Proceedings of 8th European Assembly on telework (Telework2001)

134FreelancingFreelancing in traditional creative pr<strong>of</strong>essions such as translators, journalists, artists, researchers,s<strong>of</strong>tware developers and graphic designers have been in practice for many years. With the spread <strong>of</strong>the Internet the idea <strong>of</strong> freelancing became more popular. The number <strong>of</strong> self-employed teleworkersin internet-related jobs (web design, web programming, content development, online research, etc.)is growing along with the demand for such services. Hundreds <strong>of</strong> Hungarian individuals and smallcompanies have entered international marketplaces such as Elance, SmarterWork, Guru.com, etc.to experiment transborder teleworking and to find new clients from all over the world.The first Hungarian freelance marketplace was launched in July 2001 at interwork.hu. This wasfollowed by a vertical marketplace specialized in translations projects, called the Wired OnlineTranslator. Both services have been developed in Hungary and are aimed at helping to match smalland mid-sized outsourced projects with service providers within the country online.Government ActionsMany business entities expect that the state and the government will play a role in the promotion <strong>of</strong>telework in Hungary, for example, through public tenders, tax allowances, etc. which would makeemployers interested in employing more teleworkers.In 1998 a budget <strong>of</strong> 400 million Forints ($1.5m) was targeted at two groups, the disabled andmothers <strong>of</strong> young children based at home. As a result <strong>of</strong> this project only a few new jobs werecreated and most <strong>of</strong> them were not sustainable after the grants were over. The relatively smalluptake can be explained by conditions specified in the project as well as by the fact that generallyentrepreneurs are not seeking to employ people from either target group. In fact, the Governmentoverestimated the role <strong>of</strong> teleworking in job creation.Lessons from the failed project have been learnt and new initiatives are elaborated with a newapproach. It is now clear that telework cannot be an effective weapon in combating unemployment.It is thought however that it can play a role in rearranging regionally unbalanced economicdevelopment, for example in helping in the development <strong>of</strong> the east <strong>of</strong> Hungary. In Hungary, wherethe territorial mobility <strong>of</strong> people is <strong>of</strong> a very low intensity; it is thought that telework may help tochannel labor into the performance <strong>of</strong> work that they would be unable to reach in the traditionalway because <strong>of</strong> the distances. In order to reach such goals, the Government subsidizes the spread<strong>of</strong> telecottages. Over 200 telecottages are operating in Hungarian villages and new ones are to opensoon.The Commissioners’s Office for ICT in Hungary that has recently been founded with the aim <strong>of</strong>accelerating the process to develop the information and communication technologies in Hungaryprepared the “National Strategy for the Information Society” in 2001. As part <strong>of</strong> this projectHungarian businesses were invited to tender on projects related to the development <strong>of</strong> informationsociety. There was a huge response to the invitation to tender. Selection <strong>of</strong> the winners is nowin process, and the implementation <strong>of</strong> winning projects including many related to e-work ande-learning will start in September this year.