Digital-Estonia: how a small country managed to become a digital state

Somewhere in Estonia, in a small village on the shores of the Baltic Sea, one unusual person lives. His name is Taavi Kotka, and he is one of the main ideologists of the project called e-Estonia - a government initiative designed to turn the state into a digital society.

Nathan Heller

Four years Kotka led the information department of the government. And during this time he managed to transform the life of citizens. Everything that the state usually does - from legislative activity to taxes - the developers were able to transfer to one platform, uniting the nation. Now anyone can vote or pay a fine for incorrect parking without leaving home.

How it worksM

Users of this system need only enter data about themselves once, so you can forget about filling out papers from a doctor or a bank. The necessary specialist simply opens the necessary information, tied to the individual ID-card with the chip and assembled into one platform.

Also, Piperal boasted that her cat is all vaccinated - this data is also in your personal account. In addition, you choose what data is visible, for example, to doctors: your dentist does not need results from an orthopedic examination.

Information about business and land ownership is considered public, so Piperal uses the system to show the journalist information about one Estonian policy.

Everything is like in the palm of your hand, there are even satellite images of its site by the sea. It is not surprising that these developments are used by the governments of countries where the problem of corruption comes to the fore.