Analysis method

The AtlantisBPnet Method for identifying and analysing Information Society Best Practices was developed to evaluate initiatives just from the point of view of the Information Society.

 First of all, it must define what is "Information Society". The AtlantisBPnet partners, according their experience and area of work, proposed four complementary definitions:

• Suggests new ways of working based on networking (collaborate teams operating together), easy to use and to transfer
• Incorporates in people's life and organisations some new technologies based on electronic processing and information and communication technologies (ICTs);
• Enables or facilitates people to have access to information through ICT and takes part in areas such as education, health, commerce, industry, etc.

Thus, previous definitions are based on 3 axes:

• Networking across society and organizations (citizenship, business, governments...)
• Information & Communication (Services and contents)
• New technologies (tools)

 
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Any project proposed to be evaluated according the AtlantiBPnet Method must correspond to those concepts.

The Method is composed by:

• A Data template, to collect general information about the project and its quality as "IS project", needed to be analysed.
• A list of evaluation indicators, and a score system.
• A process of work , to search, propose, analyse and validate projects as Best Practices.

Parameters

In order to evaluate the quality of a project as Information Society Best Practice, six main parameters have been selected:

• Technology roll-out
• Strategic factors
• Partnership formation
• Training-learning
• Interaction
• Ability for transfer the project

Based on last parameters, AtlantisBPnet defined 8 questions to analyse an initiative just from the point of view of this quality as Information Society project

Technology roll-out

At present, any project for Information Society development is associated to a technology (technology based on electronics), that is, it uses some technology as a platform.

May be, this platform is considered as innovative: because it uses open source resources or complex software; because it uses last telecommunication infrastructures, by their modern terminal devices (computers, mobiles phones, etc).

However, the technical platform is not the central property to qualify a project as Best Practice, but it is important in the sense that this platform must guarantee the access of final users to information and communication. In other words, "not everyone requires broadband and some projects will be constructed with a specific target end-user who may not need it"

Strategic factors

Without a doubt, all Information Society projects contribute to regional development and to improvement citizens' quality of life.

Nevertheless, some projects are developed in an isolated way, independently of other initiatives carried out in a community (a city, a region, etc). In other cases a "global strategy for the development of a community" is established and carried out for many years.

These programs define some strategic axes. To secure that these objectives are met, several individual actions or projects are launched, where each of them able to become a Best Practice. The importance of these projects relies on their intrinsic value as well as on their relation with other actions scheduled within the same strategic line and ultimately on their relation with other strategic lines contributing to the development of the region.

So, an Information Society project belonging to a global strategy like this has an added value.

Partnership

Any Information Society Project can contribute to targeted community development (a region, a city, a school, etc).

This objective depends in part of the establishment of partnerships or alliances among the three main regional innovating actors: the Higher-Education (Universities), the Private Sector (R&D centres, industrial firms, chambers of commerce, trade associations) and the Public Sector (national and regional policy-makers); this is known as "Triple Helix Partnership".

Although innovation may arise in any of the three sectors, to ensure that such innovation has an effective impact at regional level it is necessary that the other sectors get involved.

 
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Competitive public procurement becomes important, with the associated market generating better value for tax payers as well as the efficient allocation of resources which will enhance the quality of public services.

Private organisations adapt their structures to meet the needs, new technologies and also new ways of working, increasing productivity, competitiveness and profit marking.

Finally, the University is transformed into the 'Entrepreneurial University' , adapting itself to the needs of the region, i.e. training specialised professionals, supplying partners with research capacities and coordinating the efforts of the partners to transfer in the most suitable manner the outcomes of research to the business domain, thus contributing to the development of the region.

Interaction-Cooperation. Changes in working relationships.

The innovation and the knowledge, main objectives of the Information Society, come up in very dynamic environments, which main feature is the exchange of information.

That's why is very important stimulating into a community a strong and sustainable cooperation among all agents involved on the development of Information Society in order to achieve the development of that community, going from no-coordinated and isolated work system environments towards cooperative (coordinated) environments, much more open, flexible and dynamic, which allow a much easier and fluent information flow. To achieve this, the working structures of the partners in the organization or the partnership need to be redefined.

New trans-institutional partnerships and stimulating active learning process can contribute to achieve this.

 
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Training & Learning

Many projects include training actions for their end-users. However, training users to use a tool or technology is not enough, and strategies should envisage the building of "continuing learning and improvement settings" . This type of setting encourages feedback and debate among the individuals. All the actors share their viewpoints and opinions, based on their experiences, and their reflections further enrich the debate. The setting where the project is being managed builds on the experiences and suggestions of all the individuals, thus improving on a continuing basis and contributing to the production of knowledge.

A simple analogy can be found in the educational sector: in this case, a teacher or trainer is expected to convey knowledge to trainees; however, the trainee is no longer a passive element, whose role is limited to receiving the training (i.e. learning how to do something), and takes on an active role. In this new role, the trainee starts questioning why things are done in a certain way, and proposes changes in the training and new training areas. All this helps the trainer adapt & improve the training. The trainer becomes a trainee, and the trainee in turn becomes a trainer.

 
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Ability for transferring the project

It is assumed that any Information Society project is transferable, albeit with modifications. This parameter outlines what is required of any community seeking to adopt a project, distinguishing those which can be adopted by a SME or Research Institutes, from those which require the organisation and financial power which we would associate with regional development agencies or large firms.

Indicators

From the AtlantisBPnet point of view, the indicators that should be analysed in order to consider a project as a Good Information Society project are the following:

• Is the system user friendly?
• Is the project adapted to the technological infrastructure available in the project region(s) to ensure user access?
• Does the project improve access to information?
• Is the project part of, or aligned with a Regional Development Strategy?
• Does the project involve collaborative, trans-institutional partnerships?
• Is the management structure sufficiently flexible to change to meet the requirements of the project?
• Does the partnership involve Higher Education establishments, the Public Sector and the Private Sector (Triple Helix)?
• Are there learning initiatives associated with the project that aim to promote new knowledge?

The Work Process

The AtlantisBPnet Method has established a process of identification and analysis of a project to guaranties the quality of projects proposed as study cases, and finally labelled as Best Practices.

First AtlantisBPnet and now, ObservatoriumBPnet, divides all their agents in four roles:

• . Observer. Identifies IS projects and proposes them for being evaluated as Best Practices.
• Analyst. It analyses the projects according a list of indicators. Two analysts are assigned per project, according some selection criterion.
• Mediator. Another type of analyst, it mediates when two analysts disagree about a project.
• Validator. After its evaluation, it approves the final qualification of a project as "Information Society Best Practice".

The process of work follows next scheme:

 
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• An Observer identifies a project which corresponds to ObservatoriumBPnet understanding of Information Society Project. So, the Observer fills the Data template and sends the project to be evaluated by the ObservatoriumBPnet Network.
• ObservatoriumBPnet assigns automatically two independent analysts. If they accept the project, they analyse the project filling an online form. The Observatory Network saves partial evaluations and results.
• If both analysts agree that the project is a Best Practice, it is sent to a Validator to approve evaluations and update the project on Internet Data Base as Best Practices.
• If analyst disagrees about the project, a Mediator takes part and tries to achieve an agreement with analyst about final result. If finally both, the Mediator and partial analysts, think that the project is a Best Practice, this passes to Validator's phase. In other case, the project is send to debugging.

So, the project is analysed and approved by at least two independent people, which provides a quality guarantee for evaluation.

Also, the process of work is managed automatically by a computer system. Anybody intervenes on analysis process. This provides an additional independence guarantee to the Method.