Internet Info 1994 March/Internet Info CD-ROM (Walnut Creek) (March 1994).iso/inet/isoc/isoc_news/issue1-1/n-1-1-020.06a

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N-1-1-020.06  Education
by Steve Ruth, <[e-mail]>


An evolving project in CSFR has made a contribution to improving the
ability of universities, laboratories, and other complex and expensive
improvements in data communications infrastructure.  Funded by the
Mellon Foundation, the project has had a role in making CSFR's first
year as a full-fledged user of international networks successful.
Since last November when the first node was established in Prague,
over two thousand new network users have been registered and monthly
message volume has steadily risen to over a billion characters per
month.  CSFR's monthly EARN volumes are consistently higher than those
of other Eastern European users like Poland and Hungary.  The Mellon
grant offers "Value Added Services" that are aimed at bringing the low
unit costs of academic networks to many more users than would normally
be possible.  Also, these users become much more sophisticated in
network capabilities and are better prepared to take advantages of
better hardware and software as they become available.

Many smaller institutions are particularly helped by this process.
For example, the Palecky University in Olomouts in central CSFR
probably would have had to wait for a year or more--until mid or late
1992--to be able to connect to the networks under normal
circumstances, but through special training and network services they
were connected in January of 1991.  This enabled the rector, Dr. Josef
Jarob, and his faculty to have the ability to be in direct contact
with hundreds of thousands of researchers in nearly sixty countries at
a cost of a few cents (five CSFR crowns) or less per message.  Jarob
immediately took advantage of this opportunity, using the network to
contact various institutions to establish fellowships, scholarships
and major grant arrangements around the world.  The faculty of Palacky
University routinely exchange manuscripts, research findings and other
data with an expanding group of colleagues around the world.  In
addition, one of their major grant proposals, to establish a
university wide local area network, has already been funded and the
equipment and training provided.  Using the network greatly
facilitated the preparation and approval of the grant.

A similar case is that of the Czech Academy of Physics which received
help to revise existing network software to accommodate several
hundred researchers who would normally have had to wait for a year or
more to be connected to the international networks.  They were
connected in the spring of 1991.  About a dozen other diverse value
added projects are already completed or under way.

The administrator of the Mellon grant, Dr. Stephen Ruth, director of
the International Center of Applied Studies in MIS at George Mason
University (RUTH@GMUVAX or INTMIS@GMUVAX), sees the value added
services approach as appropriate for all of Eastern Europe as well as
the former Soviet republics.  "It makes sense to take full advantage
of the networks that already exist by giving every professor and
student in the world a chance to be in contact with others.
Eventually the telecommunications infrastructure will improve, but
these opportunities exist now and we don't have to wait."  Ruth is
particularly impressed with the results in CSFR where the first year's
outcomes have been three times the estimates made before the project
began.  He is now working with organizations in Moravia and Slovakia
to assist in increasing their network use and expects nearly a
thousand new users from that region in the coming year.  The project
also aims to involve the faculties and students in liberal arts and
the humanities, medicine, law and other disciplines that frequently
are among the last to become proficient in informatics technologies.

Ruth and Harry Barnes, former US ambassador to Romania, have recently
received approval and funding to begin a similar project in Romania
where they begin with three major nodes in Bucharest sometime later
this year.  Says Professor Ruth, "We would like to do this in all the
countries of Eastern Europe, the Baltics and of course the former
Russian republics.  By concentrating on the user and not so much on
the hardware, our approach is very low in unit cost and the results in
CSFR speak volumes about who is benefitting."