Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC) 2240 York Lanes Building, York University, 4700 Keele Street, North York, Ontario, CANADA M3J 1P3
Dr. Sam Lanfranco, Associate Professor, Economics, York University Phone: (416) 736-5237 Fax: (416) 736-5737
Red America Latina y Carib (REDALC), Benigno Filomeno Rojas #264, Edificio Plaza Malaga II, Apto B-22, Apartado Postal 2972, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Daniel Pimienta, Coordinator General of REDID, REDALC Scientific Counsellor. Phone (809) 535-6614 Fax: (809) 535-6646
USER DEVELOPMENT ON THE REDID NETWORK
Dominican Republic
June 1, 1993
May 31, 1998
Computing, Collaboration, Workgroups, Human Resources, InterNet, Telnet, MicroIsis, UUCP,
Population Affected: urban and rural
Target Groups: total community
No. of Beneficiaries: Direct: 300; Indirect: ~3,000
Not applicable
Donors Year

1 Year

2 Year

3 Year

4 Year

5 Year

6 Total Total Canada Partner Others CIDA
Dean or Equivalent (Canadian Univ) Dean or Equivalent (Partn Inst.)
How did the project Originate and what problem does it hope to resolve:
REDID started as a project ('91) of the Latin American & Caribbean Network (REDALC), helped by the EEC's Union Latina and UNESCO. REDID's mission is to modernize D.R.'s scientific and technical community and link it to education, development, industry, and global networks. Meetings on this CIDA project idea were held in Santo Domingo at the 1991 IOHE Int'l Congress and July 1992 Int'l Workshop for novice academic network users and the launch of Calidad Technologia y Globalizacion en la Educacion Superior Latinoamericana (UNESCO/CRESALC, Caracas, 1991), w/articles by the project directors.
Goal:
The use networked electronic access to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the broadly defined scientific and technical community in the Dominican Republic.
Purpose:
A program of training and capacity building is required if institutional members are to make good use of REDID, and for it to achieve self-financing. The project will: train and assist personnel to (a) use network services, (b) support and train others, (c) become information providers, (d) facilitate collaborative work, and (e) access Dominican expertise abroad.
Expected Outputs:
1. Trained user community sufficient to achieve REDID self- financing;
2. In house and in country capacity to support and extend usage of network;
3. Establishment of Special Interest Groups (SIGS) across institutions in areas of interest (e.g. UNESCO MicroISIS SIG for document centre database management);
4. Development of local sits as network information providers (e.g. socio/economic and demographic database services);
5. increase inter-regional and international collaboration and service provision.
Proposed Activities:
To support and assist:
1. REDALC to strengthen the human/organization capacity of institutions to plan and implement network use at the organizational and individual level;
2. SIGS to develop and gain expertise in the areas of document collection management, data management and analysis, publishing and on-line service provision;
3. academics with the introduction of computing through the curriculum;
4. researchers with networked approaches to collaborative and groupwork projects;
5. development of an academic/industry/government "matchmaking" service for cross sector collaboration;
6. a project to solicit networked access to Dominican expertise abroad.
Relevance to the Canadian Official Development Assistance Strategy:
Working with (REDALC), a regional institution, and with the (currently 25) members of the REDID consortium the project will strengthen Dominican educational, scientific and technical capacit yand its links to Canada. Beyond Canadian participation in the project, enhanced network access will facilitate Canadian and Dominican academic collaboration.
Relevance to the Development Priorities of the Partner Institution and Country:
The project is congruent with the objectives as REDALC and the mission of the REDID electronic network. The Association of Dominican University Rectors, Council for Higher Education, National Planning Office, Secretary of State for Education, Fine Arts and Culture, as well as a number of universities and research institutes are members of the REDID consortium.
Sustainability
The sustainability of electronic networking depends upon incorporating computer mediated technologies into the various social processes involves in academic, scientific and technological work, and the funding necessary to support it. The political will is present as witnessed by the initial membership in the REDID consortium. Financing academic and research networks is a high fixed cost low marginal cost activity. Financial soundness depends upon cultivating a broad user base facing low user fees.
Involvement of Women
There is already a considerable presence of women in Dominican electronic networking efforts outlined above. The President of REDID is female, one of the two senior REDALC staff responsible for REDID is female, a significant number of those attending the July 91 networking workshop were women, Centres for feminist action and women in development are charter members of REDID, and the government Minister is female. Also, the project is well suited to participation by women and women's organizations in all of its operations. On the Canadian side, if anything, the relative level involvement by women is lower. CERLAC's Deputy Director is a female academic with skills and a keen interest in networking. CERLAC has access to women at York University with skills in networking, administrative computer management, and documentation software.
Effects on the Environment
The project's impact on the environment and environmental effort in the Dominican Republic is quite positive. Electronic networking can substitute for travel so at that rather mundane level it is energy saving. More important, it will allow better collaboration between domestic groups and better lines to groups abroad. For example, the research centre on marine biology is eager for closer links with Canadian's working on the humpback whales which alternate between the two countries depending on the season.
Critical Assumptions
Two critical assumptions underpin the project. We believe that the teams' experience with the human systems/technology interface and social process from elsewhere is relevant in the D.R. The other is that the country will remain stable. It has been stable for 15 years. However, the 500th anniversary of the Conquest has occasioned rising tensions and at the start of celebrations, during the third week of September, a special unit of the state police killed a human rights leader in cold blood, before the cameras of the news media. Beyond this worrisome fact, it is important that care be taken in signing a formal agreement which involves both REDALC and REDID. The have overlapping staff and duties but REDALC is formally an international non-governmental educational organization, and more immune to arbitrary government action, than is REDID, a Dominican non-governmental organization.
Evaluation Plan
Networking projects increasingly take on an informal collaborative dimension. The UN/UNDO. UNESCO, the Brazilian, Ecuadorean, Canadian and U.S. non-governmental networks support and critique networking projects in a variety of ways. The project will be subject to three levels of evaluation. The first is the informal on-going evaluation that the technology itself makes possible. The second will be the creation of an Evaluation Plan, with specific time tables for evaluating various aspects of the project, the creation and progress of SIGS for specific uses for example. The third will be formal annual reviews involving the management teams, user groups and outside experts with skills specific to particular aspects of the project.
Other Considerations
The project's outreach component will be through empowering networked researchers, institutes and action oriented centres who use REDID's services. Private sector interest is reflected in the fact that CODETEL, the country's phone system (owned by CTE) is supplying for free the link from the REDID node to the international node in Puerto Rico. A number of participants from, or involved with, the private sector attended the inaugural workshop on REDID this past July. Most of the REDID/REDALC team and participating individuals from REDID member institutions are fluent in more than one of English, French, Spanish. The CERLAC team leader has worked in Mexico, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Colombia and the Dominican Republic with weak but serviceable linguistic skills. Given that the project is about networked access, there will be more "on-site" training and less travel across linguistic boundaries for the purpose of being trained. When short term, or concurrent language training is necessary, both York University and the institutional membership of REDID are equipped to offer training at the appropriate levels.

TEAM PROFILE

York University

Sam Lanfranco, PhD (Economics) Associate Professor (Economics), CERLAC Fellow Atkinson College, York University Team Leader: Direct CERLAC end of CERLAC/REDALC Project

Anneke Rummins, PhD Candidate Deputy Director, CERLAC PhD Candidate, Faculty of Arts, York Univ. Asst Team Leader: Development of User Support of Service Provision

Rory Obrien, M.A. (Environmental Studies) Project Development, WEB (NGO) Computer Network WEB (NGO) Computer Network Planning and Advising on Service Implementation

Veronica Timm, (Computer Science) Systems and Service Support CCS (Computer Services), York University Training for Technical and User Support

TEAM QUALIFICATIONS

Professor Lanfranco's work on technology and development includes 5 years on academic and project networking in developing countries. Fluent in english, with some spanish, he has worked in 5 spanish and 2 english speaking countries of the region. He has written and lectured in the subject area and was a speaker at the July 1992 REDID workshop. As the CERLAC team leader he holds chief overall responsibility for project administration and implementation.

Anneke Rummins is completing a social sciences PhD on Caribbean development issues and is Deputy Director of CERLAC. She is keen supporter and participant in computer networking for collaborative work. As Deputy Director of CERLAC she will work closely with CERLAC's project team leader. She is a likely candidate for further language and skills training within the project.

Rory Obrien, with training in environmental studies, was one of the founders of the Native Canadian and WEB computer networks. He may require further language training. With the WEB he has considerable experience with networking projects in developing countries. He will assist in the planning and implementation of technical systems and user support.

Veronica Timm, is a systems and user support staff person in York's computer centre, with experience in computer support services and research experience in multimedia technologies. Her language skills may require enhancing depending on the need for her services at the REDALC end of the project. She can assist in the development of system and user support.

All three CERLAC team members are highly motivated and keenly interested in computer networking for collaborative work, and each has a good working relationship with the CERLAC director of the project.

EXPERIENCE IN INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

The Team Director, Professor Lanfranco, has worked for 20 years in international cooperative activities with the UN/UNCTAD, with a CIDA funded institutional cooperation project between CERLAC and FLACSO in Ecuador, with a number of non-governmental develoment organizations and in a dozen or more countries around the world.

Rory Obrien, through the projects of the WEB computer network has experience in Latin America and at the present time is working on projects involving Africa.

Deputy Director of CERLAC Anneke Rummens has done dissertation field work in the Caribbean. Veronica Timm has not worked abroad but has been involved in collaborative projects carried out through the electronic networks.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT QUALIFICATIONS

Overall project management qualifications rest mainly with the team director, Professor Lanfranco, and the project management suppor tprovided by the staff of the York Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean, the York Office for Research Administration and the York Office for Research Accounting. The team director was formerly Deputy Director of CERLAC and is a member of the team for the CERLAC/FLACSO-Quito cooperative project. The team director also has extensive experience in project management by virtue of committee positions as a board member on a community hospital (Doctors Hospital, Toronto) and on an international NGO (Habitat for Humanity Canada, Waterloo). Rory Obrien, within the portfolio of projects undertaken by the WEB computer network has extensive experience in the joint management of cooperative projects.

TEAM PROFILE

Daniel Pimienta, PhD (Computer Science) REDALC Project Director Union Latina, Santo Domingo Team Leader: Direct CERLAC/REDALC Project

Senaida Jansen, M.Sc. (Computer Science) REDALC Researcher and Consultant Union Latina, Santo Domingo Asst Team Leader: Implement CERLAC/REDALC Project

Cristian Mathias, MSc (Computer Science) REDALC Technical Assistant Union Latina, Santo Domingo Technical Assistant: Installation and User Support Training

TEAM QUALIFICATIONS

Dr. Daniel Pimienta's background is in applied mathematics and computer science with 12 years experience as a systems architect and senior planner with IBM (France). He is project director and science advisor to Union Latina's REDALC projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. Fluent in english, spanish and french, he has a high level of experience in project management from the technical to the administrative and cooperative levels. He was the chief architect of the REDID network, the vehicle for the work of this CERLAC/REDALC Project. He has written, lectured and trained on building cooperative (electronic) research networks and would hold chief responsibility for the administrative and substantiative implementation of the project in the Dominican Republic.

Ms. Senaida Jansen has a background in computer science applied to social studies with 3 years experience heading a statistical unit and doing survey research on women in development. Fluent in spanish, french and english, she has written on women and development and has extensive experience in project formulation (w/OXFAM), project evaluation (w/UNICEF), and in the management of training seminars. Ms. Senaida would be responsible for day to day implementation in the CERLAC/REDALC project.

Mr. Cristian Matias had 2 years experience in software development before joining REDALC in 1990. Fluent in spanish with a working knowledge of english, he has learned project development and participation skills while at REDALC. Mr. Matias would be responsible for installation and user support at the technical end. Involved in the development of user training materials, he is a likely candidate for further educational training within the CERLAC/REDALC project.

The REDALC team members are highly motivated and committed to the goals of the CERLAC/REDALC project. All have a good working relationship with each other and with the head of the Canadian York/CERLAC team.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT QUALIFICATIONS

Both Daniel Pimienta, the Team Leader, and Senaida Jansen have extensive experience in large project management. Dr. Pimienta managed large and small application projects while a systems architect and planner at IBM, planned the Union Latina REDALC project in the first instance, and within REDALC coordinates a working group of 15 people spread over different countries. The Dominican project team has the resources of the REDALC office staff and the REDID consortium to assist it with project management.

Senaida Jansen, assistant team leader, headed the statistical office of a Dominican institute for two years, has extensive evaluation experience for UNICEF and managed the organization of the international training seminar last July, with financial support from Union Latina, UNESCO and the UN Development Program.

EXPERIENCE IN INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

Both while he was with IBM and since he has come to REDALC, Dr. Pimienta, who was born in Morocco, has been actively involved in projects involving international cooperation. REDALC works with all of Latin America and the Caribbean and in REDALC's two years of operation Dr. Pimienta has launched a Peruvian network (RCP) as well as the Dominican REDID network and is engaged in planning exercises for a French West Indies, and a Haitian network.

Senaida Jansen has had extensive international experience in the women in development and demographic studies area. Both Dr. Pimienta and Ms. Jansen operate with the full support of the REDALC office in Santo Domingo.

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6 Total	Total Canada Partner Others CIDA