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- 011.32 Peru
-
- By Daniel Pimienta, Union Latina
- <ULAT-DP@frmop11.bitnet>
-
- RCP: THE PERUVIAN NETWORK
-
- December 1, 1991, the first message from JS@RCP.PE was
- broadcasted into several regional email addresses, signifying of
- the Peruvian national network, the Red Cientifica Peruana (RCP).
- Building a research network in Peru was considered a real
- challenge.
-
- Peru is a complex country and several attempts have been made
- since 1985 to start a national network. Some hardly reached the
- take-off point, others did not achieve a significant user base.
- The research world in Peru, with 40,000 potential users, is
- highly dispersed among universities, NGOs linked to research
- activities, and the national government's research centers.
-
- The RCP project combined three main components: an open Peruvian
- Researcher's Group, which sustains and drives the project, and
- two International Agencies, which furnished the appropriate
- support.
-
- Union Latina furnished the project manager and the methodology,
- and, in three successive missions since April, 1991, concentrates
- on solving the political and organizational tasks, as well as
- furnishing a portion of the initial budget for the Peruvian
- Researcher's Group. UNDP offered the technical support,
- hardware, and software for the node as well as the first months
- of the international telecommunication budget.
-
- The network was founded on several principals that stated the
- technical, political, organizational, and financial and technical
- assumptions for the network. These principles included
- continuous and strong end-user involvement from the beginning,
- and an association of users from the different portions of the
- user community. Technically, the principles stated that the
- network would start with UUCP and migrate towards TCP-IP, would
- have a strong central node with PC stations running UUPC and
- would use the X.25 national network.
-
- The network was an immediate success, with 45 research
- institutions involved, representing a total of 25,000 potential
- users. The UUCP node was installed in one week. This smooth
- rollout was the result of several factors, including the fact
- that the project manager was Peruvian and could catalyze Peruvian
- energies and maintain them oriented toward a common National
- objective, as well as the well-coordinated support from the
- international agencies.
-