TBV Watches Istanbul’s ICT Future

Priority Setting and Road Mapping for Istanbul ICT Sector Workshop was organized in 24th November 2011 by Turkish Informatics Foundation (TBV) with the participation of private sector, NGO, academy, as well as the public sector representatives.

ARAMA1

29 ICT experts came together at Sabanci University Karakoy Building in Istanbul to discuss the obstacles on the way of making R&D and innovation in ICT in Istanbul and reveal the opportunities for the sector. Priority Setting and Road Mapping for Istanbul ICT Sector Workshop was organized in 24^thNovember 2011 by Turkish Informatics Foundation (TBV) with the participation of private sector, NGO, academy, as well as the public sector representatives. The workshop was held as a Fact Finding Workshop in order to develop a Watchdog Group for watching ICT R&D and innovation processes in Istanbul Region. The workshop was held under Istanbul Information Society Watchdog Group Project which is carried out by Turkish Informatics Foundation (TBV) with Sabanci University and TUBISAD – Informatics Industry Association as associate partners and is funded by the Istanbul Development Agency. The objective of the project is to contribute on the socio-economic development in Istanbul region by democratizing R&D and innovation policy making processes which will increase the competitiveness of the ICT sector through supporting EC Acquis adoption in collaboration with civil society organizations, universities and public organisations. The project specifically addresses setting a new, efficient, interactive, transparent and democratic watchdog mechanism in Turkey-Istanbul region for ICT R&D and innovation through creating civil society organization, university and public organization cooperation; increasing awareness of policy makers and key innovation players in ICT competitiveness and innovation issues and contributing to the adoption of related EC Acquis in Istanbul region.

Priority Setting and Road Mapping for Istanbul ICT Sector Workshop was held in Istanbul

ARAMA2

Istanbul Information Society Watchdog Group Project started with an opening press meeting in Konya and a Fact-finding workshop in Istanbul as a first step to establish Istanbul Information Society Watchdog Group. The workshop was moderated by Tunç Çelik who is specialist on moderating, analyzing and synthesizing different ideas. During the workshop, participants who are the ICT stakeholders, developed ideas and commented on the negative factors that affect the development of the ICT sector and its innovation capacity as well as the priority actions to prevent these factors. Moreover, participants also shared their ideas on the important leap and technology areas for speeding up the development in the ICT sector, the advantages and disadvantages for Istanbul, possible actors and their contributions for the establishment of the Wathdog Group and its effective operation, structuring of the Wathdog Group and finally the road map for the Wathdog Group. The Fact-Finding workshop had been the first step of the establishment of the Istanbul Information Society Watchdog Group where the participants showed their interest in being a member of the group. Another meeting is planned to be done in February for inviting the interested parties to structure the Istanbul Information Society Watchdog Group under Turkish Informatics Foundation (TBV).

Istanbul Information Society Watchdog Group is being Built under TBV

ARAMA3

The project will last for 12 months till July 2012 and during this time TBV, Sabanci University and TUBISAD will deal with establishing the Watchdog System Infrastructure though defining indicators for the Istanbul Region Requirement analysis and data sources for Istanbul, study on best practices of watching systems in the world and make an Istanbul Requirement Analysis based on the results of the Priority Setting and Road Mapping for Istanbul ICT Sector Workshop.

Other step will be the establishment of the Istanbul Information Society Watchdog Group with the participation of the ICT sector representatives inIstanbul, preparation of group’s Strategy Document and its Organisation Instruction Document to make it work efficiently. Later on this group will directly work in the project especially in Campaign and Lobbying Activities including policy proposal making and awareness raising campaign. Istanbul Information Society Watchdog Group Magazine will be designed, developed and published as a part of the watchdog activities. The project will have an open web platform for dissemination. The project will end with an Experience Sharing Conference in July 2012 to share the project outputs and lessons learnt.