The seminar at Latvian Information and Communications Technology Association (LIKTA) provided several important insights in managing risks associated with infrastructure, as well as cooperative marketing techniques.
LIKTA was founded in 1998 and is a professional association that regroups over 85 important ICTE product and service providers and educational institutions, as well as about 130 individual professional members of the ICTE industry sector in Latvia, especially in computer hardware and software, electronics, and telecommunications infrastructure and service providers. It is a non-governmental, democratic organization, respecting and balancing the rights of its corporate members and its individual members, as all of its decisions are consensus based.
This organization facilitates the objectives of e-Europe and Latvia emerging as a full partner of the knowledge based global economy. LIKTA has elaborated its own e-Latvia strategy as well as an e-government model. Crucial prerequisites for this mission are a knowledgeable, ICT literate population and a well developed ICTE industry. LIKTA actively uses social media, especially through Facebook and Twitter through the "If you like Lativia loves you" pages. Collectively, these initiatives break down barriers and facilitate opening businesses faster in Latvia.
One example that stood out is LIKTA's role in developing a local coalition for e-skills and jobs in Latvia to support both the EU Grand Coalition for Digital jobs initiative and Latvian domestic policies such as Latvia 2030 and the National Development Plan for Latvia 2014-2020. The “E-skills partnership” memorandum was signed by representatives of governmental sector, non-governmental organizations and industry representatives − Latvian Information and Communications Technology Association (LIKTA, representing ICT industry with more than 220 members employing more than 25000 ICT specialists), Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development, Ministry of Economics, Ministry of Education and Science, Ministry of Welfare, Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (representing entrepreneurs from various sectors with more than 1000 members and employing more than 70 thousand employees), Latvian Open Technology Association and Latvian Internet Association.
This memorandum facilitates and coordinates cooperation between government, non-governmental organizations and entrepreneurs in four main areas: ICT training for the labor market needs; Youth involvement in ICT: Modern and interactive learning processes: and General awareness raising about importance of digital literacy and ICT skills, according to Katherine Goebess of LIKTA. Specifically, LIKTA has evolved "E-skills week" into a tradition, as it has held the event four years in a row now, and the cooperation helps inform different societal groups – small, micro and medium enterprises, government and public sector workers, teachers and parents, children and youngsters – about the e-skills and ICT solutions, effective use of e-services as well as about customized training programs for seniors.
Another example is LIKTA's role in helping the Secretariat of the Presidency of the European Union manage the Digital Agenda event being held in Riga in 2015. The Digital Agenda focuses both the EU's, and specifically Latvia's, attention on its importance for economic growth, job creation and social inclusion. Target audiences for the Digital Agenda include high level government officials, industry leaders and digital agenda stakeholders, NGOs and information society opinion leaders.
Furthermore, the LIKTA center coordinates and displays marketing for its members, especially those receiving "Platinum Mouse" awards for being the best and most innovative e-services, ICT and e-business solutions. For instance, data visualisation application "Infogr.am” (http://infogr.am/) in e-services category, Jelgava city student and citizen multi-functional contactless smart card (E-card) in e-business and innovations category (www.seb.lv/ekarte), teachers Laura Katkeviča and Roberts Rožkalns from Liepāja in best e-facilitator category for their website intiative (http://www.citadaskola.lv/), and the Internet access development received the project "Lattelecom WiFi for free" (http://www.wifi.lv/). Also, LIKTA displays several examples of biometric recognition systems, which helps not only market the services but facilitates improving their usability as well.
Additionally, the collaboration has evolved into an internet-based "Baltic Highway", where infrastructure supports one of the world's fastest speeds. Collaboration has also facilitated supporting e-documents, which executes e-documents defined in Latvian governmental codes (elatvia.lv) and supports additional measures such as i-banking and e-Treasury. Also, Latvian citizens can propose legislation through submitting drafts electronically on the Chancellory website, and organizations can register as corporations online in less than 2 hours (compared to days in most countries, facilitating enterprise. Government regulations, corporation paperwork, and even the content of the National Library are fully electronic and transparent. The collaboration between private and public sectors helps evolve standards for speed, service and security.
My take-aways from this seminar include:
1) managing risks;
2) security concerns;
3) cooperative marketing;
4) collaboration;
5) infrastructure;
6) anticipating needs.
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