohesion. The development and spreading of info-communication is not a particular task, but a central and strategic issue, it is the cornerstone of the development of the national economy. Therefore, it should be supported that all the state tasks of the info-communication sector be concentrated in one hand, within one ministry or the office of the prime minister in such a manner that it should also take care of the information and modernisation control of the activities of the other ministries as well.

In the summer of 2009, without generating any real echo, the IT profession prepared a proposal package containing the following tasks:

• Simplification of the administration procedure of state administration and governance.
• Further development of the steering, financial and management systems of health care, labour and pension-disbursal.
• Assisting the domestic development workshops and companies to international markets.
• Provision of IT training and assets for people above the age of 50: digital involvement of at least 1 million persons from this society group.
• Strengthening the utilisation of IT in the area of public and high education and in the area of adult and vocational training.
• Accelerating the online, e-commerce presence of the companies not only on the domestic market, but on the international markets as well.
• It is necessary to support Hungarian companies in appearing with an increasing number of health care and life quality IT products and services.
• Continuously updated presence on the world wide web of the settlements, local services, local tourism and the interactive character of this presence have to be strengthened in as many languages as possible.
• It is necessary to establish the basis of accessing each settlement of the country through wideband internet.
• It is indispensible to further deregulate the legal provisions and to reduce bureaucracy, to execute the existing legal provisions that involve IT and societal modernisation.

Inforum participated in this work. However, according to Inforum it is possible to phrase a newer, more compact summary of the activities that are to be done. According to the opinion of Inforum the key issue of the development of the information society is the improvement of the quality of life, and the key issue of developing the information economy is the increasing of market and profit. Fortunately these two areas are closely interrelated with each other. A primary task is to dynamically develop governmental and public administration IT systems, domestic and foreign market growth, education, and the digital inclusion of the disadvantaged social groups.

Inforum sees two development directions that may be followed by domestic IT. These two directions are related to each other, although they are built on different logics. One of them is the direction of developing the profit focused information economy and the other direction is the development of the quality-of-life focused society.

Profit focused developments and tasks to be carried out for developing the information economy:

1. Supporting export oriented developments
2. Expansion of the internal market
3. Long term investments
4. Development of electronic services
5. Establishment of comprehensive information rights, rethinking of copyrights, development of e-democracy

Quality-of-life focused developments and tasks to be done for establishing the information society and digital equal opportunities:

1. Information Society Inclusion
2. User-focused services
3. Digital culture, digital values
4. Civil-governmental-entrepreneurial-scientific co-operation
5. Taking over the European best practices, closing the gap

The above task groups are described in more detail in the attached (ppt) document.

These tasks have to be implemented in order to be able to catch up with the speed with which the countries of the European Union are rushing ahead of us. Hungary was not able to meet even the recommendations of the EU ministerial conference of Riga, which included accessible websites and the reduction of the digital divide to 50 % by 2008. However, the e-Inclusion movement initiated by Inforum in year 2007 made our lagging behind and our deficiencies obvious to everybody. At the end of 2009 a newer EU ministerial conference organised in Visby in Sweden already set the next generation of distant tasks for the next ten years (EU ICT policy strategy: Visby Agenda). This all happened at a time when Hungary had not achieved yet the previous goals. They defined these tasks based on the „Green Knowledge Society” study as follows:

1. 1. The knowledge economy: driver of future wealth
2. 2. The knowledge society: participation for all
3. 3. Green ICT: support for an eco-efficient economy
4. 4. Next generation infrastructure: balancing investment with competition
5. 5. Soft infrastructure: investing in social capital
6. 6. SMEs and ICT: supporting Europe’s small enterprises
7. 7. A single information market: enabling cohesion and growth
8. 8. Revolutionising eGovernment: rethinking delivery of public services
9. Online trust: a safe and secure digital world
10. Clear leadership: rethinking the EU’s policy making process

The IT development policy directions of Hungary and of the European Union are identical. However, it can be seen that Hungary needs more resources for catching up with those in the front (or at least with those, who are in the middle of the pack). It is a mistake to wait in vain for the EU to reduce its speed because of us. Therefore there is nothing else left, but we must also increase our speed. The tasks listed in the attached PPS file represent an effort made for this end.

Open (source) aspects for realising an information society vision of Hungary (details) PPT

Hungary, Information Technology, 2010, PDF

Gábor Dombi

Secretary General
Forum of Hungarian IT Organizations for Information Society (Inforum)

Gabor Dombi, Inforum, Hungary

The recently accessed EU countries expected a sudden improvement in their welfare, the continued democratisation of politics, and their integration into the Western culture. This did not happen, because the local powers were unable to attain the new civilisation level due to their cultural traditions. Therefore the EU institutions should establish partnerships not only with governments, but also with those non-governmental organisations, opinion forming entities that are committed towards European values, Union efforts, and local progress.

In South and East Europe still the most important task would be the realisation of a comprehensive information society and economy. The objectives of the 2006 Ministerial Conference of Riga have not been achieved either, the digital divide was not reduced by 50 per cent. The many and articulated “ageing well” calls also remained without any echo in this region. Wideband regional access, awareness raising campaigns, education and content service are all missing especially for the elderly (50+), the poor, and the rural inhabitants. In the lack of money the national e-Inclusion programs have not been completed, while the more developed Europe is already ready to take the next step. In Hungary, Inforum (Forum of the Hungarian IT Organizations for Information Society) a non governmental umbrella organisation, initiated that the Hungarian Parliament should issue a Parliamentary Decree, and uniquely in Europe it should establish a Parliamentary Committee for solving the problems of e-Inclusion. Soon the Parliamentary Committee faced that only civil organisations committed towards modernisation do hear its call, the state institutions do not. According to the opinion of Inforum significant resources and European support for the local civil forces would be required for modernisation, in order to achieve that the majority of all the classes of the society should become users of the digital world. Fewer declaration and more direct contacts between the competent DGs and the organisations would be needed, and an increasing number of Union tenders could contribute to the success of the local initiatives.

Inforum since 1997 considers it to be its task to achieve that IT be widely used by the society. Inforum in the interest of spreading digital literacy throughout the society through the publication of books, a series of intergeneration events (Grandchild-Grandparent IT Competitions: 2003 – …), by setting up a user protection office (Inforum-Infomediátor, 2004), a user supporting portal (50plusz.NET, 2008) and the establishment of a knowledge base (eInclusion.hu, 2007) assists the spreading of the information society and equal opportunities. In year 2007 Inforum initiated in Hungary the e-Inclusion Movement, and in year 2008 it launched the Digital Hungary Spring event series. Inforum actively participated in the establishment of the Office of the IT Commissioner (2000), the IT and Telecommunication Committee of the Hungarian Parliament (2000), the Ministry of IT and Telecommunication (2002), and the Special Parliamentary Committee for e-Inclusion (2008). In year 2009 Inforum prepared its first education film series, which introduces through 30 steps the use of computers, the internet and online services. Inforum recently published its new study: „Open points of view to new Strategy of Information Society: Standard of Living and Profit”. The European Community acknowledged the work of Inforum by awarding it an eInclusion Gold Medal in 2008.

What could be the real message of the e-skills week in the year of societal solidarity? e-skills is a part of the European e-Inclusion policy. For this reason it would be a mistake if the e-skills week would only address the enterprises. The ultimate target is to win the consumers. The consumers may be served at an increasingly higher civilisation level, and this can be achieved with training the service providers and the consumers. It would be important that service providers should not only care about the rich clients, but they should see the market opportunity in people living with disadvantages, in the elderly and in people living in rural regions. The enterprises have to participate in exploring the market and training the consumers. NGOs represent an example with their responsible behaviour and actions as regards changing the attitude of the companies, achieving a more global governmental approach, and the training of the consumers. Therefore NGOs are the key to the success of the European programs and the e-skills week.

Gabor Dombi
Inforum, Hungary

Around 100 nominations have been submitted from 24 countries including countries outside Europe like United States, Australia, Syrian Arab Republic in the area of e-Accessibility and inclusive ICT, all of them of remarkable significance, that have been evaluated and 19 finalists have been selected for the four ACCESS-IT awards and 42 additional nominations have received the label of ACCESS-IT 2009 good practice label.

All finalists will be rewarded at the ACCESS-IT 2009 event ceremony on the 23^rd Sept, and we would encourage anyone involved in the area of e-Accessibility and Assistive Technlogy to attend this unique event. Participation is free and there are still some places left but you need to register as soon as possible at www.access-it-events.org/2009_registration.php if you haven’t done so. As a recipient of the ACCESS-IT 2009 label, you will have the opportunity also to disseminate material about your project Grandparent-Grandchild Competition of Informatics.

For more info on the event agenda, please check http://www.access-it-events.org/2009_access_it_agenda.php .

Kind regards

Nikolaos Floratos

E-ISOTIS Business Development Director

Pannon Példakép Foundation has announced its Példakép award winners for the nineteenth time. The board of trustees of the Foundation selects role models quarterly in predetermined categories. In the third quarter of 2009, they sought champions of social inclusion. Awardees include Barbara Czeizel, Head of the Centre for Early Development, Tibor Derdák, teacher and sociologist, and Gábor Dombi, grassroots lobbyist.

Social inclusion is one the most important yet most challenging tasks of the 21st century when a significant number of people are segregated from the majority in terms of race, geography, financial standing, culture or health condition. The social inclusion of these people should be promoted by all members of society bearing in mind that you should never force a minority group to adopt the majority culture. Based on their daily activities and commitment, Pannon’s new award winners provide a role model for social inclusion.

The Foundation established in 2004 rewards those whose work can be presented as a role model for Hungarian society. Award winners are selected by the board of trustees of the Foundation based on open nominations. ‘Everyday heroes’ differ from ordinary people only in that they have been able to achieve their goals through relentless commitment and dedication. The Foundation also supports the work of each role model financially, to the sum of HUF 1 million.

New role models of Hungary:

Barbara Czeizel, founder and Head of the Budapest Centre for Early Development. Treating about 500 children every year, the facility provides complex diagnostics services and targeted development and therapy to families with disabled children.

Tibor Derdák, teacher and sociologist, teaches at Doktor Ámbédkar Grammar School of Sajókaza established to promote the social inclusion of Roma youth. He has launched several Roma talent programmes and contributed to the establishment of Gandhi Secondary Grammar School for the gypsy minority. His guiding principle is to create a relationship of trust based on the values of the local community.

Gábor Dombi, secretary general of NGO Infórum. Infórum aims to bridge the digital divide between generations, promote the benefits of the information society and help the digital inclusion of people over 50 years of age (through the www.50plusz.net portal).

It is a challenging time for all of us, and I think we can all agree that we desperately need the example of role models. These examples show us that we need courage to envision change, strength to drive it through unforeseen obstacles, and compassion to carry out deeds benefitting not only one person but entire communities and even nature itself. The Példakép Foundation for the last five years has been here to help the people who bring about change and who show us another facet of growth. The growth in human dignity, in caring for our community and nature, and the wealth of Hungarian people who serve as examples to all of us.” – said Anders Jensen, CEO of Pannon.

The prize winners’ reports can be read on the ‘Példakép’ blog at http://blog.peldakep.hu For further information on the Foundation please visit www.peldakep.hu. In Q4 2009, Pannon Példakép Foundation invites nominations for candidates still little known in Hungary working to improve the conditions and results of Hungarian sports. Candidates can be athletes, coaches or other people of high ethical standards who played an important role in elevating the standards of any kind of sport to a high level in Hungary.

About Pannon

Pannon is one of Hungary’s leading mobile operators. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Telenor Group of Norway, Pannon was established in 1994 and it soon developed a strong presence in Hungary. By the end of Q4 2008, Pannon had 3.731 million active subscriptions and a market share of 33.9%. Besides voice services, Pannon’s business is increasingly dominated by mobile Internet. In addition to its EDGE network available to 99% of Hungary’s population for e-mail and browsing, Pannon is continuously developing its 3G/HSDPA network offering the highest mobile data transfer rates. The 3G/HSPDA network is currently available in 419 towns and villages across Hungary. Pannon is a leader also in the Hungarian CR landscape: its corporate responsibility initiatives include the annual CR Day, Pannon Példakép Foundation, support for public causes, as well as arts and sports sponsorship.

About Telenor Group

Telenor is one of Norway’s largest listed companies, with revenues of NOK 105 billion in 2007 (including Kyivstar). Telenor Group has more than 35 800 employees, with 25 600 outside Norway. Telenor Group is a leading company in Norway within telecommunications, data services and media distribution and has extensive international operations, especially within mobile communication. Telenor is listed on Oslo Børs. Read more about Telenor at www.telenor.com.

Growth comes from truly understanding the needs of people to drive relevant change.
8 September 2009

The “Online Grandparent – Grandchild IT Competition” intends to draw the whole Hungarian society’s and decision-maker’s attention to the inclusion in the Information Society of the population aged above 50. Grandchildren can have a key role in the inclusion process by teaching their grandparents how to use a computer and the Internet.

In Hungary, out of 10 million inhabitants, 4 million people are over 50.  The rate of Internet-users within the group of the above 50 barely reaches 16 % and it is only 6 % within the age group above 60. While this generation could really benefit from the help that the Internet provides, such as access to information, to networks (social life), to eBusiness and so on, they unfortunately do not use it.

The competition is a call not to deal with the elderly issue as a merely socio-political issue, but as a question of quality of life. Inforum calls for the children’s help, asking them to take grandparents through the gate of the Information Society.

Inforum has been successfully organising the “Grandparent – Grandchild IT Competition” since 2003. This awareness raising program was awarded with the “Aging Well Award” by the European Commission in 2008.

The test of the competition has been made available (in Hungarian) at www.50plusz.net between 24 March and 1 May 2009. The 120 short listed pairs of competitors will be invited to the final championship which will take place in Budapest on 10 May 2009. The winners will be awarded with presents provided by supporters from the ICT field.

Published in: ePractice.eu

Is Hungary rich enough to write off the larger half of the population of active age and to preclude them from the information society? In the age of the internet does the society have the right to open “digital infinity” only for the children, the young people, people with high education, high income, and the inhabitants of cities, and to direct the elderly, the people living in remote villages, the poor, and the less educated to a modern “societal Taygetus”? In our age the basis of getting information is the electric media, and the terrain of societal communication is the internet; and the internet will be more and more the terrain of working and exercising the citizen rights as well. Therefore, can the country allow itself to erect prohibitive barriers for several million people with such reasons likethat they are too old to learn; they live too far for accessing the internet; they are too stupid to learn the skills of the age? Thus, do we have the right to preclude thate generation from which we could otherwise learn as well?

Approaching the end of the Year of e-Inclusion, we think we have the right to raise our word and say that modern outlawing cannot be forced upon 50 percent of the population of the country.

Inforum (the Forum of Hungarian IT Organisations for Information Society) published in year 2000 its call named Hungarian Charter of Information Technology prepared by the professional community, which declared among othersalso stated that the chance of getting acquainted with the internet should be provided for people in disadvantageous situations and the elderly. Eight years have gone by, and the number of internet users above the age of 50, which was around ten thousand at that time, has increased to half a million by today, but still 5 million of our fellow-countrymen (above the age of 18) do not know how to use the internet. Although the ratio of internet avoiders decreased, but not at a significant rate: the ratio of people exprecluded from the information society is decreasing annually with only less than 4 percentage points. It is a very sad fact that close to 50 percent of the digitally illiterate are 60 years old or older, and 68 percent of them are inactive.

Present report deals primarily with the elder generation, since in Hungary – in addition to the very unfavourable employment and labour market indices – we have to face first of all the problem of the rapidly aging society. We will also present examples,. butHowever, since Europe struggles with the very same problem, it would be worthwhile if the economic and governmental decision makers of Hungary would get acquainted with the best practices of the EU and at least with the political trendsdirections of the European Union.

At present there are close to 4 million inhabitants over the age of 50 living in Hungary, and from those who are of the age that is still employed (between the ages of 50-64) only each third is working. In Hungary the ratio of active workers hardly exceeds 60 percent of the adult age population, which is an unprecedentedly low ratio even among the EU member states. 62.1 percentsons of the people between the ages of 15-64 appear on the labour market and 57.3 percent of them isare employed. According to the data that are published by Eurostat, while the rate of unemployment was 6.8 percent in the member states of the EU27 in August 2008, in Hungary it was 7.7 percent.

The digital literacy level of the employees is also very unfavourable. In 2006 while 51 percent of the employees of the Union used the internet, in Hungary only 29 percent. More than 40 percent of the domestic employees do not have any computer skills knowledge.

In Hungary the groups that are most in need of assistance from the aspect of e-Inclusion are those, who are older than 50 years, the pensioners, the unemployed people, people with low education and people living in smaller settlements, the poor. These groups can be considered to be fully excluded from the information society.

We may see that in the last couple of years openness towards the internet has increased not only in the Hungarian society as a whole, but it is true for the age groups above 50 as well. But even within this societal group there is a huge gap along the border of societal status, education level, income. People with high education, who met computers at their workplaces, the groups of higher income can be easier persuaded to use the internet. On the other side those members of these age groups, who are in more disadvantageous situation socially are in need of significant and real assistance, and serious programs.

Unfortunately already the side-wind of the credit and financial crisis was sufficient for Hungary to direct the “vehicle” of the country into the emergency lane. But it is possible to turn this into an advantage, if the country will accelerate – compared to everything else – the execution of the so far postponed societal modernisation programs, the transformation of the structure of the labour market, the development of the adult training system, the dynamic increasing of employment, and especially if – meeting the requirements of ourthe age – the country will make internet the joint basis of communication for everybody.

The first e-Inclusion Report outlined an overall status quo, and it formulated an action plan. The implementation of the action plan still requires time,. oOnly one point was performed from it: the theory and concept of e-inclusion started on its way to conquer. In the report of this year we have defined the status quo in a more differentiated way, and we have reported those processes that have been started in Hungary. The second e-Inclusion report not only raises attention towards the gaps, but it already introduces the opportunities and the good practises as well. Between November 2007 and the end of 2008 the Hungarian civil organisations continued a heroic struggle to persuade the representatives of the decision makers, the governmental actors, the companies and the media about the importance of overcoming the digital divide through acts, and about the societal, economic, governmental, life quality and mental hygienic advantages that may be achieved by widely spreading the internet. This effort was initiated and it was also partially organised by Inforum. Inforum succeeded in persuading the representatives of the five Parliamentary parties to stand behind the issue, and concerning the need to bring Parliamentary Resolutions and to establish a Parliamentary Committee should be established for solving this problem. Inforum succeeded in mobilising the civil organisations,, whwhoich tried to exercise a stronger pressure in their own operation areas. It succeeded in persuading some high level governmental officers as regardsto see the benefit that is offered by the increasing number of the users of online governmental services. The Hungarian Parliament, relatively late in time, on October 6, declared that 2008 to be is the year of e-Inclusion. However, such declarations were not made at all by other European Parliaments. The mandate and resoluteness of the established e-Inclusion Ad Hoc Parliamentary Committee is till May 2010. The news of the e-Inclusion event series reached the media only slowly. No success was achieved in mobilising the decisive majority of the Hungarian IT companies, in spite of the fact that in the economic sense the issue is exactly about the expansion of their markets. The enterprises that stood behind the issue were mostly the Hungarian representations of international companies.

Something has started in Hungary. If the enthusiasm of the civil organisations will not decline, if they will find supporters, if the Hungarian economy will not collapse, if a couple of such development programs will be started that will finance the internet training and attention raising of the people involved, then maybe the plan to connect one million new internet users to the information society in Hungary could be realised, and the majority of them could be from the group of people of disadvantageous situations. It can be already seen that the one million users to be connected cannot be involved till the end of 2010, but maybe by the end of 2011 they can be. The European e-Inclusion policies contain several outbreaking points for Hungary. It is depending on the governmental actors and the enterprises whether they will live with the opportunities that are offered by the Union and the situation. The civil organisations performing beyond their strength and the Parliamentary politicians did their task and they will continue doing so.

In Hungary about 50 percent of the population of the age of 18 and above, wasis digitally illiterate in 2008,, that is, they weit does notre not useing neither computers, nor the internet. TAlthough this ratio decreased in the recent years,, but not atwith a significant rate. The ratio of those excluded from the information society has been decreasinges with only less than 4 percent points each year. It is an unfavourable fact that close to 50 percent of the digitally illiterate are 60 years old or older, and 68 percent of them are inactive .

Our annual report focuses primarily on the older generation, since Hungary has to fight in addition to its very unfavourable employment and labour market indices primarily with the problem of the rapidly aging society in the coming years.

At present there are close to 4 million older than 50 years inhabitants living in Hungary. 16 percent of this generation used internet, and among them the ratio of regular (with at least one week regularity) users is close to 60 percent. The profile of the typical older than 50 years world wide web citizen is similar to the typical (average) internet user’s profile: he/she has higher education, he/she works, he/she is intellectually active, he/she lives in a multi-personal household, has a higher income, therefore old age internet usage is characteristically influenced by these factors in Hungary. The gender of the internet user is not a significant influencing factor of internet usage.

The information society of the elderly in Hungary in 2008:

The members of the 50+ age group got acquainted with the internet at the age of 53 on the average, but there are also people, who started to learn the basis at the age of 87. The elder age group mostly browses, reads email, reads news, searchesand searches/checks things when using the internet.

In the case of the older people not using the internet the reasons of staying away is mostly cognitive type of reasons (not interested, do not need it), and not financial type of reasons.

Unfortunately from among the people between the age of 50 and- 64 years old,unfortunately o only each third is working,. and Iif we examine the active people from the aspect of the labour market (both employees and entrepreneurs), then their computer and internet usage indices are close to the average of the population as a whole.

In Hungary the ratio of active workers hardly exceeds 60 percent of the adult age population, which is an unprecedentedly low value even among the EU member states. 62 percent of people of the age 15-64 years old appeared on the labour market, and 57 percent of them wereas employed. According to the data published by Eurostat the unemployment rate was 6.8 % in the member states of the EU27 in August 2008, while in Hungary it was 7.7 percent.

Unfortunately the level of the digital literacy of employees is also very unfavourable. 51 percent of the employees of the Union used the internet in year 2006, while in Hungary only 29 percent of them.

The full report can download here

This website collects and updates news, documents and events in the field of e-Inclusion on Hungarian and international (mainly European Union) level. The site follows and documents the work of the Temporary e-Inclusion Parliamentary Committee. The site also collects organizations which are aiming at closing the digital gap.

Thank you!

History of eInclusion Year and Movement in Hungary, 2008

If you would like to view this movie on your DVD player send us a e-mail with your adress and you could get this documentary free.

25′ Documentary
Inforum, 2008

Preface

Villages, communities, people.

Everywhere things are different. Everywhere different situations and different problems in daily life.

Between north and south Hungary the distance can be up to 500 km. but you can find that people are trying to live better, more beautifully and with dignity. They want to study work, and live happily.
Hungary is now a part of the European Union.

But many of the regions are far from Europe not only in distance but also in how modern they are. Even far from the regional capitals as well. There are many solutions for being able to reduce this distance so that every day can be sunnier. We will just show you one of these solutions for improving the quality of life. Just a few places, a few faces, a few situations from a new professional perspective. The majority of Hungarians are far from the digital and virtual reality – the knowledge, desire, time and possibility to study are missing.

But more than that help is missing – patient direction. But here the INFORMATION SOCIETY MENTOR can help. Places far from the World, far everone’s values should be able to be found and respected in this constricting and globalizing world. The smallest village to the most hidden street. Everywhere in Hungary so that it can climb from the lows to the heights.

Epilogue

On October 6 2008 the Hungarian parliament reached a decision that they need to support the start of e-government. In other words, help needs to be offered to those who are falling behind in the modernizing world. Digital equality is equated with competence in digital forms and those who are still not competent in the use of these could be at any point in country. INFORMATION SOCIETY MENTOR is help for those who desire it. Unfortunately there is still plenty of work to be done in Hungary. The expansion of different elements of society reaching out to each other gives hope that with solidarity, community building and a helpful teacher a more beautiful richer life can be achieved.

Gabor Dombi

secretary general of Inforum