TSSG Endorses SEISS Initiative

By: Margaret Grene
he last few years of the twentieth century saw phenomenal economic growth in Ireland and this was largely attributed to its strong Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector. However, it became evident that the South-East region suffered a significant disadvantage in terms of technology usage. In answer to this, and to ensure that the region was well positioned to take advantage of opportunities in the ICT sector the South East Information Society Strategy group (SEISS) was created by the South-East Regional Authority in July 2000.
Three and a half years later phase 2 of this programme is drawing to a close. During phases 1 and 2 a strong relationship has been crafted between the regional stakeholders including Local Authorities, Industry Representatives, County Enterprise Boards, Enterprise Ireland, Institutes of Technology, the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC), Teagasc, the Chambers of Commerce, Leader & Partnership groups, the South East Business Incubation Centre (SEBIC), FAS, the South East Regional Training Authority (SERTA), the Revenue Commissioners, and the Dept. of Social and Family Affairs. This strong stakeholder relationship has directly contributed to the success of the SEISS activities.
At the TSSG we recognise that an ICT-enabled society is one of the corner-stones of economic development, says Dr. Willie Donnelly, Director of the TSSG, Head of Research and Innovation at Waterford Institute of Technology and one of the original architects of SEISS. SEISS has been a strong force driving the region towards the knowledge society of the twenty-first century.
The SEISS project has already been primarily responsible for the attraction of over $19.2m in projects to the region including the flagship eur18 million SERPANT project.
The SERPANT Project – a uniquely regional approach to the rollout of broadband in six municipal area networks in Clonmel, Dungarvan, Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford and Waterford. These six municipal rings in the South-East constitute a budget of EUR18 million.
There’s also the Connected Communities project which was initiated by SEISS a regional approach to the encouragement of local community content creation and internet usage being piloted in Freshford, Co.Kilkenny; Dunhill, Co. Waterford; Bagenalstown, Co. Carlow; and Raheen, Co. Wexford; and Cahir, Co. Tipperary. This project has been funded to the value of EUR300,000, under the Innovative Actions Programme of the Southern and Eastern Assembly, in order to help each local community to generate their own local community web content, online services and SMS messaging services for their individual areas, member groups and businesses.
SEISS has also participated in the SENSITIC project which avails of international expertise and funding to complete an ICT benchmarking report to track the regions ICT progress.
Other SEISS achievements include the creation of regular e-mail ICT newsletter supporting the efforts of stakeholders in the region; tailored events to address key ICT issues and skill gaps; the ICT & eWork work conference; a series of Practical breakfast workshops on Email, Viruses, IT Security; all day intensive workshops for existing Industrial and community advisors in the region and representation at key national and regional policymaking events.
Having achieved its goals it has now become clear that building on the successes of phases 1 and 2 is an essential constituent of any development plan for the South East region.