17.04.2014

STIKK for the sixth time organized its Assembly for ICT sector companies

On 17 April 2014, in the facilities of Innovation Centre Kosovo, STIKK organized its sixth Assembly meeting.
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr.Bernard Nikaj, congratulated the Association for the work done during these six years and considered STIKK as ”The most accountable Association regarding good governance compared with other associations.” He mentioned that this sector is defined as a priority sector for the government and he emphasized that “even though there have been some progresses for the sector in the fiscal policy, the Ministry will continue its efforts in creating a more promising ambient, saying he would personally advocate these facilities.

The audience was addressed also from the most devoted supporter of the ICT sector in Kosovo, the Norwegian ambassador Mr. Jan Braathu. The ambassador stated “The ICT Industry has achieved a great development and massive growth within these six years. From the beginning in 2008, the association has been the integral part for this development. I dare to say that Kosovo ICT sector is one of the most organized in Kosovo, even in the region- thanks to STIKK”. The Ambassador also emphasized the difficulties that the sector is facing, where he mentioned two of the most important: education and government policies for the overall business environment. He also said that the Norwegian government has been supportive of the ICT sector in Kosovo for years and will continue in this direction, however despite this, it should be understood that the ultimate success will depend solely on the Kosovar stakeholders.

Mr. Ilir Rexha from GIZ also praised the Association for its work and emphasized that there is already a genuine German-Kosovar cooperation established in this sector, and that GIZ will continue to support and promote the sector in foreign markets.

Later Mr.Dardan Vokshi, Vice Chairman of STIKK’s board, presented the work of the board and the international activities of the association. While the Executive Director of STIKK presented the one-year work of the association.

The Assembly continued the work in the afternoon, where modifications were made in the Statute of STIKK and four new board members were elected.

Also the assembly approved the annual report of STIKK, the work plan and the budget for 2014 were presented; new membership packages were presented and approved, and finally, a company that will do the audit for the Association during the next three years was elected.

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11.04.2014

Priminister Hashim Thaci visited STIKK

On 11 April 2014, Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci visited Mr. STIKK and ICK, where the Prime Minister had the opportunity to get more informed about the achievements of STIKK, ICT developments, and learn about concerns and obstacles in the ICT sector. Present at the meeting were STIKK’s board members Mr. Shkumbin Brestovci, Mr. Driton Hapçiu, Mr. Enver Doko, as well as the executive director Ms. Vjolca Çavolli.

During the meeting, the Prime Minister was presented with a document, through which the following points were asked:

– Establishment of the ICT sector as a priority sector within the Kosovo Development Strategy;
– Creation of Innovation and ICT ministry in the next government mandate;
– Removal of taxes on export-oriented companies in the services;
– Reducing VAT on ICT equipment from 16% to 5%;
– Expand the list of ICT equipment exempt from customs duties;
– Increase public funding for innovation and R&D in the ICT sector;
– Supporting entrepreneurship and “StartUps” in the ICT sector;
– Signing of a strategic partnership agreement between the Government and STIKK the purpose of further development of the sector.

Kosovo Prime Minister agreed with the fact that Information and Communication Technology should be a priority sector for development of the country, where Kosovars will have the opportunity to become a state that is based on knowledge-based economy. Also, the Prime Minister agreed to support us in creating the innovation and ICT ministry, increase funding for ICT, support innovation and startups, as well as sign an agreement between the Government and STIKK.

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08.04.2014

Voluntary Blood Donation from ICK | STIKK | Athene

Every Aprill 7 is World Health Day to mark this day ICK, STIKK and Athene organized the blood donation held in ICK facilities.In action for voluntary blood donation 20 donors participated. The donors were from Innovation Centre (CPI), STIKK, Athene Kosovo, CPI incubator teams and other people who are not part of the center. Blood donation action was held in the “Events Area”, where available were 5 beds together with other associated equipment provided by the National Center for Blood.

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31.03.2014

Towards 2020: New Horizons for RTD and Innovation in the Western Balkan Region

Me datën 27-28, Mars, 2014 u mbajt konferenca perfundimtare e projektit WBC-INCO.NET e titulluar Drejt 2020: Horizonte te reja per Hulumtim dhe Zhvillim Teknologik dhe Inovacion ne Regjionin e Ballkanit Perendimor.

The WBC-INCO. Net concluded its final phase with the event entitled “Towards 2020: New Horizons for RTD and Innovation in the Western Balkan Region” which was being organised on 27-28 March 2014, in Vienna, Austria.

STIKK through the ICT- KOSEU enabled the participation of 7 participants from Kosova, composed of representatives from the business community, academia and the government.

This event has brought together over 100 science policymakers, scientists and industry representatives from the Western Balkan Region, SEE, Danube Region but also other EU countries who are interested in cooperation with WB countries.

The participants had the opportunity to hear about the participation in Horizon 2020, participate in select thematic priorities and well as explore the opportunities for WBC countries cooperation with the EU member states within the new Framework. In addition, this conference offered the participants an opportunity to meet with the individual representing the above stated countries.

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31.03.2014

FIA Athens 2014 Brings Together Key European Internet Stakeholders to Reshape the Future Internet Infrastructure for Innovation

“Future Internet Assembly – FIA Athens 2014” Bashkon palët e interesit te internetit evropian për te riformatuar Infrastrukturën e ardhshme te internetit për InovacioninAthina ishte nikoqire e konferencës se përvitshme te Future Internet Assembly
Athens welcomed the annual Future Internet Assembly conference at Megaron Athens International Conference Center on 18-20 March, where more than 400 European Internet scientific and economic actors, researchers, industrialists, SMEs, users, service and content provider representatives attend, delivered new ideas, and shared views, aiming at advancing activities for reshaping the Future Internet. FIA Athens 2014 conference is a collaboration of more than 150 projects, aiming at strengthening European activities on the Future Internet to maintain European competitiveness in the global marketplace. The thematic areas in this year’s event revolved around the formulation of the new Internet technological landscape based on network/cloud integration & virtualization and innovative software, services and cloud technologies that enable application innovation.

FIA Athens 2014 was introduced by the High Profile Plenary on March 18th, comprising keynote speeches by renowned specialists. Following the High Profile Plenary, nine FIA working sessions were organized on the 19th and 20th of March. Furthermore, several pre-FIA workshops took place on the 17th and 18th of March as satellite events. Pre-FIA workshops encouraged the sharing of ideas, information and expected outcomes of EU FP7 projects and concepts. An exhibition was held during the conference, as an integral component of FIA Athens 2014.

The exhibition featured both demonstrations and posters falling under seven thematic areas:

Net Futures, FIRE, Connected Smart Cities, FI-PPP, Cloud Computing, Software and Services, Network Technologies, International Cooperation.

Participation of five representatives from Kosovo: Vjollca Cavolli from STIKK, Zana Tabaku from APPDEC, Driart Elshani from AUK, Labinot Bajraktari and Kreshnik Rrmoku from FECE/UP in this event was supported by the KOSEU project.

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28.03.2014

STIKK for the second time supports the next ALSSUG meeting

On March 22, 2014 in the facilities of ICK, the third ALSSUG meeting was organized. In this event the lecturers had the opportunity to show their experiences from different fields that include Database Administration and Database Development.

The meeting was opened by Dukagjin Maloku- SQL Server MVP/DBA ALSSUG, who talked more about Windows Azure, for the latest updates and what we should know more about SQL Databases for Windows Azure.

The meeting continued with the next lecturer Florim Maxhuni- Programmer at Raifeissen Bank Kosovo with a good experience in C# interactions with databases on SQL Server, continued the presentation for accessing data from .NET, different alternatives and some comparisons of the past and the present.

Lamir Shkurti- Database Developer, presented tools for Performance Tuning, what should be used for a good performance, what we should avoid from bad performances, how we should be care when using the Table Hint and Temp&Variable.

And at the end of the presentation Donika Bajrami, Software Developer and SQL Database trainer continued the presentation with the topic “The importance of backup strategies, backup considering, types of restores”.

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28.03.2014

STIKK Training Academy organizes the upcoming training in IT Fundamentals

STIKK Training Academy starting from 24 to 28 March, 2014 organized 5 day training in IT Fundamentals. This training is dedicated for all ICT students and members of STIKK.

In this training:

– Students develop working knowledge of how computers operate, how to assemble computers, and how to troubleshoot hardware and software issues.
– Hands-on labs and virtual learning tools help students develop critical thinking and complex problem-solving skills.
– The course emphasizes the practical application of skills and procedures needed to install and upgrade hardware and software and troubleshoot systems.
– Interactive assessments provide immediate feedback to support the evaluation of acquired knowledge and skills.

From this training, all of the participants will receive an attendance certificate.

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28.03.2014

The use of social media in municipality – Citizens communication

Internews Kosova in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, organized the roundtable “The use of social media in municipality – Citizens communication” on March 24 at Hotel Peja. STIKK as a panelist has introduced the trends of internet users growth in Kosovo and the impact of activities on these trends STIKK has. Also at this roundtable Mr.Valon Canhasi from STIKK presented how to analyze data from Google Analytics and Facebook Analytics.

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28.03.2014

STIKK participated in AEP workshop

STIKK participated on the following AEP seminar held on 27th of March, 2014, in Tirana, Albania. Academic Exchange for Progress (AEP) facilitates academic exchange and capacity building within the host country, and in the cooperation between partner institutions in Norway, Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo. The main objectives of this program is to increase capacities of the ICT related faculties in the above-mentioned countries, exchange of experience and best practice, and increase regional and international cooperation. In this seminar, STIKK’s executive director Ms. Vjollca Çavolli is moderating the panel session on how to bridge the skills gap, and improve cooperation between companies and universities? Experiences, opportunities and challenges related to cooperation between companies and universities. Participating in this session are Adrian Besimi from SEEU Macedonia, Edmond Hajrizi from UBT Kosovo, Dritan Mezini from AITA Albania, companies from Norway and the Balkans and Darko Asov from Crimson Macedonia.After this session, some students are going to present their experiences from engaging with the AEP program.”

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26.03.2014

STIKK participates in “Week of Woman”

The second day of Women’s Week was held in the premises of ICK, which focused on the topic “Women and Technology”. More than a 100 women from all over Kosovo participated in this event, where there were representatives of political parties, civil societies, businesses, media, academia, and other guests.

During this day, there was a discussion session moderated by: Donika Kada Bujupi – member of Kosovo’s Assembly, while discussions were held by: Uranik Begu from ICK, Vlora Çitaku – Minister for European Integration, Vjollca Çavolli from STIKK, Milena Harito – Minister of Innovation and Public Administration (Albania), Mimoza Hajdarmataj – local coordinator of the women network “Equality in decision-making, Albania”, and Kristina Wilfore from NDI.

In her discussion, Ms. Vjollca Çavolli talked about the role of women in political participation enabled through technology, which touched topics such as: the absence of women in technology, advantages that technology provides for women, the creation of communities in social networks in order to push forward goals, the role of STIKK in promoting and enhancing the capacities of women in information technology etc.

After the discussion session, Valon Canhasi from STIKK gave a lecture on the ways of using social networks, after which, the women learned how to register and use the social network “Twitter”.

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