The opening speech given by Emrehan Halıcı, the president of the Organizing Committee of the 2^nd Turkish Informatics Summit:

Mr Prime Minister and ministers of the government; dear guests and friends,

I would like to salute you all at the beginning of my talk.

We have high hopes and expectations in this Summit as we believe we will be able to realize our plans with it. Our Prime Minister has given us the opportunity and the will.

We would like to thank Mr Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Mr Abdüllatif Şener, Mr Hüseyin Çelik and all other ministers and MPs, each of whom has given priority to this summit and great encouragement to us all through the way. Additionally, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Mr Bulent Ecevit, who gathered the 1 st Summit.

We have been thinking, talking and writing for years. Now is the time to see the results.

We are very well aware that the only way to become an Information Society is to take joint action. We may be of differing political opinions, of differing social and economic circumstances; however, we must gather our powers with the best intentions in order to reach our aims.

The Parliament, the government, all political parties, the public sector, universities, NGOs, the private sector and individuals; in short, the whole nation, must collaborate in accomplishing this great aim. It must be understood that the Information Society is a national aim, beyond all political thought. It is a state policy and thus needs to be handled within the scope of an "Informatics Reformation".

In such meetings, we frequently talk about information society, information, science, and informatics. In agricultural societies, the landlords did not want others to own land; likewise, in industrial societies, factory owners did not want others to own similar assets. Now, however, assets need to be shared in order for information technologies to be used to the full. To illustrate, imagine that only you had Internet connection in your country. You would not be able to connect with others and thus you would not be able to benefit from owning this technology.

Therefore, developed nations have made it a priority to make informatics technologies widespread around the world. This may be considered a positive aspect for creating global equal opportunity. The risk is that some countries may be consumers of these technologies thus coming to depend more and more on their producers.

Turkey should recognize this risk, and aim at becoming one of the producers of information and technology.

Land is limited by area. Industry investments by machinery, raw material, and money. Information and knowledge, on the other hand, has no limits. The driving force behind information is intelligence, possessed but not equally appreciated by all people. Its raw material is humans.

We are lucky for the young and intelligent human power that we have. We must understand the importance of this potential, rightly evaluate it and make our country one of the leading countries in the information age. We owe this to our ancestors who founded a long-lasting powerful empire and to Atatürk who founded the Turkish Republic.

Therefore, our biggest investment should be in our human power and education. I would like to remind all of you of the importance of a national consensus on crucial areas such as education, including the YÖK issue of the recent days.

Yes, in an Information Society, you will have information and you will wish for others to have it too. The great philosopher, Mevlana, said centuries ago what technology made us realize only today: "However much you may know, what you say is only as much as what others can understand".

His words mark a need to share and disseminate information and to judge our own knowledge.

This judgement is crucial in a time when there are many people around whose knowledge consist only of memorized information, who does not try to understand the universe and their own selves and, worst of all, who are not aware that they do not possess knowledge.

What is it that we know? And to what end do we use this knowledge?

Science attempts to explain the present and future phenomena in the universe, including human beings. Moral ethics studies ideal behaviour. Together with conscience, it is our protector against the misuse of scientific and technological advances.

Dear Prime Minister and dear guests,

Our aim should be to raise a nation that produces information and technology, and use these for the welfare of human beings and for global peace.

Hoping that the 2^nd Informatics Summit contributes to this aim, I wish the best of success to all participants.