One of the crucial factors of the information society development is human capital development, and the main stream in this area is training people and professional groups to use ICT in everyday life and work.

Kemerovo is a leading Russian region from the point of view of practical implementation of this stream.

Kemerovo region has adopted and implemented a regional target program "Kuzbass Teacher - PC User" for the years 2002-2006. Due to this program 95% of general education schools in the region (including rural schools) have computer classes, and 16.5 out of 28 thousand teachers developed computer skills.

Kuzbass Regional Institute for Professional Eeducation Development actively contributes to the computer literacy dissemination. It created an extensive material basis for professional training of ICT skills to educators (44 workstations in the Internet class and two classrooms). The institute has Department of Information Technologies (14 people), Centre for distant education (5 people), and a center for information and Internet technologies (4 people); a number of education materials were drafted, including teacher editions, methodological materials, electronic databases, distant training courses, and electronic tests.

Kemerovo State University of Culture and Arts train specialists in the sphere of culture. It has a department of information technologies including two departments - technology of documentation communications and technology of automated information processing. Besides, it comprises Kuzbass Research Institute of Information Technologies in Social Sphere. The latter has a laboratory for developing information culture of individual, laboratory for information resources and technologies, and students' research centers.

Research Library of Kemerovo Region named after V.D. Fedorov plays an important role in shaping region's information culture. The library leads works on developing a single information medium in Kuzbass providing over 70 (!) points of Internet access through its numerous reading rooms.

Since 1997 the visitors of the library have access to the world information resources through the Internet. It's no wonder that October 2003 it formed the basis for the first Kuzbass Center of Open Internet Access. This project was initiated and supported by the Department of Education and Cultural Programs of the US State Department and American non-commercial corporation "Project Harmony Inc". The center is equipped with 20 computers, a server and all the periphery. The Centre provides full range of information services to its visitors: information search in the Internet, access to local and remote databases, consultations on organization of work in search systems, organization of training, and educational courses. The main category of the Center's visitors are disadvantaged citizens - orphan children, disabled people, unemployed, as well as social services, rehabilitation centers and clubs.

In 2006 the Centre became a structural subdivision of Electronic resource centre of the library, and comprised e-resources room and centre of open Internet access. Same year "Project Harmony, Inc" with financial support of the program " Microsoft Unlimited Potential" announced project IDEA - Information Dissemination and Equal Access, implemented in the Center. The Center holds classes following the Unlimited Potential program, which offers users a wide range of training courses - from "Computer Fundamentals" to "Datadase Fundamentals" and seminars aimed at improving professional skills, which are very popular among citizens of the Kemerovo region.

Combination of the above organizations in Kuzbass gives exceptionally high results from the point of view of human capital development in the information society and brings Kemerovo region among regions with the highest indicator of human capital development.

IIS General Director Tatiana Ershova and analyst Peter Ershov carried out a series of fruitful working meetings with heads and leading specialists of the above organizations, which allowed them to shape a vision of the state of affairs in the region from the point of view of developing ICT skills among regional population and professional groups in the social sphere.