On 7 July 2007 Institute of the Information Society completed a report on the independent evaluation of the implementation of the Information Dissemination and Equal Access (IDEA) Project in 2006 and the first semester of 2007.

To evaluate the Project, IIS analyzed information contained in the Project's inner joint database, examined responses to a questionnaire developed and distributed by the IIS to all existing IDEA Centers and also analyzed information gathered during personal interviews with the Project management team, Project coordinators, instructors and users of the IDEA Centers, as well as leading experts in information technologies, education, health care and social work in Petrozavodsk and Kemerovo. All participants were selected by the IIS for the explicit purpose of conducting a balanced and thorough evaluation.

To evaluate Project success, IIS has carried out comparative and critical assessments of the Project's regional centers to assess their provision of services to target audiences, their general efficiency, their economic sustainability and the integral index of the centers’ work.

After extensive evaluation of the Project, IIS has concluded that the Project's implementation has been largely successful, both in terms of the management team’s efficiency and the integral assessment of the Project’s regional centers throughout Russia.

The results of the Project are impressive and the implementation methodology fully adequate, particularly noting that these successes have been achieved in less than 18 months of Project operations (a relatively brief period of time by Russian standards) and with fairly modest financial support by the Project (especially in light of Project objectives).

The independent evaluation has shown that over the last year and a half, a viable system of regional centers has been created to successfully implement the Project in Russia, with the potential to utilize this infrastructure to implement other projects aimed at increasing access to information by the general population and specific professional groups. Several IDEA Centers were started and continue to operate as volunteer centers, demonstrating the high demand for their services and the commitment the centers enjoy from local partner organizations.

The Project has been quite successful in its strategic choice to utilize regional research libraries and central libraries of municipal library systems, as partner organizations to host IDEA Educational Centers. This decision was guided by the belief that libraries are an enduring social institution, traditionally providing (mainly free) information and information services to the public.

IIS evaluation demonstrates that there are several identifiable factors contributing to the successful implementation of the Project by the regional centers, including 1) support of partner organizations hosting the centers; 2) leadership qualities of the center coordinators; 3) support from local authorities and governing bodies; 4) an appropriately selected target audience; 5) formation of strong partner coalitions that include local businesses and public organizations that promote the centers’ work (i.e. societies for the disabled, women’s organization, etc.); and 6) a measurable rise in user demand for the centers’ services.

Against a background of poor ICT awareness and literacy in regions throughout Russia, figures reflecting efficiency of the Project's regional centers do not yet permit us to conclusively state that the Project has made significant strides in fostering social and economic development of local communities and regions in the country. However, services provided by IDEA Centers, including Internet access, use of ICT technologies and ICT training and information literacy programs for socially vulnerable population groups (especially people with disabilities), are an exceptionally important contribution to abate the present lack of social services available in Russia. Thus, in terms of IDEA Centers providing equal access to ICT technologies, centers have made remarkable contributions to addressing the problem of information inequality throughout the country.

Research indicates that regional IDEA Centers are not at present fully financially sustainable, with some notable exceptions. Their primary financial support is from partner organizations and from the Project's own financing. Additional sources of funding include other grants, sponsorship from projects in which centers participate, the centers’ participation in implementing regional programs and the provision of paid services for users. Most of the paid services at this point are traditional in nature; genuinely innovative services that could ensure financial sustainability of the centers are not yet included in the range of services provided. Most of the time that libraries host IDEA Centers, they delegate to the centers many of the library services that require use of information technologies. Among such popular services, fully or partially provided by the IDEA Centers, are unlimited Internet access, training in word processing programs and image and sound editing applications, organizing of video conferences, enabling access to distance education programs and raising information literacy. All these services are a potential source for increasing financial sustainability of IDEA Centers.

Negative factors that hinder the achievement of the goals and objectives of IDEA Centers include passivity of local businesses (primarily lack of commitment on the part of local businesses to provide financial or other support to the centers’ initiatives), weak information infrastructures in cities or regions (typically lack of stable and capacious Internet access channels) and a general indifference among the population. Only very rarely do centers indicate a lack of support on the part of partner organizations, local authorities and governing bodies.

IIS experts believe that the diversity of IDEA Centers’ patrons, coupled with a fairly small number of trained users in each region, requires a more accurate definition of the Project’s objectives. Possible modifications to enhance the Project’s positive contribution to addressing the problem of information inequality in Russia may include the following:

• Significant enlargement of the centers’ network (launching IDEA Centers not only in sizeable areas, but also in small town municipalities and rural centers)
• Accelerated training of expert trainers who could, in turn, train end users (rather than the current practice of centers themselves providing training for end users), especially secondary school teachers and librarians who are in a position to promote local use of ICT (most importantly the staff of partner libraries)
• Addition of training programs with targeted case studies for specific user groups to better inform users of potential advantages of ICT use in daily life and work

IIS experts believe that by the end of 2007, a realistic and achievable goal for the Project will be to enter the stage of scaling and replication. At this next stage, the Project's most vital objective should be to strengthen its work with center coordinators by providing training in “electronic leadership,” including, among other things, skills-building in strategic planning, marketing analysis, public relations, negotiating with interested parties, etc. This calls for the development of a concise and pragmatic course of study to not only incorporate cutting edge foreign experience and know-how, but also to take into consideration the idiosyncrasies of working with Russian social workers. Another potential approach to enhancing cooperation with center coordinators could include regular monitoring of their motivations for collaboration and taking this into consideration when entering into agreements with partner organizations.

Another important objective identified by IIS is the regular updating of training courses in response to ICT developments, a need expressed by Russian users who demand the most current and advanced information technologies.

IIS also recommends that regional centers expand the range of services provided for specific categories of users. Centers, for example, could provide much-needed services for people immobilized by disability, or offer off-premise training courses in remote villages to enable residents to utilize ICT skills in public Internet access locations within their local communities (such as schools and post offices).

Implementation of the Project's ambitious goals must be accompanied by significantly larger financial support than what has been allotted to the Project in its pilot stage. Success of the Project has already been secured in the first eighteen months of Project implementation, demonstrating that continued funding for this initiative would add to the viability and strength of this Project.

Brief Information about the Information Dissemination and Equal Access (IDEA) Project

The IDEA Project is a part of Microsoft Corporation’s global social and educational initiative and is supported by the Corporation in the framework of the Microsoft Unlimited Potential (UP).

The main goal of the IDEA project is to expand access to computer and Internet technologies and to improve technology skills for underserved populations, such as the unemployed, senior citizens, people with disabilities, youth, and rural residents.

The Project is funded by Microsoft Corporation whereas general management is accomplished by Project Harmony.

Between 1999 and 2006, Project Harmony administered the Internet Access and Training Program (IATP) in partnership with the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the US Department of State. IATP ran 96 Internet centers in 69 Russian cities; centers provided free access to computers and the Internet and held free computer training courses. In 2006, thirty IATP centers expanded their range of social services and joined the IDEA project as Internet Community Learning Centers (ICLCs).

In 2007, the number of ICLCs increased up to 33. Centers in Archangelsk, Astrakhan, Cheboksary, Chelyabinsk, Chita, Irkutsk, Izhevsk, Kaliningrad, Kazan, Kemerovo, Khabarovsk, Krasnoyarsk, Murmansk, Nizhni Novgorod, Orenburg, Perm, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Petrozavodsk, Ryazan, Saint-Petersburg, Saratov, Stavropol, Togliatti, Tomsk, Tyumen, Ulan-Ude, Vladimir, Vladivostok (based in the Primorye Regional Library for the Blind), Volgograd, Vologda, Yaroslavl, Yekaterinburg, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk are the official ICLCs of the IDEA Project. The IATP centers in Vladikavkaz, Volzhsky (Volgograd region), Yoshkar-Ola, Novokuznetsk and Vladivostok (based in the Far East Technical University) continue working as volunteers within the Project’s goals and objectives.

Each ICLC has its own Coordinator nominated jointly by Project Harmony and the Partner Organization hosting the Center.

The ICLCs provide free UP training courses Computer Fundamentals, Digital Media Fundamentals, Internet and World Wide Web Fundamentals, Web Design Fundamentals, Word Processing Fundamentals, Presentation Fundamentals, Datadase Fundamentals, Spreadsheet Fundamentals, as well as additional seminars based on Center users’ requests. Seminar topics often focus on providing job skills to the underserved community. ICLCs also provide free Internet access to the local community. In consultation with Project Harmony, each Center chooses its own target audiences based on local community needs.

The Project’s prevalent audience are workers of cultural, educational and social security institutions, as well as students and non-working citizens at the age of 25-65. There are 3,5 times more women than men among the ICLCs users.

As of 15 June 2007, 106,722 people were served by the Project’s Centers; the number of visits made 253, 397, i.e. each user made 2.4 visits; 724 UP courses were provided, 6,614 people were trained; 813 other relevant courses were conducted, 13,298 people were trained; 4,000 individual courses were delivered, 3,427 people were trained; 3,745 hours of consultations were delivered, 7, 225 people were served; 2,809 disabled people were trained at 473 courses and seminars; 88 publications about the Project were published in the regional mass media; 1,876 free access hours are provided weekly by the Centers, which makes 28,567 computer hours.