Loreta Krizinauskiene

Age: 51 years old
Position at Telecentre: Managing Director
Years in Service (at current telecentre): 9,5 years
Years in Service (at current position): 9,5 years

Telecentre/Employer Information

Name of Telecentre: Langas i Ateiti / Window to Future
City: Vilnius
Country: Lithuania
Region: Europe
Name of Nominating Individual/Entity: Microsoft Lithuania
Background:

Teacher by her first profession Ms. Loreta Krizinauskiene was invited to join private business initiative association Langas i Ateiti/Window to the Future (LIA) in 2002. She still is working in a position of Managing Director for almost 10 years.

To see the scope of her responsibilities I would like to introduce the organization LIA which is a Society modernization initiative launched by Lithuanian private business companies (telecommunication, banks and IT) in 2002. Its mission is to promote the use of internet in Lithuania encouraging society to use e-services and in this way stimulate the growth of the standard of living, as well as Lithuania’s competitive ability among European and World countries. Main fields of activities – free Public Internet Access and large scale ICT training projects. For successful implementation of society ICT training projects LIA has become the winner of numerous awards in the country and EU.

The results of LIA today are:

1. LIA initiated and started to establish Public Internet Access Points in LT. Today this initiative is joined by other forces (private, state and EU funds), over 1000 PIAP are opened in LT. Internet penetration in 2002 – 11%, at present – over 66%.
2. Till beginning of 2011, 85 000 adults participated in LIA computer literacy trainings funded by private and EU funds. 15 000 participants in the courses online since 2008.
3. The results achieved by the initiative LIA are evaluated on the international level (EC awards).
4. Next to other smaller projects, today LIA is implementing ESF funded project „Online Services for a Lithuanian e-citizen“ which involves at least 16 000 participants from all over the country.

I am convinced the participants of this project will see the benefit of the knowledge and skills obtained and will become active e-government services users. As well, I believe, this attitude of Lithuanian people will encourage the government to implement e-government services more actively than before”, - from the greeting letter of The President of the Republic of Lithuania H.E. Valdas Adamkus to the participants of the conference held on 29th May , 2008 in Vilnius.

Contribution to Digital Literacy and Community Development:

In 9.5 year LIA activities added to the development of the information society and digital literacy of Lithuania. Today Internet penetration in LT is over 66%. Loreta has been involved as supervisor and expert and administrator in all LIA projects. Contribution to digital Literacy of Lithuania:

• 20 000 adults trained in 2003-2004 on Internet Basics. LIA founders financed 9 hours training for adults in 20 municipalities.
• 50 400 adults trained in 2006-2008 (400 people with disabilities). ESF and LIA founders funding of the project “Computer Literacy Basics for a Lithuanian e-citizen”. 20 hour training in 60 municipalities. Over 400 trainers hired. In 2008 for the results achieved LIA acquired EC Digital Literacy    award    (http://www.citizensonline.org.uk/e-inclusionawards_eu/winners)    and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZaWUkcVCts
• 16 000 adults involved in the recent ESF project “Online services for a Lithuanian e-citizen”. 10 000 unemployed, 300 disabled, over 45 % rural citizens.
• 15 000 online participants in the 4 courses: Excel, Power Point, Communications, Safe Internet.

The training course content has been prepared following the computer literacy standard minimal computer literacy qualification program, approved by the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, which corresponds to the last version of the European Computer Driving License (ECDL) program for citizens (e- Citizen)

In 2010 LIA became the winner of Regio Star Awards 2010: (http://multimedia.tipik.eu/projects/90/regio- stars-awards-2010-window-to-the-future).

Loreta is an active member of Telecentre-Europe AISBL ( http://www.telecentre-europe.org/?page_id=2) Every year since 2009 LIA is an active participant of GET ONLINE WEEK which is organized in EU during which    people    are    trained    e-skills    needed    for    their    everyday    life    and    job (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvzShKKqr8E ).

In 2004-2005 Loreta has been invited to join eEurope Advisory Group organized by EC.

LIA awards on the national and EU level:

1. 2003 Project of the Year (by INFOBALT association);
2. 2003 to the Socially Responsible Business (by the Mayor of Vilnius);
3. For Successful Practice (by the President of the Republic of Lithuania);
4. 2004 For the Best ICT Project for Adults (by Information Society Development Committee of the Republic of Lithuania);
5. 2004 Knowledge Society Factory (by Knowledge Society Forum);
6. 2007 For the Best E- Project (by Information Society Development Committee of the Republic of Lithuania);
7. 2007-2009 4 Letters of Thanks for the successful implementation of EU funded project (by the Ministry of Finance);
8. E-inclusion Award Winner 2008 in the category of Digital Literacy (by European Commission);
9. Regio Star 2010 in the category of Regions for Economic Change (by European Commission).

Personal Loreta Krizinauskiene’s awards:

1. 2005 For the Contribution to the Development of the Information Society of Lithuania (by Information Society Development Committee of the Republic of Lithuania);
2. 2006 ECDL Foundation Digital Literacy Award (by ECDL Foundation);
3. 2008 Letter of Appreciation (by Lithuanian Labor Exchange);
4. 2008 Letter of Thanks (by The Society for the Physically Disabled of Lithuania) etc.

On January 19-20, 2011 Loreta Krizinauskiene has been invited by the Prime Minister of Lithuania to join the Lithuanian delegation during UK NORDIC BALTIC SUMMIT in London organized by Prime Minister David Cameron. A month later Mr. José Manuel Barroso presented the award to the Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius for the achievements in the region and LIA computer literacy project was mentioned as one of the most important projects that brought the award to Lithuania.

Leadership, Partnership and Resource Mobilisation:

Loreta’s experience in LIA initiative demonstrates her high motivation for seeking wealth to the people of her native country. Majority of projects are implemented on the national scale and include all municipalities. In the position of Managing director of LIA Loreta uses her previously acquired experience of staff management, allocating duties, planning time, communication skills, good command of English and ability to work well with people. LIA has never had more than 8 employees but pretty large projects with thousands of people involved were implemented.
It was crucially important to include social partners in the projects of LIA. One organization alone cannot make essential changes in the country but together with state and local government and other social partners a lot could be reached. To find a reliable social partner is a job which has been successfully done by Loreta. In 2002 when the first 75 PIAPs were founded by LIA Loreta as a Managing director had to contact practically all local government representatives, library directors and NGO so that to agree on the sustainability of PIAP in their community. In 2002 Internet penetration was only 11% and sometimes it was necessary to convince people that PIAP will be useful to the local community. In 2003 LIA signed partnership agreement between the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Lithuania. This partnership continues till today. It added to the Public Internet Access Points movement in Lithuania and the projects could be implemented on the larger scale.
Loreta was in touch for years with official leaders of the Government as well as local communities and all this communication was successful. New partnership agreements have been signed with Lithuanian Labor Exchange and Ministry of Transportation.
In 2008 Loreta was invited to join Safer Internet LT project management team, Safer Internet LR is a EC funded project run in Lithuania and implemented by the Communications Regulatory Authority of the Republic of Lithuania (RRT) as well as Centre of Information Technologies in Education of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania.
Last year Loreta initiated and LIA team developed a training material – e-course for social educators. The safety online topic is crucially important and the demand for knowledge in this field is pretty big. LIA has been appointed by Safer Internet LT project to provide training to educators implementing the material developed. In 5 months over a 1000 teachers registered for training on safe Internet usage.