This Little City Is One of the Most High-Tech in the World
At first glance, you wouldn’t think of the city of Tallinn as modern. The capital of Estonia, the northernmost of the Baltic states, retains its medieval architecture, and old Soviet military barracks still stand on the outskirts.
But don’t be fooled by appearances: This city—Estonia’s largest, with a population of more than 426,000—is a hotbed of technological innovation.
It began in the 1990s after the country gained independence from the Soviet Union. Without an existing infrastructure to update and modify, Estonia was able to start with the most cutting-edge information technology available at the time, so its government-backed tech push was dubbed the Tiger Leap Foundation. The initiative has been promoting teaching computer programming at an early age—the latest goal is to introduce the concept in schools to seven-year-olds—and supporting IT start-ups. The most famous of these start-ups is Skype, which has since gone global but still maintains its research and development center in its birthplace of Tallinn.
The private sector followed the public sector’s lead, and the high-tech focus produced results. Estonia is one of the most Internet-dependent countries on Earth, and this year, Tallinn again was named one of the world’s most intelligent communities.
For citizens of Tallinn, technology is the way of life. Wi-Fi has been available for free throughout the country for a decade, with rural areas getting 3G and the more populated sectors using 4G. Residents all carry chip-embedded identification cards, which they can use to access public services such as social security, education, and health records on the Internet; to file their taxes electronically; and even to vote online, which 24 percent of the population did in 2011 elections. The card is also what lets people pick up prescriptions at the pharmacy and board the public bus.
Everyday tasks such as mailing a package or parking a car in a city lot are also surprisingly high-tech. Use your cellphone to request a code to open a locker at the post office and mail your box, and send a text message to the parking authority to let them know where your car is so you can be billed later—electronically, of course. The school system also has an online presence, so kids better not even try forging a signature on a failed test or playing hooky: Grades, class attendance, and homework assignments are all available to parents online.
Being a high-tech mecca has its perks, and the attention made Tallinn the location for the headquarters of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Centre of Excellence, a state-of-the-art hub for fighting the world’s hackers. But even with a center for computer security, some are worried about data protection for citizens. The constant connectivity and personalized ID card that is required to basically exist in Estonia raises some questions about personal privacy and government transparency.
What do you think? Does the idea of using an ID card for everything sound creepy or convenient? Is Estonia on the right track with its plans for a tech-powered economy? Should other countries follow its model?
