Building the Hungarian Information Society

But the Hungarian plans are based more on fashion than on substance

The Hungarian government aims to invest over 400 million euro on encouraging the development of the information society, but as the details of the plans make clear it is more of a blueprint to support the high-tech industry rather than to nurture a knowledge-based society.

The Hungarian government plans to devote over 400 million euro in 2003 for technology investments in order to further develop the so-called "information society" within Hungary. According to Kalman Kovacs, the minister for Informatics and Media, the government will extend 120 million euro in tax incentives to users, while another 120 million will come directly from the Ministry for Informatics and Media (MIM). An additional 200 million or so will come from the various ministries for the development of digital infrastructure within their own organisations with the remainder allocated from the central budget.

The tax incentives extended to users will be primarily for the procurement of PCs. Starting next year, employers will be able to give their employees computers for work to be done at home, easing the restrictions such technology transfer has entailed until now. Meanwhile, firms will be able to write-off the costs of new computer equipment over two years instead of the present regulation of three.

E-government, wiring schools, tele-cottages ...

On the home front, families will be able to claim computer equipment as a tax deduction. This also goes for leased machines. As for encouraging the use of fast Internet connections, tax credits of between 35-50% are being offered for the expansion of broadband networks. With all these incentives in place, Kovacs expects the present number of PCs in the home, which number at only about 600,000 (or 6% of the population), will double in three years' time.

Tax incentives aside, the MIM expects to spend directly 320 million euro on its plans to further the goals of an information society. This includes such objectives as e-government and to upgrade the program of "wiring schools", better known as the Sulinet program. Substantial technology investments will also be made in those ministries which deal with employee re-training and cultural activities. Of particular emphasis for the MIM is the spread of technology and access to rural areas through such vehicles as tele-cottages. These tele-cottages, which are run by Hungarian Post, provide basic computer services and Internet access at rates comparable to those found in the Internet cafes of large cities.

On the surface, it may appear that the Hungarian government is taking seriously the European Union's e-Europe policy, which hopes to see Europe as a competitive knowledge-based economy by the year 2010. Scratch away at the rhetoric, however, and it's plain to see that what is being proposed is foremost corporate welfare for the hi-tech industry rather than helping individuals along to a brave new world.

This is clearly apparent in the tax incentives on offer. Most people can't take full advantage of the incentives proposed. Moreover, nowhere in the MIM plans is the subject of exclusion, in other words, the enigma of a two-tier information society, addressed. That is, it's assumed that everyone has enough expendable income for the purchase of new computers and broadband access. Tele-cottages, which supposedly should help remedy this imbalance, is an expensive alternative.

Are computer technology and digital infrastructure really necessary for a information society?

In conjunction with this, there is no clear concept as to what the MIM means when it talks about the "information society". For instance, how do mobile phones and SMS work into this scheme of things? Indeed, SMS use in Central and Eastern Europe is widespread, and is a phenomenon not adequately explored by information society pundits. In Hungary, for instance, radio and television stations frequently integrate SMS input into their various programs. Throughout the region, more people use SMS than e-mail.

Yet the question of SMS can't be simply dismissed by readily viewing it as an integral part of what is deemed to be an information society. While some would argue that it facilitates communication, it's quite limited in this respect; although it can be used for input and response, it's not uniquely interactive. Nor can it be considered a broadcast medium, like the Internet.

Nevertheless, SMS does reveal one fundamental flaw in the concept of the information society, in that a lot of information passes outside (or even alongside) the realm of computer networks. This, in turn, raises a fundamental point: is computer technology and digital infrastructure really necessary for a so-called information society?

Without doubt, the Hungarian plans for an information society are based more on fashion than on substance. A prime example is that of e-governance. The notion of e-governance is just as fuzzy as the logic of the information society. There is no elaboration of what e-governance really is or how it is supposed to function. Does it run in parallel with traditional forms of governance or does it seek to replace it altogether?

Lately, e-governance has become a much hyped buzzword. Leading pundits sell the idea by stressing that it can help create revenue; naturally, they don't specifically say how this can be accomplished. For most politicians, however, the notion of e-governance has nothing to do with income generation. Rather, it's being seen as a convenient way to save money by cutting costs in terms of staff reduction and a self-service bureaucracy.

Taking all this into account, the fact that the Hungarian government has established a ministry (under the auspices of "media") to spend a certain amount of money on increasing the number of household computers and broadband Internet access throughout the country, while at the same time to trumpet empty phrases about e-governance, doesn't say much about the information society it's hoping to eventually establish. All that we know is that it's perpetually coming and that we're on the threshold of a brave new world. It's another matter altogether whether we know for sure what this information society is really about.

http://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/13/13749/1.html