Konekta Zaitez Ciudadan@ (KZC@)

KZC@ is a project framed in the "Plan de Euskadi en la Sociedad de la Información" (PESI) and included in the "Internet para todos" programme, whose aim is to make aware of and to promote the spread of the use of the Information and Communication Technologies in the Basque society. The project consists of the creation of a public centre network linked up to the Internet through broadband spread around the whole Basque Country. Each of the centres has qualified staff able to attend the needs, problems and doubts originated from the use of the new technologies as well as from specific contents. The service is offered free for housewives, retired people, unemployed, and immigrants, to reduce in this way the digital split caused by the advance of the Information Society, which may end in a source of social division.

Main results, benefits and impacts

The benefits of the Konekta Zaitez Ciudadan@ project are framed in three areas: the citizens, the companies and the administrations. Concerning the citizens... Free services: KZGunea centres are equiped with the needed facilites for allowing the users to surf the net for free and/or using the e-mail accounts as well as helping them to create their own websites. We reach everybody and every place: KZGunea centres net has a representation in each municipality in Euskadi. That is why the citizen does not need to move from his local area to use the resources that are for his use, avoiding, in this way, troubles in moving and wasting time, points that may cause a lack of interest. Customized training: The offer of courses is wide, where the customer can choose what he is interested in. Moreover, all the centres have one or several tutors for the customers. The objective of the tutors is to facilitate the customers learning, teaching them and solving the diferent problems that could emerge. Concerning the companies and the administrations... Personnel / public employees instruction: Throughout the Kzformación-prestakuntza program, courses are offered to micro-companies with the purpose of teaching the employees how to use Internet in their everyday work to facilitate it and speed it up. Infrastructure: The KZgunea centers offer help to those companies or organizations that want to develop their web pages, in a way that facilitates the marketing work to be done for approaching the citizen by the company. Concerning the administration ... Approaching the citizens by the administration: The KZgunea centers are a showcase of the administration, since through them the citizens accede to services supplied by the administration. Civil servant training: Thanks to the existing collaboration agreements the administrations use the KZgunea centers to give formation classes to their employees as well as to organise conferences and other events.

Return on investment

Return on investment: Not applicable / Not available

Lessons learnt

The spread of the centers all around Euskadi has allowed the project to became a success. For that, a spread model has been developed and it has been considered in the quality plan step by step. Moreover, new technologies have gone beyond the communication barriers existing due to the orographic features in Euskadi. The transfer of this project could be fully done either on a regional or a national level because the technological platform of this project has not been developed. The key for starting up the project is the definition of the unfolding model. It is here that every administration would have to take a stand on the range based on the population distribution, the geographical characteristics of the area of influence of the centers and the technical infrastructure already existing. In the same way, in order to create a project of this magnitude, some agreements need to be made among the administrations and participants to make sure to obtain the right funding. The following recommendations can be made based on our experience with the project: To make sure about the conditions of the communications or connections. To own enough money to last until it becomes possible to make a profit of the inversion, both in personal and technical resources. To have an expansive plan starting with smaller villages and finishing with the larger ones in order to obtain targets as soon as possible. To first empower the communication of the existing centers, workshops, etc. among the citizens. To provide, by Internet, a suitable tool, in order to manage all the centres. To rent all the equipment instead of buying it. Buying it is considered a non-profitable investment because it needs to be renewed. The training staff should be highly professional not just in the academic aspect but with the ability to deal with personal treatment too. The staff working on the project should believe in the project. Moreover, areas should be clearly divided. Both the internal structure and the way of managing and working should be coordinated in all the centres. There are so many centres that the same operation should happen in all of them in order to proceed with a mark. A certain kind of safety should be provided: the users will log on by using their username and password. The centers should be well adapted to the sociocultural characteristics of the population of the area.