HOW SOON WILL ARMENIAN INTERNET USERS HAVE ACCESS TO THE BENEFITS OF GLOBAL IT-ACCOMPLISHMENTS?
Grigory Yurin

PanARMENIAN.Net
13.08.2009 GMT+04:00

While the focus of the global IT sector is on the developments of
unprecedented competition between information market giants Google
and Microsoft, the Government of Armenia continues the discussions on
the implementation of global projects on e-government and electronic
control.

For the past month the focus of Internet-users and IT specialists
around the world has been on three main events, namely the completion
of the new operating system Windows 7 – the product of Microsoft
Corporation, the release of the fast browser Chrome by Google and
the work on our own operating system (OS).

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ IT experts are already talking of a possible
large-scale war between these two giants of the computer
sphere. Moreover, as it usually happens in war-time the confronting
parties are trying to attack each other on the Achilles’ heel. Namely,
Google is going to substitute the already usual and popular operating
systems of Windows, while Microsoft, in its turn, took up the search
market, introducing its new search engine Bing and entering into a
partnership agreement with the owner of a large share of this market
– Yahoo!.

All the services offered by Google, such as G-mail, browser Chrome
and others are presented by the company as fast, free and easy to
use. Users believe that the new operating system will be analogous.

In their turn, representatives of Microsoft are talking of the new
operating system as the best product ever offered by the Company and
assure that all the innovations and refinements were made based on
user feedback. The Company does not even conceal that they "learned"
certain things from their competitors, such as the use of large
program icons at the bottom of the screen, like Apple.

Like all the previous versions of Windows, the new version of the
operating system differs from its predecessor by its beauty. In
addition, the new one offers three-dimensional scrolling of pages,
instant translation of any foreign-language site, minimization of
unnecessary windows when the mouse touches the necessary one, quick
access to maps, and much more. But most importantly, experts say,
even old computers work fast with this system. For the first time
the follow-up operating system of Windows uses fewer resources than
the previous one!

Along with the release of the new Windows, Microsoft presents a new set
of office applications, Office 2010. And, strange as it may seem for
the products of this company, its use is free once you don’t install
it on your computer but use the Web-accessible versions of Office
applications that Microsoft plans to make available to registered
Office 2010 users next year. In confirmation of this initiative, as
it became known recently, Microsoft has bought the domain office.com,
which previously belonged to the Belgian company ContactOffice and was
used to establish a virtual e-mail client accessible through desktop
and mobile Web browsers. It is expected that Microsoft will use the
domain office.com for posting online versions of office programs such
as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.

So what makes the fruits of this competition between the two
information giants so remarkable? Products fall in price, they
become more accessible and sometimes even totally free. An original
answer to these striking events of the global IT industry is that
Armenia continues discussions on the implementation of the project
"Electronic Government". However, when Armenia will be able to see
the real fruits of this project is still unknown.

For several years the Armenian Government has been notifying Armenian
public of the work being carried out on the projects of e-government
and e-control. Armenian mass media has been elucidating the work done
in this field, but what the Government does for the implementation
of these projects and the projects themselves are wrapped up in halo
of mystery. Certain aspects of the projects, of course, are already
known, but the government avoids answering certain questions, such
as those on the specific date the projects will be implemented,
and they simply use such phrases as "soon", "in the near future", etc.

Recently, however, the veil of mystery has begun to fall, and the
constituent parts of the project were introduced to the Armenian
community, namely the plans of the Government to provide the entire
territory of Armenia with broadband internet, and the procedure to
maintain the communication through an optical network connecting
all major cities and towns. The Government also plans to realize the
projects of e-taxes, e-education, e-health and, what is even better, to
start the development and introduction of electronic identity cards,
which afterward will replace passports inside the country. These
projects, including the project "Electronic Government", will form
part of the global project "Electronic Governance".

But let us look at everything in line. On July 29, 2009 the Armenian
Government held a regular meeting on the issues of developing
Information Technology in Armenia, and the following message in
the official report once again appeared on the government website:
"Introduction of electronic governance in Armenia was discussed among
other issues at today’s sitting of the Information Technology Support
Council of the RA Government. It was noted in particular that works
on e-government are continuing, priority actions in this direction
become certain. In line with the instructions given at the last meeting
some progress has been registered but certain issues are still under
discussion. The Prime Minister instructed to continue the search for
solutions to the issues raised".

The first step that will allow implementation of all the
above-mentioned projects is to provide the entire territory of the
country with fast Internet connection, for which it is necessary to
increase the carrying capacity of the aforesaid throughout the republic
and to construct reliable fiber-optic infrastructure, connecting at
least all the major built-up areas of the country. From then on the
Government will have a real opportunity to implement the remaining
projects, and Armenians will gain access to all the benefits of global
competition between IT companies.