We would like to invite you to participate in the 5th edition of the "Cities on Internet" Conference – the largest Polish forum dealing with the Information Society, which will be held on 20th – 22nd of June in Zakopane, Poland. The motto of this jubilee edition of the conference will be: "Information Society as a guarantee of democracy". The conference will be held under the honorary patronage of: DG INFSO of European Commission, the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), the European Local Authorities Telematic Network Initiative (ELANET), the President of Poland, the Parliamentary Commission of Self-government and Regional Politics and the State Committee of Scientific Research and Ministry of Telecommunications.

The "Cities on Internet" Conference, which started as a meeting place of local government representatives interested in technological innovations, is today a platform of exchange of information and experience for representatives of all walks of life interested in the development of the Information Society in Poland and other Centra and Eastern European countries.

Postulates of local government representatives formulated during previous conferences deepened the national discussion, and documents created at the conferences, passed on to the Parliament and Prime Minister, had great influence on official documents, like Parliamentary communication concerning development of the Information Society or in the project of law concerning universal access to public information.

Conference’s organizers would like to invite especially:

• Marshals, Majors from Municipalities, Town’s Presidents, Prefects of Districts, Council Board’s members from Municipalities, Districts and Regions and all council’s members;
• Employees of public administration offices from all levels responsible for promotion, information flow and contacts with citizens;
• Representatives of businesses, which co-operate with local administration and create local services;
• Representatives of non-government organizations supporting public administration;
• Representatives of public administrations from Central and Eastern European countries;
• Guests – experts and representatives of international organizations from European Union and United States.

DG INFSO of European Commission has accepted a honorary patronage under the conference, singling it out as a major event in Central-Eastern European Countries. The Commission is expecting that the 5th Conference will be an important step in the discussion on conclusions, which democratic nations should find in the present state of information and communication technologies development.

The 5th Conference’s programme will include experiences and projects realised in Poland and other countries in the region, as well as interesting proposals from businesses, organisations and project leaders. During the conference the present state of Polish ICT implementations in public administrations and services for citizens will be presented. We will also touch upon such "hot" topics as:

• Law concerning universal access to public information;
• Electronic signature;
• Governmental programme for creating rural telecentres;
• Conditions for creating e-commerce on local level;
• European Commission initiatives, like "smart government" and other IST projects;
• Portals and other self-government web services.

We invite you to view the conference’s web service at:
http://www.miastawinternecie.pl/v_konferencja/index_eng.html

All interested in participating in Cities on Internet Conference are kindly asked to pre-register at:
http://www.miastawinternecie.pl/v_konferencja/uczestnictwo_eng.html

Krzysztof Glomb
Conference Director
Cities on Internet Association