I thought this might be of interest:
The eGovernment Good Practice Framework
NEWSLETTER No 6
http://www.egov-goodpractice.org
March 2006
e I N C L U S I O N
The European Commission has identified ‘eInclusion’ as one of the
main topics of the Manchester Declaration as adopted at the
Ministerial eGovernment Conference 2005.
According to the ‘e-Inclusion: New challenges and policy
recommendations’ report (<http://europa.eu.int/idabc/en/document/
4991/254>) published by the eEurope Advisory Group:
1. e-Inclusion refers to the effective participation of individuals
and communities in all dimensions of the knowledge-based society and
economy through their access to ICT. This shall be made possible by
the removal of access and accessibility barriers, and effectively
enabled by the willingness and ability to reap social benefits from
such access.
2. Further, e-Inclusion refers to the degree to which ICT contribute
to equalising and promoting participation in society at all levels
(i.e. social relationships, work, culture, political participation,
etc.).
3. The digital divide measures the gap between those who are
empowered to substantially participate in an information and
knowledge-based society and economy, and those who are not.
The ten new Member States of the European Union have all submitted
Action Plans on Social Inclusion for the period between 2004 and
2006. The issue of eInclusion forms part of those plans.
Most New Member States lag behind the EU 15 in the development of the
ICT sector as such. Basic provision of telecommunication
infrastructure – and the enhancement of the existing one - is still a
problem to be tackled in most countries, especially in rural or
remote areas. In all New Member States, Internet penetration rates
are lower, or significantly lower than the EU 15 average (43,4%),
with the exception of Estonia (44%), closely followed by Slovenia
(41,4 %). Therefore it is a main goal of the workshop to promote
eInclusion for the new Member states.
Liddy
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