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How tiny Estonia stepped out of USSR's shadow to become an internet titan How tiny Estonia stepped out of USSR's shadow to become an internet titan
(about 5 hours later)
In 1995, four years after Estonia broke free from the USSR, Toomas Hendrik Ilves read a "very Luddite" book by Jeremy Rifkin called The End of Work. "It argued that with greater computerisation there would be fewer jobs," remembered Ilves, then a senior diplomat, now the country's president, "which from his point of view was terrible."In 1995, four years after Estonia broke free from the USSR, Toomas Hendrik Ilves read a "very Luddite" book by Jeremy Rifkin called The End of Work. "It argued that with greater computerisation there would be fewer jobs," remembered Ilves, then a senior diplomat, now the country's president, "which from his point of view was terrible."
Ilves and many of his colleagues saw it differently. In a tiny (population: 1.4 million) and newly independent country like Estonia, politicians realised computers could help quickly compensate for both a minuscule workforce and a chronic lack of physical infrastructure.Ilves and many of his colleagues saw it differently. In a tiny (population: 1.4 million) and newly independent country like Estonia, politicians realised computers could help quickly compensate for both a minuscule workforce and a chronic lack of physical infrastructure.
Seventeen years on, the internet has done more than just help. It is now tightly entwined with Estonia's identity. "For other countries, the internet is just another service, like tap water, or clean streets," said Linnar Viik, a lecturer at the Estonian IT College, a government adviser and a man almost synonymous in Estonia with the rise of the web.Seventeen years on, the internet has done more than just help. It is now tightly entwined with Estonia's identity. "For other countries, the internet is just another service, like tap water, or clean streets," said Linnar Viik, a lecturer at the Estonian IT College, a government adviser and a man almost synonymous in Estonia with the rise of the web.
"But for young Estonians, the internet is a manifestation of something more than a service – it's a symbol of democracy and freedom.""But for young Estonians, the internet is a manifestation of something more than a service – it's a symbol of democracy and freedom."
To see why, you just have to go outside. Free Wi-Fi is everywhere, and has been for a decade.To see why, you just have to go outside. Free Wi-Fi is everywhere, and has been for a decade.
Viik says you could walk 100 miles – from the pastel-coloured turrets here in medieval Tallinn to the university spires of Tartu – and never lose internet connection.Viik says you could walk 100 miles – from the pastel-coloured turrets here in medieval Tallinn to the university spires of Tartu – and never lose internet connection.
"We realised that if the government was going to use the internet, the internet had to be available to everybody," Viik said. "So we built a huge network of public internet access points for people who couldn't afford them at home.""We realised that if the government was going to use the internet, the internet had to be available to everybody," Viik said. "So we built a huge network of public internet access points for people who couldn't afford them at home."
The country took a similar approach to education. By 1997, thanks to a campaign led in part by Ilves, a staggering 97% of Estonian schools already had internet. Now 42 Estonian services are now managed mainly through the internet. Last year, 94% of tax returns were made online, usually within five minutes. You can vote on your laptop (at the last election, Ilves did it from Macedonia) and sign legal documents on a smartphone. Cabinet meetings have been paperless since 2000.The country took a similar approach to education. By 1997, thanks to a campaign led in part by Ilves, a staggering 97% of Estonian schools already had internet. Now 42 Estonian services are now managed mainly through the internet. Last year, 94% of tax returns were made online, usually within five minutes. You can vote on your laptop (at the last election, Ilves did it from Macedonia) and sign legal documents on a smartphone. Cabinet meetings have been paperless since 2000.
Doctors only issue prescriptions electronically, while in the main cities you can pay by text for bus tickets, parking, and – in some cases – a pint of beer. Not bad for country where, two decades ago, half the population had no phone line.Doctors only issue prescriptions electronically, while in the main cities you can pay by text for bus tickets, parking, and – in some cases – a pint of beer. Not bad for country where, two decades ago, half the population had no phone line.
Central to the Estonian project is the ID card, introduced in 2002. Nine in 10 Estonians have one, and – by slotting it into their computer – citizens can use their card to vote online, transfer money and access all the information the state has on them.Central to the Estonian project is the ID card, introduced in 2002. Nine in 10 Estonians have one, and – by slotting it into their computer – citizens can use their card to vote online, transfer money and access all the information the state has on them.
"There's nothing on the ID card itself, because that could be dangerous if you lost it," says Katrin Pärgmäe, who is in charge of public awareness at RIA, the country's internet authority."There's nothing on the ID card itself, because that could be dangerous if you lost it," says Katrin Pärgmäe, who is in charge of public awareness at RIA, the country's internet authority.
"It only gives you access to the database if you type in the right code.""It only gives you access to the database if you type in the right code."
You can also present the card at the pharmacy to pick up a prescription. On public transport, it doubles as a ticket.You can also present the card at the pharmacy to pick up a prescription. On public transport, it doubles as a ticket.
Many people also have special ID chips on their mobile sim cards that allow them to pay people by text.Many people also have special ID chips on their mobile sim cards that allow them to pay people by text.
To a British audience, the ID card will have a whiff of Big Brother. But many Estonians argue the opposite: that it allows them to keep tabs on the state, rather than the other way round.To a British audience, the ID card will have a whiff of Big Brother. But many Estonians argue the opposite: that it allows them to keep tabs on the state, rather than the other way round.
"You'd think, given our history, we'd have a problem with it," said Ilves, in an oblique reference to the days when the KGB had an office down a cobbled street in central Tallinn."You'd think, given our history, we'd have a problem with it," said Ilves, in an oblique reference to the days when the KGB had an office down a cobbled street in central Tallinn.
"But I feel much more secure with a digital ID. If anyone goes into my files, they're flagged. Whereas if my files – which would exist anyway – were made of paper, no one would know who was looking at them.""But I feel much more secure with a digital ID. If anyone goes into my files, they're flagged. Whereas if my files – which would exist anyway – were made of paper, no one would know who was looking at them."
Every Estonian can see who has visited their data, and they can challenge any suspicious behaviour. In one famous case, a policewoman was caught accessing information about her boyfriend.Every Estonian can see who has visited their data, and they can challenge any suspicious behaviour. In one famous case, a policewoman was caught accessing information about her boyfriend.
During a recent election campaign, a candidate was swiftly punished for accessing personal information about would-be constituents. "I don't know what the idiot was thinking," said Viik. "You can't hide."During a recent election campaign, a candidate was swiftly punished for accessing personal information about would-be constituents. "I don't know what the idiot was thinking," said Viik. "You can't hide."
To an outsider, it is not immediately clear why Estonia took to the internet so much faster than its Baltic cousins, Latvia and Lithuania. All three won independence at the same time. All three needed quick ways of revamping their ailing infrastructure. But to Estonians, the reason is simple. Estonia has a sizeable Russian-speaking minority, but the country's ethnic Estonian majority feel Nordic, rather than Slavic or eastern European. In the early 90s, this meant they looked to tech-happy Scandinavia for both inspiration and investment.To an outsider, it is not immediately clear why Estonia took to the internet so much faster than its Baltic cousins, Latvia and Lithuania. All three won independence at the same time. All three needed quick ways of revamping their ailing infrastructure. But to Estonians, the reason is simple. Estonia has a sizeable Russian-speaking minority, but the country's ethnic Estonian majority feel Nordic, rather than Slavic or eastern European. In the early 90s, this meant they looked to tech-happy Scandinavia for both inspiration and investment.
Those Finnish and Swedish businesses that did invest expected their Estonian counterparts to communicate by email rather than fax.Those Finnish and Swedish businesses that did invest expected their Estonian counterparts to communicate by email rather than fax.
And pretty soon it was the newcomers who were leading the way.And pretty soon it was the newcomers who were leading the way.
"I remember when one of our banks was bought by a Swedish one, they came over and said: 'And now we're going to teach you how to do computer banking'," recalled Ilves. "And we said, 'well, you might want to look at what we're actually doing with computer banking ourselves.'" At the last count, 99% of Estonian bank transfers were online."I remember when one of our banks was bought by a Swedish one, they came over and said: 'And now we're going to teach you how to do computer banking'," recalled Ilves. "And we said, 'well, you might want to look at what we're actually doing with computer banking ourselves.'" At the last count, 99% of Estonian bank transfers were online.
It helped that many politicians in the early 90s were unusually quick to "get" the internet. "The people in power after the collapse of the Soviet Union were really young," said Jaan Tallinn, the co-founder of Skype, the Estonian internet telephone company, and a co-developer of file-sharing website Kazaa. "They knew what was going on."It helped that many politicians in the early 90s were unusually quick to "get" the internet. "The people in power after the collapse of the Soviet Union were really young," said Jaan Tallinn, the co-founder of Skype, the Estonian internet telephone company, and a co-developer of file-sharing website Kazaa. "They knew what was going on."
Mart Laar was 32 when he became prime minister in 1992. Ilves is slightly older, but had learned to code as a child, growing up in exile in the US.Mart Laar was 32 when he became prime minister in 1992. Ilves is slightly older, but had learned to code as a child, growing up in exile in the US.
"I thought if I can do it, anyone can," he said in his strong New Jersey accent. "I was completely at ease with computers.""I thought if I can do it, anyone can," he said in his strong New Jersey accent. "I was completely at ease with computers."
The internet was also seen as a buffer to Russia.The internet was also seen as a buffer to Russia.
"We were afraid that Russian armies might take down the TV tower, the central radio station, or newspaper press," said Viik."We were afraid that Russian armies might take down the TV tower, the central radio station, or newspaper press," said Viik.
"Three addresses shut down, and we would have been disconnected from the rest of the world."Three addresses shut down, and we would have been disconnected from the rest of the world.
"But the internet would still work – and so we realised that this would be a great way of keeping in touch with the world in case of emergency.""But the internet would still work – and so we realised that this would be a great way of keeping in touch with the world in case of emergency."
Ironically, when an attack did finally come, it came via the internet – and promptly disconnected Estonia from the rest of the world.Ironically, when an attack did finally come, it came via the internet – and promptly disconnected Estonia from the rest of the world.
In 2007, the government infuriated its Russian-speaking minority by moving a Soviet war memorial from central Tallinn to a cemetery on the city's outskirts. Violence flared on the streets, and later reached the internet. The first cyberattack was simplistic, and easily dealt with: thousands of unknown individuals bombarding government, media and banking websites with "denial of service" (DoS) attacks.In 2007, the government infuriated its Russian-speaking minority by moving a Soviet war memorial from central Tallinn to a cemetery on the city's outskirts. Violence flared on the streets, and later reached the internet. The first cyberattack was simplistic, and easily dealt with: thousands of unknown individuals bombarding government, media and banking websites with "denial of service" (DoS) attacks.
"It was like an internet riot," said Hillar Aarelaid, who led Estonia's response, at the time."It was like an internet riot," said Hillar Aarelaid, who led Estonia's response, at the time.
But what started as an emotional backlash soon became a far larger, longer and better co-ordinated assault on Estonia's very being.But what started as an emotional backlash soon became a far larger, longer and better co-ordinated assault on Estonia's very being.
It lasted three weeks and could only be contained by restricting internet traffic in and out of the country. It was, in effect, a cybersiege.It lasted three weeks and could only be contained by restricting internet traffic in and out of the country. It was, in effect, a cybersiege.
"This is how a lot of myths were created," remembered Pärgmäe. "Those outside the country couldn't access Estonian websites, but they didn't realise that people inside still could.""This is how a lot of myths were created," remembered Pärgmäe. "Those outside the country couldn't access Estonian websites, but they didn't realise that people inside still could."
Rumours circulated about the collapse of the Estonian online banking system, and how people were struggling to buy groceries. "But actually the longest downtime for a bank's website was just one and a half hours."Rumours circulated about the collapse of the Estonian online banking system, and how people were struggling to buy groceries. "But actually the longest downtime for a bank's website was just one and a half hours."
The debacle had two positive effects. First: Nato founded a cyberwarfare thinktank in Estonia, to learn from the experience. Second: the government set up the Cyber Defence League, a network of 100 volunteers from the cybersector who, among other roles, will form – a kind of territorial army during future strife.The debacle had two positive effects. First: Nato founded a cyberwarfare thinktank in Estonia, to learn from the experience. Second: the government set up the Cyber Defence League, a network of 100 volunteers from the cybersector who, among other roles, will form – a kind of territorial army during future strife.
"Traditionally in western countries," said Ilves, "you've had a weekend-warrior thing where volunteers run off into the woods and do target practice. In Estonia, we have a unit of IT people from banks, software companies who in their spare time for one day a week work on cyber issues.""Traditionally in western countries," said Ilves, "you've had a weekend-warrior thing where volunteers run off into the woods and do target practice. In Estonia, we have a unit of IT people from banks, software companies who in their spare time for one day a week work on cyber issues."
This kind of collaboration between private and public sectors was also central to Estonian innovation in the 90s, Viik claims.This kind of collaboration between private and public sectors was also central to Estonian innovation in the 90s, Viik claims.
"The government started several IT programmes as a catalyst," he said. "But only in a few was it the main sponsor. From the early days, government philosophy was not to hire programmers, but to use the services of private companies, which in turn increased the competitiveness of the Estonian IT sector.""The government started several IT programmes as a catalyst," he said. "But only in a few was it the main sponsor. From the early days, government philosophy was not to hire programmers, but to use the services of private companies, which in turn increased the competitiveness of the Estonian IT sector."
Case in point: the ID card. "It's private companies who developed and manage the service – and who can now export their new-found competencies to other countries."Case in point: the ID card. "It's private companies who developed and manage the service – and who can now export their new-found competencies to other countries."
Viik argues that this benefits both the private sector and the state, who otherwise would not have the resources for ID card technology.Viik argues that this benefits both the private sector and the state, who otherwise would not have the resources for ID card technology.
But some think the overlap between occasionally threatens Estonia's open internet.But some think the overlap between occasionally threatens Estonia's open internet.
For many years, each Estonian citizen had the right to a free domain name. As in the UK, they could not register top-level domain names – but they could bag a ".pri.ee" site, similar to a ".co.uk" site in Britain. In 2010, that changed: the government outsourced the responsibility of allocating domain names to private registrars. The pri.ee domains were abolished, and individuals were instead given the right to top-level ".ee" websites. The only catch was a £15 price-tag – one of the highest rates in Europe.For many years, each Estonian citizen had the right to a free domain name. As in the UK, they could not register top-level domain names – but they could bag a ".pri.ee" site, similar to a ".co.uk" site in Britain. In 2010, that changed: the government outsourced the responsibility of allocating domain names to private registrars. The pri.ee domains were abolished, and individuals were instead given the right to top-level ".ee" websites. The only catch was a £15 price-tag – one of the highest rates in Europe.
Many academics and high-profile techies were outraged, and some founded a pressure group – the Estonian Internet Community (EIC) – that campaigns to give ordinary citizens more of a say in how Estonia's internet is run. After public outcry, a new set of free domain-names - era.ee - were introduced.Many academics and high-profile techies were outraged, and some founded a pressure group – the Estonian Internet Community (EIC) – that campaigns to give ordinary citizens more of a say in how Estonia's internet is run. After public outcry, a new set of free domain-names - era.ee - were introduced.
More generally, it is feared that the same politicians who had such enlightened attitudes to the internet in the 90s may be starting to lose their progressive edge.More generally, it is feared that the same politicians who had such enlightened attitudes to the internet in the 90s may be starting to lose their progressive edge.
"They're still in power," said Jaan Tallinn, "but I'm not sure they still understand what's going on. Technology keeps progressing. Young people follow the curve. But as they get older they get inertia, and they start deviating from that curve.""They're still in power," said Jaan Tallinn, "but I'm not sure they still understand what's going on. Technology keeps progressing. Young people follow the curve. But as they get older they get inertia, and they start deviating from that curve."
Ilves himself is fairly critical of parts of Acta, the hugely controversial international agreement that opponents fear will curtail the rights of individual internet users.Ilves himself is fairly critical of parts of Acta, the hugely controversial international agreement that opponents fear will curtail the rights of individual internet users.
But there is a perception that other politicians could be doing more to oppose its introduction.But there is a perception that other politicians could be doing more to oppose its introduction.
"It's difficult because it's actually an EU agreement," admitted Jaagup Irve, a PhD student at the Tallinn University of Technology, and an EIC board member. "But the government isn't doing enough to stop Acta.""It's difficult because it's actually an EU agreement," admitted Jaagup Irve, a PhD student at the Tallinn University of Technology, and an EIC board member. "But the government isn't doing enough to stop Acta."
Viik says that among politicians of all stripes there has always been "a silent consensus" about the importance of the internet. For many years, Estonians could expect whomever they elected to have the best interests of the internet at heart.Viik says that among politicians of all stripes there has always been "a silent consensus" about the importance of the internet. For many years, Estonians could expect whomever they elected to have the best interests of the internet at heart.
But Irve thinks the public can no longer be so complacent. "People think a government is like a smart missile: the thing practically flies itself," he argued.But Irve thinks the public can no longer be so complacent. "People think a government is like a smart missile: the thing practically flies itself," he argued.
"But today it's more like a bomb that we have to guide. We have to guide the government, and that's what the internet society has woken up to.""But today it's more like a bomb that we have to guide. We have to guide the government, and that's what the internet society has woken up to."
• Explore the seven-day special series on the Battle for the internet• Explore the seven-day special series on the Battle for the internet
• This article was amended on 17 April 2012 to clarify details of the registration and selling of domain names.• This article was amended on 17 April 2012 to clarify details of the registration and selling of domain names.
Comments
162 comments, displaying first
15 April 2012 7:22PM
Lovely Estonia, what about phashists in Estonia, and depriving of the Russians voting rights? - or old Guardian not interested in these topics, ye, sure - allowed quot for Easter European discussion been taken buy totally silly article about censorship in Russia - gosh - you do live in the 80s
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15 April 2012 7:33PM
What a great article this is. I wonder how many in Britain really understand the benefits of embracing the open web in the same way that little Estonia has clearly done. It has transformed their social and economic aspirations. ID cards that give you the ability to see what is known about you by Government, pervasive internet banking, free WiFi throughout the country are great achievements.
I would like to have seen more mention and information about the web community and what Estonia has developed or is developing in current tech....eg, software, apps, etc. Is there a smaller version of Silcon Valley, Silicon Alley, Silicon Roundabout being developed in Estonia? I am sure the co-founder of Skype will have helped finance a vibrant domestic tech community.
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15 April 2012 7:41PM
It would be interesting to compare the vibrancy of the tech community in tiny Estonia with equally tiny Israel, which outside of the US is a clear leader in nurturing successful entrepreneurial companies. Sixty Israeli companies have listed on the NASDAQ market. Three of the largest are CheckPoint Software, Teva Pharma and Perrigo. Many of the world's largest tech companies have a well developed presence in Israel including Google, Microsoft, Apple and Intel. How openly have these companies embraced the efforts of Estonia?
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15 April 2012 8:23PM
Case in point: the ID card. "It's private companies who developed and manage the service – and who can now export their new-found competencies to other countries."
And once the people are worth more than a can of beans, those private companies will SELL the information.
You'll see.
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15 April 2012 9:11PM
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15 April 2012 11:40PM
On my website, Estonia ranks eighth out of 107 countries that have visited the site. They are ahead of both their larger neighbours Finland and Sweden and much larger countries like India and China.
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15 April 2012 11:45PM
PS I am glad that the Guardian is running this series. Does everything on it have an internet theme, explaining why the accompanying articles in the "native language" have simply been run through Google Translation (and so reads a bit like a script from "Allo Allo")?
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15 April 2012 11:58PM
About voting rights in Estonia: voting at the general elections is limited to citizens of the country; at the municipal elections, non-citizen permanent residents can vote too. Not exactly "depriving" anyone by international standards.
As for the "phashists" you refer to, Estonia's only political party that fits such an agenda, the Iseseisvuspartei, got just 0,4 % of the votes at the 2011 general election. Do compare that number to what the BNP gets in the UK or similar far-right parties get in other Western European countries, before resorting to name-calling.
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16 April 2012 12:12AM
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16 April 2012 12:26AM
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16 April 2012 12:48AM
The Baltics are great! Like Scandinavia, for a fraction of the cost.
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16 April 2012 1:29AM
Would someone familiar with the Baltic state answer a question for me, please?
Are Estonia and Finland closely related?
Their national anthems sound very much alike to me.
So do their languages (I speak neither of them, but fiddling with Google Translate, they don't seem to be terribly different.)
Were they part of the same nation (other than the Russia Empire) at one time?
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16 April 2012 1:44AM
ABOCbKA
well done for your comments on this and other articles. it's reassuring to hear somebody out there with a grasp on reality. All too often the narrative of history is written by the winners.....
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16 April 2012 1:53AM
AVoiceFromAmerica
Estonian is part of the Uralic language group (Finnish and Hungarian too I believe). There are many similar words but the meaning of the words can be very different. This explains why Finns often laugh when hearing Estonian (and vice versa) as it can sound like complete nonsense!
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16 April 2012 2:46AM
Closely related lingustically, yes. As AVoiceFromAmerica commented, same root language. National anthems are nearly the same melody with different words, as a result of the huge popularity of the tune in both countries.
Both use similar grammar rules and both are considered to be among the most difficult languages to learn in the world. However, like said again, a lot of words are similar or the same, yet can mean wildly different things.
The Russian Empire? If you mean the Soviet Union, yes, technically, during the Crusades and the Holy Roman Empire - the Swedish kingdom owned it before the Russian Empire, and that was 1700-something. Estonia declared its independence in 1918, 24th of February and Finland a year before that - both breaking away from the Russians. As was the case with Estonia, before the Russian Empire, Finland was also under Swedish rule. One of the major differences is however, that the Second World War put an end to Estonian independence with the Molotov-Rippendrop pact, whereas Finns managed to fight off the Russians (not that Estonians didn't try) and if my recollection is correct, lost only Karjala (an area in Eastern Finland).
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16 April 2012 2:54AM
I presume you're currently living in the UK. Have you read the Amnesty report on UK? It's fascinating that such a hypocritical statement could come from a resident about whose country the report is about torture, secret judicial hearings, violence against women, and several "accidental" or serious injury causing death cases. Sure, I guess, it could be considered discrimination, yet I'd like you to point out a country for me, where you can hold public office without being able to speak the national language.
Or would you like to see the Amnesty report on the Russian Federation? Or would you like me to point out some great articles on FSB financing or attempting to finance political parties, MPs or other "youth organisations" that Russians are known for? You might call the Estonians' unwillingness to invite easy influence into the country relatively well-founded considering our history. While I consider it to be slightly narrowminded, you can hardly blame the nation.
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16 April 2012 3:30AM
Many thanks to both kanchelskis and pitsa for their responses.
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16 April 2012 3:47AM
It's hilarious the Russian contingent is criticizing Estonia. To get citizenship, the language requirement is about 1500 words of Estonian. That's a semester or two worth or studying, at most.
When you consider how the Russians treat their minorities, the Russians in Estonia are basically living in paradise. In Estonia, minorities get "deprived of voting rights" - which really aren't that hard to get. A little bit of effort. In Russia, minorities get deprived of their lives.
Would your rather be a Chechen in Russia or a Russian in Estonia? It's not even close. I don't recall the Estonians wholesale slaughtering minorities or razing cities to the ground as per Grozny. Or how are Chechens treated in Moscow? If you want to talk about discrimination, that's about as ugly as it gets.
Speaking of slaughtering and ethnic genocide, that was the Russian modus operandi for their 40+ year occupation of Estonia. It's laughable that the Russians cry "mistreatment" when they massively oppressed the Estonian people - trying to wipe out the language, the culture, the country itself. Then there was the massive deportations, the massacring of thousands of Estonians during WWII and the post war-years, the torpedoing of boats filled with refugees trying to flee the incoming invasions. All high-ranking government ranking posts were filled by ethnic Russians, the Estonians got the scraps.
Russia has an incredible amount to apologize for. Maybe that's why Russians are so vociferous in attacking Estonia for what barely constitutes discrimination. Rather than face up to their own guilt they try to project it on others. They are pretty much the experts on discrimination, oppression, and ethnic cleansing.
Then there's the criminal/government element in Russia, the fascist youth groups that beat up minorities all over Russia. Can you imagine the outrage if Estonian youths did that to Russians in Estonia? Yet these same people critical of Estonia probably say nothing about the horrors that their own country is inflicting on minorities, gays, political dissidents, and more.
You can look at the Amnesty violations in Estonia but it's like a grain of sand compared to the mountain of horror, violence, and human rights violations that take place in Russia.
Why don't the ethnic Russians move back to Russia? Because they know that being Russian in Estonia is still a much better quality of life than being a Russian in Russia. Crazy, no? So how bad again is Estonian discrimination? Really not too bad.
Congratulations to Estonia for looking towards the future and bracing it. Russia - should it ever grow up and make amends for the horrors it committed may want to do the same. (Stalin is still a national hero. Stalin!?!? Really?!?!? He killed 20 million+ Russians and he's a hero? Germans recognize that revering Hitler is repulsive. Yet Russians still admire Stalin. Sick.) First though, Russia has to come to grips with its past. The Germans become introspective and apologized for their actions. Now Germany is one of the world's most responsible countries. Russia - where is your atonement? Your soul-searching? The recognition that what you did was wrong? When do you admit that your country was the epitome of evil for decades? Before Russia can move forward they have to come to terms with their past.
Estonia isn't perfect. But it can serve as a model to Russia as to how a civilized country functions. Russia, look inwards first. You have a lot to clean up.
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16 April 2012 4:23AM
As Finland proved, small economies with little or no natural resources can grow. The secret is good, top-down state planning. The internet infrastructure is obviously vital, but so is the briefly-mentioned education program. Finland, & apparently Estonia, have put money in education development, & reaped the long-term benefits. So did India before them.
If only numbskull UK govs would digest this evidence. There is no future for a small island populated with ignorant urban peasants. The old, primitive, iron-bashing industries they were bred for have gone. The future is universally-available higher education. It's that, or becoming a moldering museum of obsolete Victorian industry, that Asian tourists come to wonder & laugh at. OGT
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16 April 2012 4:48AM
Oh me, oh my, the mighty Russian propaganda machine has arrived.
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16 April 2012 6:13AM
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16 April 2012 6:16AM
This is a hilarious post. As if visiting your website has any relevance to how the internet is used in a given country! Perhaps the Swedes, Finns and Chinese are just more discerning?
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16 April 2012 7:59AM
its crazy how the uk govt is hacking n chopping funding for education and health services, when infact these are the services that will , in the long-term help the country. internet banking here is so crap it makes me weep! mobile commerce or m-commerce is here to stay and UK had better wake up to the reality.
this is such a lovely and relevant article.
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16 April 2012 8:39AM
1) Absolutely agree. However, I think you equally should demand from the Guardian to remove the nowhere-to-run-from-every-time-a-whiff-of-Russia's-on-a-page ad for Luke Harding's book. It always 'looks' at you from the right even if blini&borsch is the main topic :)
2) That sounds way too pompous for a valid counter-argument.
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16 April 2012 8:43AM
I didn't realise that the right wing Tory supporting Telegraph was part of Russian propaganda machine!
I guess, there's nothing like ideological blindness induced by Murdoch media and the Daily Mail. Seek immediate help.
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16 April 2012 8:50AM
My hovercraft is full of eels
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16 April 2012 8:52AM
One of the IT services that Estonia provides to friendly governments is internal monitoring services to ex Soviet countries such as Georgia and others. This is done under the disguise of protection against Russia, but their current governments turns the process into a KGB style monitoring system of their own citizens. This is done with the full knowledge and assistance of the Estonian Government and of course NATO. The apple does not fall far from the tree.
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16 April 2012 8:54AM
Why would Russians get the ability to vote in Estonia?
To vote in Estonia you need to have citizenship and be of age. That's all you need.
If they can't be bothered to obtain citizenship and learn the language.
Then there is no one else to blame but themselves.
Oh, and be of age.
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16 April 2012 9:10AM
Fascinating, eduational - good start to the week!
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16 April 2012 9:14AM
Amnesty reports on UK and Russia are irrelevant here, as we are talking about how Estonia treats its linguistic minorities - it is not a pissing competition of who is worst.
Secondly, I sincerely hope it was not intentional, your statement "yet I'd like you to point out a country for me, where you can hold public office without being able to speak the national language." is deeply disingenuous. Russian was one of the languages in the Baltic region for centuries, as Russians lived there alongside Latvians and Estonians - long before the Soviet Union.
If Estonia was a grown-up democracy and not a small-minded nationalist, teenager full of bitter hatered, Estonia could adopt Russian as a second language.
Finns have no lost love for their Swedish neighbours. As you said Finland was part of the Swedish Kingdom for centuries, yet Swedish is taught at schools in Finland and even main Finnish cities kept Swedish names, like Åbo and Helsingfors, alongside their Finnish equivalent.
There are other adult democracies in Europe where citizens are not punished for speaking one but not another language - two languages in Belguim, two or three in Monaco, two in Luxembourg, four in Switzerland... you get the picture.
One other thing these countries share, they are all small states bordering one or more countries with historically linguistically mixed population. Having two or more languages with a national status is only logical thing to do, unless they would want to punish or expel from their countries those who speak a different language.
This is why it is very important to know how Estonia treats its own inguistic minorities. And Amnesty International makes it very clear.
"Members of the Russian-speaking minority faced discrimination. Non-Estonian speakers, mainly from the Russian-speaking minority, were denied employment due to official language requirements for various professions in the private sector and almost all professions in the public sector. Most did not have access to affordable language training that would enable them to qualify for employment."
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16 April 2012 9:22AM
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16 April 2012 9:24AM
Please see my post that addresses your 'bollox' comment at
ABOCbKA
16 April 2012 9:14AM
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16 April 2012 9:26AM
I, for one, would love to see Britain emulating Estonia in it's approach to free wifi everywhere. Think of the benefits of having free wifi in public parks, open squares, on the train or the bus, and in hospital wards. Free wifi is growing in this country, but it brings with it frustrations. Take the roll out of free wifi in train stations.
Now, I travel by train a lot, and there are a growing number of train stations which now have free wifi provided by The Cloud. What this means in practice is, that if I get off my train and get my phone out to do something quickly, it is impossible. My phone remembers The Cloud connections and automatically connects to it, but I cannot do anything until I have logged on. This is really frustrating if I am on the move and just need a quick bit of information. It effectively renders my phone inoperable. And, even after I've logged on, you only get 15 minutes free wifi, so, if later in the day I return to the same station, my free allocation will have expired, and I will only be able to use my phone there if I pay for access or go through the process of making the phone "forget" the network and connect to 3G data instead.
If free wifi is to be truly useful, it needs to be what it says - actually free. And, it needs to be usable via an automatic log on process, otherwise it just renders the phone useless.
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16 April 2012 9:28AM
acotaco
16 April 2012 3:47AM
It's hilarious the Russian contingent is criticizing Estonia.
Why don't the ethnic Russians move back to Russia?
You mean like BNP and EDL want everyone who does not look English to be sent 'home'? Charming!
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16 April 2012 9:30AM
All Estonian citizens of russian descent have the vote there grow up. yes there are language l;aws that are not quite what one would want but in comparison to Ruissia, the Russian citizens in Estonia are richer and freer and they know it.
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16 April 2012 9:33AM
Totally agree John, and we need free wifi in hospitals too, it would make recovery much quicker and do patients more good than drugs if they could easily keep in touch with friends and family. In order for this to happen the underlying infrastructure needs a serious upgrade, because it can't cope at the moment. The UK is so far behind Estonia its a scandal.
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16 April 2012 9:33AM
There is a joke that gets todl differently in Estonia, Finland and Hungary. When the Uralic group came to Europe, the smart ones either went north to Finland and Estonia, or south to Hungary.
It is difficult to prove but it is generally considfered that the three are originally from one people and that geography, time and politics gave them three separate identities, with Finland and Estonia being much closer.
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16 April 2012 9:37AM
Interesting article. The stuff about the ID card linking to data transparency most particularly. I wonder how easy it is to hack the certificate authority though, as happened in the netherlands and belgium recently?
Because if that happens, the whole infrastructure is vulnerable.
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16 April 2012 9:58AM
Good article, thanks. It nicely points out how slippery this issue is in relation to individual and state relationships, and how the internet and wireless technologies may help enable countries with currently non-existent or minimal infrastructure.
That said, it has been lost in the commentary - why is it that no one in Britain can discuss the Baltic States (and small countries generally) except as black and white child-like fables on which to comment on their own concerns about various 'issues'? These are real countries, with real people, stop patronising them.
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16 April 2012 10:13AM
caress
16 April 2012 9:58AM
These are real countries, with real people, stop patronising them.
Absolutely agree with what you are saying elsewhere in your post but for the last line. DO you think that respectable people like Efraim Zuroff are patronising Estonia and the Balts when they are drawing our attention to the threat of Baltic ultra-nationalism?
Maybe when the issues of rising nationalism, mistreatment of ethnic Russians and Baltic's role in the Holocaust would be discussed in the UK press more openly, we can move on from black and white statements on the matter.
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16 April 2012 10:21AM
There are other adult democracies in Europe where citizens are not punished for speaking one but not another language - two languages in Belguim,
Quoting Belgium as an example of how things should be done languagewise is quite remarkable. In fact, Belgium might serve as a perfect example why a common language spoken by all citizens is a basic ingredient for a functioning community, which otherwise will simply fell apart. Switzerland only works as a state because the majority of the german speaking swiss also manage to get along in French (whereas most French swiss refuse to learn German). If the Estonians of Russian origin have not managed to learn Estonian in the last 20 years, and consequently can not hold public office, they have nobody to blame than themselves.
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16 April 2012 10:28AM
Hmm, I think estonians know russians better than themselves... :D I give You and example.
Ok, fair enough there are many russians who are compleatly different than YOU (educated, compassionate and not russian nationalist), I know some. And who are well educated and speak estonian language as well. But the realistic situation is, that non of those, who dont have citizenship and are owners of "grey passport" speaks estonian and maybe 1/5 of the minority population speaks estonian. Most of estonians actually speak russian, thanks to the soviet russia ocupation and oppression of the russian language and ways that was put on all schools for half a century!
If there would ever be a case for two language in Estonia, then what do you think who would have to speak russian with those russians? :D
No way in million years, will those non-citizen russians or most of the minority russian citizens ever learn to speak estonian. And once again the estonians are the ones who are forced to communicate by russian in their own country!
Enough of the offtopic.
About other great things that have been developed by developers in Estonia.
JRebel is one of the things that has went wiral in the World and has been developed inside the well known estonia web development firm "Webmedia". The program allows to see programming errors without starting the code and the "forced" code stops are avoided. Estimated numbers show that it saves developer 5 weeks of worktime in a year!
Another thing is "Fits Me", which is a program that online retailers can use in their websites, so buyers can get clothes that fit for them 100% . http://fits.me/content/about-us
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16 April 2012 10:33AM
No the point is you can't dicuss anything about Estonia without mentioning your concerns, there is no reality – only your concerns, they are not real, just cyphers. Maybe you behave like this when some one discusses a French car, an Italian company, a Russian film etc. But I doubt it. Small countries, there for commentary - they should just know their place and not expect to be taken seriously.
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16 April 2012 10:34AM
As I said, an interesting article about interesting things. Could we discuss that, just as we can manage to discuss something French without bringing up – well, whatever.
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16 April 2012 10:40AM
When Lithuania became independent it granted citizenship to its minorities, including the Russian-speaking minority. Estonia could have passed similar laws, or could have given Russian the status of an official minority language (an option, given that one third of the people in the country spoke Russian). It chose not to, and that meant that the part of the Russian-speaking minority who did not pass tests to aquire citizenship were deprived of many rights. Perhaps that wasn't so bad, if such people were KGB officers or party bosses. But no, many of them were elderly people, who had come to Estonia in the 1950s and 1960s.
Estonia chose to do this, contrary to guidelines on minorities set out by supranational entities (the EU for one), and by those who work on shaping and enforcing human rights and the rights of minorities. It also, in my opinion, alienated a sizable number of those living on its territory, and gave the Russian government an opportunity, when criticised about rights in Russia, to do nothing but say "well look at the situation in Estonia".
This subject does not get much coverage in the Western Press. The period in the 1990s when political conservatives sought an ethnic state in Estonia is very interesting, for instance the referendum on independence in 1991 saw 1144309 people entitled to vote. The vote on the constitution in 1992, after the Citizenship Act, saw the number of eligible voters slip to 689319, with 454990 adults having been disenfranchised. I won't say here what I think this means for freedom and democracy generally, but it is illustrative of the situation in Estonia and Latvia.
And it did not have to be that way.
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16 April 2012 10:40AM
It's not a counter-argument, just a statement of fact.
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16 April 2012 10:46AM
Laubwald, how often do you visit Belguim to make such judgements? Reading papers ain't enough, believe me.
As per Switzerland, you have perfectly pointed to the solution for Estonia. You have said:
"Switzerland only works as a state because the majority of the german speaking swiss also manage to get along in French (whereas most French swiss refuse to learn German)"
So why not Estonians, who are in the majority, respect Russian speakers as German speakers in Switzerland respect their French-speaking folks? Is it not because Estonians are full of petty hatred and suffer from a chip on a shoulder complex?
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16 April 2012 10:49AM
Funny, how inability of most Anglo-Saxon to read Russian never precluded them from taking part on Russian affairs.
Arrogance?
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16 April 2012 10:50AM
ABOCbKA
16 April 2012 10:49AM
Response to dirkadirka, 16 April 2012 10:40AM
Funny, how inability of most Anglo-Saxon to read Russian never precluded them from taking part in discussions on Russian affairs.
Arrogance?
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16 April 2012 10:54AM
Thank you, Jeremn, for these facts. No doubt you'll get your share of mud for attacking 'defenceless' Balts very soon.
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The European country where Skype was born made a conscious decision to embrace the web after shaking off Soviet shackles
Eesti keel | Estonian language version
In 1995, four years after Estonia broke free from the USSR, Toomas Hendrik Ilves read a "very Luddite" book by Jeremy Rifkin called The End of Work. "It argued that with greater computerisation there would be fewer jobs," remembered Ilves, then a senior diplomat, now the country's president, "which from his point of view was terrible."
Ilves and many of his colleagues saw it differently. In a tiny (population: 1.4 million) and newly independent country like Estonia, politicians realised computers could help quickly compensate for both a minuscule workforce and a chronic lack of physical infrastructure.
Seventeen years on, the internet has done more than just help. It is now tightly entwined with Estonia's identity. "For other countries, the internet is just another service, like tap water, or clean streets," said Linnar Viik, a lecturer at the Estonian IT College, a government adviser and a man almost synonymous in Estonia with the rise of the web.
"But for young Estonians, the internet is a manifestation of something more than a service – it's a symbol of democracy and freedom."
To see why, you just have to go outside. Free Wi-Fi is everywhere, and has been for a decade.
Viik says you could walk 100 miles – from the pastel-coloured turrets here in medieval Tallinn to the university spires of Tartu – and never lose internet connection.
"We realised that if the government was going to use the internet, the internet had to be available to everybody," Viik said. "So we built a huge network of public internet access points for people who couldn't afford them at home."
The country took a similar approach to education. By 1997, thanks to a campaign led in part by Ilves, a staggering 97% of Estonian schools already had internet. Now 42 Estonian services are now managed mainly through the internet. Last year, 94% of tax returns were made online, usually within five minutes. You can vote on your laptop (at the last election, Ilves did it from Macedonia) and sign legal documents on a smartphone. Cabinet meetings have been paperless since 2000.
Doctors only issue prescriptions electronically, while in the main cities you can pay by text for bus tickets, parking, and – in some cases – a pint of beer. Not bad for country where, two decades ago, half the population had no phone line.
Central to the Estonian project is the ID card, introduced in 2002. Nine in 10 Estonians have one, and – by slotting it into their computer – citizens can use their card to vote online, transfer money and access all the information the state has on them.
"There's nothing on the ID card itself, because that could be dangerous if you lost it," says Katrin Pärgmäe, who is in charge of public awareness at RIA, the country's internet authority.
"It only gives you access to the database if you type in the right code."
You can also present the card at the pharmacy to pick up a prescription. On public transport, it doubles as a ticket.
Many people also have special ID chips on their mobile sim cards that allow them to pay people by text.
To a British audience, the ID card will have a whiff of Big Brother. But many Estonians argue the opposite: that it allows them to keep tabs on the state, rather than the other way round.
"You'd think, given our history, we'd have a problem with it," said Ilves, in an oblique reference to the days when the KGB had an office down a cobbled street in central Tallinn.
"But I feel much more secure with a digital ID. If anyone goes into my files, they're flagged. Whereas if my files – which would exist anyway – were made of paper, no one would know who was looking at them."
Every Estonian can see who has visited their data, and they can challenge any suspicious behaviour. In one famous case, a policewoman was caught accessing information about her boyfriend.
During a recent election campaign, a candidate was swiftly punished for accessing personal information about would-be constituents. "I don't know what the idiot was thinking," said Viik. "You can't hide."
To an outsider, it is not immediately clear why Estonia took to the internet so much faster than its Baltic cousins, Latvia and Lithuania. All three won independence at the same time. All three needed quick ways of revamping their ailing infrastructure. But to Estonians, the reason is simple. Estonia has a sizeable Russian-speaking minority, but the country's ethnic Estonian majority feel Nordic, rather than Slavic or eastern European. In the early 90s, this meant they looked to tech-happy Scandinavia for both inspiration and investment.
Those Finnish and Swedish businesses that did invest expected their Estonian counterparts to communicate by email rather than fax.
And pretty soon it was the newcomers who were leading the way.
"I remember when one of our banks was bought by a Swedish one, they came over and said: 'And now we're going to teach you how to do computer banking'," recalled Ilves. "And we said, 'well, you might want to look at what we're actually doing with computer banking ourselves.'" At the last count, 99% of Estonian bank transfers were online.
It helped that many politicians in the early 90s were unusually quick to "get" the internet. "The people in power after the collapse of the Soviet Union were really young," said Jaan Tallinn, the co-founder of Skype, the Estonian internet telephone company, and a co-developer of file-sharing website Kazaa. "They knew what was going on."
Mart Laar was 32 when he became prime minister in 1992. Ilves is slightly older, but had learned to code as a child, growing up in exile in the US.
"I thought if I can do it, anyone can," he said in his strong New Jersey accent. "I was completely at ease with computers."
The internet was also seen as a buffer to Russia.
"We were afraid that Russian armies might take down the TV tower, the central radio station, or newspaper press," said Viik.
"Three addresses shut down, and we would have been disconnected from the rest of the world.
"But the internet would still work – and so we realised that this would be a great way of keeping in touch with the world in case of emergency."
Ironically, when an attack did finally come, it came via the internet – and promptly disconnected Estonia from the rest of the world.
In 2007, the government infuriated its Russian-speaking minority by moving a Soviet war memorial from central Tallinn to a cemetery on the city's outskirts. Violence flared on the streets, and later reached the internet. The first cyberattack was simplistic, and easily dealt with: thousands of unknown individuals bombarding government, media and banking websites with "denial of service" (DoS) attacks.
"It was like an internet riot," said Hillar Aarelaid, who led Estonia's response, at the time.
But what started as an emotional backlash soon became a far larger, longer and better co-ordinated assault on Estonia's very being.
It lasted three weeks and could only be contained by restricting internet traffic in and out of the country. It was, in effect, a cybersiege.
"This is how a lot of myths were created," remembered Pärgmäe. "Those outside the country couldn't access Estonian websites, but they didn't realise that people inside still could."
Rumours circulated about the collapse of the Estonian online banking system, and how people were struggling to buy groceries. "But actually the longest downtime for a bank's website was just one and a half hours."
The debacle had two positive effects. First: Nato founded a cyberwarfare thinktank in Estonia, to learn from the experience. Second: the government set up the Cyber Defence League, a network of 100 volunteers from the cybersector who, among other roles, will form – a kind of territorial army during future strife.
"Traditionally in western countries," said Ilves, "you've had a weekend-warrior thing where volunteers run off into the woods and do target practice. In Estonia, we have a unit of IT people from banks, software companies who in their spare time for one day a week work on cyber issues."
This kind of collaboration between private and public sectors was also central to Estonian innovation in the 90s, Viik claims.
"The government started several IT programmes as a catalyst," he said. "But only in a few was it the main sponsor. From the early days, government philosophy was not to hire programmers, but to use the services of private companies, which in turn increased the competitiveness of the Estonian IT sector."
Case in point: the ID card. "It's private companies who developed and manage the service – and who can now export their new-found competencies to other countries."
Viik argues that this benefits both the private sector and the state, who otherwise would not have the resources for ID card technology.
But some think the overlap between occasionally threatens Estonia's open internet.
For many years, each Estonian citizen had the right to a free domain name. As in the UK, they could not register top-level domain names – but they could bag a ".pri.ee" site, similar to a ".co.uk" site in Britain. In 2010, that changed: the government outsourced the responsibility of allocating domain names to private registrars. The pri.ee domains were abolished, and individuals were instead given the right to top-level ".ee" websites. The only catch was a £15 price-tag – one of the highest rates in Europe.
Many academics and high-profile techies were outraged, and some founded a pressure group – the Estonian Internet Community (EIC) – that campaigns to give ordinary citizens more of a say in how Estonia's internet is run. After public outcry, a new set of free domain-names - era.ee - were introduced.
More generally, it is feared that the same politicians who had such enlightened attitudes to the internet in the 90s may be starting to lose their progressive edge.
"They're still in power," said Jaan Tallinn, "but I'm not sure they still understand what's going on. Technology keeps progressing. Young people follow the curve. But as they get older they get inertia, and they start deviating from that curve."
Ilves himself is fairly critical of parts of Acta, the hugely controversial international agreement that opponents fear will curtail the rights of individual internet users.
But there is a perception that other politicians could be doing more to oppose its introduction.
"It's difficult because it's actually an EU agreement," admitted Jaagup Irve, a PhD student at the Tallinn University of Technology, and an EIC board member. "But the government isn't doing enough to stop Acta."
Viik says that among politicians of all stripes there has always been "a silent consensus" about the importance of the internet. For many years, Estonians could expect whomever they elected to have the best interests of the internet at heart.
But Irve thinks the public can no longer be so complacent. "People think a government is like a smart missile: the thing practically flies itself," he argued.
"But today it's more like a bomb that we have to guide. We have to guide the government, and that's what the internet society has woken up to."
• Explore the seven-day special series on the Battle for the internet
• This article was amended on 17 April 2012 to clarify details of the registration and selling of domain names.