Confederation of European Computer User Associations

CECUA Euro News Flash

The information society is supposed to bring growth and prosperity for all. But for sure it is not a charity And to take part in the information society costs money. Where then, is the money going to come from? Will the family budget escape? The family is a crucial element in the widespread and successful uptake of the Information society but will these costs be a priority in the family budget?

From Lone Dybkjaer, MEP

The Danish experiment and experience in bringing Personal Computers into the Danish home without cost to the family budget.

"The Information Society and the family budget!" NewsFlash raised family economic issues and I would like to share with you the Danish experiment and experience.

The information society is on the agenda of all policymakers. Within the EU, the Lisbon summit in July 2000 aimed at setting a policy framework for all countries within the EU to adapt to the Information society. The Lisbon summit conclusions stress that "Businesses and citizens must have access to an inexpensive, world-class communications infrastructure with a wide range of services. In addition, every citizen must be equipped with the skills needed to live and work in this new information society. Different means of access are necessary to prevent info-exclusion."

In Denmark, we have stipulated that ICT-literacy requires that citizens must have access to computers. This is a common responsibility for society. Left to market sources alone, we face the risk that software and hardware producers set the pace and control the costs for public and private investment in ICT.

The Danish government have created a system where an employer can provide a personal computer for use by their employees at home, for either work or training purposes. This does not affect the taxation paid by the employee. Moreover, this scheme provides an incentive for companies to invest in the training of their employees. In addition, this benefits the employee as a citizen.

As a result, Denmark now leads the way because there are 1.4 million personal computers in private homes. That is, 52% of Danish homes have a personal computer, and 31% of all homes now have access to the Internet.

The Danish model serves, in my opinion, as an example of an affordable method of ensuring that a major section of society can make the societal transformation to the information society. Europe should choose the same approach in order to ensure that all European Citizens can fully participate in the Global Information Society.

Lone Dybkjær, MEP
Brussels

Japanese families cut back on food for IT

For some reason until now, The Information Society and the Family budget issue has been neglected. However, there are signs that this is changing.
I would like to draw your attention to an article on IT and the family budget which is discussed in the latest issue of Fortune (www.fortune.com ) dated March 19, 2001 with the heading "Household E-Budget Crunch". The author arrives at the same conclusion as the editor of the CECUA NewsFlash on the "Information Society and the family budget!", i.e. the family budget cannot accommodate extra spending on IT on top of everything else. Therefore, something has to go to make room for IT in the family budget. The article reports that according to a survey of Japanese families, they cut back on food to fund IT products.

Sigurdur Jonasson
Reykjavik