Estonian Professor Visits Sina Institute, Faculties to Discuss Cooperation

Katrin Nyman-Metcalf, chair of the Law and Technology Department at the Faculty of Law in Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia and consultant at the Estonian e-Governance Academy, visited Sina Institute and Birzeit University Faculty of Law on March 5, 2014 to discuss possibilities for cooperation.

Dr. Metcalf met with Birzeit University President Khalil Hindi, Law and Public Administration Faculty Dean Asem Khalil and Sina Institute for Knowledge Management and Arabic Technologies Director Mustafa Jarrar. Two other meetings were then scheduled with members of the Faculty of Law and Faculty of Information Technology to discuss possible joint research and capacity building projects with Birzeit University. These meetings engaged several topics of interest related to IT laws, including privacy, the human factor in data protection, cyber security, digital transactions, and legal and ethical issues. The visitor also presented the Estonian e-government experience, and discussed several common issues between Estonian and Palestinian e-governance.

The Sina Institute has been the coordinator of several projects aiming to develop Palestinian e-government services. These projects include Zinnar, which will build the Palestinian e-government interoperability framework, and the Palestinian e-Government Academy, which provides capacity building and training services in e-government.