The “1st European Summit: Observing the IT Society”, organized by the Observatory for the Greek Information Society, was held in Athens, Greece, on 28 September 2006.

The Summit was attended by representatives from the Greek financial and political arena, executives from both the private and public sectors, members of the academic community and others, who were informed on the most interesting best practices in ICT, all of which were presented by representatives from many European countries.

In his welcoming speech, the President of the Observatory for the Greek Information Society, Mr. Nikos Christodoulou, said “With the organization of the 1st European Summit today, we are laying the foundations for enhanced cooperation. We are inaugurating a new way for the exchange of ideas with the respective bodies and similar organizations. We create a European channel of communication which, I am positive, will offer important knowledge towards promoting, not only the Greek but also the European plan related to Information Society issues”.

The conference focused on e-government, e-business, broadband and investment issues. The direct cooperation of all respective bodies was mentioned as a key factor for the promotion and further enhancement of the European Information Society, competition and sustainable growth of Europe. The speakers referred to the important progress that has been recorded with regard to the use of new technologies in countries of the EU. The increasing need for measurement and evaluation of the impact from the introduction of new technologies in the public sector administration was also highlighted.

During the Summit, more than 20 Best Practices were presented, covering important sectors, such as e-gov and digital services for citizens, as well as electronic services for health, education, culture, business and others. The variety of practices presented not only showed the great performance of countries in adopting new technologies, but also the important initiative undertaken, in order to effectively meet key problems faced by citizens in the use of ICT services.

For more details see Conference Agenda. All presentations will be soon published on the conference web-site.

Tatiana Ershova, IIS General Director and Head of PRIOR Directorate, presented three cases in her report - the Russia E-Readiness assessment (2001 and 2004), the Index of Russian Regions E-Readiness (2006) and the Russia Development Gateway.