Public Access
From ELOST-Info
As lack of Internet Access is still a major barrier against eGovernment usage in Europe, some countries have developed concepts to allow free access to basically every citizen.
Contents |
The Situation in Europe
Public access points are rarely used: only one tenth of the respondents to the ELOST Survey who were familiar with the internet used them frequently.
The most common problems reported by the respondents were the small number of public access points and their restricted usage times.
--NikiR 12:54, 22 November 2007 (CET)
Austria
Currently, 775 "MultimediaStations" (MMS - multi-media broadband internet telephone booths set up in highly frequented public areas) are available across Austria. 63.4 per cent of all MultimediaStations are located in Vienna. Telekom Austria, which operates the MultimediaStations together with apc interactive, plans to convert another 225 telephone booths into MultimediaStations by the end of 2006 (for a total of 1000 MultimediaStations across Austria). MultimediaStations can be used to make regular phone calls or video calls, to surf the web, and send e-mails and instant text messages. Certain sites are free of charge (all sites ending with gv.at, i.e. all e-government sites). According to the MultimediaStation homepage, 75 per cent of the users are under the age of 39. For further information on MultimediaStations, visit [1]
41 "Vienna City Terminals" (VCT), a project carried out jointly by the City of Vienna, apc interactive (a leading developer in the field of public multimedia terminals) and Gewista, an outdoor advertising agency, have been set up in Vienna. A selected yet wide variety of information and contents is available to so-called “people on the move” (tourists, citizens, etc.) free of charge. According to apc interactive, approximately 500 users use the Vienna City Terminals daily. 2 such Terminals have also been set up in St. Poelten, Lower Austria. For more information on the Vienna City Terminals, visit [2]
Internet is also accessible at 31 "Vienna Access Points" (VAP - specifically designed for indoor set-up). An additional 11 "HVAP" (height-adjustable access points) are available for persons in wheelchairs. The Vienna Access Points can be found predominantly in the entrance halls of municipal offices and at hospitals.
--NikiR 16:13, 8 November 2006 (CET)
Bulgaria
Finland
IT-Training In Finland, municipalities are the most common Internet service provider for the citizens: Places like libraries and workshops for unemployed people offer free Internet access points. In addition, municipalities organize free or subsidised training courses. For example, the City of Tampere provides courses where citizens can acquaint themselves with using the Internet or revise skills forgotten.
Very prominent and successful examples are Netti-Nysse, a bus that carries IT to the people and the Net Square (or Information Agora) concept which provides Internet access in public libraries and schools.
--Haglund 11:33, 4 May 2007 (CEST)
France
Internet Public access includes many places like airports, railway stations, libraries, restaurants, schools and universities, business centres, PAPI (Internet Public Access Point), etc.
In France, to provide Internet access in rural areas, the State has encouraged the development of PAPI. Around 3.500 Digital Spaces have been created, the fees are usually very low and the access is often free for job seekers. These public access points provide training and it is possible to take the multimedia passport exam which certifies one's ability to use computers and the Internet. At the same time schools and universities have been equipped with broadband connections. In most of French Universities, WiFi technologies (wireless networks) have been introduced. In the same way public spaces like railway stations, airports, libraries are getting more and more equipped with wireless Internet connections. A compilation of all French WiFi access points is available on-line.
According to the CREDOC (2005), 11% of the +12 year old people have been using the Internet in a public place during the last twelve months (in a cybercafé, a library, a post office, etc). This proportion is far from being negligible because it corresponds to 5.5 million people.
Three factors are decisive to explain the frequentation rate of public Internet Spaces: the age, the education and the place of living:
- 23-30% of less than 25 year-olds have been surfing the web in a public place during the last twelve months (the proportion is only 7% among the 40-60 year-olds);
- 16-17% of bachelors and people with higher education have connected in a public space compared to 10% of people with a BEPC;
- 17% of Paris' inhabitants and its suburbs are using public spaces.
Despite the original goal of public access which was to familiarize people without Internet access with this technology, we can see that Digital spaces essentially benefit to categories who where already privileged regarding social, economical, demographical and educational characteristics.
--David Alcaud 7 November 2006
Germany
Various initiatives in Germany have started activities to empower public access points. These initiatives were started by NGOs as well as companies, sometimes in Public Private Partnerships.
The Federal Government and local bodies also have installed a number of public access points: most public libraries offer PCs for free research, all offices of the public Job Agencies provide PC pools for research in their own job search engine as well as in private ones, community offices ("Stadtteil-Laden") in the big cities offer PCs and web access to everybody but with special focus on either migrants or homeless people (in most cases combined with training and/or support).
In a number of cities bluespots are being installed since 2006. Beyond 'city light' and poster advertisement the company recently started a new strategy of interactive public terminals which combine advertising with free online access: registered users can use the following services for free:
- 5 minutes free web access per day, including webmail and webcams for multimedia attachments
- 1 minute free phone calls per day (local land line)
- 60 minutes free WLAN access
--Deabreu 11:56, 26 April 2007 (CEST)
Israel
In Israel, public access to the Internet is provided mostly by the Lehava Centres. The project is part of a public effort to minimize the digital divide in the Israeli society.
The objectives of the project are:
- assimilation of the technologies and especially of IT,
- improving the abilities of parts of the population that are lacking access capabilities to become members of the information society,
- enabling access for all the citizens to cultural assets in the Hebrew language,
- advancement of education, social causes and the quality of leisure time,
- increasing productivity and the national product by investing in the human resources.
Currently, there are 15 Lehava centers, predominantly in peripheral towns and city suburbs serving marginalized populations.
--Raban 12:42, 26 March 2007 (CEST)
Spain
Special measures are taken for particular groups of enterprises or of the population. One example [3] is the new Instituto de Credito Oficial (ICO) Plan Avanza 2006 agreement that will make it possible to allocate €485 million in the form of grants to SMEs, to young people and students and to the general public. The aim of the public funding mechanism is to facilitate the greater integration of these stakeholders into the information society.
--Avramesk 20 March 2007
United Kingdom
The goal of creating a network of more than 6,000 public internet access points in the UK was achieved in 2002. UK Online centres welcomed over half a million people in 2004. However, funding for the centres ceased in 2003/2004, with centres encouraged to become self-sustaining. --Avramesk 15:55, 20 April 2007 (CEST)
Further Information
Relevant Publications
Relevant Links
- Vienna Access Points at https://www.wien.gv.at/ma14/pia/information.html#vap
- City of Tampere's Internet bus on http://www.tampere.fi/kirjasto/nettinysse/ajankoht.htm
