A CONCISE GUIDE

to

DEVELOPING
REGIONAL

Information
Society
INITIATIVES

A Guide to Developing Regional Information Society Initiatives

Foreword

This Concise Guide to developing regional information society initiatives (RISI) is a heavily summarised
version of a fuller Guide Book, which was developed as one of the deliverables of a contract between the
European Commission and a European consortium of experts headed by Technopolis Ltd., UK. The
primary purpose of the contract was to provide support for 22 European regions which, during the period
1997-98, were seeking to develop frameworks and strategies for the development of the Information
Society in their regions. The conclusions presented in this Concise Guide have been drawn primarily from
the extensive discussions with, experiences of, and feedback from, the 22 RISI regions.
There is much about the emerging Information Society that remains uncertain and unresolved. Developing
strategic perspectives from a regional standpoint is anything but easy since there are no prescriptions and
no panacea. Nonetheless, the varied experiences of the 22 RISI regions provided a useful, comparative
basis for pointers to good practice that will hopefully be useful to other regions that chose to embark on a
similar journey.
Nothing about developing the RISI process can be easily planned. Complexity is a key issue and the
component activities making up the process rarely happen in a simple linear sequence. In reality, these
processes often occur in parallel, may be continuous rather than time-limited, are frequently iterative in
nature and, above all, tend to be inter-related and inter-dependent.
This Guide has been prepared in recognition of the difficulty of the task facing those who seek to develop a
regional perspective and strategy for the Information Society. We hope it helps but it should not mask the
difficulties that lie in wait for those with such aspirations. As one RISI project manager put it,
The biggest problem is how to engage a wide range of actors in a large region, with a
fragmented institutional structure, to be interested in an issue which is not at the top of their
agenda, using an organisation which has no position power and limited resources. Apart
from that, its easy!

Prof. Gareth Hughes

Chief Executive, eris@
g.hughes@irisi.u-net.com

A Guide to Developing Regional Information Society Initiatives

Introduction
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The information society provides a paradigm for accelerated regional economic and social
development. But regions also need to develop their strategic planning competence and development
capability.
There is nothing deterministic about the shift to the Information Society; the technological, economic
and societal changes associated with ICTs and the Information Society are not wholly exogenous but
can be influenced by (regional) societal choice. Of course, in a global economy driven by
technological and other changes, some changes are inexorable and regions cannot wholly control the
process of transformation. But, they can influence it.
To shape the Information Society at the regional level so as to ensure its benefits will be maximised
and the risks minimised, it is necessary to engage in an explicit planning process that should, in turn,
be based on a widespread public debate.
A desirable outcome is an Information Society that facilitates and promotes consensus and social
harmony, rather than division and conflict.

These underlying beliefs can be operationalised by

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Developing a bottom-up regional policy response (strategy and action plan) based on the needs of the
regions organisations and citizens.
Ensuring that the approach is inclusive, engaging the participation of representatives of all social
groups as well as the key economic players;
Allowing the process to evolve - there are no correct answers; regions must learn by doing
Building partnerships, and establishing a consensus to secure the commitment of key actors to longterm visions, medium-term strategies and short-term priorities.
Stimulating partnership and consensus by means of a wide public debate and developing new forms of
networking within the region;
Ensuring that awareness raising, partnership formation and consensus building brings about
organisational learning and change in support of the strategy and action plan;
Ensuring that priorities for action are developed in the context of, and integrated with, regional
development policy;
Inter-regional networking to benefit from mutual learning and the exchange of good practice, thereby
enhancing regional development capacity and competence.

In practical terms, the proposed approach requires:

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an initial baseline audit of existing and planned ICT infrastructure, applications and services;
a benchmarking exercise so as to locate the regions position relative to competitor regions so as to
inform the public debate;
an awareness raising campaign, again to stimulate participation in a public debate;
the preparation of an options paper setting out possible scenarios for the regions future;
the creation and support of appropriate networks and new partnerships;
the development of a strategy and action plan based on a consensus;
integration of the Information Society action plan and its priorities within the wider regional
development plan (RDP);
actions to secure funding and begin the development of pilot ICT applications;
the development of suitable mechanisms to monitor and evaluate selected projects.

Regions need to establish structures (the motors) to manage and monitor the process and the following
have been shown to work:

A Guide to Developing Regional Information Society Initiatives

a Regional Steering Committee (RSC) representing the key regional players:

a Management Unit (MU) to support the Steering Committee and carry out its decisions
a range of Thematic Working Groups (WGs) to tap into the regions pool of expertise and to
broaden participation.

The various actions and activities associated with developing a Regional Information Society Initiative (or
RISI) are both complex and inter-dependent. Making sense of this complexity is a major issue for the
management of such regional initiatives. However, every project or initiative must have a start point and an
end point, and so as to make sense of the complexity, we can usefully classify actions for building a
regional Information Society strategy into three groups of activity (see Fig. 1 below):

Research, Analysis, Assessment & Monitoring;

Social & Organisational Interaction & Engineering;
Choice, Collective Action & Implementation.

Fig. 1
Analysis

Research
Assessment

Monitoring

Awareness

Exploration

STRATEGIC
FRAMEWORK

Social &
Organisational
Interaction
Involvement

Collective
Action

Networking

Choice

Implementation

The inter-related and inter-dependent nature of many of the activities underpinning a regional information
society initiative are illustrated in as Fig. 2 overleaf.

Fig. 2

Integration
with Regional
Policy

Strategy
Development

Inclusive

Planning

Bottomup

Cohesion

Consensus
Building

Developing
the
Information
Society

Change

Stimulation of
New Projects,
Applications and
Services

Awareness
Raising

Choice

Learning
System

Dialogue
Interregional

New Networks,
Partnerships and
Organisational
Structures

A Guide to Developing Regional Information Society Initiatives

Strategy Preparation

The initial actions needed to start a regional IS initiative are:

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Creating the organisational building blocks which guide, manage and fuel the initiative (sometimes
called the motors);
Surveying the regions current Information Society activity and development;
Assessing the regions current position in terms of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
(SWOT); and

The Motors
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All initiatives need some organisational structures to drive them forward: choose people with the
right status, experience and personal competencies.
A pre-strategy step helps in gaining an understanding of the socio-economic and cultural
environment, as well as the institutional set up (institutional mapping) to identify the drivers, vested
interests and propensities to change.
Regional initiatives need really effective leadership at the highest level and the appointment of the
chairperson of the RSC therefore needs to be considered with great care.
The composition of the Regional Steering Committee should reflect the bottom-up and inclusive
approach, including representatives of the social partners.
The Management Unit should possess a range of complementary skills and expertise (project
management, administrative, technical etc.) and a Director who is a good integrator and influencer,
sensitive to political contexts, a diplomat and a soft leader.
Thematic Work Groups should emerge in light of regional needs and interests. Voluntary effort is
important in developing such initiatives and an effective means to achieve a wider and more active
participation.

Baseline Inventories
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A baseline inventory is recommended to ascertain the status of the information society in the region,
to identify strategic gaps, to permit comparisons to be made (bench-marking), to identify key players
and to identify duplication, overlaps and fragmentation of provision.
The scope of an inventory can be divided between questions on Information Society content
(applications and services) and Information Society infrastructure.
A mix of methods of carrying out the survey work can be employed, including primary and secondary
research, using both qualitative and quantitative measures as a basis for preparing a SWOT analysis.
A baseline inventory should seek to encompass both supply and demand side measures, even though
demand side data are very much more difficult to acquire.
A broad inventory of ICT activity and information society issues and attitudes is a pre-requisite for
developing informed scenarios and options on which to base a strategy.
Carrying out a baseline survey has itself an important awareness raising function (both of the issues
and the initiative).

SWOT Analysis
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Analyse and evaluate the regional context in which information society development is shaped and
planned. A number of strategic planning tools can assist this analysis, the most common of which is a
SWOT analysis.
A SWOT analysis must be as objective as possible so as to provide a context in which possible
responses to the threats and opportunities can be generated and subsequently evaluated and can

A Guide to Developing Regional Information Society Initiatives

include the development of scenarios To ensure objectivity, external consultants (i.e. from outside the
region) might be employed.
The process of generating the SWOT grid should itself be subject to as wide a process of consultation
within the region as possible.

Kick-starting an initiative with concrete actions brings some early practical results and demonstrates the
benefits of the initiative to the region thereby more quickly raising awareness, gaining credibility and being
seen as a legitimate catalyst for change.

Starting the Strategy-Building Process

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Baseline inventories and SWOT analyses are useful and necessary starting points for the process of
strategy formulation since a strategy must chart a path from the baseline position to a well-defined
desired state at some specified future point.
Meaningful bottom-up strategies need time to develop and mature, passing through an iterative
process of widespread consultation and feedback.
In developing strategies, there is always a divergent phase and a convergent phase. The first is
exploratory in nature, looking for ideas, inspiration, data etc. The second involves the focused
evaluation and consolidation of the information, narrowing down the options, and the producing the
strategy itself.
The divergent, exploratory phase of strategy development involves awareness raising, benchmarking,
and the development of an Options/Issues Paper.

Awareness Raising
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Besides informing the regional population of the impacts of the Information Society, awareness
raising plays an important part in identifying the key players and potential partners, and engaging their
commitment.
Amongst the tools and techniques for awareness-raising are workshops, seminars and focus groups;
posters, leaflets and mail shots; the regional media (TV, radio and press); conferences and exhibitions;
newsletters and reports; socializing with journalists.
Reaching the wider population and gaining their attention is neither easy nor cheap.
A successful awareness arising campaign needs clear objectives and a concrete plan (with budget).
Wide participation is essential for creating an imaginative, inclusive strategy that meets the real needs
of ordinary people.
Given limited resources, initiatives may have to prioritise their activities and target most effort on
specific groups of people (e.g. regional politicians, public administrators etc.).
In particular, target effort on those responsible for regional planning and decision-making and for the
administration of publicly funds (e.g. CSF Monitoring Committee(s)).

Benchmarking
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Comparison is important to monitor performance over time and relative to other regions. But consider
carefully what to benchmark and against whom.
Successful regional initiatives make an impact in terms of the take-up of Information Society
applications and services which, in turn, are expected to have a beneficial effect on the regions
economy (competitiveness, employment, prosperity etc.) and society (cohesion, equality, quality of
life). But developing a range of metrics to capture these effects is a significant task and the problems
are compounded by the difficulties of disentangling cause and effect.
There is as yet no universally agreed and consistent set of measures with which to conduct interregional benchmarking. Moreover, no two regions are the same in terms of their characteristics, so one
is rarely comparing like with like.

A Guide to Developing Regional Information Society Initiatives

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Despite the difficulties, it remains important to undertake some benchmarking in order to persuade
policy makers (at all levels) to take the information society seriously.
Benchmarking acts as a tool for the process of strategy review and revision and provides concrete
evidence to support the case for changes in policy.

Developing Options/Issues Papers and Generating a Public Debate

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To provide a starting point for a region-wide public debate, it is useful produce an Options or Issues
Paper. This lists some possible options but, at the same time, keeps the options open, thereby
encouraging and fostering innovative and imaginative ideas and ways of thinking.
Be very clear about the purpose and expected benefits of an Options Paper. Its intended audience(s)
should be stated clearly and emphasise that the initiative is still at an exploratory stage and thus open
to ideas from all sectors of the regional population regarding the process, the content of the strategy,
and its possible priorities.
The process of wide and open debate gives legitimacy to subsequent outcomes and conclusions and it
is this that makes the so-called RISI process potentially so effective.
Identify barriers to change during the public debate. For example, regions vary considerably in their
legal and administrative powers and competencies and these should not be overlooked in seeking to
shape a process to develop realistic strategic plans.
Take into account the relevant national and European policies and initiatives that provide a framework
within which regional decision-making and development will occur.
An Options Paper should be concerned with developing visions and possible scenarios. However,
there is no single correct route to reach the goal. Initiatives must make choices about the route they
will adopt, but this means being aware of the alternatives.

Managing the Strategy-Building Process

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In the convergent phase of strategy development, options are narrowed down and choices begin to be
made regarding priority fields. The main output of this phase is, of course, a strategy document and
building a consensus for it and its implementation.
This phase is challenging since it requires, for the first time, managing the process of making choices.
This tends to create winners and losers and consequent potential for conflict.
Shaping and defining the strategy entails bringing together seemingly disparate aims, ideas and
concepts into a single coherent and integrated whole. This is never an easy task but, in a region-wide
context, the issues arising from the complexities of scale and scope are considerable.
These can be seen as a set of management issues - in particular the management of Choice, Change,
Complexity and Conflict.
Strategy and its implementation should be planned together. In practice, strategy definition and
implementation go hand in hand. The success of a strategy is inextricably interwoven with its
implementation and vice-versa. A good strategy that lacks good implementation will not succeed.
Likewise, good implementation will not rescue a poor strategy.

Strategy Definition
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The purpose of a strategy is not to foresee the future, but to create it. The process begins with an
assessment of where you are and a vision of where you want to be, converting vision to action,
checking and monitoring progress against the plan, and making revisions to the plan as necessary in
the light of experience - thereby creating a permanent feedback loop.
Complexity is implicit and managing it is a crucial part of managing strategic change. Achieving
change entails changing behaviour, culture, paradigms and people.

A Guide to Developing Regional Information Society Initiatives

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Regional initiatives face multiple realities and perspectives, and multiple decision-makers each with
their own systems, procedures and culture. Consequently, it is necessary to negotiate the plan and its
priorities. Bargaining is important to all change.
The fast-changing nature of information and communications technologies, and the unpredictable
reactions of economy and society to it, makes managing long-term change difficult. Accordingly, a
strategic plan has to be dynamically updated on an ongoing basis. A strategic plan is a change
document with strong effects not simply a rational piece of economic analysis, but a document with
political, social, and cultural ramifications.
Ownership matters and the process should be based on negotiating a stakeholders model of regional
development.
The strategy should be visionary in order to inspire but it must also be practical and achievable - and
a balance has to be struck between these aims. It must take into account a critical evaluation of the
competencies and capabilities of the regions authorities and institutions so as to be sure it can be
achieved rather than being a paper ideal that cant.
Monitoring and on-going evaluation are essential and these processes need to be designed as part of
the strategy. Without them, effective learning about what works and what doesnt (and the reasons
why) does not take place.
The strategy, once adopted, should lead to an action plan for the medium term and this should consist,
for each priority area, of a set of projects that are needed to accomplish the priority goals. The action
plan should specify realistic and measurable targets.

Fig. 3
Projects
coordinated
in priority
fields

Baseline
Inventory
SWOT
Analysis
National &
EU Policies
Consultation
Existing
projects & project
proposals

STRATEGY
DEFINITION

Consultation
STRATEGY
DOCUMENT

Revision

ACTION
PLAN

MONITORING
& EVALUATION

Revision

Revision

Feedback
Regional
Priorities
Options
Paper

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Feedback loop

The regional development plan (RDP) and (for LFRs) the Single Programme Document (SPD) or
Community Support Framework (CSF) are critical inputs to strategy formulation and should help to
shape information society priorities. In LFRs, the Structural Funds are an important catalyst for
financing the necessary change processes.
Information society strategies and their implementation are a means to an end. It is how we choose to
deploy ICTs that will determine whether their impacts are beneficial or detrimental. Existing priorities
may need to be modified in the light of the emerging information society. At the same, time, regional
information society initiatives need to ask how can the information society help achieve existing
regional goals.
A successful information society strategy will focus on identifying the real problems and needs of
people and propose solutions for them. Thus, a strategy must be demand-led and for this reason the
RISI process adopts a bottom-up, inclusive approach.
An evolutionary (rather than revolutionary) approach might be sensibly advocated in most
circumstances. Change is uncomfortable for some and they need time (and help) to adjust.

A Guide to Developing Regional Information Society Initiatives

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Consider carefully how regional competence can be developed and barriers to development overcome.
Regional initiatives should consider not only how to achieve their strategic plan and support for it, but
also how to develop strategic organisations (having the capacity to adapt and change in response to
changes in the external environment).

From Options to Choices

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Strategy is about making choices, although compromise may also be necessary. It requires a process
of prioritisation and that means giving up some things.
Choosing priorities has a negative impact on building and maintaining consensus. But investment
resources are scarce and, eventually, hard choices have to be made.
The forces for change need to create a stronger inner energy than the one that defends the status quo.
To create this inner energy, first create dissatisfaction with the status quo, introduce the model of the
future and, finally, master the process by a system of rewards (incentives) and punishment
(disincentives).
There are a number of (non-mutually exclusive) ways in which priority fields can be identified and
selected and these include:

Allow priorities to emerge in a bottom-up fashion

Use impact analyses to determine which sectors/fields are likely to yield most impact
Be guided by the priorities of the RDP and/or the SWOT analysis.
Pay particular attention to evidence of real and latent demand
Address the regions future place in the global economy
Bear in mind national and European policies and programmes;
Identify a hook or big flagship project which will capture peoples imagination
Consider how synergies and cross-sectoral links can be identified and maximised.
Consider use of seed-corn finance to a large number of small community-based projects.

Building Consensus
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The processes of awareness raising, consultation, participation and selling a strategy all play a part
in building consensus.
Keep people informed so that decisions do not surprise them, and involve people to give them
ownership of situations to help create the inner energy needed to achieve change.
Building consensus tends to be easier in regions where the initiative has strong connections to regional
government and where there is strong and effective leadership.
Be aware of the political context and know how to behave within it. Political strength should not be
underestimated so be realistic in order to gain widespread acceptance.
Creative conflict can sometimes be a force for creativity - provided that it is adequately controlled.
The position and priorities of the established order (anxious to maintain the status quo) may need to
be challenged but this needs to be carefully and diplomatically handled.
Choosing a strategy and its priorities must inevitably give rise to some alienation and, possibly,
conflict. The erosion of consensus resulting from strategic choices may require some compromises to
be made.

Networking
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The importance of networking to the bottom-up and participative approach is emphasised because it
pervades all phases and processes of such initiatives.
Regions learn better and faster by being part of a collaborative (inter-regional) learning network, than
they can alone. Learning from other regions plays an important part in developing competence and in
securing achievements.

A Guide to Developing Regional Information Society Initiatives

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At the same time, regional initiatives must develop intra-regional networks and partnerships (within
their regions) again to learn from the experiences of other participants; to share best practice and
knowledge; and to create of new partnerships.
Networks are a form of co-operative organisation that depend on trust; reciprocity; solidarity;
altruism; and loyalty. Networks can be encouraged or stimulated and a supportive context can be
provided, but there are no guarantees they will work.
Information society tools offer improved communication but do not miraculously dissolve all the
usual barriers to networking. Face-to-face social interaction remains necessary.
Trust and loyalty take time to develop, so development of effective networks is slow.
In order to stress the society-wide implications of the information society and the need for all social
actors to be involved, regional networks have to influence a remarkably wide range of interlocutors
whose heterogeneous nature increases the time taken to establish a common frame of reference.
Communication is at the heart of networking and a communications strategy is a vital first step and an
on-going requirement.
Build on existing experience of networking within the region (amongst universities, chambers of
commerce etc) but expand these by drawing in new membership.
Use workshops and seminars to grow the network and to attract participation, making an explicit
effort to adopt an inclusive approach
Considerable barriers to effective networking can exist but these are most easily overcome when the
associated activities are achieved successfully (e.g. commitment of the regional authority; effective
and charismatic leadership; a wide-ranging awareness campaign etc.)

Building Partnerships
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The information society will call for new partnerships and initiatives have the task of identifying key
partners and fostering and supporting appropriate links between them.
Partnerships imply closer a closer relationship than networks in which there may be formal and
contractual ties.
At the initiative level, however, partnership obligations tend to be of the moral variety only and this
is why binding large numbers of diverse institutions together is so difficult.
At the project level, partners tended to be bound together more closely by a better and more narrowly
defined sense of (common) purpose, by the expectation of tangible benefits and by the smaller number
and greater homogeneity of partners.
The most important partnership is the Regional Steering Committee. Since continuity of membership
and real commitment are pre-requisites for an effective RSC, consider specifying at the outset the
benefits and obligations of membership.
The early support and commitment of a few key organisations can be a stimulus to others to
participate.
Identify any rewards that can be offered and promote these as benefits of participation but take
care not to create unrealistic and undeliverable expectations. Ensure that potential partners and
supporters appreciate that to derive benefit they must also be prepared to contribute (No pain, no
gain!).
Engaging the private sector in the development of the information society can be difficult and slow
perhaps due, in part, to the potential for conflict between the cultures of competition and co-operation.
Analyse carefully the relationship of the private sector with the public sector and the potential for
conflict or partnership between them.
To engage the commitment of the private sector, the public sector needs to be flexible in its approach,
creating win-win situations with minimum bureaucracy.
The participation of small business proprietors is critical, especially in regions where they provide the
majority of employment.
Strategy development should occur in both a top-down and bottom-up fashion. Approval from the top
is necessary to satisfy the legitimacy in terms of democratic mechanisms, to provide the initiatives with
credibility and authority, and to secure financial support. At the same time, popular support from the
bottom ensures that strategies meet real needs and satisfy real demand. Without the authority and
support implied by the top-down approach, generating bottom-up participation and consensus is

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A Guide to Developing Regional Information Society Initiatives

considerably more difficult. Relying solely on the top-down approach will probably result in a failure to
develop regional planning capacity and produce a less innovative strategy.
In regional information society initiatives, there are three main sets of actors: the public administrations,
users, and technology providers. The nature of each and the relationships between them are shown in
Fig. 4 below. It indicates that the relationship between technology providers and both users and public
administrations tends to be strong since it is based on contractual arrangements. But the relationship
between regional authorities and users is generally weak, being based only on political and social
contracts. As such, it represents a potentially weak link in the chain for the creation of region-wide
partnerships.

Fig. 4

Strong Relationship
(Public Procurement
Based Dynamics)

Public
Public
AdminAdministrations
istrations

A few actors
-R egional
- Local

Some Actors
- Telecom Operators
- Hardware &
Software Companies
- Applications
Developers

Weak Relationship
(Political and Societal
Based Dynamics)

Technology
Technology
Providers
Providers

A lot of actors

Very Strong Relationship

(Market Based Dynamics)
(Offer and Demand)

Users
Users

- Companies
(big & SMEs)
- All type of organisations
- Individuals

Mainstreaming the Strategy

Mainstreaming with the Structural Funds
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Demand for information society products and services is weak in the LFRs and it is unlikely that
market forces alone will bring about the required transformation in an appropriate time-scale. In the
absence of (adequate) private investment, public authorities and public funds have a catalytic role to
play.
Regional initiatives (in LFRs) need to influence the use and orientation of the Structural Funds and
ensure that the strategy and action plan are integrated with the RDP.
The term mainstreaming has come to mean placing information society development as a core issue
in terms of the orientation of Structural Funds policies and programmes rather than being seen as a
fringe activity of interest only to technologists.
Access to EU Structural Funds is likely to play an important, catalytic role in helping to finance the
implementation of regional information society strategies. Thus, initiative personnel need to ensure
that they are thoroughly conversant with all aspects of the Structural Funds.
At the level of regional programme design, programming is often compartmentalised and too
vertically oriented (by sector). This may facilitate management and administration but generally fails
to produce integrated programmes. In particular, horizontal issues tend to be inadequately addressed.
Unfortunately, regional decision-makers are sometimes unable to see how a region might be
transformed nor, often, do they understand why it needs to be. Regional initiatives must persuade
decision-makers that the Information Society cant be ignored and that its implications must be taken
into account in the RDP and SPD/CSF.

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A Guide to Developing Regional Information Society Initiatives

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Examples of successful (IS) projects need to be documented and disseminated to help sell the vision,
raise awareness and educate decision-makers. They help generate evidence of the needs and the
benefits and indicate the Structural Funds measures that are necessary to help finance the vision.
Use outsiders (such as Commission officials and external experts) as prophets from another land,
to persuade those who need to be persuaded that things need to change.

Integrating with Regional Policy

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There are three relevant factors that need to fit together if successful connections are to be made
between the information society strategy and regional policy: (a) actions that arise from the RISI
exercise; (b) the degree of commitment of the RISI partnership; and (c) the current regional policy
framework. If these three are not converging, then they must interact to assure compatibility.
Do the three elements have the same expectations and do they play by the same rules of the game?
Semantics play a key role in that consensus can be real or illusory. Consensus may be really achieved
with intended and/or unintended misunderstandings.
In general terms, the more innovative the planning process and its outcomes, the stronger the
consensus that is needed to achieve mainstreaming.
The higher the real commitment and the greater the number of people active in both the initiative and
mainstreaming, the higher the likelihood of influencing regional policy.
Promote the success stories and use these to persuade the unconvinced that co-operation is better than
competition, that integration is better than fragmentation, and that collective action is better than
going it alone.
Accept that its hard to be horizontal in a vertical world but dont stop trying to persuade people that
the new world (the information society, the network society, the knowledge and learning society)
requires new (horizontal) ways of thinking.

Strategy Implementation Issues

Implementation
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A regional initiatives next step is to convert the strategy into an action plan that states what needs to
be done in the medium term. This requires the establishment of criteria for project selection; the
evaluation and selection of the projects themselves; the design and creation of mechanisms to monitor
and evaluate projects, and of systems to monitor the strategy itself; and the provision of guidance and
support to project teams and proposers.
It might also be an appropriate stage at which to review and evaluate the initiative itself, especially the
Management Unit, to ensure that the necessary skills are available for beginning a new phase of work
having different (skills) requirements.
A major challenge in the implementation phase is, of course, securing the funding necessary to realise
the action plan. Provided that the initiative has been successful in mainstreaming (Structural Funds)
and in integrating with regional policy, reasonable funds should be available to give substance to the
action plan and the first phase of strategy implementation.
During the implementation phase, the regional initiative will need to:

Develop criteria for the selection of projects.

Design procedures and criteria for the monitoring and evaluation of projects.
Promote the action plan widely.
Stimulate the submission of project ideas and proposals.
Support, advise and provide technical assistance to project developers.
Use the agreed criteria to select those projects that best match the criteria.
In the case of larger projects, feasibility studies will be required.

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A Guide to Developing Regional Information Society Initiatives

Monitor project progress against agreed milestones and take action as necessary.
Based on the monitoring experience, make adjustments if necessary to the project selection
and monitoring procedures.
As projects compete, carry out evaluations, report back and publicise the successes.
Periodically review the strategy and action plan in the light of experience and changing
circumstances.

Project Selection
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Set up a project selection panel, ensuring its competence and neutrality. Objectivity may be a problem
and require that the engagement of external experts/evaluators.
Generally speaking, it is inadvisable for management Units to initiate projects of their own if they
hope to remain, and be seen to be, impartial. At this stage, the initiative should be primarily involved
with programme management, rather than project development.

Monitoring & Evaluation

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The information society is still at an experimental stage and, to understand it better, it is necessary to
be prepared to take some risks. There is a need, therefore, for some risk capital to finance
experimental and innovative projects. There is a need also to accept that some projects will fail and
that it is from mistakes that we learn.
However, to learn more about the information society and its impacts, it is necessary to approach the
learning process systematically. This requires the design and development of effective systems and
indicators for monitoring and evaluating information society projects. Evaluation, especially, must be
viewed as a learning tool and we should stop viewing ex post evaluations like end of term
examinations.
Evaluation mechanisms should be designed into projects at the outset; ensure there is a feedback and
learning loop; compare results to objectives and to other similar projects.
Goals can change through time it is important to track these changes and to understand why they
occurred (direction matters more than scale/distance).
Evaluation of benefits is vital to achieve mainstreaming and integration with regional policy.

Since such regional initiatives are experiments in socio-economic engineering, their evaluation will be
especially difficult and complex. But the world is not likely to become less complex and so it is necessary
to try to learn to handle that complexity.
Its the process that matters, not the strategy itself. We need to concentrate on what to do
and how to achieve it - developing the capacity for strategic thinking and being able to
convince people to act.

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