Essay
Aivar Tõnso
Estonia's position among small states gives us reason to wonder if we can conserve and justify our existence in the sphere of the political and economic interests of large and strong states. One could recollect the so called "Estonian imperative" by Jakob Hurt from the national awakening period - we must become large in acumen.
The result of the effort of present-day Estonia to move towards the information society is the project of computerisation of schools called "The Tiger-Jump". The Tiger-Jump has been treated as a myth but also as an expression of the vanity syndrome of Estonians which would enable them to come to the fore among other former socialist countries.
During the first step of the Tiger-Jump project in 1997-1999 it is planned to supply all Estonian schools with computers (one computer with Internet connection per 10-20 students), develop the Estonian educational and academic network (EENet), train teachers and higher level pupils in computer skills, work out multimedia learning programmes on Estonian language, culture, history etc. The realisation of these preliminary plans could be hindered by the problems arising from the financing of the project.
Single projects are not enough to integrate into the information society, thorough changes in the society in general are needed for that: firm base structures, technological perfection but also skills in orientating in computer knowledge and information mass and changes in the evaluation of people are important. As great mobility and a high pace of life are characteristic of the informaton society, life-long learning and a constant need to re-orientate and re-organize is becoming more essential.
According to this it is substantial to focus attention on the theoretic interpretation of information society and analyze the risks and benefits it will bring along. It is significant to speak openly and objectively about the information society, advocate the movement towards it, knowing at the same time how to reason its effectiveness and explain the ways of overcoming the biggest risks.
Unfortunately we have to admit that Estonia is at present still rather far away from reaching the information society, both in technological terms and as to the readiness of people. Efforts to move towards it could be seen on the level of single persons but a clear action strategy on the level of the state is lacking. It's hard to predict how many aspects and sides will be taken into consideration and how thoroughly this will be done; if only the present-day needs or also futher development in a longer perspective will be accounted.