The Digital Society #10 - e-Estonia Newsletter

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June 2014 | The Newsletter of the Estonian ICT Demo Center

The Nordic-Baltic Rainforest

“The Rainforest” is the title of a 2012 book that studied the success factors of Silicon Valley as an incubator for innovation and wealth. Now Fast Company has mentioned Estonia as one of the four countries that could be leaving Silicon Valley in their tracks. Does that mean that the “innovation rainforest” has indeed raised its head here in the Nordic-Baltic region?
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Restarting Ukraine: Using Tech to Rebuild a Society

We spoke with investment banker Jaanika Merilo who has been sharing Estonia’s experiences with e-governance in Ukraine to help the country realize its IT potential.
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Health Tech – No Easy Ways To Save Lives

Although health technology has come a long way to save people’s lives, there are still challenges in changing both people’s behavior as well as the healthcare system.
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Does Startup Mentality Work for Governments?

For a startup, the key factor is speed – grow fast and learn from your mistakes. Can you use this mindset in developing an information system for a country?
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Hardware Startup Visitret Wants to Kill E-ink

Electronic paper manufacturer Visitret picked up the grand prize at the recent Latitude59 and went home with a check from Skype as well as praise from the pack of investors.
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Summer events in Estonia

05.-06.07.2014 – Estonian Song and Dance Celebration - Laulupidu, one of the largest amateur choral events in the world, responsible for Estonia's Singing Revolution.

20.-27.07.2013 in Kuressaare – Saaremaa Opera Days, a long-running international opera festival.

24.-27.07.2013 in Viljandi - 22st Viljandi Folk Festival, one of the largest of its kind in the Baltics and Nordics.

04.-09.08.2013 in Tartu - tARTuFF, an open-air love film festival on the town square of Tartu, organized by the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival crew.

Anne Sulling,
H.E. Minister of the Republic of Estonia responsible for foreign trade and entrepreneurship

Those who have followed the story of e-Estonia closely are already familiar with most of our e-achievements. High performance breeds high hopes, so Estonia’s challenges are getting harder and harder.

Keeping up with new technology and expectations is certainly trickier than building systems and platforms from scratch, which is one of the reasons Estonia has excelled in the last 20 years.

However, there is one clear achievement apart from our e-governance system or e-services penetration, and that is our e-story. In business and entrepreneurship, decisions are often made based on trust. Estonia has been telling its story well, and in matters of technology we are a trusted partner around the globe.

This trust can be materialized in many ways. Firstly, it gives us the chance to open doors for our entrepreneurs and businesspeople in the world. Secondly, it provides a welcome message for everyone outside Estonia looking for a place to do business. For the Estonian e-story to continue, we must support both of these routes.

Estonia is working on e-residency, which would open up our e-services globally to anyone who wants to apply, creating a league of virtual citizens. I hope this will further expand the circle of digital society evangelists and build trust in e-services all over the world.