THE SQUARED ONION:

Pablo Liendo

Regional Corresponsal for the REDALC Project

Caracas, Venezuela Feb, 1993

ABSTRACT

As part of the activities during the feasibility study of the so called REDALC Project, the author has enriched a conceptual model of the "potential users" market, which is depicted as an "Squared Onion", each layer corresponding to subsets of user shares. The author assumes that there are at least 7 subsets of users: 1) the ones to whom these technologies simply do not apply, 2) those who have not even heard of it, 3) those who perceive it as non pertinent to their particular occupations, 4) the ones not empowered to use its services due to socioeconomic barriers, 5) those lacking the proper training, 6) the "not deterred" but unsatisfied effective users, and 7) the ones quite happy with the current state of the local available technology.

Each set has its peculiarities and hence deserves to be approached with specific strategies accordingly. Plenty of such strategies are considered: new services development, spreading information about the existence of the services already available, setting in place and disseminating working models capable of being emulated, national grammatical characters handling, automatic language translation, lowering costs of the basic local systems configuration, wide spreading of LANs, raising the quality and lowering costs of intra and inter network data transmission, optimal architecture network designing, rational commercial data banks access, complementary technologies on a cost/benefit basis such as CD-ROM or non interactive database access through e-mail, fostering non-commercial databases, large scale training courses geared to final users not particularly familiar with computer sciences or telecommunication, user friendly interfaces, participation of the most capable effective users in the planning, operation and administration of networks, international financial and technical cooperation, inducing the proper sense of value of this strategic resource: the connectional one, among others.

Finally some consideration is dedicated to several variables related to the supply and demand of the telematic services market, such as: formal users vs. effective use, installed idle capacity, felt demand, actual service supply, etc.

This kind of analysis enables us to identify responsibilities in order to develop the telematic services market harmoniously. It becomes pretty obvious that not one single entity could fulfill the entire "Square Onion" requirements.

Note: The REDALC Project feasibility study was conducted by
UNION LATINA with the participation of UNESCO and the sponsorship of The European Community.

Introduction.-

Developing network services has proved to be not an easy task and that includes the telematic ones. In any serious analysis of the problems encountered it is a must to emphasize the key role of the end user. Within the present work, let us start by defining what the services are, being the offer of the market under consideration. Then we will proceed with some considerations about the end users as the ones representing the demand of such a market.

It is sad to realize that the lessons taken from previous national experiences are not necessarily appliable in other countries. It is not uncommon to face the investment of vast amounts of resources to set in place a telematic network, and having just a few effective users benefiting from it, mostly coming from computing related disciplines.

Conceptual Model.-

Just for the sake of restricting our analysis, the telematic services we will be referring to are the followings[1]

A.- Message Interchange:

1.- Interactively:

a.- On a 1:1 relation:

It is commonly refer as a "telematic talk" or more simply as "interactive message". Both parties are required to be on line. The originator sends some special commands like TELL, TALK, CHAT, etc. to the proposed receptor. If the later accepts replies and the "conversation" proceeds. Anything typed at one end is seen at the other in real time.

b.- On a 1:N relation:

It is known as "teleconferencing by computer"[2]. The date and time is announced well in advance and the participants get subscribed by sending the appropriated commands to a control device, at which time the Moderator sends throughout the network the agenda . Each active participant sends its contribution in turns until the theme is exhausted. It is not uncommon that more than 250 people get involved in one of there teleconferences.

2.- In batch

a.- On a 1:1 relation:

It is by far the most frequently used telematic service. It is referred as "electronic mail" [3] or simply: "e-mail". The originator usually writes its message by means of a an plain ASCII editor. The it is sent to the receptor by specifying its electronic address. If the syntax is correct the networks routes the messages through the intermediary nodes. The advantage here is that the originator does not have to be on line by the time de message is sent.

b.- On a 1:N relation

It is known as "electronic journal". In this case one user acts as Editor and gives it some predefined and distributes it periodically.

c.- On a N:M: relation

It is referred as "interest group", "list" or "conference". By means of a controlling device, several users of e-mail share their common interest using the networks. One single network might have more than 1.000 of these lists and to one of the might be affiliated more than 5.000 users.

While e-mailing often limits its texts to a few lines, This service allows the interchange of greater volumes of information and of a variety of characteristics. The files in transit could contain formatted text, spreadsheets, graphics, binary code, etc..

Directories of all kinds are particularly useful. They list users, nodes, resources, organizations, projects, courses, events, etc.[4] Bibliographic data are of great demand although they only usually point at where the actual article resides.

Are referred as "interactive remote sessions". It implies the actual connection to a remote systems . Theses services are badly needed by physicists, mathematicians, chemists, etc. who need the power of remote super computers.

The author assumes that there are at least 7 subsets of users:

SQUARED ONION (Figure 1)

              +--+--+--+--+--+--+---------+
          ....!..!..!..!..!..!..!Not Rela.! Newer Services
          I   !  !  !  !  !  !  +---------+
Offering  I   !  !  !  !  !  !Not Exposed ! Cont. Education
          I   !  !  !  !  !  +------------+
          I   !  !  !  !  ! Not Interested! Working Models
        ..I...!..!..!..!..+---------------+

Felt

I I ! ! ! ! Not Empowered! Politics/Eficiency

Demand

I I ! ! ! +------------------+ I I ! ! ! Not Trained! Training./Innovation

These are the ones to whom these technologies simply do not apply Obviously, no matter how promissory the telematic services are, there are some other needs not fulfilled by them. It may be because of their nature or because of their cost-benefit ratio

To this set belong those who have not even heard of the telematic services. We could call them "passive marginals". We really do not know whether they are interested or not until they receive adequate information about this theme.

Here we include those who perceive the telematic services as non pertinent to their particular occupations. The author assumes that the information available to them is not quite appropriated, otherwise they would be considered as belonging to de first set (Not Related). To some extend this group is "automarginals" by conviction.

This group does not benefit from these services due to socioeconomic barriers[8].Sometimes it is a matter of a language barrier. Often it is related to economic limitations. Last but not least some are excluded due to political issues. This group could be referred to as "active marginals".

It is a fact that these technologies imply a great deal of complexity. Therefore a significant degree of training is assumed on behalf of the potential users. It is a paradox how newer interfaces provide a variety of features that intimidate the "non computists" newcomers to get involved in the its use.

These are actual users but not satisfied with the current state of the available systems. This includes communication, informatics, information systems, organizational issues, etc. It is important to realize that this group represents the most promising resource to the perfectibility of these systems.

This group is more conceptual than real. It is composed with those actual users quite happy with the current state of the local available technology. Like many other fields, telematics imposes quite a challenge to the adaptive ability of the users, due to its never ending evolution

The "Squared Onion" model provides a framework to analyze each layer separately. The point here is that there are many reasons why so many people is not yet using the telematic services available worldwide. Each set has its peculiarities and hence deserves to be approached with specific strategies accordingly[9]. Let us consider some of the proposed strategies to develop network services harmoniously relating them to the above mentioned subsets (or layers) of potential users.

1.- Not Related:

With time newer services will be developed. Then it is a matter of letting this people know about their characteristics and see their reaction.

In some regions of the World to this group belong a great many people. Indeed so many that it deserves special provisions beforehand, given the foreseeable impact upon information (data) traffic trough the current telecommunication channels. Also its incorporation will impact the technical and administrative requirements for support. The basic strategy here is the continuos education of the potential users after the proper arrangements are made to provide the above mentioned support.

The most promising strategy here is the setting in place of operating models able to be emulated[10]. This has to be done by means of the network itself. Some typical examples are structured e-mailing systems like "Interest Groups" and "Electronic Journals"; teleconferencing and data base remote access. It is important to emphasize the role of the international cooperation to foster the financing and diffusion of the relevant models.

To the contrary of the preceding group, this one does not need attitudinal changes. They only need a diminution or abolition of the barriers. As far as the language is concerned, every time will be more telematic transactions using a particular language. The author assigns a particular potential to the automatic language translation systems[11]. One could access a data base non interactively via e-mail[12], and receive the result after being translated by one of those systems. The following list includes some of the aspects were economic barriers could arise:

a.-

Local Hardware: Workstation, microcomputer or terminal, MODEM, etc. It is seldom a problem.

b.-

Communication Software: interface, connection manager, file manager, etc. There are lots of public domain Software[13], hence it should not be an economic problem either.

c.-

Telecommunication link between the user and the node: Local Area Network, conventional dedicated link, fiber optic link, Radio-MODEM, etc. Here we find a true "bottled neck". It is fair to say that generally speaking LANs availability is well behind WANGs. In developing countries the phone companies infrastructure is very poor and are highly saturated. Nevertheless it is worth mentioning that sometimes the Academic sector has been granted special rates, even by private phone companies[14].

d.- Telecommunication links intra e inter national networks

Similar considerations apply[15].

e.- Telecommunication links inter international networks:

Satellite, submarine cable, microwaves, Packet-Radio, etc. Without any doubt this is the most expensive segment. The proposed strategy is to make more rational the topology of the networks, both at the national and regional levels. Again the international cooperation is badly needed to set in place "backbones" based on satellites[16,17].

f.-

Information Systems: Usually are data bases or multi services commercially operated. A more rational use is what is needed. The CD-ROM technology is playing a key role here. Also, data base access through e-mail such as BITNIS, is very promising. The most useful strategy here is the integration of organizational (libraries) with telematic networks on a complementary basis[18,19]

g.-

Network Managing Entities: These should be ideally pluralistic[20,21,22] AS far as costs are concerned it is proposed that the node absorbs the installation costs and later the operation should be financed with minimal participation from the end users, specially the ones involved in research work within the public sector.

h.-

User Groups: Since it is a voluntary kind of association it is seldom an economic problem.

A combination of interface developments addressed to the "non computist" type of user and an aggressive training plan to the general population seems to be advisable.

To the last two layers belong the actual users. The strategy with this group is to enroll the most capable into the process of developing the many aspects of the networks. The critical areas are:

• local interface
• actual availability of LAN access
• availability of dedicated links
• quality of user-node link (speed, noise, etc.)
• quality of phone stations (electromechanical)
• cost of international inter network links
• bandwidth of international inter network links
• average downtime sue to system crashes, bath intra and transnational
  
• telematic services provided.(Remote Logon ?)
• technical user support (different skill degrees)
• availability of updated information on network resources (users, nodes, files, etc.)
• message Addressing conventions
• prevalent languages outside a particular region
• irrelevant non commercial data bases.

This group should be make sensible to the value of information systems. Cultures long deprived of reliable information sources, develop alternate ways to make decisions. It also implies a lack of perception as to the actual value of the information as a resource and even less idea about the cost of setting in place and operate sophisticated information systems.

1.-

Liendo, P., Mendillo, V. y Orantes, A.: Una Visita al Futuro: la telematica, nuevo punto de apoyo a los postgrados. III Seminario Latinoamericano de Estudios de Postgrado. UCV. November, 1991. (in Press).

2.-

Azarmsa, R.: Teleconferencing: an instructional tool. Educational Technology. December, 1987

3.-

Updegrove, D., Muffo, J. and Dunn, J.: Electronic Mail and Networks: new tools for institutional research and university planning. Base de datos sobre articulos del CCNEWS, el Foro Electronico para Editores de Boletines Academicos, un servicio de EDUCOM basado en BITNET. 1989.

4.-

Cardoza, G. Estudio sobre Posibilidades de Cooperacion entre los Programas Regionales de Informacion en Ciencia y Educacion Superior. Programa Cooperativo UNESCO-ACAL. April 1991.

5.-

REDALC Workshop. Santo Domingo, Republica Dominicana. July, 1991.

6.-

First Interamerican Networking Worshop. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. October, 1991.

7.-

Meeting of the "CONEXION" Group. Caracas, Venezuela. January, 1992.

8.-

Rodriguez, G.: Infraestructura, Comunicaciones y Proyectos de las Redes de Informacion en America Latina. NTC/NCT. Vol. VI, No. 14, Lima, Peru. IPAL. May, 1991.

9.-

Pimienta, D.: El Desarrollo de las Redes en los Paises en Vias de Desarrollo. NTC/NCT. Vol. VI, No. 14, Lima, Peru. IPAL. May, 1991.

Republica Dominicana. July, 1991

Panamericana. October, 1986.

Cientifica Venezolana. 1990

Shareware. McGraw-Hill. 1990.

empresa CODETEL beneficiando al sector Ciencia y Tecnologia en Republica Dominicana y Haiti. 1992. (Personal communication)

January, 29th, 1992.

Executive Summary. December, 1990.

Science, Vol. 254. December, 1991.

en el Marco del Proyecto REDALC en America Latina y El Caribe. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. October, 1991.

Educacion Superior en America Latina y El Caribe": Final Report. UNESCO/CRESALC. Caracas, Venezuela. April, 1991.

(copia entregada al autor por Adolfo Dunayevich, Corresponsal por Mexico para el Proyecto REDALC). July, 1991.

(copia entregada al autor por Jose Soriano, Director Asociado del Proyecto REDALC). October, 1991.

(copia entregada al autor por Jose Soriano, Director Asociado del Proyecto REDALC). October, 1991.