Some Time Ago ICT Became One of the Cornerstones of the Development of Our Country

In the 1990’s the Finnish Government invested in research and development, primarily in the field of ICT. It was the development of mobile technologies that became the foundation for the country’s dynamic development. Modern ICT helps the government to raise the level of efficiency of its activity and offer people a higher standard of services without being tied to a specific place. Many innovations are generated by the private sector and they are then taken up by the government; the field of electronic healthcare is an example. ICT is actively used in the tax collection system, in order to perform banking transactions and in many other fields. For this to be possible, measures were taken in Finland to make fundamental changes to the law. Public-private partnership is developing rapidly in the country, especially in the field of ICT. The Finnish Government is promoting transparency and ensuring more open access to public data in order to develop the country. In the next few years the focus will be on how to interest people in the use of ICT, which is of great importance considering Finland’s sparse and rapidly ageing population.

Key words: ICT, investments, research and development, innovations, private sector, government transparency, public-private partnership, electronic government, electronic healthcare, mobile banking services, open public data, social networks, information security.

Technologies of Care in Community-Based Organisations: Agency and Authenticity. Part I

Based upon research into small community-based organisations, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can be interpreted as a technology that emerges from complex environments of support, teaching, and community development. While the ICTs investigated are commonplace and relatively simple systems (personal computers, Internet), they are part of complex and extended systems of action, knowledge, information, and support that reach into local communities. This basket of processes and skills, oriented around social justice principles, can be conceived of as 'technologies of care', strongly influenced by the values and work activity primarily concerned with supporting people in need. Furthermore, prior research has tended to take a dystopic view about the use of technology by women, who are the major workforce in such environ­ments, but a more nuanced approach is taken her, demonstrating that while workers are competent with ICTs, they is only one element in a process which relies upon communicative and interpretive independence. This understanding of the place of ICTs in human services work has important implications for those implementing or designing ICTs, though clarifying workers' tacit understandings is a research challenge.

Keywords: community informatics, community organisations, ICT research, methodologies, technologies of care, women and technology.

The Future of the Universal Electronic Card Begins Today

The universal electronic card, or the card of the future, which contains everything from an electronic wallet and travel pass to a medical insurance policy, will become an integral part of everyday life in the next few years. Sberbank is one of the key operators of the project to create and launch the card.

Key words: government project, universal electronic card, social cards, payroll cards, electronic wallet, medical insurance policy, Sberbank of Russia, unified information and payment system, information and banking services, public and commercial services, the development of universal services.

The Building of Institutional Infrastructure for the Successful Exchange of Experience of Building an Electronic Government in the African Regions

The development of ICT has radically changed people’s approach to work, study and communication. Developed countries use ICT to integrate their citizens in the information age and transform their economies into a global knowledge economy. This process is notable not only in industry and the service sector, but also in the civil service sector. It is for this reason that the Ugandan Government made a bold decision and started down the road travelled by other countries for the use of ICT in order to switch from traditional government functions to the era of the electronic government.

Key words: information and communication technologies, information age, networks, data processing, information security, e-government concept, legal framework, ICT infrastructure, staff training, transparency.

The positive right of authors and information capital

The article analyses the influence of the regulation on the transfer of work free of charge to the general public at an author’s will, which is being proposed as an amendment to Russian intellectual property law. The author of the article believes that this regulation will give Russian law positive author’s rights in addition to negative prohibitive powers. The next step proposed is to legalize the author’s right to transfer works to the public domain. Positive author’s rights are considered in the context of accumulating information capital in order to develop Russia’s post-industrial economy.

Key words: intellectual property, author’s rights, positive law, free access, public domain, information capital, content.

An Evaluation of the Phenomenon of Euthanasia in Terms of Socio-cultural and Information and Communications Changes

The rationalization of the modern social area contributed to the destruction of the moral foundations of society and the devaluation of the greatest good – human life. Its financial and materialistic measurement led to the aggravation of false humanistic concepts and practices of euthanasia which found a stable position in the system of multiple global risks. The global process of informatization, which accelerated the deformation of the moral fabric of society, was conducive to the proliferation of threats of the legalisation of euthanasia.

Keywords: euthanasia, globalisation, information, culture.