Once again, Estonia is making Internet news.
That’s right, Estonia, the nation of only 1.2 million people bordering the Baltic Sea between Latvia and Russia.
I say “once again” because Estonia has had an outsized presence in the Internet world, earning it the nickname E-stonia.
First because Skype was developed there, and then because Estonia was the first nation, in 2005, to use Internet voting in a national election. Most government services and information is easily accessible online with an electronic national ID card that 9 of 10 Estonians have.
A couple of weeks ago, Estonia announced a nationwide pilot program to start teaching computer coding to children in the first grade.
And just this Monday, a report called Freedom on the Net 2012 named Estonia the #1 nation in the world for Internet freedom. The United States, by the way, was the #2 country, with Germany, Australia, and Hungry rounding out the top 5.
Iran, Cuba, and China were the lowest ranking nations.
One alarming trend the report noted was that over 40% (20 of 47) of nations had less Internet freedom now than they did at the beginning of 2011.
The country-by-country ratings in the report were based three categories: Obstacles to Access (which includes the general availability of Internet access, as well as government efforts to block applications or technologies) Limits on Content, and Violation of User Rights.