Home Tech The Tiger’s Jump: Estonia’s Road to Digital Transformation

The Tiger’s Jump: Estonia’s Road to Digital Transformation

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The idea called ‘Tiger leap’ implies that through computerization, Estonia, or at least education, will have a strong leap.

The idea called “Tiger leap” implies that through computerization, Estonia, or at least education, will have a strong leap in the future. Sincerely introduce the shares of former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik IIves about the success stories of Estonia in transforming the number of countries at the Vietnam Development and Reform Forum 2020. From Silicon Valley Let me begin by giving a paradox. For the past 3 years, I have lived in the middle of Silicon Valley, which is considered the center of innovation in information technology of the world. Within a 12 km radius of my Stanford office, you will find the headquarters of Tesla, Apple, Google, Facebook, Palantir and Youtube. There are also countless other commercial companies and services that earn a few billion dollars less than that. It is precisely considered the center of the digital revolution that in less than three decades has completely reshaped the world, a world that anyone had lived in previous periods could not recognize. Nearly all of these companies provide us with services used every day, from morning to night, while almost no one remembers 20 years ago none of these companies were born, if away. a little more, just 30 years ago, at the end of the Cold War would seem like a fantasy. Former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik IIves: Estonia needs a digital transformation, and the way to do it is through schools. However, when I live in the heart of Silicon Valley, if I need to enroll my child in school or get a driver’s license or have any interaction with the governmental level, local state, the country is most likely to be. I had to drive directly to the government office, wait or stand in line for hours. Then, fill out forms and applications by hand, stand in line to submit them, followed by weeks of waiting for results to be processed. In short, unlike the digital-life miracles that we live with our smartphones and the applications installed on them, public services and administration facilities are hardly different from those of years. 1950 and 1960. This is true in most of the world today, not only in developing countries but also in many of the richest, most “advanced” countries. To the case of Estonia How did Estonia go into the digitalization of government and why? This is a matter of developing economics, catching up with the West. In 1938, the final year before World War II, Estonia and its northern neighbor Finland were considered to have the same GDP per capita. Neither of the two countries is particularly rich, but the level of development is very close to each other. On the contrary, in 1992, the first year after Estonian independence was restored, Finland’s GDP per capita was approximately $ 24,000, while that of Estonia was only $ 2,800, a difference of eight times. . Furthermore, as is the case in all developing countries, Estonia faces a Zeno paradox about the quick Asin who has to keep up with the slow tortoise that left first. In this paradox, like Asin, Estonia will never catch up because that tortoise or the Finns, more broadly the developed countries of the world, they are ahead no matter what Estonia does. The solution to catch up lies in converting the number of countries. That inspiration came from my own life, from the fact that I understood the big leap in technology, that was the first internet browser. I was fortunate to learn computer programming at an age no one expected to learn to code at that time – 1969 when I was 15 in an experiment by a math teacher, who was studying for a PhD in teaching. teaches mathematics at Columbia University. Fifty years ago, learning to code involved hiring a standalone typewriter running a punch tape, a large telephone modem that had to attach a telephone receiver to a 10cm-wide vacuum pad, and then connected to a large memory computer (the central computer) located about 30 miles away. Even so, a small group of high school students all learned to program in Basic. Estonia’s solution lies in converting the number of countries Then, in college, I saw on a bulletin board an ad about programming for a computer in my lab for 10 hours a week. I applied and was quickly seated in front of a coffee table-sized box. It was the PDP-8, the first commercially available small computer, used in laboratories in the 1970s and so named because of the maximum memory capacity of 8 kilobytes. Today, this number is the size of a blank email. Because of this limitation, all instructions must be written in Assembler, a hexadecimal (hexadecimal) programming language with all instructions written in alphanumeric code. However, with my high school programming knowledge, it was not an insurmountable challenge for me. Twenty-five years after learning programming and desperate about how Estonia could catch up with Western Europe, I came up with the idea that if I could learn to do it as a high school student, then All children can and should learn to use a computer. Second source of inspiration A second inspiration for the digitization of Estonia came in 1993, when the first web browser, Mosaic, was born. Mosaic cost about 29.95 USD in 1993, you actually have to go buy this browser in a store and install it on your computer using floppy disk. As a computer geek, I did this. However, what surprised me when I finally got this browser up and running is that there is something new, very different, but at the same time very promising, when all the countries, rich or not poor as the United States, Finland, Estonia, Germany, and Japan are all in the same position, starting on a level playing field. That’s when Estonia needs to do digital transformation, and the way to do it is through schools. While the Internet is still in its infancy, you can still see it working anyway. Right then, I knew that although it would take time, it would take off and dominate our lives. It was only four years after Tim Berners Lee, the father of the worldwide network (www), invented the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol, the “http” symbol you see before. all Internet sites and what allows the Internet to function. Certainly the West already has a system of highways, interstate highways and a developed infrastructure in general, but the Internet will be everyone’s future, but it won’t give anyone the edge for half a century. development that Estonia did not have. At least if Estonia quickly boarded this train. Luckily, Estonia had a wise Education Minister at the time of 1995, Dr. Jaak Aaviksoo, who was willing to take risks, who pushed the government to approve the proposal to include computers in all schools. Tiger dance From these two sources of inspiration, I have proposed to the government a start to digitization. Knowing that this will take years, and based on the pace of learning to code by me and my previous classmates, I think it’s best to start with young people first. I suggest that Estonia start by making computers and computer instruction accessible to all students. The idea is called “Tiger leap”, to imply that through computerization, the country of Estonia, or at least education, will have a strong leap in the future. Luckily, Estonia had a wise Education Minister at the time of 1995, Dr. Jaak Aaviksoo, who was willing to take risks, who pushed the government to approve the proposal to put computers in all schools, connect all of them together. This idea was not approved by everyone. The Federation of Teachers was fiercely opposed to computers in schools, that they would destroy education. In nearly a year, not a single issue of the teacher union weekly has not had a strong rebuttal to this idea. Indeed, for most of the next 20 years, opposition parties seem to have chosen digital transformation as a matter of criticism. However, the government has implemented this policy, using a 50-50 counter-financing mechanism in which local governments are willing to pay half the price of computers to be paid by the central government for the remaining 50%. Three years later, in 1998, all schools in Estonia had a computer lab with an internet connection. Not long after, the banks noticed the success and reputation of the project and decided to participate. It’s pure and simple self-interest: Every tiny village has at least two bank buildings with staff, an increasingly expensive but simply unsustainable way. Along with some government funding and the strong participation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), banks have launched a program to ensure every village has e-banking located at Internet access is also provided to government offices or city libraries. In addition, the banks have supported a training program for the elderly and rural residents to learn how to use computers for online banking transactions. Next period: A unique and secure digital identifier for all residents

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