@@41================================================================
Date: Sat, 14 Oct 1995 11:22:07 Est
Reply-To: "Pimienta Daniel " <[email protected]>
From: "Pimienta Daniel " <[email protected]>
To: [email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected]
Subject: Carribean Networking: To the Future (FWD)
X-Mulbri: 00**0000000000

----- Inicio del Mensaje Original -----
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 95 20:21:33 EDT
From: [email protected]
Subject: Carribean Networking: To the Future
To: Daniel Pimienta <[email protected]>

Daniel, After you have read this, feel free to post it where you see fit.
------------------------------------------------ Sam Lanfranco ---------
Daniel, I have followed the networking discussion at several levels and
reflected on the discussions while in Havana attending the INFO95 Congress
a week ago. I have been meaning to write a short comment and will do so
now. I had the good fortune and interesting opportunity to have lunch today with Shridath (Sunny) Ramphal, the former head of the Commonwealth Secretariat and a principle player in the creation of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS). In a discussion of where leadership and direction would/should come from in the Carribean (under the Association of Caribbean States) he argued that CARECOM should be the leading regional player. In discussions about the role of the OAS it was clear that its hemispheric mandate from its Washington home could not be a substitute for what the ACS, including its Central American and South American members, could become within the Caribbean.

Before I draw an implication from this exchange, I would like to reflect on what has transpired during the discussion on user rates in the Caribbean. The first point, obvious to all, is that this is a touchy area. It is touchy for a number of reasons. As I have long argued, in electronic networks, just to count sites, machines, users, traffic, or even active users can be misleading and lead to improper policy discussions. By any standard the Caribbean is far ahead of many regions of the world with similar socio-economic circumstances and not only should this be a source of well deserved pride, it should be a place which distills lessons learned so that others in the world can make use of them. What is important is the lessons learned, and sharing those lessons within the region and with each other. I would like to also say that as each of us has been frustrated, disappointed, or elated, at given times we have been too hard, or too soft, on each other. Much of the critical comment in the exchanges has to do with people feeling that they were wrongly judged and criticizing those who were, in equal good faith, trying to apply reasonable measures to capture lessons learned. Having dealt with a number of the people at close range, I would judge all of us as persons of good will, well intended in all this. That does not mean that we are without mistakes - from which we can learn.

So where does the Caribbean stand now and which way is the way to the future? It may seem dangerous (for me) to comment from Canada but I will do so in the same sense of common cause that many of you have posted to the discussion. I was heartened to seen in Havana, for example, a large delegation of people from Puerto Rico, discussing networking issues with their companeros/as. Ii is clear that in the near future Cuba will be fully on the internet and that a red de redes (network of networks) will be functioning. Part of what is going on there now is the various players learning to work together in common cause in an instutional framework that allows end users and service providers alike a say in policy, and puts in place vehicles for local accountability on the part of service providers. As this happens it has to be recorded that the Spanish speaking islands of the Caribbean (Cuba, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico) will have established an impressive level of networking capacity on the supply side.

There are still problems. The national Telecom regimes are different and the telecom suppliers do not always fully understand what the networks mean for economic development and civil society. This is where initiatives under the umbrella of the ACS and CARECOM can be effective. It is seldom the case that the service providers (local nodes and networks) can make the case since they are seen to be self-interested players and -on occasion- potential competition to the telecom companies. An ACS/CARECOM perspective would be powerful here. an OAS focus would probably be difficult to achieve given the divergent interests of (for example) the US and Canada. If there is a lesson here, it has two parts. The first is that regional institutions will have to take the lead in dealing with the telecom tariff/rate issues. There are lessons to be learned from the experience of some countries but unlike scientific discover- ies which work the same everywhere, the lessons have to be tailored to suite the circumstances. ACS has already targeted tourism, trade and transport. It could rather easily be urged to consider electronic networks and telecom policies in the region. The OAS could help but the OAS is no substitute for a local initiative driven by the end-users (academic, research, civil society) and assisted by the service providers (the networks themselves).

I participated in the UNDP/GEP workshop in San Jose, Costa Rica, earlier this year and one of the lessons we all learned is that the way in which strategy is viewed in this area is very different depending on if one is a networks service provider or a network of end users treating the network's virtual workspace as a work venue and a tool.

It is always hard to come to terms with lessons learned since we learn what worked and what didn't in circumstances where we have to keep going. We may have built approaches or programs which didn't work and should end, or which did work and also should end. This is not an area where one can rest on one's previous successes. It may take years to establish a reliable gateway to the world, only to have something change and a substitute gateway become available easily and cheaply. The service providers are obliged to change since their role is service provision and not the preservation of their initial technology. The bigger questions - such as those raised by Jose Seriano in Peru, in response to the invasion by U.S. service providers, are in fact bigger issues and need a forum such as ACS or CARECOM. They cannot be handled by the network providers (las redes) alone. They need to be linked to matters of national and regional policy and not assigned as a task to overworked service providers. The service providers should work together to get the issues on the regional agenda of the regional institutions.

It is of course impossible for local networks, or local user groups, to simply approach their governments and ask that these items be put on the regional agenda. For this to happen it is essential that there emerge several groups and several layers of councils of partners (formal or informal) dealing with both provider (supply) issues and user (demand) issues. At the same time, on the enduser and end uses side, there is the scope to build the collaborative relationships which will survive and be nurtured in the virtual workspace of maturing Caribbean networks. The Caribbean is both large enough and diverse enough to be a leading region of networked collaboration, and in turn to be a contributor to networking efforts elsewhere.

There is a type of analysis which counts phones, computers and modems and wrongly concludes that the height of the pile is a measure of progress in this area. The measure of progress is not how much but to what use. Here in Canada the average household uses a phone 4 minutes a day. The "power user" in business uses it 2 hours a day. In the Caribbean a few computers used well are more important than a lot of Canadian (or US) computers used poorly. In many ways this is a more appropriate technology for the Caribbean (in that the opportunity costs of not using it are higher) than it is in Canada where many activities limp along using the old approaches.

I would hope, this 'thread with a mild flame" runs it course, that the outcomes will include a renewed dedication to working together at various levels. There is more than enough to do for everyone here. For those who are fortunate enough to have a few resources to work with (important does not always equate to securing resources!) they should remember that the marginal cost of additional partners is low and that resources can be shared at little cost. There is a very strong need for councils of partners of users to share learning on how to effectively use these resources in (for example) education, health, the environment, civil society, good governence, etc..

I, for example, am working with the Commonwealth Secretariat and its new COMNET-IT initiative (communications and networks for developing countries) and hope to direct its attention to the Caribbean -working with the existing initiatives- to strengthen the role of networks in education and research.

We (York University) are starting to work with a number of people at the three campuses of the University of the West Indies to strengthen approaches to the use of informatics in the health curriculum. Speaking only for myself I see this as an initial English Caribbean initiative (reaching out to Guyana and the Bahamas as well as the non-campus islands) which will have to link to similar activities in Cuba and (hopefully on the medical side) the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

I have watched the various initiatives in the region, ranging from individual Union Latina, Canadian (CIDA) aid and IDRC projects, through to the CUNet effort of the OAS. Running the risk that I may be wrong it would appear to me that there are two parallel courses of action called for at this point. After a brief rest where we all conclude that the argument was with vigor and had cleared the air, all concerned should work toward a serious of regional "work- shops" or "forums" (literal on virtual) involving the end users and end uses of the networks. The outcomes of such effort should be (of course) further work in common cause with regard to capacity strengthening within the networks and within the uses of the networks, and (second course of action) a concerted effort to get regional telecom policy issues and regional networking initiative items on the agenda of the ACS and of CARECOM. To do any less is to under utilize the considerable resources of the region. To do it well will rebound to the benefit of the region and -equally important- produce lessons learned for those parts of the world which are less fortunately endowed than the Caribbean region.

Lastly, sitting in relatively affluent Canada, as my province Ontario goes through debt drive structural adjustment of the sort that Caribbean countries have had to face for years, I am convinced that while Canada's ability to help with Caribbean initiatives has been reduced, its understanding of the important of electronic networking for economic development and civil society is growing. Canada will stand ready and willing to work with its campaneros/as partners in the Caribbean. If one must work with less, one must work better, and in the service of those who have to work with even less.

I apologize if parts of this sound like a Sunday sermon. It is hard to write about what could be done without suggesting that it should be done. If you feel that there are pieces to build on (positively or negatively) feel free to respond in open forum. If you just want me to hear your positive or neg- ative assessment, email me at < [email protected] >. - Sam Lanfranco ..................................................................... : Prof. Sam Lanfranco | * Distributed Knowledge Project (DKProj) :
: YCHS / 214 York Lanes | * York Centre for Health Studies (YCHS) :
: York University | * Centre for Resch on Lat. Amer. & Carib. :
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: CANADA M3J 1P3 | email: [email protected] :
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: (416) 736-2100 x20713 |...........................................:
: YCHS (416) 736-5941 | FAX: (416) 736-5986 for YCHS :
: CERLAC (416) 736-5237 | FAX: (416) 736-5737 for CERLAC :
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Reply-To: "Pimienta Daniel " <[email protected]>
From: "Pimienta Daniel " <[email protected]>
Message-Id: <30824e20.dpimient@pimienta>
To: "Laurence I. Press" <[email protected]>
Cc: "Percy van Kanten" <[email protected]> Subject: Listserv CARINET or CARIBUSER X-Mulbri: 00**0000000000
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Larry,
Please find the first list of people to suscribe. Maybe in the announcement it is worth stating that the listserv and the related FTP files will be moved within a Caribbean Internet location as soon as possible.

PEOPLE FROM THE ONLINE DISCUSSION
Larry Press [email protected],
Saul Hahn [email protected],
Archie Marshall [email protected], George Sadowasky [email protected],
Randy Bush [email protected],
Guy de Teramond [email protected],
Miguel Ceara Hatton [email protected], Sam Lanfranco [email protected],
Steve Goldstein [email protected],
Steve Huter [email protected],
Olivier Crepin Leblond [email protected] Pavel Isa [email protected]
Yacine Khelladi [email protected] Percy Van Kanten [email protected]
Rhadames Mejia [email protected]
Flavio Moncion [email protected]

PEOPLE I KNOW WOULD BE INTERESTED
Deirdre Williams [email protected],
Yacine Khelladi [email protected] Pablo Liendo [email protected]
Jose F. Silvio [email protected]>, "CRESFED" <[email protected]>,
"Enda Caribe" <[email protected]>, "Fernandez, Manuel" <_pnud!fernande>, "Jesus Martinez" <[email protected]>, "Luis German Rodriguez" <[email protected]>, "Michel Perdreau" <[email protected]>,

PEOPLE WHO I SUPPOSE SHOULD BE INTERESTED Mayra Velez [email protected]
"Isidro Fernandez" <[email protected]>, "Arthur R. McGee" <[email protected]>, "Robert France" <[email protected]>, "Keith Manison" <[email protected]>, "Peter Meincke" <[email protected]>, "Maureen Pollard" <[email protected]>, "Wilma Primus" <[email protected]>

.