ul. Wspólna 1/3  00-529 Warszawa 53

 
This Report has been prepared for the Office of European Integration in the Ministry of Telecommunications in Poland. The purpose of this Report is to summarise the issues of the emerging Information Society in Poland: the awareness of Information Society problems in Polish society, the research on Information Society in Poland, the participation of Poland in European initiatives on Information Society.

 
The general preparation of Polish society for information civilisation is difficult to be assessed.

 On one hand, Poland has old traditions of a very good level of education and research in mathematics, informatics, telecommunications. The importance of coming Information Society or the age of information civilisation has been realised by Polish researchers over 10 years ago and some theoretical work on these issues has been advanced by them even before 1989. More recently, the Polish Society of Informatics and the National Council of Radiocommunication and Television prepared two subsequent reports in 1995 and 1996 - manifestos on the issues of Information Society, stimulated by the Bangemann Report² . The Committee for Scientific Research (Polish acronym KBN, the Polish equivalent of a Ministry of Science) invested since 1991 a considerable effort and resources in the development of computer network infrastructure for research and higher education. Polish mass-media promote the issues of applications of information technology, although often on a rather superficial level.

 On the other hand, the social awareness of the issues of information civilisation in Poland is inadequate. A typical response to the challenges of information society is rather the fear of loosing workplaces than the realisation of opportunities. The funding of education on all levels - but particularly the tertiary and continuing education - is inadequate in Poland³ , hence the general level of training in information techniques is not satisfactory. Even more inadequate is the level of research funding (only circa 0.5% of GDP is directed to R&D from the state budget, the industrial and commercially sponsored R&D is estimated at less than 0.4% of GDP). There is no tradition in Poland of using European tested mechanisms of promoting links between research institutions and universities on one side and industrial or commercial enterprises on the other side. Industrial or commercial enterprises do not invest much in innovations; this concerns also telecommunication operators in Poland and their investment in information technology research.

 As one of the results of a general underfinancing of research, the interest in taking part in European initiatives on Information Society is very scarce. Another results of a relative poverty of researchers in Poland is a very sceptical attitude of opinion-making intellectuals to the issues of information civilisation.
 

 Polish literature on the issues of Information Society was not very rich until recently, although starting with 1983 there were several publications related to this theme, including internationally published theoretical papers by Polish authors. However, a more intensive interest in these issues dates after the publication of Bangemann Report⁴ .

 There were several important memoranda, trying to adapt the conclusions of Bangemann Report to the Polish conditions. These were: a paper prepared by KBN (Memorandum on the Relation of Poland Towards Global Informatics Society) in 1994, a manifesto prepared by the Polish Society of Informatics (Strategy of Development for Polish Informatics - Current State, Perspectives, Recommendations) in 1995, and a memorandum of KRRiT, the National Council of Radiocommunication and Television (The Introduction of Information Society in Poland - Preliminary Assumptions of State Policy for Creating Information Society). All these documents outlined necessary steps as seen from various perspectives; however, no more universal governmental programme was developed.

 The issues of Information Society are co-ordinated on the governmental level by the Minister of Telecommunications, in a close co-operation with the Committee for Scientific Research (KBN)⁵. This Committee has promoted for many years - actually starting in 1991 - the development of computer networks and computer infrastructure for research and education purposes in Poland. This was a considerable effort of the Polish academic community, done in the conditions of generally underfinanced scientific research. Therefore, the scarce resources involved in these investments could not be directed towards the issues of the development of Information Society. Only recently (in 1997), the Committee for Scientific Research in agreement with the Ministry of Telecommunications started first "ordered projects"⁶ on the issues of Information Society; but the general feeling of academic community is that the resources devoted to these issues are very inadequate.

 Nevertheless, there are some initiatives of scientific community, mostly devoted to the study of general or educational issues of Information Society. An important research initiative was a conference on European Integration Facing the Information (Post-Industrial) Era organised by the Institute of Development and Strategic Studies (Polish acronym IRiSS) in Warsaw in December 1996; materials from this conference were also used by the Consulting Council of the Ministry of Telecommunications in March 1997. Several Warsaw Universities (the Medical Academy, the Warsaw University of Technology, the University of Warsaw and the Main School of Commerce) established an interdisciplinary Institute of Contemporary Civilisation Problems, which in turn organised a Centre for Information Society Problems⁷, with educational and research agenda. The Faculty of Radio and Television of the Silesian University tries to establish an International Research and Education Centre of Information Society 8 ; meanwhile, the Educational Foundation Transformations related to this faculty started Centre of Studies of Information Society. Other research initiatives include the work on Interdisciplinary Issues of Information Age and on the European GIP initiative started by the Institute of Telecommunications in Warsaw⁹.

 These initiatives increased the number of recent publications related to the issues of Information Society. However, the more informed publications are usually presented in specialist journals. General mass-media are interested only rather superficially in these issues and more effort towards popularising the issues of Information Society in Poland is needed.

 
Polish researchers participate in various European research projects, also involving information technology. An example of such projects is CRIT (Co-operative Research in Information Technology) which uses some of the ESPRIT and PHARE programme funds to support Polish research projects in various fields of information technology - mostly in computer software development. This co-operation developed successfully since 1993; recently, a second edition of this co-operation, called CRIT-2, is being started by the Foundation for Polish Science (working as an approved agent of the ESPRIT programme).

 Less effectively implemented are in Poland the activities towards realisation of the European program of supporting Global Information Society, which consists of 30 (originally 27) directions of activity for the years 1996-97. These directions were conceived as examples of applications of information technology which could give economic acceleration to the Central and Eastern European countries and, after a period of being supported by public funds, have a sufficient commercial potential to be self-financed by industrial or commercial users; we shall list some of these directions below. However, these assumptions have been not met in Poland, for two general reasons:

 a) R&D in Poland is strongly underfinanced - see the White Paper Poland - the European Union: Science and Technology for details - and all research and scientific units fight for survival. Thus, they will not invest their scarce statutory funds in supporting new and risky projects. The 30 projects related to Global Information Society could be taken up by various research units, if additional public financing were available for them in Poland - but there is no such additional financing until now.

 b) The links between research institutions and industry or commerce in Poland are very weak. The reform of scientific system in Poland practically stopped the "pumping" of public research funds into industrial or commercial institutions - because such "pumping" was ineffective in the old system of planned economy and was judged to be also ineffective in new market conditions (when fighting for survival, many enterprises would accept such funds but misuse them, without realising the promised research and innovations). Therefore, we must learn now anew in Poland - on tested European examples and using European expertise - how to effectively use public funds in order to support the links between research organisations and industrial or commercial applications. Currently, only the mechanism of so-called "targeted projects"¹⁰ is used by KBN for these purposes, and this mechanism does not sufficiently stimulate the interests of industrial or commercial enterprises.

 Because of these two reasons, it is not astonishing that the response to the request of KBN for specifying the interests in the 30 Global Information Society research directions was rather discouraging; only a few research units specified some interest in some of these directions. In particular:

 Monitoring EU-CEEC IS Pilot Actions (MISAC). This is naturally not a research but co-ordinating activity, for which the Ministry of Telecommunications and Committee for Scientific Research are responsible and this summarising report is prepared as a part of this activity.

Global Inventory Project (GIP). This activity should provide a distributed data base under WWW concerning the activities related to Information Society. Polish Awareness Day for this activity is planned for May 23, 1997; the organisation of GIP for Poland is done by a co-operation of Scientific Computer Network Organisation (Polish acronym NASK) and the national Institute of Telecommunications in Warsaw¹¹ .

 Access to Data and Expertise in Europe (ADE). This activity is supported by Ministry of Telecommunications and Committee for Scientific Research. A report based on the results of an "ordered project" is being prepared¹² .

Awareness Week in the CEE Countries 96/97. Such a week was organised in September 1996 in Szczecin, Poland, during a conference "The Place of Small and Middle-Sized Enterprises in Information Society"¹³.

 Infodays on EU R&D Programmes. Such infodays are supposed to promote information on the IV-th Framework Programmes (ESPRIT, TELEMATICS, ACTS, IDA). For Telemmatics, such infodays were organised in February 1997 in Warsaw by the Interdisciplinary Centre of Mathematical and Computer Modelling of the University of Warsaw¹⁴ .

 Awareness Seminars on Language. A seminar Language and Technology 1995 was organised already in April 1995 in Poznań, further activities are realised¹⁵ - including an Internet discussion list NPL-L@uci.agh.edu.pl. However, there is no interest of industrial or commercial partners.

Fellow Members of the Community Innovation Relay Centres (FERMIRC). A network of information processing centres is being organised by the Centre of Information Processing (Polish acronym OPI, working as a support organisation for KBN)¹⁶ .

 Information Technology Awards (ITEA). Between the 25 awards in 1996, a Polish product of a small firm ARCUS Electronics from Wrocław was distinguished. The product was a software system for classification and prognosis, ORKA 3.0; the system used neural networks, genetic algorithms and hybrid algorithms¹⁷ .

 Telemmatics Applications for Freight Operations and Telemmatics Applications for Environment. Before starting the programme, a telemmatic system of monitoring of environmentally dangerous freights was developed in Poland, with European co-operation, by the Industrial Institute of Measurements and Automation (Polish acronym PIAP). In the programme, however, only the Poznan Centre of High-Performance Computing and Networking and a similar centre in Warsaw - the Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computer Modelling (Polish acronym ICM)¹⁸ expressed preliminary interest.

Euromethod Pilot Project in CEE Countries. Interest in the Euromethod (a method promoting a standard of developing information systems) expressed the new Scientific Society for Economy and Informatics and the Chair of Economic Informatics of the University of Gdansk¹⁹; they already started European co-operation.

 Web For Schools in Europe (WFSE). Eight secondary schools in Poland are planned to be connected to the network of the consortium Web for Schools. This is organised by the section Internet for Schools of the Foundation for Democracy Development in Warsaw²⁰.

European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL). In the beginning of 1997, 20 first Polish examiners for ECDL were schooled and certified. First ECDL exams were organised in Wroclaw on March 23, 1997 (with 4 licences awarded). Next sequence of exams is scheduled for April 12 in Warsaw²¹.

Trans European Research Networks (TEN-34). This programme, using high-speed (34 MB/s) networks to connect academic and research institutions and promote multimedia research, was met with much interest in Poland: several academic and research institutions are interested in high speed networking and multimedia research. In particular, such research is done in the Institute of Telecommunications and in NASK; both institutions expressed the interest in participating in TEN-34. However, there are not enough public research funds in KBN to support such participation; support by the Polish telecom operator, TP S.A., has not been obtained as yet.

 TEN-34 exemplifies the situation with many other directions of the GIS programme (we listed above only 14 out of 30 directions of this programme - other directions might be also soon started in Poland): there is much interest in the research community, but not enough funding even in order to start, and no sufficiently good prospects for industrial or commercial support.

 
The information presented in this Report can be evaluated variously. On one hand, there in no doubt a tradition and an increased current interest in Information Society issues in Poland. On the other hand, much more could and should be done.

 From the Polish side, we should more intensively seek and find support and resources for Information Society projects. Especially important are educational projects, on all levels - since Information Society is not a short-term phenomenon, it will dominate the civilisational development of entire XXI century. Such educational projects must be supported by own research projects, taking advantage of strong Polish traditions. Naturally, it would be best to find industrial or commercial support on the market, as it is done in European Union. But we must remember that Poland is still in the transition phase. Thus, we should seek also an intensified public support, perhaps in the form of a strategic research programme supported by both public and private resources.

From the European Union, we expect an understanding of our difficulties. The dimensions of support - say, such as in PHARE programme - might be enlarged; a special interdisciplinary Information Society PHARE programme might be started. Once Poland becomes a full European Union Member State, we might use Information Society projects and issues to e.g. intensify regional development in Poland with the help of European regional support programmes.
 

(1985) K. Plewko: Techniczna i spoleczna ewolucja telekomunikacji (Technical and Social Evolution of Telecomunications), Tele-Radio-Elektronika, No. 7, Warsaw, Poland.

(1988) A.P. Wierzbicki: Education for a New Cultural Era of Informed Reason. In J.G. Richardson (ed.): Windows on Creativity and Invention, Lomond, Mt. Airy, Maryland.

(1991) T. Globan-Klas: Spoleczenstwo informacyjne. Pojecie i jego sens (Information Society. The Concept and its Meaning). In Spoleczenstwo polskie: wyzwania i dylematy rozwoju (Polish Society: challenges and development dilemmas). UJ, Cracow, Poland

(1992) L. Zacher (ed.): Spoleczenstwo informacyjne.  Aspekty techniczne, spoleczne i polityczne (Information Society: Technological, Social and Political aspects), Transformacje, Warsaw, Poland,

(1994) P. Sienkiewicz: Rozwoj technologii informacyjnych jako podstawa spoleczenstwa informacyjnego (The Development of Information Technology as the Basis of Information Society), Tele-Radio-Elektronika - Przeglad Telekomunikacyjny i Wiadomosci Telekomunikacyjne, No. 3, Warsaw, Poland.

(1994) T. Hofmokl: Globalne spoleczenstwo informatyczne (Global Informatics Society), Swiat telekomunikacji, No. 4, Warsaw, Poland.

(1994) J.K. Frackowiak, T. Hofmokl: Memorandum w sprawie stosunku Polski do Globalnego Spoleczenstwa Informatycznego (Memorandum on the Relation of Poland Towards Global Informatics Society), Warsaw, Poland.
 
(1995) PTI (Polish Society of Informatics) Strategia rozwoju informatyki polskiej - stan, perspektywy, zalecenia (Strategy of Development for Polish Informatics - Current State, perspectives, Recommendations) Warsaw, Poland.

(1995) A. Sowinski, P. Sienkiewicz, T. Goban-Klas: Implikacje spoleczne i kulturowe rozwoju telekomunikacji (Social and Cultural Implications of the Development of Telecommunications), Warsaw, Poland

(1996) KRRiT (National Council for Radiocommunication and Television); Wprowadzenie spoleczenstwa informacyjnego w Polsce - wstepne zalozenia polityki Panstwa na rzecz stworzenia spoleczenstwa informacyjnego (The Introduction of Information Society in Poland - Preliminary Assumptions of State Policy for Creating Information Society). Warsaw, Poland.

(1996) KBN, URM (Committee for Scientific Research and the Office of the Council of Ministers): Biala Ksiega Polska - Unia Europejska: Nauka i Technologia (White Paper Poland - European Union: Science and Technology), Warsaw, Poland.

(1996) P. Sienkiewicz: Globalne spoleczenstwo informacyjne - kto zyska, kto straci? (Global Information Society: Who Will Win, Who Will Lose?) Poznan, Poland.

(1996) A.P. Wierzbicki, K.B. Wydro, A. Zielinski: Era cywilizacji informacyjnej (The Era of Information Civilization) Swiat Telekomunikacji No. 12, Warsaw, Poland.

(19996) A.P. Wierzbicki: Informacja jako zasob: wplyw na stosunki spoleczne i gospodarcze w krajach rozwinietych (Information as a Resource: the Impact on Social Relations in Developed Countries), Integracja Europejska w obliczu ery informacyjnej (postindustrialnej) (European Integration Facing the Information (Post-Industrial) Era) Raport of IRiSS No. 46, Warswa, Poland.

(1996) J. Wierzbolowski: Informacja i technologie informacyjne jako jako element przeksztalcen strukturalnych i systemowych w gospodarce switowej (Information and Information Technologies as a Factor Transforming Global Economy), Integracja europejska w obliczu ery informacyjnej (postindustrialnej) (European Integration Facing the Information (Post-Industrial) Era) Raport of IRiSS No. 46, Warswa, Poland.

(1996)  K.B. Wydro: Perspektywy rozwoju Unii Europejskiej wobec wyzwan spoleczenstwa informacyjnego (Development perspectives of European Union Facing the Challenges of Information Society), Integracja europejska w obliczu ery informacyjnej (postindustrialnej) (European Integration Facing the Information (Post-Industrial) Era) Raport of IRiSS No. 46, Warswa, Poland.

(1996) L. Zacher: Informacja jako czynnik rozwarstwienia gospodarki swiatowej (Information as a Source of Stratification in Global Economy), Integracja euroejska w obliczu ery informacyjnej (postindustrialnej) (European Integration Facing the Information (Post-Industrial) Era) Raport of IRiSS No. 46, Warswa, Poland.

(1997) A.P. Wierzbicki, K.B. Wydro, A. Zielinski: Era cywilizacji informacyjnej a rola rozwojowa telekomunikacji (The Era of Information Civilization and the Development Role of Telecommunications), Przeglad Telekomunikacyjny i Wiadomosci Telekomunikacyjne No. 5, Warsaw, Poland.

2
Europe and the Global Information Society. Recommendations to the European Council, 1994.

3
See White Paper Poland - European Union: Science and Technology, 1996.

4
See the Bibliography, where the number of Polish publications on the issues of Information Society increases sharply after 1994.

5
Contact persons: Minister Andrzej Zielinski and Directors Wojciech Halka and Ryszard Wisniewski in the Ministry of Telecommunications, deputy Minister Malgorzata Kozlowska and Director Borys Czerniejewski in the Office of the Committee for Scientific Research.
 
6
Ordered Projects are tenders for research projects on strictly defined themes, as ordered by Ministers or Voivodes in Poland.

7
Contact person: Prof. Józef Lubacz, Warsaw University of Technology.

8
Contact person: Prof. Lech Zacher, Silesian University.

9
Contact person: Prof. Andrzej P. Wierzebicki, Institute of Telecommunications.

10
Targeted projects are funded by one half to two thirds by public funds - supplied from the budget of the Committee for Scientific Research (KBN) - and by one half to one third by the interested industrial or commercial enterprise; the total is paid to research organization which realizes the project. Until now, the funds budgeted by KBN for targeted projects are seldomly fully used - even on the conditions outlined above, the interest in paying for R&D by industrial or commercial enterprises is not large.

11
Contact: A. Wierzbicki,  Institute of  Telecommunications, A.Wierzbicki@itl.waw.pl

12
Contact: Wojciech Hałka, Ministry of telecommunications; Borys Czerniejewski, Committee for Scientific Research, borys@kbn.gov.pl

13
Contact: Hanna Golebiowska, Conference Center Euro Info; euroinfo@dedal.man.szczecin.pl

14
Contact: Marek Niezgódka, ICM, University of Warsaw, marekn@icm.edu.pl
 
15
Contact: Zygmunt Vetulani, Section of Informatics, Linguistics and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Adam Mickiewicz, Poznań, vetulani@math.amu.edu.pl
 
16
Contact: Krystyna Siwek, Centre of Information Processing, ksiwek@atos.warman.com.pl

17
Contact: Jarosław Adamczyk, ARKUS Electronics, arkus@arkus.wroc.pl

18
Contact: Maciej Stroinski, Poznan Centre of High-Performance Computing and Networking, stroins@man.poznan.pl and Marek Niezgodka, Interdisciplinary Modeling Centre of University of Warsaw, marekn@icm.edu.pl

19
Contact: Stanislaw Wrycza, Chair of Economic Informatics, University of Gdansk, ekosw@halina.univ.gda.pl

20
Contact: gajewski@ids.pl

21
Contact: homesite of Polish Society of Informatics, http://www.pol.pl/pti