Estonia Provides a Model in E-Governance

Posted on April 22, 2011 by John Savageau

from Valentina Piontkovskaya

Moldova FlagA delegation of the Moldovan officials has recently visited Estonia to study the best practices in e-Governance of this country. 15-20 years ago, the ICT sector in both former Soviet republics was developing from near the same level but today the results are quite different. A recent survey of the World Economic Forum gives Estonia the 26th place for the networked Readiness Index 2010–2011 among 138 countries. Moldova is only 97th. We are discussing an issue of changing attitudes from “we cannot because” to “how to do it” with the creative IT Manager and eGovernance coach from Estonia Mr. Virgo Riispapp.

Q.: Mr Riispapp, you may see among the comments of our local specialists on the virtual ICT forums for Moldova that one of the obstacles in implementing e-Government in Moldova is a “wrong mentality” of officials in ICT use. How did you cope with this problem in Estonia?

A.: It’s always easier to say we “cannot do that” or “that is not allowed” by someone even there are enough resources. “No” is always the first answer before thinking. Those are well known phrases but the root cause is sometimes simple, people are lazy or they really don’t know what solutions are available.

Best case scenario here is to talk with real workers and ask silly questions to get them talking, they will reveal the curtain from their job and soon we can find out what really bothers them and what is their “wet dream” and after that it’s easy to propose some technical solutions. People tend to focus on asset than goal, but asset isn’t a goal (it is sometimes forgotten).

When we started in the Estonian Police, there wasn’t even a prototype of information in Internet what we wanted to build. But we had a vision and a goal, what is needed for and after, than came action plans and to do lists.

There should be a small group in place with willingness to do something and one of that groups should have the power to populate the ideas to legislation. It’s a long process I know but I have seen several ways how to do something what we have done here and haven’t seen so far any good success choosing other way to do it. Mentality will change if the first steps are made to create a basement for infrastructure but it won’t come overnight.

I hope that I understand correctly “wrong mentality” is said by citizens to government, but they have their own regulations and authorities what they should follow. There is a need to understand both sides. Looking at that picture, I have always told that regulations and tight rules are created by humans and we can change that.

Another issue is, if development is ending and we should start implementation process and workforce gets their training, but they won’t use it until the day when their performance is measured through a new system or trough new working habits. You’ll get what you measure;) I had the same thing with first units in police vehicles. We installed all equipment, system was working flawlessly but no-one liked it and no-one wanted to use it.

After digging to their psychology and hearing their anonymous comments from several places we decided to go en route to business side product owner. Product owner knows everything what he can do with that solution and can describe how it helps to do their job. Business side was talking with business side and it was a big relief for me. Both parties are equal and understand each other from half word and technical side is only supporter and can explain how the system works in that particular way and not other.

But technical people are not talking with business people with their language, because in the business terms, the IT guys are dumb enough to take down their credibility, and with that also the systems credibility, even the fact that system is working flawlessly. Today we have more innovative ideas than we have resources to develop and implement. (It is a direct change in mentality).

And there is a huge problem, when the salary is terrible compared to private company’s average. Then there are other values to advertise to get applicants with correct attitude. When I’m writing this I got thinking, is it working in other culture otherwise….. ? I mean that there are some people, whose willingness to do something is bigger than the salary what they get every month (it should only be enough to live).

Q. One more obstacle observed for Moldova e-Transformation was digital divide between capital and regions with less developed fixed broadband infrastructure, lack of money to buy computers, etc. For these reasons, an electronic voting in the country was recently postponed for the next 4 years. What way this problem was solved in your country?

A.: An old question – which one was first, egg or chicken? Why we need an infrastructure when we don’t have the services to run on? From my point of view, it’s hard to tell from where to start digging to find a solution. I can tell you our practice. It was the government-owned fixed lines company which made a roadmap “broadband to every home” (today ca 13 years ago). Company invested their own money to development and the government wasn’t taking any money from the company’s net profit.

So, there is a possibility to use ADSL where the copper lines for telephony exist, but there are places without copper or fiber ones and in such places there is a possibility to use cellular broadband. In competition between private companies it can’t cost much. And now the Telco Company is pushing the additional services (IPTV, VoD, home security, etc.) on same infrastructure.

If people can’t afford their own computers/smartphones, we opened free open internet access points for them with computers inside, and they were placed into the libraries or any other secure places. It’s free access to internet for everyone. Nowadays there is also Wi-Fi coverage around the open internet points, and mostly foreign travellers are using them a lot. Here it is like an unwritten agreement that Wi-Fi is added value – not a business model what I see all around the world, and there is a bunch of free software around to do your things online.

Talking about government e-services popularity, I don’t know from my experience any e-service what went popular form the start. Is has been an evolution of services. I remember first e-voting, there were, if I remember correctly, only ca 10 000 e-votes. This year there was over 140k. The problem in the beginning was that there weren’t enough ID cards around, because people can live without it. But authentication service with the government support was there, and after that the government and private companies can build their own services based on one core service on infrastructure.

The core authentication service allows us to sign digital documents and it gives the freedom of location and it’s totally okay to sign your documents when abroad, airport, on-road. In some day you’ll realize, that your life is easier with that card/ecosystem than without it (and there are lot of examples).

There should be also choices in every location, as I mentioned before. Choice will make the broadband service less costly and competition drives the future. Fixed broadband gives us a wider range of services to use. Cellular broadband with their speeds are some steps behind but their plus is mobility. It’s a second side of the medal. I am sure, that internet is definitely necessary to use e-services, but it isn’t necessarily broadband. It depends on the service and what kind of connection you need.

If I’m a copywriter/journalist/real estate broker and I need only to send emails, browse some web pages and maybe sometimes upload some pictures, then 57k GPRS is totally enough. If I’m a programmer/IT support/audio-video creator I need broadband.

When we developed a mobile solution for the patrol police officers to fit in a car, the maximum internet speed what we got was 57k and lowest 9,6k, and business requirement was that those queries should go faster (2 seconds). So, we had to develop a service keeping that in mind. In the end of the day we developed our own protocol which is advancement of open source, implemented server side cashing and packing, added specific security protocols and built direct gateway between police and GPRS provider.

After that, the development officer will get their information within seconds, and information is coming simultaneously from 12 state and 3 international databases in that short time. With those moves we drastically lowered data bandwidth usage and got monthly expenses down by more than 10 times!

And I must say, that they get necessary amount of information no matter where they are (we have tried it in Germany and Finland, and it just works). Internet is a tool how to consume e-products and it isn’t bothering me, how the internet arrives to my laptop, smartphone or CarPC.

Q.: I know that e-services infrastructure in Estonia is shared by both the state structures and the private ones, and it generates more variety of e-services in the country. Why the private companies are ready to share their data base with the state, do you have a special regulation to prevent conflict of interests in this field?

A.: In a banking sector there are money laundering rules what law enforcement and banks should apply. And, therefore, investigators have access to transaction database. From data retention, legislation comes to the need of investigators that they need to have an access to phone call logs. Banks are using the government authentication service to have the best class in security in access to manage your money.

Of course, in the beginning there were many conflicts, but if there is a will there is a go.

Interviewed by Valentina Piontkovskaya

Posted in Moldova Innovation, eGovernment | Tagged | Leave a comment

IPv6 Crosses a New Line of Urgency

Posted on February 22, 2011 by John Savageau

In an event passing nearly un-noticed, with the potential impact of a virtual asteroid slamming into the heart of Chisinau, the Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA)  without fanfare, and without understanding by most of the global Internet, allocated the final blocks of IPv4 (Internet Protocol Version 4) addresses to regional Internet registries (RIRs) during the first week of February.

While the “Internet” is not in danger of an imminent meltdown, the message is clear, “get ready to adopt IPv6, the accepted successor to IPv4, or accept the reality your business is on a countdown timer.”

IPv4 CounterExhaustion of IPv4

Let’s consider a couple analogies to help visualize what IPv4 exhaustion means.

Fossil Fuels.  We know there is a limit to the amount of oil and coal available to our planet.  Once the oil and coal are gone, those sources of energy are also gone.  We are now aggressively looking at ways to produce energy through alternate methods, including solar power, wind power, hydrogen, and other thermal sources.

No question, when the oil is gone, it is gone, and we will no longer have it is a potential source of energy.  There may be a period of buying and selling remaining resources, there may be stocks of fuel that will extend the life of a single country or group longer than others – but when oil is gone it is gone.  Ditto IPv4, although the initial allocation of addresses will remain, they just won’t be able to connect to the rest of the world.

.Airplane Seats.  An airplane might have 250 seats on a flight from Chicago to Los Angeles.  Once those seats are filled, nobody else is getting on the airplane.  You might be able to barter for seats, beg somebody to disrupt their plans because you want to sit next to a friend or wife/husband, or you might get an offer to go on a different flight if you are willing to let somebody else go in your seat – however when the jetway door closes, you are not getting on the airplane.

OK, no perfect analogies, because we all know the Internet is a constant, and will operate at IPv4 for a long time if you are one of the lucky ones with plenty of IPv4 addresses under your control.  However for those who want to develop new products and services, build new networks, or implement some new cosmic internet-enabled “thingy,” the door is just about shut.

Internet-connected ladies and gentlemen, IPv4 addresses are now fully allocated to the regional registries.  Nothing left in the bank.

Why IPv6 Needs to be Taken Seriously

In late 2010 I took part in a networking workshop in Kingston, Jamaica.  Quite a few participants from Caribbean academic networks, including representatives from Trinidad, Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Bahamas, and Grenada. As IPv6 was not on the agenda, nor was it discussed, I had no choice but to raise the question “how about IPv6?  Where does that fit into the regional strategy?”

The response was uniformly “we have plenty of IPv4 addresses available, we do not need IPv6 in the Caribbean.”  Discussions with government network leadership in Indonesia throughout 2010 resulted in similar responses- IPv6 was simply not on the list of priorities.  The network works, why mess with it?

Thankfully Indonesia has very robust private industry support of IPv6, and IPv6 is being addressed in spite of government indifference.

No story or article on IPv6 can pass without a sidebar or paragraph on the numbers of IPv4 vs. IPv6.  Here are the numbers once again – if you have not had a chance to grasp the scope of our preaching and evangelism.

 

IPv6 was developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to deal with the long-anticipated IPv4 address exhaustion, and is described in Internet standard document RFC 2460, published in December 1998. While IPv4 allows 32 bits for an Internet Protocol address, and can therefore support 232 (4,294,967,296) addresses, IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses, so the new address space supports 2128 (approximately 340 undecillion or 3.4×1038 ) addresses. This expansion allows for many more devices and users on the internet as well as extra flexibility in allocating addresses and efficiency for routing traffic. 

WikiPedia

 

This means if we, as a planet, want to move ahead with things such as intelligent grids, intelligent devices, new applications, new internet-enabled everything – we will need to have adequate IP address space to accommodate that future.  We cannot do that with IPv4 address limitations, but IPv6 gives us enough space to grow to the point we cannot currently even fully understand the entire extent of that address space.  Or in other words, IPv6 will do the job for the next couple Internet-enabled generations.

The Future of the Internet is Ours to Choose

Martin Levy, Director IPv6 Strategy at Hurricane Electric, one of those thought leaders who has been driving Internet at the operational level for a really, really long time sums it up succinctly,

IPv4 was yesterday’s news. Today is the day after yesterday, where IPv6 matters to each and every user of the global Internet. (Martin’s Blog)

Even as you read this blog, the available IPv4 address space is slipping away.  The Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) are reviewing their IPv4 allocation policies, and you can go to sleep with relative certainty the little guy is not going to be in a very strong position when those last blocks of addresses are issued.

Discussions are popping up all over the Internet on how we can step back and find more efficient ways to use the existing IPv4 address space, squeezing more time out of it through global cooperation, emergence of trading and markets for the buying and selling of IPv4 addresses, and even more creative use of network address translation.

Or of course they could simply spend the same amount of energy to deploy IPv6 in their networks.

What Can the End User Do?

Well, after years of promoting IPv6 – at least in marketing materials, equipment vendors are finally starting to produce hardware which can handle “Native IPv6” routing.  Cisco/Linksys, NetGear, Belkin, and all the other guys are finally stepping up to meet the needs of consumers.  Mobile phone vendors and applications providers for iPhones, Androids, and Windows are being forced to produce IPv6-ready products.  The tools are finally starting to become available.

Internet providers in Asia, Europe, and the Americas are finally putting IPv6 capability into their networks, and the topic is no longer responded to with amusement and indifference by network operators and administrators.

But within the broad community of IT administrators,  applications developers, private and government network providers – the actual IPv6-readiness factor is pretty low.

So again, what can we do?

Easy, as a consumer, employee, manager, or user of Internet services we have somebody – whether it be an organizational IT manager, ISP, or other provider, who is responsible for implementing IPv4 or continuing to put virtual scotch tape and bubble gum on a a geriatric IPv4 network.

Raise the question as a consumer.  Raise the question as a manager.  Raise the question as a corporate strategist.  Raise the question to everybody above your level that is blocking or not adequately answering the need to consider or implement IPv6 in your network.

Ask them at what point the “Law of Plentitude,” or that point where not having access to IPv6 will put you in a competitive, social, or professional risk will be reached.  At what point, if your Internet-connected world is not IPv6-connected, will you be denied access to your community?  And what are they going to do about it?

Epilogue

From the Internet Society

World IPv6 Day

On 8 June, 2011, Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, Akamai and Limelight Networks will be amongst some of the major organisations that will offer their content over IPv6 for a 24-hour “test flight”. The goal of the Test Flight Day is to motivate organizations across the industry – Internet service providers, hardware makers, operating system vendors and web companies – to prepare their services for IPv6 to ensure a successful transition as IPv4 addresses run out.

In the Australian IT online edition Paul Wilson, head of the RIR for Asia (APNIC), was quoted “I gave a presentation in Japan last year where I said: ‘look we’re not asking you to panic, but maybe you should panic just a little bit’.”

Global Internet Network Providers are starting to take notice, but they sadly represent a small percentage of the global Internet-connected IT administration and applications development community.  Call your network representative and ask if they are participating in World IPv6 Day.  Ask them “why not” if you get a negative reply.  If you represent a government or company, force the issue.  If you are a consumer, consider changing providers if your network shows indifference.

IPv6 will happen – don’t be on the wrong side of plentitude.

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A Look Into Moldova’s ICT Spirit with Grigore Raileanu

Posted on February 8, 2011 by John Savageau

Moldova has a lot of entrepreneurs.  As you walk along the streets in Chisinau, the capital city, you constantly pass signs advertising software development companies, data centers, and computer sales.  As citizens of a “developing” country, young people know they need to work smarter, harder, and more creatively to compete with not only each other, but also others countries in Europe and the world.

Grigore Raileanu is one of those aggressive young people.  And an entrepreneur with a successful company named Remsys.  In fact, you may not even know Remsys is a Moldovan company, possibly believing it is based in the US!

Grigore met with us on 4 Feb 2011 to talk about ICT, innovation, and Moldova.  You can listen to the audio file HERE

John Savageau: Today with have with us, Mr. Gigore Raileanu, who does business development with a Moldovan company called Remsys.  Good afternoon Grigore!

RaileanuGrigore Raileanu: Good afternoon John and everyone!

John Savageau: So, please start us off and give us a little background on yourself, and give us a little background on Remsys.

RaileanuGrigore Raileanu: I’m actually doing business development for my first company Remsys.  This company has successfully grown to thousands of systems, managed systems, and heterogeneous infrastructure.  We are positioning ourselves as a managed solutions provider for small and medium businesses.

We are also doing 24 hours (a day) custom technical solutions for our clients, and we are designing and managing complex infrastructures, networks, fighting SPAM, and building clouds.

John Savageau: That’s exciting.  I believe that Remsys has roots based in web hosting and managed services, are you expanding on the initial concept of the company?

Grigore Raileanu: At first our customers were mainly hosting companies, but as I said we have repositioned as a managed solutions provider for small and medium business.  So it’s not only hosting and the like, but our customers quite big, and we even have video-on-demand providers and medical companies.  So it’s not only hosting.

John Savageau: And you are not just limited to Moldovan companies, you also go outside of Moldova?

Grigore Raileanu: Well our companies (clients) are mostly out of Moldova.  A lot of the Moldovan companies we are working for, are actually subsidiaries of foreign companies.

John Savageau: So let’s move on and talk a little about Moldovan ICT.  We’re curious, (you) being an entrepreneur and running your companies.  How do you feel about the ability of Moldovan companies, not only to compete in Moldova against foreign companies, but also within global markets?

Grigore Raileanu: In my opinion Moldovan companies are highly competitive.  Firstly because of costs.  Our teams are delivering full project lifecycle from development and testing, to technical support, and hosting.

ICT companies in Moldova are mostly oriented to business process outsourcing, like software development, testing, or eCommerce.

Many private companies are opening and operating their offices here in Moldova.  This way our companies can be considered as competing on the global market.

John Savageau: Do you have any significant strategies, or ideas you use to make your company – or other Moldovan companies competitive in a global market?

Grigore Raileanu: Actually we are working to improve our technical team skills, our procedures, training, participate in different expositions in order to get more skilled people.

John Savageau: Do you believe the academic community, or education system,… are they preparing workers well enough to compete in the workforce, or to meet your needs with technical or management-level talent?

Grigore Raileanu: I think that our academic community can do it better.  Actually, the universities are not able to satisfy the demand.  Most importantly the quality of studies has to be improved a lot.

Companies spend a lot of resources and money in order to educate and graduate students, as the university’s programs are outdated and need to be revised.

John Savageau: And how about the teachers and instructors,… are they prepared to teach students what they need, or do the instructors also need to increase their capacity?

Grigore Raileanu: Yes, as far as I know, our teachers are also working in ICT companies, so mostly they are involved in the continual process of education.

John Savageau: As far as the students, do the students also have an opportunity to have internships or participation with priovate companies while they are in university?

Grigore Raileanu: Yes, even the ICT Association has such programs, and are running internships, and Moldovan students are participating and gaining knowledge – they are even getting to know the companies they may work with in the future.

John Savageau: Outside of Chisinau, Chisinau being the largest city, with obviously the most resources available – how about the countryside – what is the future of children in the countryside for participating in ICT?

Grigore Raileanu: I think we need to consider that people should not orient towards Chisinau only.  We have a lot of great place like Balti, Cahul, Tiraspol, and we must build our IT development centers there as well.

John Savageau: Is there a  partnership opportunity between private companies and the academic community, or private companies and the government for that matter?

Grigore Raileanu: Actually, yes.  Our association of private IT companies is doing that.  They are doing a lot to improve the situation, and also to change the educational programs and curriculum for our universities.  Also, work with the government to get better conditions for taxes.

Up until this year there was no tax for programmer’s or software engineer’s income.

John Savageau: Let me move on to a different topic, that is cloud computing.  This is a big buzzword.  Everybody around the world talks about cloud computing.  Is cloud computing important to your company, or to Moldova?

Grigore Raileanu: I think yes.  Actually, like you said, cloud is a buzzword, every speaks about cloud, but people understand different things about this.

In my opinion, the cloud is infrastructure able to scale on demand, it is highly secure, and able to decrease IT costs.  Cloud computing will have a significant impact on Moldova, but there is still no market for this in my opinion.

We have to create, and stimulate this market somehow.

I’ve also heard that our government is going to launch, or already launched, a Moldavian cloud project.  It is looking to improve the government, and its subsidiary state corporations by owning the highest available and scalable IT infrastructure.

John Savageau: How about Software as a Service (SaaS).  There are a lot of software companies, specifically in Chisinau.  Do Moldovan companies have an opportunity to develop SaaS applications on a global scale?

Grigore Raileanu: Well, yes, and we are already doing it.  But it is not for internal use, I mean it is not for the Moldavian market.

John Savageau: Is that still an opportunity to learn those skills and be prepared once cloud computing is a factor in Moldova?

Grigore Raileanu: I thin kwe have many things to learn, and improve, in order to create and launch this market.  But yes, there is a place for this market here in Moldova.

John Savageau: How do you believe that Moldovan companies should approach the global market?  Again, we know there is business inside Moldova, but there is also a very large world outside of Moldova – how do you approach that global market?

Grigore Raileanu: Moldova has a lot of companies that are subsidiaries and offices of global companies.  Moldova has to deliver something better in order to compete with countries like India, the Philippines, and so on.  So I think that we will lead by our cultural approach, we are more closed to the occident compared to the Indians or Philippines.

John Savageau: For people who are adults, or have not grown up in the Internet age from childhood accessing Facebook, Skype, and things like that where it is normal, how does the 25~40 age group – how do you think they are going to globalization of communications, and societies and things – are they ready for it?

Grigore Raileanu: Yeah, I am sure they are, it’s not really hard.  From my experience I have talked with people who have never seen a computer.  And if that person is young, has elementary skills, they can work it out and improve their skills.

John Savageau: What so you see as a future for Moldova?  I mean if you have a white board, and you have any idea that you want to put on the white board, what should Moldova do to make itself more competitive, and become a factor in the global economy or in the global marketplace?

Grigore Raileanu: I think Moldova has to orient on mobile services, startups, and even why not build centers for startups to meet investors, governments, and work together to launch some new companies with new ideas.

Maybe the next Facebook will be launched right here in Moldova!

John Savageau: If the Moldova cloud, the government cloud, actually moves forward as aggressively as it does (is planned), that might be one of the first successful cloud projects in the world (government clouds), which means that Moldovan companies that participate would be able to replicate that process in other developing countries in Africa, eastern Europe, Asia,..

How do you feel about that?  Are you ready to go there?

Grigore Raileanu: Of course, being a patriot, I would be very happy because my country is one of the first countries able to launch this project and to give a good example for different countries.

John Savageau: Any other ideas you would like to pass on to the global ICT community, about Moldova, your company, yourself?

Grigore Raileanu: Well my company, we are starting some nation-wide programs, and we are very present on the Moldavian market, and maybe we will have some meetings this year, and bring our services into the (global) market, and if there is no demand for some kinds services we will try to create it, so everyone can benefit.

John Savageau: Thank you very much for taking the time this afternoon.  I wish you and Remsys, and Moldova the best of luck.

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How Moldova’s Academic Community Prepares Students for the Internet Age – An Interview with Dr. Victor Besliu

Posted on February 5, 2011 by John Savageau

On 2 Feb 2011 we met with Dr. Victor Besliu, Chairman of the of Automation and Information Technology faculty at Moldova Technical University.  Dr. Besliu is a graduate of the Moscow Technical University, and has many strong ideas and recommendations for how Moldova can make students and graduates more competitive not only in the Moldova ICT community, but also the global community.

The interview was conducted mainly in Romanian language, with translation done by Ion Stanciu.  You can listen to the entire audio recording of the interview in Romanian HERE.

Main topics discussed during the interview included;

1.  His opinions on Moldova’s eReadiness

  • He conducted extensive research on the topic during 2005 and 2009
  • Moldova still has only a couple of universities with curriculum focusing on ICT (information and communications technologies)
  • Moldova Technical University (MTU) does offer a major in computer science
  • MTU has around 500 graduates from the program each year
  • Moldova currently has approximately 1500 professional, qualified ICTR specialists working in government and private industry
  • He considers the quality of Moldovan graduates quite high, as most are actually being recruited to work in foreign countries following university

2.  His opinions on how well Moldova is meeting the needs of children, preparing them to function and succeed in an Internet and computer-enabled world.

  • Children at a young age need access to ICT tools, and are able to quickly absorb the technology
  • If children are given access to computers and Internet too early, they could run a risk of slipping into a virtual world, and not being able to function correctly in social environments

3.  On distance education and eLearning

  • Moldova currently has no legal framework for eLearning, meaning formal credits towards degree programs are not available through online education
  • The academic community has begun discussion and planning to consider the question of incorporating eLearning into the curriculum, however that is still an open topic
  • There has not historically been a culture of lifelong learning in Moldova
  • Historically paper (degrees and diplomas) has been given higher status and more respect than experience or knowledge
  • Some face-to-face interaction in the education process is important

4.  On adult education

  • In the old days of the Soviet Union, there were age restrictions on persons entering degree programs (35)
  • Today, in Moldova, there are no age restrictions, allowing any person with prerequisite qualifications to apply for formal university programs
  • Many students from foreign countries apply to, and are accepted, into Moldova’s university system

5.  On how to make the Moldova education system more capable in meeting the needs of all students

  • Politicians must understand the role of communications, computers, and ICT education in the future of Moldova
  • Increase educator salaries and benefits to the level being a teacher in Moldova is an attractive profession
  • Many instructors are already working in private companies part time, allowing them to not only increase their income to the point of survival, but also to keep on top of new and emerging technologies
  • They are changing the university curriculum every 2~3 years based on technology and emerging ICT trends
  • Provide more opportunities for student internships in local companies to give them more practical knowledge of the concepts and theory learned in classrooms
  • Continue tracks within the ICT faculty that allow students to take courses to the degree level taught entirely in a foreign language, including French and English
  • Continue to emphasize beginning Internet and computer exposure into education system from the beginning – young students need to develop tacit knowledge of this technology and become computer/Internet literate not only to function in the workplace, but also in normal society

On a positive note, Dr. Besliu acknowledged many of MTU’s graduates are now well-positioned in Moldova companies, and that trend is expected to continue.  In addition, Many Moldovan expatriates are now returning home, further reinforcing Moldova’s ability to support development of a knowledge economy.

 

Please check Moldova technical University’s website for more information on their programs and activities.

Audio file for entire interview (in Romanian language) HERE

 

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A Look into Moldova’s ICT Community with Ana Chirita

Posted on February 3, 2011 by John Savageau

We first met Ana Chirita while surveying ICT companies in Moldova for a national cloud computing project.  As Executive Director of the Moldovan Association of Private ICT Companies, Ana provided introductions to local companies, industry background, and aggressive follow-on support to our project.  As an advocate and evangelist for her community, Ana plays an important role in developing Moldova’s ICT industry.  You can listen to the entire interview on audio here.

John Savageau: This morning we have Ms. Ana Chirita who is the Executive Director of the Moldovan Association of Private ICT (information and communications technology) Companies. Good morning Ana!

What I’d like to do is just have you start out and describe the purpose and the role of the Moldovan Association of Private ICT Companies. What is it?

Ana Chirita: It is an association formed of 29 companies, and we are comfortably growing. The main reason to have this group of companies come together is in a way, to have a common vision of how the ICT sector should be developed. And, in a way achieve the main goal up front, which is growing the ICT sector and having it be the main driver for the whole economy of the country.

So basically what we do is represent our company’s interests through constructive dialog. With government we also do promotion of our companies. We try to reach certain levels of education and HR development that can help our companies grow. Because, one of the key issues they have put in their strategy is to help out the industry through investments in education and having good specialists that can work for them (the member companies).

We also focus on opening markets, market development – both locally and internationally. So we do a whole range of activities that help our companies get more visible, grow their revenues, and become viable partners.

John Savageau: And how did you find your way into the association?

Ana Chirita: it was very interesting in a way… I received an email from the current deputy minister (Dona Scola, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Information, Technology, and Communications). By then, Dona was working at Chemonics on a project. That was about a year and a half ago.

I just received an email, “would you like to apply for a job?” “Please send me your CV.”

I did not know Dona by then, so I did not know what the job was for, what it was about, what should be done, what I was supposed to do, … So I just send my CV in and said “OK.” The I called for an interview, not even know for what kind of a job! That was quite fun.

I entered the room and there were six men, the current board of directors of the association, and Dona helping out the board.

Then they started asking a lot of questions. I was like, “what?…” The interview took about one hour, I’d say, or an hour and a half. In three, four languages or so. Everybody talking their own language – Romanian, French, English… Then I got out of there and said “oh my gosh… what was that? I didn’t know what I was coming for… I didn’t know what I was supposed to do – just so many questions. ”

In two hours I received a call, “we want to hire you.” So basically that’s how it started. I had my first meeting, we signed a contract, and that was my way into the ICT Association.

John Savageau: It seems like you’ve done pretty good getting 29 companies into the association. Do you have any examples of specific benefits the ICT community members have gained from participating in the association?

Ana Chirita: Yes, I’d say the first thing is they get exposure with, and get dialog with the government. Which means they will know everything that is going around that is in the ICT sector, and what the government wants to do. That is strategy, it means different laws, it means different aspects of that kind of which they can benefit from.

For example, let’s say the fiscal policy. The government was changing the fiscal policy last year, and they got an intervention. Like author rights. The government was changing the law on author rights – we got an intervention.

So basically it is exposure, information, and being able to contribute, to a certain extent, for the benefit of the companies.

Other things that I would like to mention are they (members) get various possibilities to work in a consolidated model. For example if we have campaigns with the universities, or training, or seminars, they get to work as a group, which means lowering their internal resources (costs), because when you do something alone it is one amount, when you do things in a group it is a completely different amount. Basically it is lowering the expenses.

The other thing is that all the training and certifications they get, they get with discounts through the association, which is up to 50% discount. For example, CMMI, for certifications and training in project management, human resource development – whatever it is they always get it for a discount.

All the initiatives on expert promotions. Many companies participate either for free or at reduced costs. (including) various events and business missions, which is considerable for those who are considering export.

Other things, what we are launching now and what we are trying to kind of change within the association is to create new services as a cluster approach that the companies can benefit from, the companies that are in the association can participate, and at the same time benefit.

There are several projects in the concept phase, which in mid-March may be launched or find partners, and be able to get on the market.

So even if we are not able to act as a service provider, we will try to foster that, anyway. So besides lobby, discount – we started the discount program again now. Like 29 companies, that’s about 2000 employees, maybe more. And they can get better prices, lowering their budgets (OPEX/CAPEX) and internal costs by participating in a group.

That makes it reasonable why to pay membership fees (to the association), if they pay, because in a way (paying the fees) it helps in reducing your budget, and makes it less expensive (to operate).

But the main thing of course, lobby and dialog with the government, which can enable the business environment for them to make business or do business easier.

John Savageau: Do you have any major success stories from association members?

Ana Chirita: Depends on which side…

If we talk about the certification side we have six companies certified in IT Mark, basic IT Mark, going for CMMI Level 2.

If we talk about exports we have companies that through the activities we do have gained contracts. If we talk about lobbying we are present in at least five or six working groups in various ministries and agencies and we have been able to get into the position where our opinion is being taken into consideration.

For example with the fiscal policy, or with the author rights. So, we’re working on that now as well. And we hope that within 2011 we’ll achieve those results that we’ve worked for and made studies for.

So basically there are achievements that can be taken into consideration. If you like I can send the report of 2010.

John Savageau: Another question,… With Moldovan ICT companies is how competitive they are within Moldova. What is going to make Moldovan ICT companies more competitive in the global marketplace?

Ana Chirita: Better exposure. (Using) International standards, and because competitiveness is about the human resources, it is about the processes you have inside, it is about the things you follow, and how you follow, maybe a country positioning paper to understand where we’re heading to will help them do better.

But now I think that through those processes they are improving inside, like for some of the companies pursuing certain standards, they are already able to compete. Because many of them do export and compete in international markets.

John Savageau: Is there a role the Moldova government should play in making companies more competitive or to give them greater exposure to the international marketplace?

Ana Chirita: Definitely. I think the government should, first of all the government should identify its priorities in this area, and it will be able to enable. Because without the support of the government it’s like a “one man show.”

Many of the companies have developed themselves (independently) in a way without having certain benefits up to let’s say 2005, 2006 from the government.

The government should play a big role, such as to enable better education , better access to the markets, better positioning, better exposure.

The government is very important to have as a partner.

John Savageau: On import tariffs for things like ICT equipment, is the government supporting the ICT community with tax holidays or anything like that on (equipment) imports?

Ana Chirita: We are trying to work on that now., That’s one of the results we want to achieve, like we want to get a preferential rate on the import of equipment, on ICT goods.

And there is one thing we have in Moldova that we have never promoted in a way, is we have a fiscal facility for software development companies, from 2005. Which is an exemption from income tax. And it depends, up to 18% on physical persons – programmers mainly. And we want to keep that. It gives them a competitive advantage on the regional market for Moldova.

Otherwise we get to the same level as Romania, Bulgaria, and other countries in the region.

So for us it is important to keep these kinds of things (tax breaks), like a preferential regime for ICT, would be able to enable and help out (our competitiveness).

John Savageau: How about the education community in Moldova? Is the academic community adequately preparing graduates to enter the workforce or participate in ICT?

Ana Chirita: According to our studies, and the studies that certain USAID projects have delivered, for example the “Competitiveness Project,” the quantity (of graduates) that Moldova delivers is quite good – by numbers is enough. But the quality (of graduates) is still lagging behind in a way.

So there is a big need for investing in, and promoting, certain technical and soft skills. Because the company has to invest up to 3, 4 times more than the universities or the government gives to the students.

So in a way certain initiatives have taken place contributing vendor-based curricula, or in schools and universities they are trying to update the curricula, or there are private companies that actually hold classes within the universities. Like software engineering classes or quality assurance or something like that as optional or mandatory courses.

But that is a big effort, and that is not enough. There is a need to do more.

John Savageau: That’s an interesting statement you made, do you believe there is a space for private companies and the academic community to work as partners in developing a better ICT capacity?

Ana Chirita: We, as the ICT association are trying to do that in a way, but yes I think there is enough space to have more companies, with educational companies or other types of companies – or even ICT companies trying to work back-to-back with academia in order to reach the (required) level.

Because it’s not only the university level, it’s about the (primary) school level. Because a career in IT is not pursued as a nice thing. The people are not aware that a career in IT has a future. So actually you do not have to go out of the country, or emigrate. You can stay in the country, and have a decent salary.

John Savageau: I agree. And when you compare, perhaps people who are living in the countryside in Moldova, with students who are in Chisinau, or even comparing them to London or Los Angeles,… The ability of children who are growing up in the Internet age possibly could be different based on how much exposure they have to ICT tools that are available at a very young age.

Do you believe there is a risk in Moldova of not being able to compete in the digital community if children today are not rapidly given exposure to that type of environment?

Ana Chirita: it depends. Maybe yes, maybe no. it depends on what is our strategy.

I think we need to invest, and need to encourage getting children more and more involved in technical things and Internet. And being able to know how to use it wisely, and being to have various programs and different types of teaching – not only the traditional one (teaching method) to acquire the skills which are already not (just) a luxury, but a “must have” in the future.

So it’s knowing the basic things, like working with a computer is not a luxury like it would have been 10 years ago.

John Savageau: It’s part of life now.

Any last words you would like to give us on either the association, ICT in Moldova, or any other topics that are of interest to the community?

Ana Chirita: Let me think! You’ve been asking a lot of questions!

Basically I think that we, and I, am very thankful for what is happening now in Moldova. I think with common efforts we can reach better exposure, a more competitive country, and more competitive industry.

As an association we will work and hope the government will be more supportive. We’ll see that steps are undertaken in that sense.

So, that’s it!

John Savageau: That’s a very positive outlook, and we all certainly look forward to seeing how it is going to develop in the future. Thank you very much for taking the time this morning.

MICTMission, Vision, Goals

Mission:  Moldovan Association of Private ICT Companies promotes the development of the ICT sector in the Republic of Moldova through viable partnerships between the private companies, similar organizations, state institutions, international organizations in order to enhance the competitiveness and development of the sector and company capacities, enlarge the market, attract investments in the country and participate in the decision making and regulatory process on the national and international level.

Vision: The ICT sector will become an enabler of the Moldovan economy, and Moldovan Association of Private ICT Companies( further ATIC) will contribute to this process through its consultancy means in creating a better life and a better environment in terms of business and social needs. ATIC will get involved into the spheres of education, export, capacity building, competitiveness enhancement to have ICT lead the industry and become a part of any system and process to ensure its development.

Objectives:

  1. To raise the Moldovan ICT industry’s profile and image within the country and on International markets.
  2. To raise the level of co-operation and collaboration amongst members of the Moldovan ICT business community.
  3. To work with Government to improve the business context, legal framework and overall prospects for the sector.
  4. To collaborate with Moldovan Educational institutions to improve over time the quality and quantity of ICT trained graduates.
  5. To help improved levels of professional & management skills within ICT companies.
  6. To improve all aspects of investment opportunities for ICT enterprises in Moldova.
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Is Moldova Ready for Cloud Computing?

Posted on January 29, 2011 by John Savageau

Cloud computing is now a common topic within the Moldova IT community.  Whether we embrace the idea, are skeptical, or reject the idea of cloud computing, it is a topic all of us know we will need to deal with in the very near future.

Cloud computing requires education on several different levels, from the software developer to company CEO.  All of us will need to have a basic understanding of not only the high-level technology of cloud computing, but also the impact cloud computing will have on organizational finances, personnel, business processes, and impact not only locally, but also our place in the international community.

Cloud Readiness Topic 1 – Cloud Training

Learning CloudNot much available in Moldova if you want to take an adult education course in cloud computing, virtualization, or cloud-enabled business.  While there are millions of hits for cloud computing on a Google search , those of us working long hours every day and week cannot always find time to sit and take courses over the web, or do personal research over the web each day.

Nor do all of us have broadband access to the network at home, and will find it difficult to spend hours browsing cloud computing topics at your workplace.

But some good news…  How many of us use GMAIL, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, or other public mail services?  Most?  Then we all have at least a basic exposure to the idea of cloud computing, as all of those services are based in the “cloud.”

Extend that into Google Apps or Microsoft Live Office, and you are actually learning the concepts of cloud computing – at the user level – possibly without even being aware you are already in the cloud community.

However, for business and government decision makers, IT managers, and applications developers – we will quickly need to bring ourselves up to speed on the impact cloud computing models will have on information technologies, organizations, economics, and finances supporting our business.

BOTTOM LINE 1:  Cloud computing is here, and will be as important to us as individuals and organizations as the Internet was 20 years ago.  Take some time and learn the basics – it won’t be too difficult, and may even inspire new ideas how this may help in your personal and professional life.

Cloud Readiness Topic 2 – Our Existing and Future IT Infrastructure

Data CenterLet’s close the door and be honest with each other for a moment…  A large percentage of the software used in Moldova (and to be fair, most countries) may not be licensed.  It is not supported by the vendor, not up to date with security and functionality patches, and all the other pending problems that put our organizations and companies at risk.

We have little disaster recovery planning, incompatible data bases, poor file backup management, and unplanned equipment that has been added piece by piece over the years, with an IT manager who goes home at night praying the disk gods do not decide to crash a drive.

Cloud computing will give us the option of moving our risky IT infrastructure into a virtual, hosted environment.  That will require us to migrate existing applications into the cloud, and (hopefully) start to “dumb” down our individual workstations.  All the right reasons for moving to a cloud.

But, as institutions, we need to start preparing our existing IT environment to move to a cloud environment.  Cloud Readiness preparation will mean we do not add new features, applications, or equipment that will not eventually support migration to a cloud computing platform.

A “cloud first” IT procurement and development policy, everything else approval by exception.

Yes, it will take work.  Yes, it will cost money.  Yes, it might require IT professionals to either learn new skills, or find new jobs.

Much like the changes we made in the 1990s when moving from FAX to Email, floppy disks to hard drives, and stand alone computers to LANs.  Cloud readiness preparations will require us to think differently, much as we have needed to learn new technology and skills throughout history.

BOTTOM LINE 2:  Cloud computing is here, and will impact ALL IT professionals within the next couple of years.  Start preparing your organization for the inevitable move to hosted computing now – you will not regret it.  Even if you do not embrace cloud computing in the near future, the exercise can only have a positive effect on your existing operations.

The Future is Staring at Us, Challenging us to Resist

There are realities we deal with every day.  The sun rises in the east, sets in the west.  We are born, we live, we die.  Beautiful white snow eventually gets dirty, turns to slush, and melts away.

Cloud computing is in our future, and that is as certain as your children using Facebook (another cloud-based application).

We have a very small “window of opportunity” to prepare ourselves to compete and function in a cloud computing world.  Let us not waste this opportunity.

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Five Arguments Why SMBs Should Definitely Love the Cloud

Posted on January 28, 2011 by graileanu

Why SMBs should use the cloud

 

Why would small and medium businesses love the cloud ?

First, because a cloud computing model is much cheaper than the standard, legacy approach. It is often used on the “pay as you go” approach. SMB don`t have to care about hardware, hosting or colocation, server installation and software updates. They benefit of an enormous IT infrastructure, when usual the low end segment of SMB  don`t even have enough IT resources. So cloud allows SMB to focus on the core operations instead of doing IT.

Second, the cloud model  is easy in use and implementation. Small businesses can`t use difficult manageable services like enterprises. The cloud, with its well integrated and easy to use services wins. When it comes to data migration and interoperability, SMBs have less legacy interfaces and applications to replace or integrate, so it is a much less painful process.

Furthemore, cloud is highly scalable and elastic. It grants the ability to scale IT infrastructure very quick. Normally SMBs cannot scale as fast and efficiently as a public cloud provider does. Rather than buying more servers, software, or deploying additional sophisticated hardware infrastructure, the client can just add more power and capacity to expand their cloud computing and storage units. It is more manageable and convenient!

Cloud is highly secure. This includes topics such as data privacy and protection, application security, disaster recovery, backup, and identity management. A public cloud provider has the potential to be more secure than most businesses can deliver in their normal, legacy IT infrastructure. And they do.  Businesses  should trust them.

Cloud is eco-friendly. It is Green. The power usage is less in cloud so the environmental impact of both running and building data centers is less, as resources are used on demand. There is no need to support a lot of servers with processors using a small percentage of the compute or storage capacity, and in fact supporting capacity which is mostly idling.

Lot of power is saved annually by moving physical servers into a virtual, efficient cloud.

Cloud has the potential to completely replace legacy  IT infrastructure for businesses.  And we believe it will…

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Tweeting Moldova Innovation

Posted on January 27, 2011 by John Savageau

Moldova Innovation is now available on Twitter (@MoldovaInnovate).  We will “tweet” new articles as written and approved, so add us to your “following list” today!

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A Future of Tablets, NetBooks, Dumb Terminals and Virtual Desktops

Posted on January 22, 2011 by John Savageau

It is becoming difficult to join a meeting without a few participants propping an iPad on the table. Not complaining, as this is considerably better than the annoyance or distraction of Tablet Ciomputer as Virtual Desktophaving 10 people raise the lids on their laptop computers and “clickity clack” their way through a meeting.

For the past couple years I have also carried a small NetBook computer (an Asus in my case) during short trips or meetings not justifying carrying my bulky 17 inch laptop.

Now Google is releasing an iPad competitor using the Android OS, and other companies are racing to release their own devices.

It is Not Just About Music and Video

When traveling with my ancient NetBook, as it does not easily support a full version of MS Office, I normally use applications such as MS Live Mail, Live Office, and SkyDrive.  Easy to read mail, review and modify documents, and save the images on a hosted drive until I can get back to my main workstation.  In fact, in most cases it is very difficult to see any major differences or performance/feature shortfalls in hosted software, allowing me to work without concern of losing the functionality of my higher performance workstation.

MS Live MailThe main requirement to extend my “tether” is broadband or high speed wireless internet access from my remote or working location.  And it is becoming very rare I cannot find a wireless hot spot or access point when needed.  Particularly with 3G/4G/LTE becoming widely available around the world – including most locations within Moldova.

But the point is being able to extend the tether without losing the information or functionality needed to do my job.  As applications such as Google Apps, Microsoft 365, ZoHo, and a planned hosted OpenOffice, the need for mobile (or desktop) high performance computing is being diluted very quickly.

It is a VDI Future in the Clouds

The idea of VDI, or the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, is the practice of hosting a desktop operating system within a virtual machine (VM) running on a centralized server (Wikipedia).

VDI does many powerful things for an organization or individual.

  • Allows the user to access applications and data from nearly any location, regardless of the access device (access to apps and data is through login/secure IDs and passwords)
  • Access devices, such as iPads and NetBooks, are only limited by their graphics capability, not their disk capacity or device-loaded applications
  • Relieves individual users and devices from version control of hosted software (you do not need to load your own patches and updates to individual software applications)
  • Your files and data are retained on network-based servers, allowing better backup and disaster management of individual files

Google Apps Presentation SoftwareAnd of course at an organizational level it will eventually allow expensive desktop workstations to be replaced with lower performance, high graphics, dumb terminals for stationary works, as well as lower cost mobile devices for “road warriors.”

But perhaps even more important at the organizational level is the ability to begin enforcing application standardization among users.  If the organization determines they will use hosted Microsoft Office 365, or Google Apps for the office automation environment, then they can reasonably expect files and information produced within the organization will be fully interoperable within the organization.

And, rather than carry the risk of losing data, individual files will no longer be retained on workstations, securely maintained in server-based storage.

Most new VDI environments are being hosted in either public or enterprise cloud computing infrastructure.

Are there VDI Shortfalls or Limitations?

Of course.  There is a perception, even within organizations, that individual users will have some level of reduced privacy.  There is a fear among IT managers they will start losing jobs due to reduced complexity within individual workstations.  Other concerns (according to Wikipedia) include:

  • Potential security risks if the network is not properly managed
  • Some loss of user autonomy
  • Challenges in setting up and maintaining drivers for printers and other peripherals
  • Difficulty in running certain complex applications (such as multimedia)
  • Increased downtime in the event of network failures
  • Reliance on connectivity to corporate or public network

As well as the lack of hosted CAD and engineering software used by engineers, or very high performance rendering and graphics applications needed for those niche users.

Back to the iPad

An iPad (I use this example because the iPad is probably the most well-known tablet device – today) with around 64G of memory is currently running around $600.  That might appear expensive to many, unless you consider the cost of a laptop computer or desktop workstation.

The applications available for local storage on the iPad are good, but with WiFi or 3G connections the iPad performance is absolutely great.  hard to admit for a long time MAC hater, but after taking an iPad out for a test drive I have been converted, and hope for additional conversations as Android devices become available.

Given the assumption our world will not become LESS connected, and the assumption that every year will being us far greater access to broadband as a utility, the justification for buying expensive laptops and desktops is becoming more difficult to accept.

The Future

A personal prediction.  Plan for using hosted applications.  While there is certainly a continuing market for high performance individual workstations, it is very clear the large software companies like Microsoft, Google, Oracle, and others are re-tooling their efforts to support hosted applications, over cloud computing infrastructure.

In Moldova, many individuals and start up companies struggle with both the capital and operational expenses needed to support IT infrastructure.  Considering the use of VDI and dumb terminals – with hosted applications, may be a very easy way to relieve ourselves of the IT financial burden, saving limited funds for important business development activities.

If we are not already thinking about this inevitable change, maybe now is the time to start.

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Technology Driven Transparency

Posted on January 18, 2011 by John Savageau

One of the greatest features of cloud computing is the ability to easily centralize data centers, databases, and standardize applications.  Using an Applications Store, such as envisioned in the M-Cloud project, individual government agencies will have access to applications already approved for interoperability.

NOTE:  Terms used in this article, such as POP3, SMTP, web service, and other technical jargon are defined on many websites throughout the Internet.  We encourage readers to access a hyperlink under the technical term (we’ll normally connect to Wikipedia) and become more familiar with the language of technology.

interoperabilityInteroperability means data produced by one office should be reasonably expected to seamlessly integrate with data from another office.  This would apply, for example, to fees being collected for a particular service, or licensing revenues, or taxes.

While most of us are happy to hear our hard earned money spent on government services will be used most effectively, there is also a natural desire for many IT and business managers to keep their operations confidential.  Not necessarily for nefarious reasons, but because – face it – nobody likes another person or office looking over our shoulders while we are doing work.

Breaking Down Information Barriers

The digital age will make technical barriers to digital transparency easy to overcome.  And it is already well on the way.

For example, I use a MS Outlook client in front of a standard POP3 mail server, with an SMTP server.  My system is actually hosted within Yahoo’s cloud, but you would never know it is on a different hosting platform, operating system, or client application.

If your mail is on GMail, hosted within Google’s cloud, or if your mail is locally hosted on a server within your office, you can still send and receive messages from me – because our way of communicating is standardized across nearly all mail platforms.

You can use the same concept in financial transactions at a national level.  if the basic data formats and accounting principles are standardized across an entire government system, then the data produced within each application should be available – if authorized, to become input in another system.  Again an example might be tax collection data being available to the Ministry of Finance through a web application (or more specifically a web service) designed to allow transfer of data between two applications.

Data center consolidation into a cloud computing infrastructure further encourages standardization and transparency.  If both organizations agree on a data element format, such as agreeing a name field will have the same characteristics in both systems, or a number will look the same in both systems, then publishing the interoperable data will become fairly easy, and eliminate human (manual) intervention or human processing between two agencies.

This reduces the chance of error ion transferring data, not to mention the reduction in processing time to share data elements.  Real time reporting becomes possible, rather than requiring reporting agencies to wait until all manual processing and error correction is complete before accessing data.

Moldova does have an opportunity to encourage standardization and interoperability as plans for eGovernment and Citizen eServices continue to develop.

Send your ideas, or suggestions on this topic via a comment – we’d be happy to include your thoughts – preferably positive and productive, on this and all other discussions.

Happy Computing!

Posted in Cloud Computing, Moldova Innovation, eGovernment | Tagged , | 1 Comment