Partners
COI
“Cities on Internet” Association [COI] is an organization established in 1997 bridging the gap between public entities, IT companies and research community in order to plan and implement innovative eDevelopment ICT-related projects and carry out related socio-economic research focused on the Information Society and Knowledge-based Economy. COI is a Polish think tank in the domain of information society, gathering Polish experts promoting harnessing ICT for a multidimensional development of regions and the modernization of public administration. COI is the national leader in developing actions supporting local and regional authorities, on a content-related and organizational level, in planning the Information Society development and the implementation of projects via structural funds.
The three main pillars of COI activities are:
▪ Consulting, expertise and advising services for public administration [local and central one] which is interested in development based on ICT and knowledge transfer from the EU
▪ Working on strategic framework for planning, developing and monitoring effective structural policy at local and regional level
▪ Researches in domains of information society eGovernment and eDevelopment [5th and 6th Framework Programme]
Capacity of development
Technologies
Impact of ICT on local and regional development
Benchmarking
COI participates in the joint-action of EU regions for transfer of knowledge, dissemination of best practices regarding Information society development and ICT projects.
Since 1997, COI has been organizing an annual “Cities on Internet” conference on local and regional Information Society development. This is the most prestigious gathering of professionals working in the milieu of eDevelopment programming, development of projects and ICT solutions implemented in the Polish local administrations.
COI actively co-operates with the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, responsible in Poland for the research and development, and the Ministry of Interior and Public Administration, where the key responsibility for the Information Society development is placed. COI along with its European partners prepared the concepts of scientific-research projects, appreciated and highly rated by its evaluators, and consequently, were granted co-funding within the 5th and 6th EU Framework Programme (eForum MAP, TERREGOV, QUALEG, MISS, Access-eGov, SAKE, Mosaica).
COI is a member of ELANET – European Local Authorities Telematic Network, a European network of organizations and associations supporting local and regional eDevelopment. ELANET has created the Digital Local Agenda – methodology of IS development planning on a local and regional level. COI is an active partner of ERIS@ (European Regional Information Society) – a leading European organization dealing with IS development on a regional level. Thanks to COI, European guidebooks, manuals and workshop materials are translated into Polish and adapted to Polish legal and organizational reality.
Role in IRIS-Europe projectCOI has contributed, like the other partners, in the successful development and achievement of the project being involved in the case study and regional analysis work regarding the main Polish regions, amongst which Mazowieckie (Varsaw region) and Malopolska (Krakow region). COI was very qualified to make this work since it knows very well the Polish ICT situation regarding public structures and has many connections with ICT projects in Poland.
“One of the greatest benefits for COI relies on establishing or refreshing contacts with the coordinators of the numerous projects. Communication with those people, close to the implementation of innovative ICT and IS initiatives, gave us a priceless knowledge on the difficulties they faced and the problems that occurred. This knowledge will be useful as it will allow avoiding at least some of those problems during the current planning period. They will be reported to government administration along with proposals of avoiding or overcoming them in coming years. Moreover the Association, being aware that such obstacles may appear, will be able to provide more accurate counselling services, which will take under consideration possible problems and help individual entities overcoming them in a local or regional context.
The other benefit for the Association was an insight on the “pool” of ICT and IS projects carried out in our country, particularly regarding certain types of projects (infrastructure, eGovernment, etc.). This knowledge will allow more detailed studies and analyses directed to the Information Society and knowledge–based economy development in Poland. Such studies will allow spotting the most neglected areas in this domain, what may result in a better balanced set of projects in the current planning period.
The data collected during the project were useful as a complementary source of knowledge when elaborating the annual report of measure 1.5 implementation (IS infrastructure) of the Integrated Regional Operational Programme, elaborated annually by COI in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior and Administration.
The international character of the project enabled exchange of experiences and information with the other partners in the field of ICT and IS development. Moreover, it allowed us gathering new experiences in the field of international projects realization that will result in new, successful joint initiatives in the future.
The knowledge and results achieved during Iris–Europe project served as basis for a possible project follow-up within the framework of IRIS–Europe 2.0, under the INTERREG IV C programme.”
A. Krawczyk, Manager of IS Projects Department
For more information please see: http://www.mwi.pl/
Cities on Internet Association
ul. Krakowska 11 A/40
33-100 Tarnów
Phone : (014) 628 42 10
Fax : (014) 628 42 10
President
Krzysztof Głomb
Contact
Artur Krawczyk : a.krawczyk@mwi.pl
Mateusz Przanowski: m.przanowski@mwi.pl
