ISPO extends the ESIS project to the Central and Eastern European countries
Following the success of the European Commission's European Survey of Information Society (ESIS) project, as well as a number of requests from the region, ISPO (the Commission's Information Society Project Office) has extended its ESIS project to Central and Eastern Europe as well as to the Mediterranean countries. At the beginning of 1997, ISPO launched the ESIS project with the aim of building an inventory of projects, as well as assembling European data concerning promotional activities undertaken by public authorities and private actors. Other objectives included monitoring and analysing new regulatory developments in the field of telecommunications and the Information Society, and also the presentation of a mapping of those concerned, in particular public and private network facilities offering Information Society infrastructures, services and applications. The new phase of the project is called ESIS II and will last until 2001. It concerns 25 countries in Central and Eastern Europe as well as the Mediterranean region. The work will be performed in a decentralised manner by contractors selected by the Commission following an open call for tender. A new website has been established to promote ESIS II at: http://www.ispo.cec.be/esis/esis2pres/esis2pres.htm