| UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER |
Markus Schlegel
FOSTERING BRAIN DRAIN
Data-communications in the Developing World with special regard to the
situation on the African continent
I. Points of Departure
An extraordinary amount of attention has been focused on the
relevance of data-communication in policy making and science since the
U.S.-administration under President Clinton has made the construction of
the so-called "Data Superhigway" one of its primary aims (1) for the
remaining years of our century. At the very moment wherein developed
countries - it will most likely not for long remain science-fiction to
receive and display remote-sensing pictures from observation satellites
in real time on almost any well equipped personal computer (2), the
danger is ever growing in the developing world to get completely out of
pace - with potentially damaging consequences.
In UNESCO's recently published 1993 World Science Report, Abdus
Salam, founder of the Trieste Centre for Theoretical Physics, describes
reasons and consequences of a scientist's isolation from the ongoing
discussions of an international community within his community:
"Coming back to my native Pakistan in 1951 after taking my PhD in
theoretcal physics at Cambridge and after a research period at the
Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies, I began to teach at the
Lahore Government College. In this position, I found myself despe-
rately isolated. As the only theoretical physicist in the country,
I had no one in my vicinity to talk to, to discuss or share ideas
with. The academic climate was not stimulating at all. After three
years, I realized that staying any longer would not make sense;
(...). I reluctantly decided to return to Cambridge (...)." (3)
Statistics well show that this is not a singular case, and such
migration - processes are commencing in most cases, even beginning at
the student-age. (4)
Once there are technical impediments for the free exchange of
information and ideas, geography becomes so predominant a factor that -
in the present sitiuation - emigration seems to be the only possible
consequence for the individual, resulting in the well known phenomenon
of brain drain on the collective level. (5)
II. Traditional Solutions
With the recognition of the problem, some more traditional answers in
terms of technology have been found in different fields. The creation
of international study- and research centres, the inauguration of the
Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS)in 1985 (6), the support of
scientits from the developing world through the awarding of grants (7),
regional cooperations and research fellowships (8), the envisioned
creation of Centres of Excellence. The aims of these projects are
multiple:
- improvement of the exchange of information along the traditional
lanes by the provision "of books and journals donated by individuals
and institutions from the industrialized world to scientific libraries
in the Third World", (9)
- the creation of more equitable working conditions for scientific
work in developing countries,
- bridging the gap that specialization in the respective disciplines
inevitably entails in geographical terms, (10)
- self-empowerment of the scientific community in Third World nations,
reducing the mostly heavy dependence on aid from developed
countries, (11)
- capacity-emphasizing cooperation, as opposed to result-emphasizing
cooperation schemes. (12)
III. Missing Links
It could be argued that many of these traditional measures might not
successfully accomplish their aim: as grants do not in themselves
warrant better contacts within a discipline on a worldwide scale, better
equipped libraries might facilitate it to follow discussions (far from
being able to intervene), international academic institutions - such as
academies - important as they are, might just prove another leeway in
that they do not foster democratic access to learning and research or
the establishment of a broad scientific infrastructure that earns its
name. In his essay in the UNESCO World Science Report 1993, Thomas
Odhiambo cites Bhagavan:
"To become eventually self-sustaining, the capacity building process
must be rooted firmly in the developing country institutions themsel-
ves, with adequate resources put at their disposal, and with the
assurance that their links to scientifically advanced institutions
abroad will be longstanding and durable to ensure the consolidation
and the continuity of the learning process." (13)
Consequently, the goal that has to be attained is to make learning,
teaching and encountering geographically remote fellow-students,
teachers, and reasearchers of a discipline a stimulating experience,
keeping as much of the expertise where it is most needed for sustainable
development: at the disposal of developing countries within their
boundaries. In other words: information, ideas and data should move,
scientists should not, if movement means emigrating for good. Computer-
mediated communication could provide a missing link needed to bring
together 'virtual' scientific communities', based on fields of activity
and interest, rather than on the mere coincidence of vicinity: 'At the
research level, interaction and communication with peers and potential
users of research results are necessary for the stimulation, self-
confidence, relevance and effectiveness of a scientist. Modern
scientific research relies heavily on the ability to communicate; gather
reliable data; have access to widely dispersed data and information
(including analysis); collaborate on projects; hold discussions,
meetings, seminars, and conferences; and repackage and disseminate the
results. The pace and complexity of modern research have greatly
increased the communication needs of researchers, scientists, educators
and their institutions. A scientist isolated is a scientist unable to
articulate his purpose and needs; such a scientist soon becomes
obsolescent. The provision of appropriate information systems and
services for this group of information generators therefore becomes
apparent.' (14)
IV. Organizations and the Advent of the Information Age in Development
1. UNCED
The need to explore the new opportunities that computer mediated
communications hold to gather the "best of both worlds" by creating a
stimulating scientific environment, without fostering brain drain, the
importance of timely information for development and decision making has
been increasingly recognized on a growing number of occasions: UNCED's
1992 Agenda 21, (15) passed at the Rio de Janeiro Earth summit, in
chapter 40 speaks of the ipmportnce of information for decision making,
stating that:
"In sustainable development, everyone is a user and provider
of information considered in the broad sense. That includes data,
information, appropriately packaged experience and knowledge. The need
for information arises at all levels, from that of senior decision
makers at the national and international levels to the grass-roots and
individual levels. The following two programme areas need to be
implemented to ensure that decisions are based increasingly on sound
information:
(a) Bridging the data gap;
(b) Improving information availability. " (16)
The UNCED names capacity buidling and the development of human
resources as the key factors for any development in the direction of an
improvement of the capabilities to produce, store, and retrieve relevant
data "timely, reliable and usable" (17) for sustainable development. The
authors point at a variety of projects under the aegis of the United
Nations' Advisory Committee for the Coordination of Information Systems
(ACCIS) and programmes as International Environmental Information System
(INFOTERRA), demand the introduction of networking activities for a
variety of other actors - such as NGOs - which in their view deserve
strengthning in order to facilitate information sharing.
According to the Agenda 21, there are impediments which are chiefly
based on the fact that frequently commercially produced data, though
existing in principle, bears a price-tag that will only put it within
the reach of recipients in the developed world, which could be seen as
one of the reasons that make it difficult finding "the appropriate
information at the required time and at the relevant scale of
aggregation". (18)
Chapter 40 of A-21 concludes that developed countries and relevant
international organizations should cooperate with developing countries
in order to expand their capacity to provide appropriate public access
(19) to relevant environmental and developmental information, by
providing technology and training to establish local information
services and by supporting partnership and cooperative arrangements
between countries and on the regional or subregional level. UNCED
intends to strengthen the existing institutions, and the cooperation
with non-governmental organizations, with an annual budget of about US$
165 million over a seven year period. (20)
2. UNESCO
Current efforts at the UNESCO are also aimed at the creation of the
technical means of coorepation by means of launching the
Intergovernmental Informatics Programme in 1985. (21)
In an interview on the occasion of the publication of the UNESCO
World Science Report 1993, the organization's Director-General,
Frederico Mayor commented:
"Today the gap between poor and rich is a knowledge gap. There
can be no sustainable development if there is no transfer of
science." (22)
Some of the measures proposed are the creation of networks "linking
scientists in specialized subjects (...) through electronic data
interchange over telephone links" (23) and the creation of an "invisible
college". (24) Technological means are described as one means of
"creating the community of scientists - the so called 'critical mass' -
needed". (25) Mayor describes these efforts as a means of enabling
sciensits in the Developing World to plug "into the best". (26) Through
such agendas, UNESCO becomes one of the organizations, at which the
UNCED-aids are targeted. (27)
3. International Cooperation and NGOs
Under the aegis of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS) and
California State University in Los Angeles, a network has been installed
that relies on the access to public packet switched X.25 data-networks,
available in some African countries. With nodes in Kenya, Tanzania and
Zimbabwe, a virtual access to the embracing academic network - the
"Internet" - is realized by encapsulating the necessary technical
protocols into normal international X.25-traffic and transmitting it to
CSU nodes at California State University. Although the project enjoys
strong support from the government in most of the participating
countries (30) and apparently allows for innovative ways of tuition and
research (31), the main weakness of this system rests within
infrastructural underdevelopment within most African countries,
resulting in the fact that publicly accessible, packet switched data
networks are unavailable in most of these countries. (32)
The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Ottawa,
Canada is involved in helping to establish a number of electronic
networks in Africa. These projects are mainly grass-root projects, not
building on the capability of accessing data networks and remote
computers in "real time", however allowing a relatively swift exchange
of electronic messages. (33)
The following networks are functioning (as in 1992):
- NGONET Africa is being based at the Environment Liaison
Centre International (ELCI) in Nairobi where bulletin board
system (BBS) has been set up to provide a conduit for electronic mail
traffic in the region and to NGOs worldwide.
- ESANET (Eastern and Southern African Network) functions as a
pilot project to link resrarchers from the universities
of Kampala, Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, Lusaka and Harare. The
network centre is based at at the University of Nairobi Institute
of Computer Science. Resources are being shared with NGOnet
in order to enable NGOs to access networks via campus-systems
where there is no NGO-structure available. The network rests on
relatively simple PC-architectures using high speed modems and
dialling over phone lines.
- HealthNet is being operated by the Boston based NGO SatelLife. (34)
Having been initiated as a project of the International Physicians
for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), SatelLife makes special
use of LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellite technology for the transmission
of electronical messages worldwide, bypassing bottlenecks of local
telecommunications infrastructures and often prohibitive tariffs, let
alone the often poor equipment with terrestric connectivity through
traditional dial phone lines. Satellife have purchased 60% of
the capacity on the University of Surrey (UK) built Uosat-F
satellite. This will be used to exchange health and medical information
within the same Universities participating in the ESANET project and via
Memorial University in Newfoundland, Canada.
Memorial is an appropriate site because of Dr. Maxwell House's work with
telemedicine and because it is so far north the satellite passes overhead
10 times a day on a polar LEO. (35)
- PADISNET (Pan African Documentation Centre Network) links development
and planning centres in 34 countries on an experimental basis. Having
to rely on normal international telephone links for data-transmission,
the project has apparently not been very successful. (36)
- VITANET: In a combination of satellite-based communication and
packet-radio technology,(37) VITA (Volunteers in Technical Assistance)
have found a way of providing information and assistance to develop-
ment agencies in remote areas. Like SatelLife, VITA's system uses
LEO-satellites that function as a kind of bulletin-board-system.
Messages are being recorded (uplinked) when the LEO-satellite passes
overhead at a given station and are later relayed (downlinked) when
the satellite passes the destination station. To be able to perform
its task, the satellite has a 10 Mega Byte on-board storage capacity.
LEO-satellites, unlike satellites in so called 'geostationary orbit'
are positioned at an altitude of approx. 800 Km (compared to 36,0000
Km for geostationary positioned systems). This results in these systems
passing overhead at any given point on earth several times during
a period of 24 hours. On the other hand, LEO-satellites are not
permanently "visible" from any given point on earth, as they complete
one orbit in less than two hours. (38)
We can - to this point - summarize networking activities on the
African continent into four categories:
- Low speed data exchange of messages through the public switched
telephone network, supported mostly by the FIDO bulletin-board-system
software.
- Packet switched terrestric amateur-radio networks to maintain
comminucation in rural and remote areas.
- Packet switched and satellite-relayed bulletin-board-system (BBS)
style communication networks.
- High-end solutions with facilities for the connection of campus-
based computing centres to the Internet, chiefly by means of
acces through X.25 data networks, where available.
4. Measures for the Etablishment of a Sound Communications Infrasturcture
on the Arfican Continent
With regard to the communications infrastructure of the continent,
several measures have been taken by African governments to improve
conditions by pooling potential:
- The Panaftel-initiative is designed to improve the terestrial communica-
tion links, provided within and between 45 member states on the conti-
nent. It is the intention of the programme to route intra-Arfican
traffic increasingly through domestic network centres. Apart from this,
it is to provide the organizational background for a closer coordination
of its members' efforts.
- RASCOM is the Regional African Satellite Communications project.
According to the agreement on RASCOM, signed in the RASCOM-
convention at Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire on May 27, 1992 amongst
its major tasks is "the design, development, construction, procurement,
establishment, operation and maintenance of the regional African
telecommunications satellite system". RASCOM shall have as its prime
objective in the provision, on a commercial basis, of the space
segment (40) required for national and international public telecom-
munications services in Africa". (41)
In a first step, RASCOM is formed after the Panaftel model to allow
for a more effective pooling of existing leased transponder capaci-
ties by pooling of capacities within a regional system, and a
flexible apporach towards the eventual establishment (42) of a dedicated
satellite system. (43)
5. Strengths and Flaws of the Current Networking Concepts
As we have seen, up to the current date there are four main means of
network computer-mediated communications.
While FIDO-systems, relying on normal dialled telephone connections
require little or no training to be operated, their price-performance
ratio can be considered poor once it becomes necessary to use
international telephone lines.
Packet-radio networks (44) are an excellent means of communicaions in
scarcely settled areas, as they allow for the exchange of information,
even where any kind of communications infrastructure is virtually nox-
existent. In addition to this, packet radio communication provides an
inexpensive means of communication. Its main problems are system
inherent and result in the system degrading in its capacity to transmit
data over-proportionally to the growth of the number of stations that
send data. Vice-versa, stations can be addressed individually from the
center of the radially shaped network, resulting in a relatively high
capacity of the network at any given time. Further limitations stem from
the often prohibitive regulatory framework. (45) The installation of a
packet-radio site is relatively inexpensive and may range around US$
1,000. Extensive training is not necessary, however maintenance of
packet radio systems might require special skills.
Packet-switched LEO satellite based communications networks are much
subject to the same type of limitations that are inherent to terrestrial
packet radio networks, with regard to technical and organizational
aspects. Packet radio satellites allow for a very effective bypassing of
structural bottlenecks in local telecom- systems.(46) However, their
data transmission capacity is limited to the maximum storage capacity of
the systems aboard the space segment that functions as a kind of BBS in
space. In that respect LEO satellite systems are a good alternative
means of communication between professionals of the applied sciences-
however tuition and learning usually demand for systems with storage and
forwarding capacities on a by far larger scale. (47)
Networks which are based upon the access to mainframe computing
systems through public data network (48) do offer a sufficient
"bandwith" (49) for tuition and learning projects. The main weekness of
such project apparently rests with the fact that access to the necessary
facilities in developing countries is rather the exception than the
rule. Where it exists, it is prone to depend heavily on interests that
are foreign in nature to the needs of the scientific community. (50)
There are, however, a number of alternatives that would allow for the
bridging of the data-gap. To be able to assess better the needs to which
technological and structural solutions have to resopnd, we shall first
try to understand the needs of the scientific community worldwide.
V. The Internet
We have earlier alluded to the "Internet" as _the_ embracing
worldwide academic networking structure. Emcapsulated in a wide variety
of physical transmission protocols, on the layer of protocols (the
"language" in which computer host systems "talk" to one another) it is
linked up by the so called TCP/IP standard. Initially, the Internet was
an offspring of military researh initiatives to provide links between
remote supercomputing facilities.
Having developed into a universal communications structure for the
exchange of data, the Internet today provides connectivity to
approximately 15,000,000 users worldwide (51), predominantly in the
industrialized world. Besides the embracing TCP/IP protocol and the fact
that Network Information Centers (NICs) are responsible to give a unique
access code to each country, within each country a unique access code is
given to each larger entity (such as administrations or universities),
and each larger entity allocates a name to each host computer, the
organizational structure of the Internet is completely heterogeneous,
there is no central planning agency.
Access to the network is bought by a group of entities or individuals
on the basis of "bandwidth" (52), independent of what volume of data is
being transmitted over the line. 'For example, the (...) membership fee
for a large university (usually in the range of $5,000) together with an
allocation for some user services personnel may approximate $100,000 per
year.'(53) Most entities "pool" their request on the market place for
communication services. As an example, academic institutions in Germany
buy their capacity from the German Telekom over the German society for
academic Networks (the 'DFN-Verein') (54)
We can observe at this point that the development of software-tools
has followed suit to the special conditions on the Internet. Unlike
commercial networks and database services, the Internet has no central
agency for the organization of information. Search tools have been
widely developed on the basis of the so called client-server
architecture. (55)
The main tools for the dissemination and retrieval of information on
the Internet are:
- e-mail: This is the most common denominator. All systems
connected to the Internet run a program to send and receive
electronic mail. A special variation of individual e-mail are so
called mailing lists that enable conferencing for selected groups.
- USENET-News: As public bulletin boards, the topics of which reach
from mainstream scientific discussion to the most exotic ones (in
all, almost 8,000 to 10,000), so called "newsgroups" are accessible
on most mainframe computers. The concept of newsgroups is a hybrid of
public debate and the synergy-effects that come with the random
"browsing" of information. However, for writing- and reading-access
every newsgroup has its well defined level of publicity, either being
available to the general "network-public" or a selected user group.
News-information is mostly stored on a dedicated computer system
which keeps the information accessible to all authorized users at
a given location. Though any given information can effectively reach
a great number of reciepients simultaneously, a capacity of around
90 Mega Byte (or about 26,000 type writer pages) are the approximate daily
flow of information through the global News-system.
- ftp (file transfer protocol): ftp is used as a means of transmitting
data between host computers. The format of this data can be texts,
pictures or entire books (just to name the most common). A special
variation of ftp is 'anonymous ftp'. 'Anonymous ftp' allows the user
to access a huge variety of electronical archives that store text
material. Most of the materials for the present article was gathered
by 'anonymous ftp'. The easiest way to understand ftp is to
interpret it as an electronical archive where any user with access
to the Internet can request information that is then automatically
forwarded and stored to his local disk by the remote system.
ftp today is a very common means for the exchange of data. Many
scientific texts and journals are accessible by anonymous ftp
on a 'do-ut-des' basis without charge to the user. An entire
culture of electronical publishing is developing.
- Telnet: The telnet tool allows any user with real-time access
to the Internet (mostly enabled at university computing centres)
to perform almost any operation in another sytem on the network-
the most prominent example being the direct connections of
a growing number of library catalogues to the Internet for real-
time research jobs to be performed.
- Gopher/WWW/WAIS/Veronica: All three tools fall into the category of
'distributed databases'. Without being able elaborate in great detail
at this point because of the complexity of the topic, the main idea behind
the concept of 'distribution' can be easily understood: Through a uniform
interface the user accesses the client programmes at his local machine. He
can then enter his query, without actually having to know the _location_
of his desired target-information. In a very short period he will be
presented with an automatically generated menu that allows him to get
to his target information by simply typing its name into the keyboard from
screen or selecting it in a fashion very similar to 'Windows' systems. The
programme gathers 'distributed' units of target information that correspond
with his original query.
What these tools have in common is that they are being extensively
used by an ever growing research- and commercially oriented community on
the Internet. Experience shows that while outgoing information from any
given user might be relatively small, he will only be able to enjoy the
full benefits of participation, if he is enebled to retrieve
electronical books by ftp, request computer programmes for the solution
of a given problem, retrieve topical information by Gopher and Veronica
and process this very information on his local system. This - in turn -
requires substantial "bandwitdth" for incoming data to any given system
on the network. Experiences with the development of an entire non-
commercial operating system by programmers from all over the world have
proven that the Internet is a powerful tool to create synergetic effects
for virtual communities, cooperating in projects that require a high
level of specilization. (56)
VI. Innovative Technological Approaches
As we have shown, it appears necessary to respond to the needs of the
science community in the developing world in a more flexible way than
has hitherto been the case. As we have shown in section IV.3., existing
strategies do either not respond to the ever growing need to move and
store increasing amounts of data or are simply unavailable outside the
big centres.
1. Technological Perspectives
During the last five years, a new technology has quickly developed
into a viable system for data communications: VSAT (Very Small Aperture
Terminal) based communications. The idea of this concept is to link
relatively inexpensive terminals with small satellite dishes to data-
transmission centres (the so called "hubs") (57) via communications
satellites in a geostationary orbit. The communication process is very
similar to the procedures used in packet radio networks: two frequencies
are being used, one for the uplink from VSAT to hub, another one from
hub to VSAT, known as downlink frequency. Similar packet radio, uplink
to the hub from VSAT is being achieved by means of a slotted ALOHA (58)
random-access procedure. The speed of data transmission is limited and
has at best 62% of overhead that is lost by data collision. Downlink
from a hub to any given VSAT-station is unimpeded by data collisions, as
any of the stations can be individually addressed from the network
control center.
VSAT networks are segmented into user groups with several stations
sharing one pair of frequencies and certain capacities at the hub. VSAT-
stations can be linked to Local Area Networks (LANs), solutions to link
up hubs with networks such as the Internet do exist. A special variation
of VSAT technology can bee seen in "broadcast-only" systems. For
applications like USENET-News, broadcast only solutions seem a close to
ideal way to save the capacity of dedicated leased two-way communication
lines from overload.(59)
VSAT-systems would hold the advantage of being universally and
permanently available, coming very close to the quality of service that
could be provided by terrestrial data networks. At hardware costs of
about US$ 10,000 and monthly costs of around US$ 700 (60), VSAT
terminals have a monthly capacity for data-transmission around 10 Mega
Byte.
VSAT-systems, on the other hand, cannot be operated successfully if
there is not a minumum infrastructure with regard to servicing and
uplink capacities. The latter depend on the availability of a sufficient
number of space segments available and presumably on the availability of
a dedicated hub.
2. Policy Initiatives
As we have seen in previous chapters, a considerable amount of
creativity and know-how is around, as far as communications in the
developing world are concerned.
We have identified it as one of the main aims of a succesful concept
for scientific datacomminications in developing nations to provide for
better links between scientists, in order to prevent brain drain
(information and data should move, scientists should not, if their
movement equals emigration).
With initiatives like RASCOM, important steps are being made in the
direction of developing an infrastructure for sustainable develop- ment
through 'sustainable communications'.
What is needed is a change of attitude and its subsequent
transformation into the political will to grant a high priority to
communications on the list of development projects, which notably has
not always been the case. (61)
The protagonists have already come on stage, what is missing is the
playwrhight to provide them with a role to play. Certainly it would be
constructive if ITU's Africa Telecom 94 conference was thinking about
ways of developing a reliable VSAT network that could be managed by a
commercially acting body funded by UN-institutions, intergovernmental
cooperation and UNCED support.
Such an agency should concentrate on
- pooling request on the market for satellite capacities, possibly
in close coopperation with RASCOM;
- be responsible for the construction of a hub in which academic
institutions should become members, similarly to structures that
pool academic institutions' request for carrier services on the
Internet (DFN-Verein);
- entering into close cooperation with governmental programmes - such
Germany's efforts to build a center for the research of development
policies in Bonn - in order to lay the groundwork for a dedicated
computing centre for the storage of data and knowledge, relevant
to researchers, students, and policy-makers in the developing
world, facilitating the flow of information from developing countries
into the developed ones and turning the exchange of ideas and infor-
mation into a road with two carriageways, instead of the one directio-
nal flow of the present.
NOTES:
(1) Speech of U.S. Vice-President Albert Gore at UCLA, January 11, 1994.
(2) See Wired-Magazine (1993), in: gopher gopher.wired.com 0/Etext/1.2
/departments/flux:
"The Department of Defense has licensed Worldview Imaging of Oak-
land, California, to provide real-time satellite views of the earth via
personal computer. Users of the system could tap into the satellites to
peek at objects on the earth's surface as small as three meters in length.
Worldview's braintrust includes Edward Teller, father to the hydrogen
bomb and the man largely responsible for selling the ill-fated Star Wars
anti-missile scheme to Ronald Reagan."
(3) Abdus Salam, Cooperation for Development, in: UNESCO World
Science Report 1993, p. 167.
(4) Statistics contributed by Remi Barre and Papon in the UNESCO World Science
Report, op cit., p. 148, indicate that Sub-Sharan Africa has a percenta-
ge of students abroad ranging at an average 14.4%, compared to a
mere 2.1% from the countries of the European Union and 0.2% from
the U.S.
(5) Abdus Salam, op. cit., p. 167.
(6) Abdus Salam, op. cit., p. 170.
(7) ibid.
(8) Thomas R. Odhiambo, Africa, in: UNESCO World Sience Report 1993,
op. cit., pp 86-94.
(9) Abdus Salam, op. cit., p. 170.
(10) Or, as Odhiambo, op. cit., p 86, cites Worthington: " 'As in economics,
so in science, considerable specialization has taken place in dif-
ferent territories, so that the collaboration, or even a full exchange
of information, could give great benefits.' " It is self-
evident that - the higer the level of research - it becomes
less probable to find a sufficient number of exchange partners
in direct geographical vicinity. While this is obviously true
for most of the developed countries, it seems to be an even more compel-
ling problem in developing countries.
(11) Ohhiambo, op.cit., p. 91, builds a strong case for this viewpoint:
"In addition, Africa must begin to look gift horses in the mouth
- particularly when it comes to the assistance for the estab-
lishment ant nurturing of Africa's own S&T [Science and Tech-
nology, comment by author] capacity, which is a vital element
for modernizing and invigorating the pace of the continent's
self-sustaining social and economic development."
(12) ibid., p. 92: "The process of capacity building
must be securely and consistently anchored within the
deceloping countries themselves, linked to effective capacity
utilization."
(13) Odhiambo, op. cit., p. 92.
(14) Beryl L. Bellman/Alex Tindimubona (1991): Global Networks and
International Communications: AFRINET, in:
ftp DHVX20.CSUDH.EDU/ANONYMOUS.VITA/AFRINET.TXT.
Please note that no page or line numbers are indicated, as this
text - like other resources cited - exists in electronical
format as public domain and line or page numbering does depend
on the output device used. All excerpts can be easily retrieved,
though, by means of a simple string-search after downloading
the texts. For further information, please consult 'appendix
A' of the present paper.
(15) UNCED Conference (Rio de Janeiro, 3-14 June, 1992):
Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development, Chapter 40, Information for Decision Making, in:
gopher gopher.undp.org/UNCED/English/a21-40.txt.
(16) ibid.
(17) ibid.
(18) ibid.
(19) Besides the commercial production, transport, and retrieval
of data, there is a 'second way', which we will try to
elaborate later in the present text when dealing with the
"Internet".
(20) ibid.
(21) Michel Batisse: Intergovernmental Cooperation, in: UNESCO World
Science Report 1993, p. 157.
(22) UNCED: I/1 World Science Report Press summary - a world of new
challenges and striking contrasts, p. 1.
(23) ibid., p. 3.
(24) ibid., p. 4.
(25) ibid.
(26) ibid.
(29) M.G.K. Menon: Introduction, in: UNESCO World Science Report 1993,
p.9.
(30) Bellman/Tindimubona, op. cit.: "The Academy enjoys great geo-
political support from Africa's leaders, many of whom already active-
ly participate in Academy programs (e.g. the Management of Science
Project chaired by Gengovernments. Once this is accepted and sub-
scribed to, the AAS's formal recognition as an international organi-
zation with diplomatic status will be complete."
(31) Bellman/Tindimubona, op. cit., explain a project exploiting
messaging and remote-access databases: "We are now engaged
in initiating for Winter term a collaboratively taught
course between faculty at the United States institutions
and the Department of Journalism and Communications at the
University of Nairobi in Kenya.
The course involves 14 hours of video recorded documentary
information about various new communication technologies (...),
and computer conferencing led discussions.
The course has already been offered in the United States and
Mexico by faculty from the California State University, and will
be offered again in conjunction with African student
participation. In the United States version of the course
students do not meet face-to-face with the professor, but only
interact using computer conferencing and electronic mail."
(32) Cf. ITU-Lynx database of telecommunications services and
tariffs.
Also see: Vineeta Shetty (1991): African net quality tests users'
mettle: Dearth of digital facilities, subpar conditions, costs pose
obstacle to users extending nets to continent, in:
ftp DHVX20.CSUDH.EDU/ANONYMOUS.VITA/AFR_INFRASTRUCTURE.TXT:
"The predominance of packet-switched networks in West Africa is
due in part to the presence of foreign oil firms in the area that
need access to remote locations and their home countries."
(33) Arni Mikelsons et al. (1992): Technical Report of the Global Networking
Workshop, held in Toronto (Canada) 1 to 14 February 1992, in:
ftp DHVX20.CSUDH.EDU/ANONYMOUS.VITA/AFRICA_WORKSHOP1.TXT
(34) ibid.: "Although the current traffic is limited to health
related issues it will be up to the individual participating
institutions in Africa to obtain clearance from the authorities
for a wider interpretation of the health mandate. As far as the
funders of the HealthNet project are concerned, this could encompass
a much broader range of environmental and social issues. Currently
however, only Zambia has been successful in obtaining approval for
the installation of the ground station and this was with a specific
medically oriented application.
The Zambian approval nevertheless sets a precedent for the
authorities in the other countries. Also Zambia will now be able to
host satellite traffic from the other participating countries via
direct dial telephone lines with the ESANET Fido network until
other ground stations have been approved.
More recently the Dean of Medical Studies at the University of
Makarere in Kampala, Uganda has expressed optimism over approval of
their satellite application which has an even broader mandate to
include environmental information."
Most of the restrictions described by Mikelsons have to be under-
stood in the light of the fact that data exchange over LEO-satellites
has traditionally taken place in the amateur (ham-) radio frequency
spectrum. In most countries usage of this spectrum is limited to
technical conversation, the exchange of trivial information
or disaster relief (compare e.g. the U.S. FCC's Rules for Amateur
Radio (CFR 47 Part 97), available via anonymous ftp
ftp.cs.buffalo.edu /pub/ham-radio/fcc_part_97_2. Section
97.117 reads: "International communications. - Transmissions to a
different country, where permitted, shall be made in plain language and
shall be limited to messages of a technical nature relating to tests, and,
to remarks of a personal character for which, by reason of their
unimportance, recourse to the public telecommunications service is not
justified.") It might be considered a forgone conclusion that similar
regulations might often be used for a short-sighted protection of
the commercial interests of local carriers and PTTs.
(35) Arni Mikelsons, op.cit. .
(36) ibid.
(37) Stephen R. Ruth (1992): AIMING FOR THE ELUSIVE PAYOFF OF USER NETWORKS:
AN NGO PERSPECTIVE, in:
ftp DHVX20.CSUDH.EDU/ANONYMOUS.VITA/NGO_PERSPECTIVE.TXT.
(38) Hans Dodel: Satellitensysteme fuer Kommunikation, Fernsehen und
Rundfunk, Heidelberg 1986, p. 2 and also
Dennis Roddy: Satellitenkommunikation, Munich 1991, pp. 20-24.
(39) Shetty, op. cit.: "Under the Panaftel program, intra-African tele-
communications traffic will be increasingly routed through African
transit centrs. There is a good chance that the tariff restructuring
resultingfrom this will benefit major customers.
Another objective of Panaftel is the resolution of cross-border
interconnection problems, such as those between Kenya and Malawi;
Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti; and Cameroon and Chad."
(40) The term 'space segment' in this context is used synonymously for
the equipment of a satellite transmission chain that is postitioned
in outer space.
(41) See S. Taylor (1992): Rascom: A New Challenge for Africa, in:
gopher info.itudoc.ch 1/.1/ITUdoc/.dirtree/.1/.itu-r/
.xifrb/.sem/.ge92/.21502
(42) ibid.
(43) For the period between 1986 and 1992, RASCOM received funding
through the United Nations Development Programme of approximately
8,000,000 US$. See: Regional African Satellite Communication
System (RASCOM), in: gopher info.itudoc.ch 1/.1/ITUdoc/.dirtree
/.1/.itu-r/.xifrb/.sem/.ge92/.21502
(44) Packet radio was developed in the early 1970 at the University
of Hawaii. The basic idea of the system is the usage of two
seperate normal radio-channels that link stations and digital
repeater stations (so called Digipeaters). One of these
channels is being used for the transmission of digital audio
burst signals from the stations to the Digipeater, the other
channel allows Digipeaters to address each single station
with data. The digital audio bursts, transmitted over the
normal microphone jack of a normal amateur radio stations,
are called data "packets". The stations address the Digipeater
at any time, which can create the situation of two stations
transmitting on the same frequency to Digipeater. Whenever
such a transmission does not lead to the desired response,
transmission are repeated until no collisions of data
transmitted over the same channel happen. The procedure -
due to its origin - is known as ALOHA. Recent versions
of packet radio implementations since the mid-1980s are
based upon the X.25 protocol, similar to stationary
packet switched networks. For a detailed description
of random-acces to packet switched networks see Dodel:
op. cit., p. 37 and 53.
(45) Compare note (34), as regulatory problems in packet
radio networks do largely coincide with the problems
described here. Advances towards general acknowledgement
for the importance of radio communications in rural
areas have been made so far; the first communications
assembly (RA-93) of the International Telecommunications
Union (ITU) has istituted a study group on "the
contribution of new technologies for rural communications
in developing countries." (See ITU Newsletter 1/94).
(46) In fact, with the extremely low launch-costs of about
US$ 1,000,000 - about 1/400th of the current cost of
launching a commercial communications satellite for a
geostationary orbit - (see Mark Bennett: Healthnet
in Zambia: The technical Implmentation of a Communications
System for Health Workers, in: ftp DHVX20.CSUDH.EDU/
ANONYMOUS.AFRICA/HNZAMBIA.TXT) - the system might earn
for itself. Bennett gives the example of a one minute
international phone call from Zambia to the UK costing
the face value of some US$ 7.
(47) Within the following chapter, we will try to explain
some of the synergetic effects that can only be reached
when communication is not taking place as a point-to-point
relation but rather includes the opportunities of electronic
group conferencing and electronic publishing, two of the
essentials in present academic computer mediated communi-
cations over the universal "Internet".
(48) See notes (30) and (31).
(49) The term is also used colloquially and as such refers to
the actual speed of data transmissions of which the parties
in a given network dispose.
(50) See Shetty, op. cit., who gives the example of foreign oil companies
chiefly funding for the construction of packet switched data networks in the
West African region. Also Gary Garriott (1993): Training for the Future
in African Networking, in: Developnet News, vol. 3, No. 10,
gopher lan.vita.org 0/vita/dnn/dnn3.oct.
(51) See Unix-World, December 1993, pp. 42-61.
(52) See above, note (49).
(53) Ruth, op.cit.
(54) For detailed information gopher to rigel.dfn.de.
(55) In client-server architectures, the user does not directly
access a given set of information. Instead, a user interface
is offered which will be very much standardized and customized
to the working environment the user is accustomed to on his
system. Entering any query into his terminal system, the
'client' software on his local machine will translate his query
into a standard format that is readable for any remote computer
that runs a 'server'-package appropriate for the 'client' used.
There are several advantages to this system, the most important
amongst them being the fact that data is only submitted in small
standardized packets instead of 'live' online sessions between
host ('server') and terminal ('client'). This increases network
capacity considerably. Secondly, the user is not confronted with
a multitude of different operating procedures but can perform
almost every task within his well known working environment on
his local system.
(56) See C'T-Magazin fuer Computertechnik, November 1992, p. 42.
(57) For a more detailed description see: Robert M. Gagliardi:
Satellite Communications, New York (2)1991, pp. 461-474.
(58) See note (44).
(59) Pagesat Inc. of Palo Alto, California have developed a system
that uses audio subcarriers on direct broadcast satellites
for the transmission of USENET-newsgroups. With costs running
at about US$ 1,800 for ground station equipment, this seems
a suitable way of granting connectivity to ongoing discussions
over the Internet. An operational system has to this date been
realized in the U.S..
(60) Prices for monthly operation of terminals vary heavily, depending
on several factors such as the availability of sufficient and
inexpensive satellite capacity in the space segment, servicing
infrastructure and possible pooling of the highly cost-intensive
hub-facilities that render necessary investments in a low six-digit-
range. Prices indicated here are average values for industrialized
regions.
(61) Bennett, op. cit., sums up in the - often heard - question what
a hospital at a remote location could use computers for, once
they were not even able to afford the Aspirin.
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A printed version of this text is available as: Markus Schlegel/Ludger
Wiedemeier: Fostering Brain Drain, in: Communications, Vol. 19, 1
(1994), pp. 105-126.
From: "Arthur R. McGee" <amcgee@netcom.com>
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