This project was part-financed by the EU’s CIP INTERREG IIIB ARCHIMED, part of the Structural Funds programme for Malta 2004-2006.
The agreement with the respective beneficiaries in Gozo is for the period of a year, with possible extensions following this period. Vodafone Malta is the first company in Malta to provide its internet service free of charge to the general public.
The leading partner in the trans-national project was the Comunità Montana del Gargano of the Puglia region in Italy. Other partners were from Greece and Egypt, while the Maltese partner was the Fondazzjoni Temi Zammit.
The aims of the project are to give citizens of geographically isolated areas an opportunity to use innovative ICT, to support their participative use of public services and to overcome social exclusion compounded by a society divided into the information-rich (urban area) and the information-poor (rural area).
The overall objectives of the project are to link all public services suppliers (municipalities, schools, welfare agencies, libraries) in rural, mountainous and island territories and the implementation of an E-Democracy Portal, allowing citizens to take part in the decision-making processes of local government and to give feedback on common themes and arguments under discussion.
The beneficiary sites, including eight local councils in Gozo, are equipped with a Vodafone @home 2Mbit/sec broadband internet connection and have a monthly download limit of 20 Gbytes, all of this free of charge. The local councils are Rabat (Victoria), Nadur, San Lawrenz, Qala, Gharb, Munxar, Sannat and Xaghra.
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Quelle/Source: The Malta Independent Online, 19.10.2008
