E-INCLUSION:
PROVIDING SERVICES TOWARDS AN INFORMATION
SOCIETY FOR ALL
Elif SÜNGÜ
E-Devlet Kurumsal İletişim Direktörlüğü Uzmanı,
Türksat Uydu Haberleşme ve İşletme A.Ş.
esungu@turksat.com.tr
Hilmi SÜNGÜ
Ankara Üniversitesi, Eğitim Bilimleri Enstitüsü
hilmisungu@hotmail.com
Yrd. Doç. Dr. Mustafa BAYRAKCI
Sakarya Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi, Eğitim Bilimleri Bölümü,
mbayrakci@sakarya.edu.tr
BACKGROUND
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have become of key importance for many people throughout Europe. ICT helps to realize
major advances in social services, healthcare or education, is a major contributor to productivity growth, and opens up many business
opportunities. e-Inclusion refers to realize an inclusive information society, that is, an “information society for all”. The aim is to enable every
person who so wishes to fully participate in the information society. The Council of the European Union has been taking steps towards a highly
inclusive information society in recent years. During the meeting of the European Council in Lisbon (March 2000), a "Lisbon Strategy" has
been launched aimed at making the European Union (EU) the most competitive economy in the world and achieving full employment by 2010.
A social pillar was designed to modernize the European social model by investing in human resources and combating social exclusion. Council
Resolution of 25 March 2002 on the e-Europe 2002 Action Plan has focused on the accessibility of public websites and their content. Its aim
was to enable all citizens to participate in the opportunities provided by the Information Society. Furthermore, the objective of the e-Europe
2005 Action Plan is to provide a favorable environment for private investment and for the creation of new jobs, to boost productivity, to
modernize public services, and to give everyone the opportunity to participate in the global information society. Finally, 2006 Ministerial “Riga
Declaration” on ICT for an inclusive information society set concrete targets for Internet usage and availability, digital literacy, and accessibility
of ICT by 2010.
INTRODUCTION
technologies at the same rates because of age, handicap or
regional limitations.
During the period just after the industrial revolution,
developments
in
information
and
communication
technologies, emergence of internet provided the
information to be accessed easily. These developments
have brought about new approaches in public
administration, so they become tools to be used by the
states in order to increase life standards of their citizens.
As for e-inclusion, which is described as being included into
information society, it aims to terminate the risks of digital
divide, remove the obstructions for the people to make them
benefit from information and communication technologies
and make them keep up with the developments.
The Role of e-Inclusion in Transformation to e-Europe
By the help of information and communication technologies,
people own more quality lives. However, it is not possible for
every person to benefit from the facilities that such
technologies brought. There are inequalities between the
citizens from the same countries in terms of making use of
the services and facilities of information and communication
technologies. When compared, people from social classes
cannot use or use the possibilities of such technologies less
than the others; such as the old than the young, the
handicapped than the unhandicapped, people living in rural
areas than the people living in cities. The situation has
resulted the concepts like digital divide, digital separation,
being excluded from information society to emerge.
European Union considers information and communication
technologies as driving force for development. During the
process of creation of information society, the Union realizes
its goals step by step by the defined strategies and action
plans. However importance of not excluding citizens from
the process while realizing these goals is always
emphasized.
European Union has started e-Europe Initiative in 1999
regarding creating a society based on information is more
important than industrial society and this initiative could
assure the position of Europe in the world. Basic objectives
of e-Europe Initiative are:
Digital divide is described as the inequality between
individuals, companies or nations from differing classes in
terms of access and use of information and communication
technologies (OECD, 2001). This situation has national and
international dimensions. From international point of view,
digital divide sources due to the different development
levels. Since individuals from developed nations different
possibilities from underdeveloped ones would have different
possibilities, not being able to use information and
communication technologies at the same rates will cause
digital divide between nations. The same is true at the
national level. Even people living in the same country
cannot benefit from the information and communication
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Preparing the young in Europe for digital era,
Cheap, secure and easy internet accessibility,
High speed internet connection for researchers and
students,
Generalizing the use of internet and keeping social
stability,
Transmitting technology culture to people,
Accelerating e-trading,
Smart cards for secure electronic connections,
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services for all and producing new cooperative
technologies. Designing for all the people is the key
element in this point.
Risk capital for minor and mediums sized companies
using/producing high technology,
e- Participation for handicapped people,
Smart transportation,
Online medical services,
Online public services (European Union, 2000).
e-Europe Initiative is based on the participation principle of
information society (ÇAYHAN, 2003). According to the
project European Union aims to provide the use of internet
effectively both in business and public services taking
technological infrastructure and security problems into
consideration. In this context, increasing the number of
interactive public services for all the people is intended.
It is intended to make every European citizen, including the
old the handicapped, benefit from e-government practices.
Therefore it is essential that internet use be encouraged, the
rate of computer literacy be increased and number of
internet access points open to public be increased at each
member states.
European Union called attention to struggle against social
exclusion in Lisbon Strategy, which has an important place
in e-transformation studies. Moreover, in the following
documents e-Europe Action Plan 2002 and e-Europe Action
Plan 2005 it was stressed that every individual should use
information and communication technologies. Furthermore,
e-Europe+ 2003 Action Plan, which was prepared by the
candidate member states of European Union in order to
make the candidate states contribute to e-transformation
process, anticipates that the citizens of candidate states
benefit from the facilities of information society and it tries to
prevent these states from experiencing a kind of digital
divide with the members of European Union. The mentioned
action plan aims:
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Precipitating the work for creating basic elements of
information society,
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Cheaper, faster and more secure internet access.
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Investing on human resources,
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Encouraging internet use.
e-Ageing: It aims to provide the full participation of the
old to society and economy.
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e-Competences: It is based on the approach that
increasing social participation, providing employment
and enriching the life by equipping the citizens with
information, skills and lifelong learning. In information
society social participation requires recent digital skills.
Digital literacy could be evaluated in this concept. To
be able to keep up with the technology, digital skills are
needed to be updated regularly.
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Socio-Cultural e-Inclusion: It aims to provide the
social participation of all European Union citizens who
have ethnic and cultural diversity.
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Geographical
e-Inclusion:
Socio-economic
inequalities caused from regional differences are
aimed to be solved with the use of ICT.
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Inclusive e-Government: Providing the public
services to increase quality of the lives of the citizens.
It is also based on the participation principle. It is
aimed to make all the citizens(European Commision,
2006; European Commision, 2008 ).
European Union has declared the year of 2008 as einclusion year in order to include all the citizens in the
transformation process and do not exclude any citizens out
of it.
Studies in Turkey
The first documents regarding the issue can be accepted as
“Information Society Strategy” and “Action Plan” prepared
as the extra of the strategy. In the Action Plan, some steps
supporting the citizens’ participation in the process of
creating an information society are mentioned. One of these
steps is Public Internet Access Centers Project administered
by the Ministry of Communications. The purpose of the
Action Plan establishing centers for the people who do not
have the possibilities to access internet at their homes,
training the people who do not have digital literacy and
equipping them with the necessary skills (DPT). This plan is
important as it will facilitate the access to internet in Turkey
where 18.94 % of homes have internet accessibility
according to the data given by the Turkish Institute of
Statistics (TÜİK, 2008).
The action plan also helps to minimize the digital divide
between states. The document includes actions directed at
the special circumstances of candidate states, primary
purposes and goals (EU Candidate Countries, 2001). They
has joined the initiative and precipitated the efforts on
information society.
Another important step to include all the citizens in creating
the information society process is e-Government Gateway
Project of Turksat A.S. with the coordination of the Ministry
of Transport. The project aims to provide the public services
through one portal. Online services provided by formal
institutions are going to be integrated. e-Government
Gateway Portal is a platform that can be accessed by all the
citizens. Through this portal, fast and easy accessibility to
public services are going to be provided without any
distinction and with a citizen centered approach. A quality
service is going to be given to the citizens with this portal
which is being designed within the framework of
accessibility and usability standards.
“i2010: European Information Society for Growth and
Employment” strategy emphasizes on e-inclusion. It is a
milestone e-Europe transformation. One of the objectives of
the strategy which were categorized in three groups is
“Providing a better service used by all the citizens and
increasing their quality of life with the help of information
and communication technologies (COM, 2006).
At ”ICT for an inclusive society” Ministerial Conference (Riga
Declaration) which was held in Riga in 2006 e-inclusion was
accepted to have six steps:
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e-Accessibility: Information and communication
technologies must be made accessible for all. eAccessibility based on the principle that everybody
must benefit from information and communication
technologies and information society. e-Accessibility
could be seen as a problem for the people who have
environmental or social limitations in accessing new
technologies like the old or the handicapped. The
problem could be solved by designing the goods and
Besides, Standardization Project of Public Websites is
another inclusive step which aims to form the standards of
design and content to be able to facilitate the citizens’ use of
public internet sites. Websites of public institutions are
intended to be turned into a platform used and serviced
easily. Within the project guidelines are being published
explaining how to get the public services. Turksat is
preparing the second edition of Standardization Guideline of
Public Websites. With this guideline practical and guiding
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instructions are going to be supplied to the public institutions
for the existing or planned websites. The basic purpose is to
create accessible and usable websites that can be benefited
by the handicapped citizens.
http://www.edevlet.net/raporveyayinlar
/eAvrupaEylemPlani.pdf
European Union (2000), eEurope: An İnformation Society
For All, Retrieved December 10, 2007, from
http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/l24221.htm
Finally, Prime Minister Administration for Disabled People
maintains the Database of Disabled People and tries to help
provide the public services fast and effective for the disabled
citizens. The project is going to form a database including
the information about the disabled citizens taken from
various formal resources, tries to use this information
effectively. National database of disabled people is going to
be used commonly by the institutions servicing to the
disabled citizens and the authorities from these institutions
are going to be able to access necessary information in the
database. The information in the database might be shared
by all the public institutions, municipalities, nongovernmental
organizations, private organizations providing services to
the disabled citizens (ÖZİDA, 2008).
COM(2006)173 final, i2010 eGovernment Action Plan:
Accelerating eGovernment in Europe for the
Benefit of All, Brussels, Retrieved December 10,
2007,
from
http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/
archival_policy/docs/moreq/action_plan_i2010_en.
pdf
European Commision(2008), e-Inclusion Policy, Retrieved
March 10, 2008, from http://ec.europa.eu/
information_society/activities/einclusion/policy/inde
x_en.htm
Result
Being one of the strong and competitive economies in the
world could be achieved using ICT effectively and
information society which could be created by the help of
ICT. Effective use of ICT can only be accomplished when all
classes of the society and all citizens participate in the
creation of information society. Removing the risks that
might cause digital divide and including all citizens in the
process would make this attempt more meaningful.
In Turkey, the attempts to create information society have
recently started compared to the European states. Even if it
is a new field for the formal institutions we can notice eager
efforts by formal institutions like Turksat and TUBITAK. In
order to provide social participation to these studies it is
necessary to increase the use of ICT at every region of
Turkey.
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