The Cleveron packing robot interior. Photo by: Renee Altrov / Enterprise Estonia
However, Estonians have never dreamed
of building a futuristic techno-utopia. They
are too down to earth for that; rather, their
choices have stemmed from the need
for clever solutions where resources are
lacking. During the cowboy capitalist 1990s,
it was not the electric sheep Estonians
dreamed of, but rather about catching
up to Western welfare societies.
It is not by accident that one of the first
e-services was the e-Tax. The young
state needed to fill its coffers to support
a developing society. Thereafter, other
services moved to the internet, where they
were made to link up and communicate
with each other through the X-Road®
based software solution ‘X-tee’. A
significant milestone was the appearance
of the ID card in 2002, which provided
every Estonian with a digital identity.
Tallinn city centre. Photo by: Rasmus Jurkatam / Enterprise Estonia
Today, it is quite difficult to find a public
service that does not include the prefix ‘e-’:
prescriptions, driver’s license, education,
paying taxes, creating and managing
companies, signing documents, voting at
local and general elections, etc. In 2005,
Estonia became the first country in the
world where e-voting was used at general
elections.
One of the reasons behind Estonia’s
IT success is the fact that the Singing
Revolution that led to the Restoration of
Independence had both people of the arts
and software engineering backgrounds at
the helm. This meant that in the beginning,
the state’s top officials included people
who could understand and implement
innovative IT solutions. This actually
brings the roots of Estonia’s digital
revolution back to the Soviet Union in the
1960s, when the Institute of Cybernetics
was established at Tallinn University of
Technology. Without knowledge, no
important changes occur in society.
Children with the older model of the Starship Technologies robot. Photo by: Starship Technologies
Later on,
Estonians have not neglected education.
In recent years, Estonian teens keep ranking highly among Europeans
according to the OECD’s PISA testing.
Estonia is sharing its experience in building
its e-state with other countries from
Asia to Africa. One of
the most important lessons to learn is that
technology is useful when it is not an end
in itself but helps people and communities
function better and becomes a natural
part of life. Estonians often only appreciate
the benefits of their e-state when they
have to deal with bureaucracy abroad.