Finland: The Unknown Soldier on the IT Front.

The article focuses on the rapid rise of Finland as one of the most networked nations in the world. Finland was the first country where the income from wireless communications exceeded that from land lines. Telephone costs are among the world's lowest and phone services are fully digitized. The number of Internet hosts per capita is the world's highest, as is the per capita volume of Internet use. Finland has evolved from a peripheral European country producing paper and timber into a nation with per capita information technology (IT) production and use ranking among the highest in the world. Finnish educational system has actively promoted IT skills. By 1999 all Finnish schools will have the Internet connections. The prominent features of Finnish World War II military organization were organic forms, improvisation, individual reliability and responsibility, and fast reaction. Many of these features are still visible in Finnish high-tech firms.