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-
- N-1-3-011.10.2, REDID: Red Dominicana de Intercambio para el
- Desarrollo (Dominican Network for Exchanges Toward Development), by
- Daniel Pimienta*, <pimienta!daniel@redid.org.do>
-
-
- The Dominican Republic shares with Haiti as the second largest
- Caribbean island after Cuba. Having an estimated research network
- population inferior to 1,000 persons, it is known more for its tourism
- rather than for its research activities. Yet, the birth of this small
- network may be of interest beyond its boundaries.
-
- Why so? Because the REDID network gathers a comprehensive set of
- items which may give it some type of model value in other developing
- countries.
-
- The keywords of the model are:
-
- -Focusing on the end-user.
- -Federating both the helping and the participating institutions.
- -Negotiating with Telecommunications Operators.
- -Giving priority to user applications.
- -Transferring technology.
-
- .The creation process managed to make researchers from various
- institutions (Universities, Governmental Research Centers, NGO's and
- International Organizations) share common resources and structures.
-
- .REDID is a user group formed as the result of an open, transparent,
- and participative process, directly conducted by the future end-users.
-
- .REDID receives federated support from various international
- organizations including, Union Latina (REDALC's Office), UNESCO
- (CRESALC), and UNDP (the local Education Department), using a
- methodological framework.
-
- .REDID is making use of a high level PC based interface designed to
- make the user handle network functions similar to other PC
- applications (MULBRI software).
-
- .REDID receives the maximum free support ever obtained from national
- private Telecommunications Operators (i.e., free X.25 access, logical
- partition in a commercial email system, link to the neighbor country,
- BBS, and local Data Bases access organization).
-
- .REDID's traffic flows to the Internet thanks to an agreement with a
- regional neighbor network (Puerto Rico).
-
- .REDID members received user dedicated training. During a one week
- event last July, a group of teachers gathered and managed, together
- with REDID staff, to build the first regional articulated training
- effort oriented toward end-users.
-
- .After the ongoing user installation, applications will be considered
- next in priority. Many agreements are scheduled with others in the
- Caribbean Basin countries, Europe, USA, Canada and Japan and
- International Agencies. A French commercial Data Base provider,
- Telesystemes, offers free Questel access for a renewable 6 months.
-
- .The technical aspects were not considered a high priority, thanks to
- the agreement with the Telephone Company (CODETEL, a GTE subsidiary)
- which offers its data network infrastructure for 18 months. The
- design consists of a centralized UUCP based mailing system with access
- via a national X.25 network and 9600bps leased line to Puerto Rico.
-
- The methodology used to make REDID happen is a by-product of the
- REDALC study. It was first used for the Peruvian network. A paper
- presenting the details of the process ("Research Networks in
- Developing Countries: Not Exactly the Same Story!") is now available.
- Carbon or network copies of the 25 page report can be requested by
- sending an electronic mail message to: daniel!pimienta@redid.org.do.
-
-
- *Asesor Cientifico Union Latina, Santo Domingo, Republica Dominicana
-