During 2008, 400 new public internet access points RIAPs will be opened to Lithuanian people in rural areas. Development of Rural Internet Access Points project financed by Lithuanian government and EU Structural funds is implemented by the Ministry of Interior. Consortium partners- association Window to the Future, consulting company S4ID and Kaunas Technological University – provide Project publicity and technical administration services After implementation of this project Lithuania will have a network of 875 active rural internet access points across the country.

On January 18th, 2008 in the frame of the above mentioned project an international conference Public Internet Access Points – for the Development of the Information Society in Lithuania was organized gathering all participants of the project and foreign representatives of similar initiatives. The event was attended by almost 400 participants. Predominantly, they included RIAPs’ founders, RIAPs’ curators, local government officers, community leaders, representatives of ministries involved in information society development, private companies which participle as social partners and foreign guests representing similar initiatives in Europe – Hungary, Bulgaria and Spain. The participation of foreign speakers was kindly sponsored by Telecetre.org

The meeting mainly endeavored to share information about the project results, provide e-Inclusion opportunities for local civil society and collect information about organizations ready to deal with these tasks. It was as well aimed to carry on a discussion in order to enhance connections among relevant European organizations, and discover new cooperation possibilities. The welcome speech was made by the Minister of the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Lithuania.

The invited foreign speakers from Bulgaria, Spain and Hungary emphasized the importance of telecentres and its services to the local communities in their countries. At the same time they presented different models of telecentres development .

One of the exciting moments of the conference was Mr. Akhtar Badshah, Senior Director of Microsoft Community Affairs, speech during which he presented association Window to the Future with the grant from Unlimited potential program. 

On January 21, a seminar was organized to share experiences and to look for new ways of cooperation with similar initiatives in different countries in Europe. The participants from Lithuania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Spain had the possibility to share their experiences, discuss the common issues and establish intense communication with other experts working in the field, introduced organizations in EU which unite efforts of established telecentres or Public Internet Access Points or icentres. . Finally, an emerging new organization which could make influence on the EU Commisssion decisions re. development of the information society – Telecentre Europe network was presented.