Vysočina ranks very high amongst the country’s regions in the use of new technologies and development of IT. We like to mention this fact and are quite proud of ourselves in this respect. The role of informatics has been constantly growing – new technologies help us create better conditions for faster decision-making on the part of authorities, take better care of our patients, provide more comfort to our tourists, or find new job opportunities for our Region’s citizens.

In 2006, we finalized the operability of the regional optical backbone, known as ROWANet. It got its name after a tree whose fruit is used in the Vysočina Region’s emblem (rowan). The network does many very useful things. It interlinks the computers installed in the offices of administration buildings, schools, rescue teams, firemen, libraries, museums, and institutions, enabling all of them to exchange data on-line, as fast as if we were sitting under one roof. This is quite a breakthrough even today, in the e-mail era. A nearly unlimited volume of data can be processed this way, and if we add to it the data bus we have, too, it means that we can answer virtually any question, conduct any analysis, and above all monitor any process to see whether it is effective or otherwise. In short, it makes the work on our Region’s development easier and more constructive. The positive impact of ROWANet could be compared to the impact of electrification in bygone days. We know how live without it, but we would hardly want to turn the clock backwards.

The account of success stories in the sphere of informatics in 2006 is quite long. By way of an example, I might mention our work on information points for entrepreneurs, public Internet in municipalities, Internet booths for tourists, and numerous other things – all of them practical and useful.

In essence, Vysočina is a rural region – we have no mega city, we only have a network of practically equally outfitted towns and villages. Interlinking them globally and mutually is the best we can do to optimize their chances for continuous development.

Jaroslav Hulák

Councillor for Informatics and Zone Planning