Kotka: Estonia Increasingly Alone as Bullish on IT
The Economic Affairs Ministry under secretary for IT, Taavi Kotka, has said Estonia has reached a rarefied sphere in its progress where it doesn't have anyone left to copy.
Sometimes called the country's IT Minister, Kotka told the ETV program Välisilm: "If we take the example of our own ID card, it was developed by the Finns and we cribbed fairly directly from them. Now we have given the Finns our X-road in return and we can say we're even," he said.
The X-road is the secure data exchange environment that drives all of the public electronic services linked to the national smartcard, currently being exported to other countries from Europe to Azerbaijan.
As a developing "young" country, Kotka said, Estonia should "learn smarter," see what others are doing and grow.
"Estonia has reached the point where there aren't many places to copy from, as the ones we copied from are now wrestling with major problems like privacy - to issue an ID card or not, adopt use of a personal identification code or not. We don't have these problems and are free to invent new things."
With regard to the dangers, Kotka said that driving a car was also dangerous, but that people shouldn't live in fear - cars are still used for their many good, efficient aspects, and, of course, simply force of habit.
"If people have grown used to some technology, they will continue to be users. I don't think people will gladly give up e-mail, texting or phones."