September 2527 2005 CERN

1
International Workshop on African Research and
Education Networking
September 25-27 2005 CERN Geneva, Switzerland
Oliver B. Popov
CEENet Central and Eastern European Networking
Association
2
Unique events

• July 2002 a unique type of Workshop NREN
  Creation Flying Workshop
• Three countries and three cities in seven days
• Czech Republic (Prague) CESNet
• Poland (Warsaw) NASK/POL-34
• Estonia (Tartu) EENet
• NREN Creation Cookbook (in Russian and English)

3
Champions above all

• But most importantly perhaps one needs product
  champions. For only these individuals can create
  all other conditions.
• Peter A. J. Tindemans (Yaroslavl, June 1998)
• The participants of this Workshop are champions
  past, present and future

4
CEENet

• 24 member NRENs (countries)
• Offices in Vienna (AT) and Warsaw (PL)
• General Assembly and Management Committee
• Secretariat
• www.ceenet.org
• The primary mission of CEENet is to co-ordinate
  the international aspects of the academic,
  research and education networks in Central and
  Eastern Europe and in adjacent countries.

5

• NATO (www.nato.org)
• Public diplomacy division
• Information Security Panel (formerly Computer
  Networking Panel - NIG, ANW and ARW)

• Open Society Institute (OSI www.osi.org)
• Cisco Systems

6
Wrong directions ...but

• Fragmented efforts partial or no results at all
  (everyone wants to be in charge)
• Present and work in a unified and coordinated way
  nothing looks more discouraging than to see
  signs of internal fighting and disagreement
• Problems with no regulation or lack of real
  one, transparency, corruption

7
Misplaced competitive behavior

• Ministries and agencies (government)
• Research and education community (users)
• International organizations
• PNOs and other ISPs (including virtual Telecom
  monopolies), but one must work together so talk
  to the devil

8
Misconceptions

• NREN will disturb the market
• Unfair to the other providers due to the
  exclusivity of the well- defined user groups
• NREN has a lot of political power and influence
• Lack of political capacity, will and awareness
  amounts to a cocktail of arrogance, ignorance and
  incompetence

9
Outside assistance

• Should
• Identify the right people
• Be very focused
• Start with equipment, expertise, and training
  catalytic funding
• Help in lobbying and raising the awareness
• Localization of the standards does not mean
  producing multiple standards

10
Goals and Objectives

• Similar problems similar solutions
• Three types of educational events, where we
  discuss, exchange and disseminate ideas and best
  practices on
• The technological know-how for building the
  essential infrastructure
• Management strategies and policy issues for
  stability and sustainability
• Strong belief that sustainability technological
  competence managerial vision appropriate
  policies public awareness

11
Sustainable NREN

• Appropriate with respect to
• Human resources
• Technology
• Nationally based, internationally oriented
• Inclusive (if possibly include many segments in
  addition to the primary users the academic
  community)
• Find young and vigorous politicians and educate
  and entice them for your work stress content
  and public recognition, not fiber, copper,
  switches,

12
Sustainable NREN

• Extensions
• NGOs (they have helped to start up many academic
  networks)
• Community networks (non-for-profit)
• Individual users (such as independent artists)
• All of this may require a small fraction of your
  bandwidth, but will provide you with ample
  support and fiercely fight for your existence

13
Workshops on Network Technology

• Strategy
• Always have a combined team of lecturers
• From the CEE countries for promoting
  self-sufficiency, recognition and continuous
  training
• From the EU and USA for state-of-the-art updates
• To expose the participants to the leaders in the
  ICT industry, best possible and yet affordable
  and suitable technology
• To explore the intended and unintended social and
  humanistic consequences of the ICT and to
  reassert the maxim that we
• Connecting machines to connect people

14
Workshops on Network Technology

• EngiNe, NetKnows, WirEd three tracks
• Warsaw 1995, Budapest 1996, Zagreb 1997,
  Bratislava 1998, Budapest 1999, Budapest -
  2000, Budapest 2001, Budapest 2002, Budapest
  2004, Ohrid 2005
• Never limited to its members for the last two
  years we have had participants from Afghanistan

15
Workshops on network technology

• In 2002, 2004, and 2005 technology workshops with
  a single track EngiNe tailored to a specific
  audience an educational extension of the Silk
  Project (satellite, wireless, and security topics
  respectively)
• First Virtual Silk Connection became operational
  during the workshop in 2002
• The side-effect from the WirEd track - Running a
  pre-workshop distance courses in all three tracks
  a very effective instrument both for the
  selection and the preparation of the potential
  participants for the f2f event.

16
Management and Policy

• Workshops on Management
• Yaroslavl 1998 (co-organized with TERENA)
• Ohrid 2000
• Zagreb 2002
• Chisinau - 2004
• Workshops on Policy
• Tartu 1997 (CEENet Tartu Declaration)
• Tbilisi 1999 (CARENA and MoU)
• Bishkek 2001
• Flying Prague, Warsaw, and Tartu - 2002
• Baku 2003
• Varna 2003 (with TERENA and SEEREN)

17
Projects

• Co-operates with Cisco Systems on the expansion
  and upgrading of their Cisco Networking Academies
  in the CEE and FSU regions
• ALaRI recruitment and selection of students for
  a graduate programme at the UL in embedded
  engineering systems
• _at_DULINE Distance education in creation and
  design of distance education courses and tutoring
  on-line
• ICT4ICT modeling ICT diffusion in CEE and
  developing countries and validation via pilot
  projects in two countries of SEE and Caucuses
• It is about to start the EU funded Porta Optica

18
Declarations, MoUs and statements

• CEENet Tartu Declaration (May, 1997)
• CARENA and MoU (Tbilisi, April 2000)
• SEE and MoU (Thessalonica, October, 2000)
• Varna Statement (September 2003)

19
The Essence of the CTD

• Seven parts
• Preamble
• The challenges
• The current situation
• The goals and the objectives to be reached
• The means to achieve these objectives
• The list of problems, and
• The set of recommendations

20
Recap and lessons learned

• With respect to CEENet
• Keep it small in everything except your
  aspirations
• Modest membership and reasonably sized
  administration
• Focus on few goals and strive for excellence in
  achieving them
• Induce fairness one vote per one member
• Replicate your success models
• Educate on all levels from network engineers
  and administrators, to policy and decision
  makers.
• We have educated more than thousand people and
  build an invaluable human network

21
Recap and lessons learned

• ICT, networking and the Internet are mosaic of
  efforts so you need every stone to complete the
  picture.
• Technology has indeed the potential to induce a
  leapfrog effect in 1992 both Poland and Czech
  Republic had between 19.6 and 56 Kbps for their
  Internet connectivity today their NRENs are
  among the leaders in deploying and using fiber
• Sense of déjà vu 25.09.05
• Never forget that networking is about sharing and
  communication is about understanding, and finally
  
• Hope that the old guard of politicians will fade
  into history, and will be replaced by the
  Internet generation of decision makers.

22
Many thanks to

• The organizers, in particular the hospitality of
  CERN and Olivier Martin on the prep work
• The sponsors
• The participants for their attention