From owner-s-asia-it Wed Jun 17 13:17:48 1998 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) id NAA29290; Wed, 17 Jun 1998 13:17:48 +0900 (JST) Received: from garlic.negia.net (root@garlic.negia.net [206.61.0.14]) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) with ESMTP id NAA29283 for ; Wed, 17 Jun 1998 13:17:41 +0900 (JST) Received: from idn.org (p111.negia.net [207.43.201.121]) by garlic.negia.net (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id AAA21252; Wed, 17 Jun 1998 00:18:56 -0400 Message-ID: <358743B0.51109C9@idn.org> Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 00:18:56 -0400 From: "Christopher L. Byrne, Director" Organization: International Development Network X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.04 [en] (Win95; U) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: CANCHID , "DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU" , INTDEV-L , international-development , "s-asia-it@postoffice.apnic.net" Subject: News Updates From The International Development Network Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-s-asia-it@apnic.net Precedence: bulk Apologies for any cross posting: The following stories that may be of interest are posted to the June 17, 1998 update of the International Development Network Web Site (http://www.idn.org/): India and Pakistan Join Regional Election Association President Mandela To Speak At CARICOM Summit In Saint Lucia, West Indies Legal Affairs Committee of CARICOM Concludes Meeting Addressing Industrial, Trade and Agricultural Policy Deputy Secretary General Says That Information Technology Poses Challenges For CARICOM And Regional Bankers CARICOM Ready To Continue Role In Guyana Accord Japanese Investments Will Help ASEAN Overcome Crisis Says ASEAN Secretary-General Asian Development Bank To Assist Improvement Of Water Resources Management In Sri Lanka ADRA Receives First-Ever Soros Foundation Grant For Health Training Project In Mongolia World Bank Approves $300 Million Loan To Support Knowledge And Innovation In Mexico World Bank To Finance Education Project For Bolivia Save The Children Pleads With World Leaders Not To Turn Away From Sudan St. Lucians Examine Protocol Amending CARICOM Treaty St. Lucia: Canaries - Anse-La-Raye Marine Management Area To Be Developed By ENCORE Project From owner-s-asia-it Thu Jun 18 14:13:01 1998 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) id OAA05920; Thu, 18 Jun 1998 14:13:01 +0900 (JST) Received: from garlic.negia.net (root@garlic.negia.net [206.61.0.14]) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) with ESMTP id OAA05916 for ; Thu, 18 Jun 1998 14:12:56 +0900 (JST) Received: from idn.org (p30.negia.net [207.43.201.40]) by garlic.negia.net (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id BAA14712 for ; Thu, 18 Jun 1998 01:14:32 -0400 Message-ID: <3588A25E.7D0B157D@idn.org> Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 01:15:10 -0400 From: "Christopher L. Byrne, Director" Organization: International Development Network X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.04 [en] (Win95; U) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "s-asia-it@postoffice.apnic.net" Subject: UNESCAP Hosting Meeting On Y2K Problem and other stories Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-s-asia-it@apnic.net Precedence: bulk The following stories posted on the June 18, 1998 update of the International Development Network Web Site may be of interest to members of this list: UNESCAP Hosting Meeting On Y2K Problem World Bank Hosts Mid-Year Consultative Group Meeting For Vietnam World Food Programme Seeks US$6.5 Million To Provide Food Aid To Cambodian Refugees In Thailand Best regards, Christopher L. Byrne Director, International Development Network "Information Resources for Sustainable Development" http:://www.idn.org/ info@idn.org From owner-s-asia-it Fri Jun 19 06:21:45 1998 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) id GAA27158; Fri, 19 Jun 1998 06:21:45 +0900 (JST) Received: from igc7.igc.org (igc7.igc.apc.org [192.82.108.35]) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) with ESMTP id GAA27153 for ; Fri, 19 Jun 1998 06:21:40 +0900 (JST) Received: from igc3.igc.apc.org (igc3.igc.org [192.82.108.33]) by igc7.igc.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id NAA12278 for ; Thu, 18 Jun 1998 13:33:18 -0700 (PDT) Received: from igc.org (PPPa4-Boston8-1R228.saturn.bbn.com [206.188.196.15]) by igc3.igc.apc.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id NAA07150 for ; Thu, 18 Jun 1998 13:33:14 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <35898676.4E17D484@igc.org> Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 16:28:51 -0500 From: Sean Kline Reply-To: skline@igc.org X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.05 (Macintosh; I; PPC) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: s-asia-it@teckla.apnic.net Subject: Re: Pakistan: About ISPAK References: <199806100531.KAA01052@server.super.net.pk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-s-asia-it@apnic.net Precedence: bulk Irfan's posting about ISPAK suggests internet providers and service is expanding rapidly in Pakistan. One of the earliest e-mail providers was the UNDP with IUCN (World Conservation Union). I am curious to know where IUCN Pakistan is on their work with the UNDP to bring their service (SDN Pakistan) to full internet connectivity, as opposed to UUCP mail only, where it stood when I departed Karachi a month ago. Where do other South Asian countries stand on ISPs? How about Nepal and India, in particular? Sean Irfan Khan wrote: > > All Internet Service Providers in Pakistan have formed an association > called ISPAK - Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan. > > The core objectives of this association are: > > - Set standards of service. > > - Proactively try and reduce the costs of service to the end user. > > - Try to rapidly spread Internet Services throughout Pakistan. From owner-s-asia-it Fri Jun 19 06:59:34 1998 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) id GAA27809; Fri, 19 Jun 1998 06:59:34 +0900 (JST) Received: from psg.com (root@psg.com [147.28.0.62]) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) with SMTP id GAA27805 for ; Fri, 19 Jun 1998 06:59:29 +0900 (JST) Received: from localhost (1116 bytes) by psg.com via sendmail with P:stdio/R:inet_resolve/T:smtp (sender: ) (ident using unix) id for ; Thu, 18 Jun 1998 14:57:36 -0700 (PDT) (Smail-3.2.0.101 1997-Dec-17 #1 built 1998-Feb-8) Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 14:57:36 -0700 (PDT) From: "Steven G. Huter" X-Sender: sghuter@psg.com To: Sean Kline cc: s-asia-it@teckla.apnic.net Subject: Re: Pakistan: About ISPAK In-Reply-To: <35898676.4E17D484@igc.org> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-s-asia-it@apnic.net Precedence: bulk On Thu, 18 Jun 1998, Sean Kline wrote: > Irfan's posting about ISPAK suggests internet providers and service is > expanding rapidly in Pakistan. One of the earliest e-mail providers was the > UNDP with IUCN (World Conservation Union). Hi Sean, I believe the UNDP project site in Pakistan started started using email in 1993, initially through a leased line from PakNet, and then after some difficulties, they finally resorted to dial-up through Tymnet nodes in Singapore and London for email access. Prior to this, there were two uucp gateways, both connecting to UUNET, as of August 1992. Regards, Steve Huter The Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC) http://www.nsrc.org/ From owner-s-asia-it Fri Jun 19 10:33:47 1998 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) id KAA02059; Fri, 19 Jun 1998 10:33:47 +0900 (JST) Received: from jubilee.ns.sympatico.ca (jubilee.ns.sympatico.ca [142.177.1.6]) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) with ESMTP id KAA02055 for ; Fri, 19 Jun 1998 10:33:37 +0900 (JST) Received: from LOCALNAME ([142.177.18.79]) by jubilee.ns.sympatico.ca (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 release (PO203-101c) ID# 607-45892U60000L60000S0) with SMTP id AAA4317 for ; Thu, 18 Jun 1998 22:37:47 -0300 Message-ID: <3589FA87.28BD@ns.sympatico.ca> Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 22:43:35 -0700 From: kerryo@ns.sympatico.ca (Kerry Miller) Organization: Hundred Flowers Publications X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.04C-SYMPA (Win16; I) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: s-asia-it@teckla.apnic.net Subject: Re: Pakistan/ ISPAK Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="------------27987B4B3C57" Sender: owner-s-asia-it@apnic.net Precedence: bulk This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------27987B4B3C57 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > I am curious to know where IUCN > Pakistan is on their work with the UNDP to bring their service (SDN Pakistan) > to full internet connectivity, as opposed to UUCP mail only, where it stood > when I departed Karachi a month ago. Where do other South Asian countries > stand on ISPs? How about Nepal and India, in particular? ======== --------------27987B4B3C57 Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Return-Path: Received: from hiroshima.american.edu ([147.9.1.18]) by jubilee.ns.sympatico.ca (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 release (PO203-101c) ID# 607-45892U60000L60000S0) with ESMTP id AAA2212 for ; Sun, 7 Jun 1998 09:29:17 -0300 Received: from atlanta (atlanta.american.edu [147.9.1.6]) by hiroshima.american.edu (8.8.6/8.8.6) with ESMTP id HAA16402; Sun, 7 Jun 1998 07:40:11 -0400 (EDT) Received: from AMERICAN.EDU by AMERICAN.EDU (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 1.8c) with spool id 2608551 for DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU; Sun, 7 Jun 1998 07:40:02 -0400 Received: from hiroshima.american.edu (hiroshima.american.edu [147.9.1.18]) by atlanta.american.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id HAA25833 for ; Sun, 7 Jun 1998 07:40:01 -0400 Received: (from daemon@localhost) by hiroshima.american.edu (8.8.6/8.8.6) id HAA00463 for devel-l@listserv.american.edu; Sun, 7 Jun 1998 07:39:24 -0400 (EDT) Received: from exnet.com (assam.exnet.com [194.207.34.4]) by hiroshima.american.edu (8.8.6/8.8.6) with SMTP id HAA05944 for ; Sun, 7 Jun 1998 07:39:21 -0400 (EDT) Received: from maildrop.exnet.com (ceylon.exnet.com) by exnet.com with SMTP id AA04103 (5.67a/IDA-1.4.4 for ); Sun, 7 Jun 1998 12:38:23 +0100 Received: from salsa.gih.co.uk by maildrop.exnet.com (4.1/client-1.2DHD) id AA12025; Sun, 7 Jun 98 12:38:22 BST Received: from gih.co.uk (ocl@localhost) by salsa.gih.co.uk (8.7.3/8.7.3c) via GIH-Net id MAA00225 for devel-l@american.edu; Sun, 7 Jun 1998 12:44:01 +0100 X-Mailer: Mail User's Shell (7.2.5 10/14/92) Message-ID: <199806071144.MAA00225@salsa.gih.co.uk> Date: Sun, 7 Jun 1998 12:44:01 +0100 Reply-To: Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond Sender: Technology Transfer in International Development From: Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond Organization: GIH - Global Information Highway Limited Subject: Pointer to FAQ: International E-mail accessibility (1998.06.01) To: DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU Version date: 1998/06/07 The FAQ document "mail/country-codes" has been recently distributed around Usenet and is available in the Usenet newsgroup news.answers (and other newsgroups such as comp.mail.misc, comp.mail.uucp, news.newusers.questions, alt.internet.services, alt.internet.access.wanted, alt.answers and comp.answers). The document can also be downloaded in a number of different ways. I suggest the easiest way being via the Web: http://www.ee.ic.ac.uk/misc/country-codes.html (text mode) http://www.ee.ic.ac.uk/misc/bymap/world.html (Worldwide maps) The whole collection of documents (monthly releases since 1992 !) is available on: gopher://gopher.nsrc.org:70/1m/oclbfaq/oclb Of particular interest are the pages on Internetology, with a snapshot of world connectivy maps every 6 months since 1993, on: http://www.ee.ic.ac.uk/misc/bymap/ntlgy/ Here is a short extract of the latest version of the document: --- snip --- snip --- snip --- Archive-name: mail/country-codes Last-modified: 1998/06/07 Based on International Standard ISO 3166 Codes Compiled by Olivier M.J. Crepin-Leblond E-mail: (remove "nospam") Release: 98.06.01 Release Notes: a. no significant change since last version Every now-and-then there are enquiries on the net regarding E-mail to a distant country. The question is often of the type "has that country got E-mail access ?". The following table is a guide of country codes, showing the countries which have access to Internet or general E-mail services. The country codes have been derived from the International Organization for Standardization standard ISO 3166. A country code is taken as a top level domain once it is registered at rs.internic.net so *not* all country codes listed are top level domains. At the bottom of the table, there is also a section of general top level domains, based on the information available at rs.internic.net. Once released, this document is archived in a number of archive sites around the world. Amongst them: ftp://rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/news.answers/mail/ #ftp://ftp.uu.net:/usenet/news.answers/mail/ ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk:/usenet/news.answers/news.newusers.questions/ (#) those may not be accessible via Bear access or direct PC access in some cases. The document is also retrievable by E-mail from rtfm.mit.edu by sending an E-mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu , blank subject line and the command: send usenet/news.answers/mail/country-codes The up-to-date, pre-release document is also available using a simple mail-server robot: Send E-mail to: with a subject: archive-server-request and the command: get mail/country-codes in the body of your message. A sister document is available on the World Wide Web. It is based on this FAQ, and has links to further information for each domain: http://www.ee.ic.ac.uk/misc/country-codes.html A set of clickable international connectivity maps is available at: http://www.ee.ic.ac.uk/misc/bymap/world.html Web references for Top-Level information servers for a particular country should be sent to (remove "nospam"). Thanks to all who have helped ! Internetology The Internet has exploded in size in the last few years. The present document has been edited monthly since 1993, and some Web pages have recently been put together to reflect on the continuing spread of Internet/E-mail in the world since that time. This new section is called "Internetology". It provides a graphical history of the spread of the Net in developing countries, by taking snapshots of Internet connectivity every six months since November 1993. All of the maps tie-up with the information that is included with the FAQ on International E-mail accessibility. The reference for the Internetology pages is: http://www.ee.ic.ac.uk/misc/bymap/ntlgy/ -- Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond, Ph.D. |----> Global Information Highway Limited Phone: +44 (0)956 84 1113 | Always 60 seconds | E-mail: Fax : +44 (0)171 937 7666 | ahead of the past | Web: http://www.gih.com/ --------------27987B4B3C57-- From owner-s-asia-it Fri Jun 19 12:58:04 1998 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) id MAA04486; Fri, 19 Jun 1998 12:58:04 +0900 (JST) Received: from garlic.negia.net (root@garlic.negia.net [206.61.0.14]) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) with ESMTP id MAA04481 for ; Fri, 19 Jun 1998 12:57:58 +0900 (JST) Received: from idn.org (p7.negia.net [207.43.201.17]) by garlic.negia.net (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id XAA27670; Thu, 18 Jun 1998 23:58:52 -0400 Message-ID: <3589E249.99A974EA@idn.org> Date: Fri, 19 Jun 1998 00:00:09 -0400 From: "Christopher L. Byrne, Director" Organization: International Development Network X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.04 [en] (Win95; U) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "AFRIK-IT@LISTSERV.HEA.IE" , "s-asia-it@postoffice.apnic.net" Subject: Agreement Reached on Emergency Telecommunications Convention Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: owner-s-asia-it@apnic.net Precedence: bulk Apologies for any cross posting _____________________________________________________ The full text of the subject story as well as the following stories are available on the June 19, 1998 update of the International Development Network Web site at http://www.idn.org/)(If anyone needs e-mail copies please let me know): OECD Reports That Aid and Private Flows Fell $96 Billion in 1997 Good News From The Forests of West Africa - Bad News For Its People MIF Approves $700,000 To Help Attract Investment In Water And Sanitation Sector In The State Of Goiás, Brazil Commonwealth Development Corporation Acquires Major Horticultural Operation From Brooke Bond In Kenya ADB Loan to People's Republic of China for Hebei Roads Development Project Agreement Reached on Emergency Telecommunications Convention World Bank Provides US$600 Million To Support China's Agriculture And Power World Bank To Support Environmental Infrastructure In Croatia World Bank To Support Reconstruction Efforts In Croatia World Bank Supports Social Safety Nets In Malaysia World Bank Supports Reforms To Uzbekistan's Enterprise Sector Landmine Ratifications Pass Halfway Mark PAHO, IDB Agree On Collaboration To Improve Health Stealthy Killer: Half Of Those With Diabetes Don't Know It Guinea-Bissau: ICRC Reports Alarming Humanitarian Situation 1997 Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize Awarded To Philippines President Ramos And Nur Misuari From owner-s-asia-it Fri Jun 19 13:13:33 1998 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) id NAA04845; Fri, 19 Jun 1998 13:13:33 +0900 (JST) Received: from manaslu.mos.com.np (root@manaslu.mos.com.np [202.52.255.3]) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) with SMTP id NAA04838 for ; Fri, 19 Jun 1998 13:13:22 +0900 (JST) Received: from kopila.mos.com.np (kopila.mos.com.np [202.52.255.20]) by manaslu.mos.com.np (8.6.9/8.6.9) with ESMTP id KAA24338; Fri, 19 Jun 1998 10:04:01 +0545 Received: (from badri@localhost) by kopila.mos.com.np (8.8.5/KRG1.0) id KAA14701; Fri, 19 Jun 1998 10:00:02 +0545 (NPT) Date: Fri, 19 Jun 1998 10:00:01 +0545 (NPT) From: Badri Ghimire To: Kerry Miller cc: s-asia-it@teckla.apnic.net Subject: Re: Pakistan/ ISPAK In-Reply-To: <3589FA87.28BD@ns.sympatico.ca> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-s-asia-it@apnic.net Precedence: bulk Hello, ISPs in Nepal provide full range of internet and email services. Badri Prasad Ghimire Mercantile Communications. Durbar Marg Kathmandu,Nepal. Tel. 977-1-220773 E-mail: badri@mos.com.np On Thu, 18 Jun 1998, Kerry Miller wrote: > > I am curious to know where IUCN > > Pakistan is on their work with the UNDP to bring their service (SDN Pakistan) > > to full internet connectivity, as opposed to UUCP mail only, where it stood > > when I departed Karachi a month ago. Where do other South Asian countries > > stand on ISPs? How about Nepal and India, in particular? > > ======== > From owner-s-asia-it Fri Jun 19 13:34:38 1998 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) id NAA05270; Fri, 19 Jun 1998 13:34:38 +0900 (JST) Received: from psg.com (root@psg.com [147.28.0.62]) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) with SMTP id NAA05264 for ; Fri, 19 Jun 1998 13:34:34 +0900 (JST) Received: from localhost (1207 bytes) by psg.com via sendmail with P:stdio/R:inet_resolve/T:smtp (sender: ) (ident using unix) id for ; Thu, 18 Jun 1998 21:37:21 -0700 (PDT) (Smail-3.2.0.101 1997-Dec-17 #1 built 1998-Feb-8) Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 21:37:21 -0700 (PDT) From: "Steven G. Huter" X-Sender: sghuter@psg.com To: Sean Kline cc: s-asia-it@teckla.apnic.net Subject: Re: Pakistan: About ISPAK In-Reply-To: <35898676.4E17D484@igc.org> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-s-asia-it@apnic.net Precedence: bulk On Thu, 18 Jun 1998, Sean Kline wrote: > Where do other South Asian countries > stand on ISPs? How about Nepal and India, in particular? Sean, As Badri Ghimire pointed out, Mercantile Communications provides IP services in Nepal; there have been various UUCP-based store-and-forward services. There is talk about new ISPs being allowed to offer service in India, but I believe everything still runs through Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) - http://www.vsnl.net.in/ at the moment. You might also find the India GII web site and list to be helpful. http://members.tripod.com/~india_gii/ As of late 1997, Myanmar has a UUCP-based email provider called Data Services. See http://www.nsrc.org/db/lookup/ISO=MM for contact info. ......... Regards, Steve Huter From owner-s-asia-it Mon Jun 22 12:19:30 1998 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) id MAA09759; Mon, 22 Jun 1998 12:19:30 +0900 (JST) Received: from isp.super.net.pk (isp.super.net.pk [203.130.2.4]) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) with ESMTP id MAA09750 for ; Mon, 22 Jun 1998 12:19:19 +0900 (JST) Received: from server.super.net.pk (server.super.net.pk [203.130.2.3]) by isp.super.net.pk (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id IAA10145 for ; Mon, 22 Jun 1998 08:22:33 +0500 (GMT+0500) Received: from ngorc (khi-line-011.super.net.pk [203.130.5.150]) by server.super.net.pk (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id IAA13769 for ; Mon, 22 Jun 1998 08:28:11 +0500 (GMT+0500) Message-Id: <199806220328.IAA13769@server.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@teckla.apnic.net Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 08:30:27 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: (Fwd) World News Xchange Sender: owner-s-asia-it@apnic.net Precedence: bulk [I am posting the following message that I received. I have requested for more information on the organisation. Stay tuned ;-) Irfan] ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 12:55:14 +0300 From: Shiv Satchit We are a British based non-profit worldwide media and development agency dedicated to the promotion of [1] social development, [2] sustainable growth, [3] economic equity, [4] environmental protection, [5] omni-directional dissemination of news and information and [6] awareness of development problems faced by the people of the developing countries. We need voluntary journalists, news enthusiasts or people who are willing to help build a development-oriented news network - World News Xchange to pursue the above aims. Please send this message to whoever you think might be interested in joining this network to bring about a New World Information Order. With regards S Satchit From owner-s-asia-it Mon Jun 22 12:19:39 1998 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) id MAA09769; Mon, 22 Jun 1998 12:19:39 +0900 (JST) Received: from isp.super.net.pk (isp.super.net.pk [203.130.2.4]) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) with ESMTP id MAA09762 for ; Mon, 22 Jun 1998 12:19:31 +0900 (JST) Received: from server.super.net.pk (server.super.net.pk [203.130.2.3]) by isp.super.net.pk (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id IAA09961 for ; Mon, 22 Jun 1998 08:22:41 +0500 (GMT+0500) Received: from ngorc (khi-line-011.super.net.pk [203.130.5.150]) by server.super.net.pk (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id IAA13388 for ; Mon, 22 Jun 1998 08:28:19 +0500 (GMT+0500) Message-Id: <199806220328.IAA13388@server.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@teckla.apnic.net Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 08:30:27 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: (Fwd) ISPAK - Flash Report # 4 Sender: owner-s-asia-it@apnic.net Precedence: bulk [Apologies for the delay in posting. Irfan Khan] ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 Welcome to the ISPAK Flash Report The ISPAK Flash Report June 18, 1998 ISPAK NEWS FLASH # 4 The last few days have seen a lot of hectic activity and the net results as of today are as follows: With the help of the Information Technology Commission, the open-minded officers of the CBR and your massive support, CED on Internet charges was removed. Unfortunately, the wording in the budget speech referred to CED on bills raised by the PTCL, included the cost (IPL) of International (more on that later) links to Internet via the PTCL. This element has not been under the CED regime until now. Fearing that statement of the Minister of Finance may be misunderstood (and 25-40% CED may be put on the IPL). We have actively taken up this issue with the CBR and are hopeful for its positive resolution. You will be kept informed of the progress. The PTCL had got a package of tariff restructuring approved from the ECC. Quite deliberately the 5-minute multi-metering on local calls has been introduced for all consumers. ISPAK and the IT Commission had requested the Finance Minister for ensuring that this 5 minutes multi-metering on local calls should not be imposed on the lines connecting to the ISPs. This is technically possible to do. It appears, however, that this issue will need to be vigorously pursued otherwise: * The cost of access for the users will increase by Rs. 24/hour. So a Rs. 40/hour Internet access charge will become a virtual Rs. 64/hour for the end user. In case CED is applied to the International bandwidth, the cost of access for the end user will shoot upto Rs. 75-85/hour at a minimum. * The 5-minute beep from PTCL will, in most cases, cause the line to drop so the end user is going to try to dial-in again and again. In order to increase its current market share (only about 8% of all the Internet users of Pakistan are on PTCL) by unfair and illegal means, the PTCL has come out with a package of reduction in prices for Paknet users. What is not so honest about the whole exercise of cost reduction, is that even after the free hours and discounts, the Paknet users will still pay PTCL Rs. 24/hour over and above the Internet charge. This is a critical legal issue. The Telecommunication Law of 1996 demands PTCL to provide cost based tariffs. In case Rs. 16/hour is a cost based tariff, members of ISPAK have demanded from the PTA/PTCL to give them the same rates for the International connectivity and telephone lines as are used by them in their calculation. This would then enable us to give the same rates to our users as well. We mention their action as illegal since by law they are not permitted to cross-subsidize services to destroy the competition. In order to deflect criticism the PTCL has offered a 20% reduction in tariffs of International leased lines. In the next Newsflash, we will put the facts on the table and ask you to judge if the profiteering by the PTCL under the guise of a monopoly is in the National interest? We need your help to help you get a good quality and economically priced service and will keep you in the picture as the situation develops! From owner-s-asia-it Mon Jun 22 12:19:33 1998 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) id MAA09765; Mon, 22 Jun 1998 12:19:33 +0900 (JST) Received: from isp.super.net.pk (isp.super.net.pk [203.130.2.4]) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) with ESMTP id MAA09751 for ; Mon, 22 Jun 1998 12:19:22 +0900 (JST) Received: from server.super.net.pk (server.super.net.pk [203.130.2.3]) by isp.super.net.pk (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id IAA10162 for ; Mon, 22 Jun 1998 08:22:37 +0500 (GMT+0500) Received: from ngorc (khi-line-011.super.net.pk [203.130.5.150]) by server.super.net.pk (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id IAA09617 for ; Mon, 22 Jun 1998 08:28:15 +0500 (GMT+0500) Message-Id: <199806220328.IAA09617@server.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@teckla.apnic.net Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 08:30:27 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: (Fwd) ISPAK - Flash Report # 3 Sender: owner-s-asia-it@apnic.net Precedence: bulk [I have removed few lines from the original text to keep the message relevant to the list. Irfan Khan] ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- Date: Mon, 8 Jun 1998 Welcome to the ISPAK Flash Report ISPAK - Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan has received an overwhelming response from the Internet users on the issues of: - Imposition of CED on Internet by CBR - Multi-metering charging system by PTCL for Internet users - Exorbitant charges by the PTCL on International rates which increases the cost of Internet to the end users Users have widely shown their anger on the imposition of the CED and condemned the additional call charges system that PTCL proposes to implement. With your support we have had several meetings with the CBR and it appears, that the issue of CED on Internet may be resolved. Keep praying and assisting us in achieving this goal. The issue of the PTCL's charges for multi-metering and International links still lingers on, as they are more interested to increase their profits by their so-called monopoly, than assist in increasing the use of Internet by the common man. We need your help in getting this issue sorted out. A large number of users have inquired about the contact information of various government heads, newspapers and news agencies. This is provided below. You can use these contact information to express your opinion to those who matter. ISPAK - Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan The ISPAK Flash Report June 6, 1998 ISPAK NEWS FLASH # 3 As a protest against the taxing of Internet by the CBR and multimetering by PTCL, all users are requested to please send their e-mails to the following people and and raise your concern about these policies. Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif Minister for Information and Media Development Mr. Mushahid Hussain Syed Chief Coordinator, Prime Minister's 2010 Program Mr. Ahsan Iqbal B Chairman, Privatization Commission Khawaja M. Asif Fax 051-920 3176 Chairman CBR B Federal Minister for Commerce Mr. Ishaque Dar Fax: +92-51-920-5241 Secretary, Ministry of Communication Dr. Akram Sheikh Fax: +92-51-922-1300 Email addresses of some of the Newspapers are: Dawn The News Jang Ummat Nation News Network International Internews Kindly copy your all e-mails to ispak@super.net.pk as ISPAK is making a consolidated report and recommendations for the Government. From owner-s-asia-it Mon Jun 22 12:19:32 1998 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) id MAA09763; Mon, 22 Jun 1998 12:19:32 +0900 (JST) Received: from isp.super.net.pk (isp.super.net.pk [203.130.2.4]) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) with ESMTP id MAA09749 for ; Mon, 22 Jun 1998 12:19:19 +0900 (JST) Received: from server.super.net.pk (server.super.net.pk [203.130.2.3]) by isp.super.net.pk (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id IAA09904 for ; Mon, 22 Jun 1998 08:22:29 +0500 (GMT+0500) Received: from ngorc (khi-line-011.super.net.pk [203.130.5.150]) by server.super.net.pk (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id IAA21065 for ; Mon, 22 Jun 1998 08:28:07 +0500 (GMT+0500) Message-Id: <199806220328.IAA21065@server.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@teckla.apnic.net Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 08:30:27 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: ICT Conference -- South Asia -- Call for Papers Sender: owner-s-asia-it@apnic.net Precedence: bulk ------------------------------------------ The role of INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES IN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ------------------------------------------ A conference and workshops, Multan, Pakistan 12 - 15 April 1999 [http://farrer.riv.csu.edu.au/icted99]. Sponsored by Charles Sturt University, Australia [http://www.csu.edu.au] and Universal Tutelage Advisors (Pvt) Ltd, Pakistan. FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS Conference themes ----------------- A two-day conference will investigate how information and communications technologies may be employed to promote economic development. The focus will be towards, but not restricted to, countries of the third world and the South Asian region. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) (1) National policies for information and communication technologies .export enhancement .private sector development .public sector management .poverty alleviation. (2) Applications of information and communications technology .electronic commerce .electronic publishing .computers in agriculture. .case studies on the use of electronic mail and the Internet, (3) Communication technologies in education .case studies from high school to tertiary education .case studies in distance education (4) Education for information and communication technologies .vocational education .university research .on-going professional development. (5) Impact of "information age" on .health care system .law .tax .education The above themes are indicative only. Discussion of conference themes with conference organisers may be by email (icted99@farrer.riv.csu.edu.au). The final direction of the conference will be determined after receipt and review of submitted papers. Workshop topics --------------- The half-day workshops will follow the conference on the second and third days on; (1) the Internet and networking, (2) multimedia systems development, (3) object oriented programming in Java, and (4) object oriented systems analysis and design. Workshops will be presented by academic staff of the School of Information Studies, Charles Sturt University. Conference keynote speakers --------------------------- To be advised in the second and final call for papers. Contributed conference papers and submission details ---------------------------------------------------- Conference papers are solicited from all individuals and organisations interested in information technology and its application in the developing countries of South Asia. Submitted papers must be in English will be subject to academic review prior to acceptance. Papers presented at the conference will be published in conference proceedings. Other papers may be presented at poster sessions. .Abstract of conference papers due ... 4 September 1998 .Notification to authors ............. 16 October 1998 .Final conference papers due ......... 15 January 1999 Abstracts/papers and queries relating to the conference may be emailed to conference organisers (icted99@farrer.riv.csu.edu.au). Abstracts/papers should include authors' names, affilliations, addresses, fax and phone numbers and email addresses. Hard copies of abstracts/papers can be mailed to The Secretary, ICTED'99 Conference School of Information Studies Charles Sturt University Wagga Wagga, NSW 2678 Australia Conference venue ---------------- Multan, Pakistan. Further details To be advised in the second and final call for papers. Registration and related costs ------------------------------ Presenters from third world countries may request the conference organisers to include their names in an application for World Bank funding. Registration .conference & workshops $US150 ] includes lunch & refreshments .conference only $US150 ] includes lunch & refreshments .workshops only $US 50 ] includes lunch & refreshments Accomodation .category A hotels $US100 per night ] breakfast & dinner .category B hotels $US 50 per night ] breakfast & dinner .category C hotels $US 35 per night ] breakfast & dinner The organisers can assist with the arrangement of accomodation (icted99@farrer.riv.csu.edu.au). --------------------------------------------------- Dr David Lindley School of Information Studies Charles Sturt University Locked Bag 675, Wagga Wagga Tel: +61 2 6933 2374 NSW 2678, AUSTRALIA Fax: +61 2 6933 2733 --------------------------------------------------- http://www.csu.edu.au/faculty/sis/admin/lindley.htm From owner-s-asia-it Mon Jun 22 13:28:52 1998 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) id NAA10680; Mon, 22 Jun 1998 13:28:52 +0900 (JST) Received: from garlic.negia.net (root@garlic.negia.net [206.61.0.14]) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) with ESMTP id NAA10671 for ; Mon, 22 Jun 1998 13:28:39 +0900 (JST) Received: from idn.org (p79.negia.net [207.43.201.89]) by garlic.negia.net (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id AAA22899; Mon, 22 Jun 1998 00:26:10 -0400 Message-ID: <358DDDA7.85C440E2@idn.org> Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 00:29:27 -0400 From: "Christopher L. Byrne, Director" Organization: International Development Network X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.04 [en] (Win95; U) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "AFRIK-IT@LISTSERV.HEA.IE" , "afro-nets@usa.healthnet.org" , AG-DEV , bfwi-bankwatch , CANCHID , central-banks , DEV Finance List , "DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU" , INTDEV-L , international-development , "s-asia-it@postoffice.apnic.net" , wbedpol , WID-RES-L Subject: This Week at the International Development Network (June 22, 1998) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: owner-s-asia-it@apnic.net Precedence: bulk Apologies for Any Cross Posting __________________________________________________ Good day! Thanks to all who have submitted links and other information for publication on the IDN Web Site. There were many submissions for MicroFinance and Microenterprise Development this past week. Your contributions are most welcome and appreciated. This past week the IDN entered into the final stages of negotiations with a major publisher of literature on Sustainable Development, which will be available to members of the IDN at a 25% Discount. More information will be released when the agreement is finalized. IDN Membership Information is available at http://www.idn.org/membership/index.htm New or updated items this week on the IDN Web Site (http://www.idn.org/): ____________________________________________ IDN Membership Directory Updated list of members ____________________________________________ Tools You Can Use: Development Indicators On-Line from the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) ____________________________________________ Quick Link of the Week: This week's IDN Quick Link is to Children, Youth & AIDS, a multimedia exhibition from UNICEF that shows the impact of HIV/AIDS on children and serves as an educational forum for AIDS awareness and prevention. ____________________________________________ New Conferences, Meetings and Symposia Information And Communication Technologies In Economic Development (Pakistan) Canadian Council of Christian Charities: Relief and Development Group Forum 1998 on Partnership ____________________________________________ ViewPoints (including a new discussion forum) >From Sutures To Justice, Justice Must Heal The Wounds Of War Crimes ____________________________________________ New or Modified Links (modified links are indicated by the (*): ACTIONAID - development charity working directly with three million of the world's poorest people in Africa, Asia and Latin America, helping them in their fight against poverty. Association of Caribbean Electoral Organizations (ACEO) - promotes cooperation and mutual assistance among electoral authorities in the Caribbean, and the use of election processes that ensure free, fair and peaceful elections. Association of Central and East European Election Officials (ACEEEO) - promotes cooperation and mutual assistance among electoral authorities in Central and Eastern Europe, and the use of election processes that ensure free, fair and peaceful elections. Association of African Election Authorities (AAfEA) - promote and institutionalize the professional nature of African election authorities through regional exchanges and networking. Association of Asian Election Authorities (AAEA) -  promotes and institutionalizes open and transparent elections, independent and impartial election authorities, professionalization of Asian election authorities, citizen participation in the electoral and civic process, information sharing, and the development of resources for election-related information and research. Centre cooperation internationale sante developpement inc (CCISD) - development health activities in Africa and Latin America: AIDS-STD, primary health care, epidemiological surveillance, women health. Christian Children's Fund - CCF is an international child development organization assisting over 2.5 million children in 32 countries, including the United States. CUSO - a Canadian organization which supports alliances for global social justice. We work with people striving for freedom, self-determination, gender and racial equality and cultural survival. DMFAS Programme of UNCTAD -  the Debt Management and Financial Analysis System (DMFAS) is designed to strengthen the technical capacity of developing countries to record and monitor their external debt. Department for International Development (UK) - Created in May 1997 after the UK General Election. It subsumes the responsibilities of the Overseas Development Administration, in managing Britain's bilateral and multilateral development programmes in poorer countries. Developments - a free quarterly magazine produced by the Department for International Development to increase awareness of development issues. Eastern Caribbean Investment Promotion Service (ECIPS) - promotes investment in the countries of the Eastern Caribbean. Fundación CIPAV - Colombian NGO founded in 1986. The projects and programs on which it focuses are alternative agricultural production systems. In these systems we promote the efficient and sustainable utilization of the available human and natural resources, which are in harmony with the environment. Global Care - an international Christian charity working for needy children through relief, development, education and child-care programmes *The Global Health Network - an alliance of experts in health and telecommunications who are actively developing the architecture for a health information structure for the prevention of disease in the 21st century. IS World - provide information management scholars and practitioners with a single entry point to resources related to information systems technology and promote the development of an international information infrastructure that will dramatically improve the world's ability to use information systems for creating, disseminating, and applying knowledge. *International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) - a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting social and economic development with women's full participation. International Resources Group Ltd. - committed to providing efficient management and cost- effective services that promote sustainable economic development. Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship - A publication devoted to issues concerning microenterprise development. Livestock Research for Rural Development - The international journal for research into sustainable developing world agriculture. MicroFinance Network - A global association of leading microfinance practitioners. MicroFinance Network convenes Executive Directors of institutions such as BancoSol, BRI, and BRAC for annual conferencees to discuss best practices. Proceedings are on-line, along with information on other research publications. Oxfam Great Britain - a development, advocacy, and relief agency working to put an end to poverty world-wide. Soufrière Marine Management Area (SMMA) - St. Lucia - a non profit, public interest organization, which promotes the conservation of the marine environment, specifically coral reefs. United Nations Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP) - a centre for statistical training for the developing countries in Asia and the Pacific region. Virtual Library on Microcredit - a repository of information on microcredit, alternative and non-conventional financial systems issues. Community mobilization and enviro-economic development also find a place here. World University Service of Canada-Entraide universitaire mondiale du Canada (WUSC-EUMC) - An NGO, is a network of individuals and post-secondary institutions whose mission it is to foster development and global understanding through education and training. __________________________________________________________ The IDN plans to continue our growth and offerings. If you have not yet thought about a membership/sponsorship in the IDN, we encourage you to consider becoming a sponsor/member of the fastest growing, most comprehensive and current International Development Web Site on the Internet! Information is available at http://www.idn.org/membership/index.htm From owner-s-asia-it Thu Jun 25 13:04:18 1998 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) id NAA28178; Thu, 25 Jun 1998 13:04:18 +0900 (JST) Received: from isp.super.net.pk (isp.super.net.pk [203.130.2.4]) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) with ESMTP id NAA28169 for ; Thu, 25 Jun 1998 13:04:05 +0900 (JST) Received: from server.super.net.pk (server.super.net.pk [203.130.2.3]) by isp.super.net.pk (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id JAA02167 for ; Thu, 25 Jun 1998 09:07:14 +0500 (GMT+0500) Received: from ngorc (khi-line-049.super.net.pk [203.130.5.188]) by server.super.net.pk (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id JAA30761 for ; Thu, 25 Jun 1998 09:12:54 +0500 (GMT+0500) Message-Id: <199806250412.JAA30761@server.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@teckla.apnic.net Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 09:14:11 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: World News-Xchange Sender: owner-s-asia-it@apnic.net Precedence: bulk [Following are the details about World News-Xchange. This is further to the message that I had posted on 22 Jun 1998. Irfan Khan] ------------------ World News-Xchange NEWS OBJECTIVITY, ACCESSIBILITY AND FREE DISSEMINATION The production, presentation and dissemination of international news by the Western news organisations have never ceased to be a controversial issue among the academics, journalists as well as among the people who are reported about. Western news coverage is perceived by the people of the developing countries as biased, tendentious, sensational, opinionated and obsessed. The revolution in information technology, enabling the globalisation of economics, calls for the role of international news media to be reappraised. There is now more than ever the need to examine the role of the media as a conduit for news and information to support economic and social development in the developing countries. This project, a result of years of study and research, is specifically concerned with the problem of negative news reporting of the developing countries by the Western media. It also aims to address the problem of inaccessibility, distribution and dissemination. World NewsXchange is a pragmatic solution to news imbalance and negative bias. The globalisation of trade and investment dictates that for a fair competition to take place there must be an equal sharing and simultaneous distribution of news and information throughout the whole world. To do so there must be a apolitical, independent, non-profit and creditable news service served by a respectable, reliable and trustworthy team of newspeople from around the world. News should be objective, fair and contextualised. It should be based on a truthful account and should be freely available and instantaneously accessible by all the people of the developing countries. Voluminous amount of critical articles and damning studies have been written on journalism and the way it is packaged for international consumption. We share the chorus of calls for news to be free from value judgement. Objective reporting is our goal. Reporting should be based on the factual account of the actuality rather than present it as a socially manufactured artefact. The proliferation of global satellite television channels and the concentration of media outlets in the hands of a few media moghuls, characterised by acquisitions and mergers, are against the interest of the public. This also contravenes the principles of fair competition. Sadly, the people of the developing world, for a lack of telephone equipment, a poor telecommunication network, temperamental electricity supply and difficulty in Internet access cannot share the wealth of information. At best, this is an outright denial of basic human right and at worst, it deprives them an opportunity to empower themselves to compete in the commercial world. Consequently, the gap between the rich and the poor will widen. Subscribing to the principle of universal access to information we are planning to make information accessible to the people of every country in the world through the Internet. Global Media Network, the parent of WNE is also planning to set up, subject to funding, cybercafes in the rural areas of developing countries to provide villagers without a computer to have access to the Internet. The avalanche of news and information should be shared with everyone. Powerful media magnates and manipulative news organisations of the West should not be the only gatekeepers to world news. The Internet is instrumental in empowering individuals and smaller organisations to provide alternative and parallel news service. Every one can contribute to enrich the corpus of knowledge. It is not the calibre of BBC or CNN journalists that hounds the African story of mass famine or genocide but the local people as knowledgeable source of news. UNESCO The question of the reformation of global mass communication dates back to the inauguration of the United Nations. It was originally intended to fight poverty, illiteracy and the effects of colonialism. As early as the mid-1960s the Western media and the news agencies were rapped for their dominance over the developing world, followed by the crystallization of ideas for a New World information order. UNESCO diagnosed the problem as being inadequate flow of information from the LDCs to the Western world. Communications experts met in Canada in 1969 to urge a 'balanced circulation of news'. America vehemently resisted all moves to reform and frustrated UNESCO's measures by vetoing. Mustapha Masmoudi, the former Tunisian minister of information, argued that 'almost 80 per cent of the world news flow emanates from the major trans-national agencies; however, these devote only 20 to 30 per cent of news coverage to the developing countries, despite the fact that the latter account for almost three quarters of mankind'. He told the commission that 'information is distorted by reference to moral, cultural or political values peculiar to certain states, in defiance of the values and concerns of other nations. The criteria of government selection are consciously or unconsciously based on the political and economic interests of the trans-national system and of the countries in which this system is established. In 1980 the International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems recognised the need for improving international communication while endorsing the principles of a free flow of information. The findings of numerous researches have criticised their role in processing and delivering news about the issues affecting the developing countries. The anomaly stems, firstly, from their news values, based on their Western view of developmental issues and secondly, from the journalists' lack of socio-cultural and economic understanding of the originating countries. The status quo is reasserted by the economic power of the individual news organisations of the western world as they are highly concentrated in the hands of a few magnates. Fostered by a capitalist system, they are expected to be subservient to capitalism rather than underpin the prevalent socio-economic and political systems upon which pivot most developing nations. The consequence of western news coverage, which is characterised by being tendentious, inaccurate, out-of-context, biased, negative, partial, brief, sensational, patronising and ideological has inflicted serious damage upon the Less Developed Countries (LDCs) and Developed Countries (DCs). Instead of the developing nations galvanising into an international initiative to redress this disturbing media imbalance and injustice they are still reluctant to allow commercial competition to their state-owned media outlets, let alone permitting foreign news organisations to serve their public. However, it would be naive to suggest that a solution is easy. Far from it, it is incumbent upon journalists and news organisations in the developing countries to unite and display a concerted reaction. Their image in the international community needs to be fairly portrayed and even put right. Nothing short of a radically reorganised world media order would bring about an equitable and fair coverage. Besides, our research proves that despite numerous specialist agencies and NGOs working towards the betterment of mankind and a fairer world there is even a greater need for an international media agency to promote their work, campaign for their cause, communicate their messages effectively and highlight the diagnosed problem areas. A third pressing reason, for a new independent agency is the plight of the poor, deprived, underprivileged, old and sick, street children and victims of natural disasters and man-made calamities. AIMS World News-Xchange, dedicated to the promotion of omni-directional news dissemination with an emphasis on the coverage of development and environment issues, aims: [1] To redress the imbalance of news coverage of development issues between the LDCs and DCs. [2] To act as an international exchange bureau of news and information with an emphasis on co-ordinating and monitoring the activities of charitable bodies, specialist agencies and the NGOs. [3] To promote environmental protection with a view to protecting endangered species, bio-diversity, natural environment and highlight the causes and effects of water, air pollution and chemical emission. [4] To encourage sustained economic development through exchanges of trade between the North and South with a view to creating employment prospects and improving the standard of living in both blocs. INVESTMENT To implement the above objectives, World News-Xchange is currently neither grant-aided nor does it receive funding from public bodies. We are trying to raise funds by launching appeals by mailshots and exhibit at fairs, events, commercial trading, membership fees and donations. World NewsXchange is building a global network of professional journalists both active and retired, student journalists, news hacks and enthusiasts, academics, individuals as well as like-minded people from different parts of the world. NEWS COLLECTION We are planning to recruit more contributors to add to the team of voluntary journalists, journalism students or news people in every country who would act as our nodes. Able to spare a couple of hours a day, you will be the ears and eyes of WNE to monitor contemporary developments in international finance, development economics, Information Technology, environmental affairs and social development. As a bona fide journalist, retired or active, a talented contributor or news enthusiast you will have a nose for news, editorial judgement, sound news sense and incessant patience to chase accuracy. You will be committed to contributing news and information online to help improve the lives of the people of the developing countries. You cherish a genuine desire to form part of a global network which is dedicated to world welfare though the global media and the Internet. MODE OF DISTRIBUTION All the inputs will be fed via the email or FTP to the news service website which will give access to participating journalists for editing. The articles will be classified and allocated a relevant news editor selected from the panel of participating journalists. All edited articles, news stories and other material will then be directed to the Editor-in-Chief before being despatched, syndicated or uploaded to the website. WEB SITE DEVELOPERS GMN is also seeking voluntary web site designers to help with the construction and maintenance of our site. There are so many talents out there who could offer us their services please come forward and help improve the lives of poverty-stricken people of the developing world. GLOBAL MEDIA NETWORK Global Media Network, (GMN), is a British-based non-profit worldwide media and welfare organisation. GMN is dedicated to the promotion of [1] Social Development, [2] Sustainable Growth, [3] Economic Equity, [4] Environmental Protection,[5] Awareness of socio-economic and environment problems, [6] Access to Information Technology though the electronic global media and the Internet. GMN enjoys an entry in the 1998 Yearbook of International Organisations. REMUNERATION Although there is no fund for remunerating any contributors or volunteers immediately it is hoped that as soon as funds are approved or we attract advertising revenue we will be considering reimbursing costs involved in helping out World News Xchange. Contributors whose articles attract a payment will be paid 80 per cent of the total fee received. ADVERTISING AND SPONSORSHIP GMN will invite advertising and sponsorships from the commercial world as well from public funding bodies. ADDRESS Global House, 107-115 Seven Sisters Road, Islington, London, UK. Tel +44 171 561 1020 Fax +44 171 263 0060 email: shiv@journalist.com FEEDBACK Please submit your suggestions on building this newsagency. (c) Copyright GMN Jan.1998 From owner-s-asia-it Thu Jun 25 14:04:37 1998 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) id OAA29383; Thu, 25 Jun 1998 14:04:37 +0900 (JST) Received: from cello.cs.iitm.ernet.in ([206.103.12.228]) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) with ESMTP id OAA29347 for ; Thu, 25 Jun 1998 14:03:08 +0900 (JST) Received: from indy (indy.iitm.ernet.in [144.16.241.170]) by cello.cs.iitm.ernet.in (8.7.6/8.6.9) with SMTP id KAA28458; Thu, 25 Jun 1998 10:19:05 +0530 Received: by indy; (940816.SGI.8.6.9/1.1.8.2/07Feb96-0917AM) id KAA01155; Thu, 25 Jun 1998 10:33:55 +0530 From: "Prof. Arunachalam" Message-Id: <9806251033.ZM1153@indy.iitm.ernet.in> Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 10:33:55 +0000 In-Reply-To: "Irfan Khan" "World News-Xchange" (Jun 25, 9:14am) References: <199806250412.JAA30761@server.super.net.pk> X-Mailer: Z-Mail (3.2.2 10apr95 MediaMail) To: "Irfan Khan" Subject: Re: Technology widens the gap between the rich and the poor Cc: arun@indy.iitm.ernet.in, anna@wn.apc.org, atyner@idea-group.com, bergmann@hydro.tugraz.ac.at, buccianti@cesitl.unifi.it, cii-co@sdalt.ernet.in, db@dmrl.ernet.in, ebic@giasbm01.vsnl.net.in, euforindia@infoboard.be, f.tan@auckland.ac.nz, icsu@lmcp.jussieu.fr, igp1@idea-group.com, igpl@idea-group.com, ioccd@igc.apc.org, jai@xlweb.com, jayarajan@bc-delhi.bcindi.sprintsmx.ems.vsnl.net.in, jtravers@idea-group.com, njop@ioppublishing.co.uk, s-asia-it@teckla.apnic.net Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: owner-s-asia-it@apnic.net Precedence: bulk Friends: Here are three items, giving my views on new information technologies (ICT), especially the Internet, and their implications for the developing world. Your comments are welcome. You are free to circulate them widely. Arun Subbiah Arunachalam Science Writer & Information Scientist 28 Luz Avenue, Mylapore Chennai 600 004, India 25 June 1998 ----------------- Item 1 Here is a paper presented at "Science Communication for the Next Millennium: Ninth International Conference of the International Federation of Science Editors", Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, 7-11 June 1998. Information technology: What it means for science communication in developing countries Subbiah Arunachalam Visiting Professor, Dept of Humanities and Social Sciences Indian Institute of Technology, CHENNAI 600 036, India [Fax: 91-44-2351319. Email: arun@indy.iitm.ernet.in] In an interview she gave to a British newspaper immediately after she won the Nobel Prize for literature, the Princeton University professor Ms Tony Morrison said that it seemed as if writing about the life and sensibilities of the Blacks didn't really count. It was not thought important enough to merit attention. It was peripheral. It is the same with doing science (or working in any other area of scholarly pursuit) in the developing countries. One's work goes unnoticed. One who works under adverse conditions in the developing countries needs to achieve a lot more to win some recognition than those who work under much better conditions in the developed countries. Not surprising. After all, we live in an unequal world. Immediately following the Prague conference of medical editors (September 1997), New Scientist commented in an editorial (1 November 1997) that when it came to choosing manuscripts for publication, editors of reputed international journals would more likely select the one from Harvard in preference to the one from Hyderabad. Even though both manuscripts may be of comparable quality. Harvard any day is a safer bet than Hyderabad! Technology tends to exacerbate this inequality and further marginalize scientists on the periphery. The Internet, or for that matter any technology, does not come without its attendant problems. History has repeatedly shown that technology inevitably enhances existing inequalities. Take for example, scientific research in India. It is very important for researchers to get to know what is happening around the world as well as to let others know what they are doing. Information is key to the growth of knowledge and dissemination of information is crucial for the scientific enterprise. And information is disseminated through communication channels. In pre-Independent India, when scientists of the caliber of C V Raman, Meghnad Saha, J C Bose and S N Bose made their first-rate contributions to knowledge, the main vehicle for transmission of knowledge was the scholarly journal, and there were far fewer journals then than now. Scientists around the world were almost at the same level as far as accessing information was concerned. True that Raman and his Indian colleagues received the journal issues a few months later than their European colleagues - the time it took for the boat to cross the seas. Today there is a tremendous proliferation of journals and many of them, especially those published by commercial firms, are out of reach for libraries in the poorer countries. The best academic science library in India, viz. the Indian Institute of Science library receives less than 2,100 serials. In the United States and possibly Europe, many university libraries subscribe to upwards of 50 or 60 thousand journal titles! On top of it, today many primary journals and secondary services have gone electronic, and most physicists get to know of the latest developments from preprints circulated through the Los Alamos network on the Internet. Current awareness services such as Current Contents Connect, abstracting services such as SciFinder of Chemical Abstracts Service, and multidisciplinary citation indexes such as Web of Science are available on the Web. At an enormous fee of course. Now even primary journals are accessible through password control on the web, such as under the Science Direct service of Elsevier. To access information in cyber space, one first needs access to the corresponding electronic technology. Often technology diffuses rather slowly and today most scientists and scholars in the developing countries do not have access to the new information technologies. As a result, one's performance can be (and is) affected, not necessarily because one is a poor physicist or chemist but because one has poorer access to electronic means - be it CD-ROM, online or the Web - of getting the information needed. Accessing through CD-ROM offers capabilities that are not possible with the print form, and accessing through the web offers capabilities that are not possible with the CD-ROM form. As a recent editorial in Science (17 April 1998) pointed out, "Digital publishing has much to recommend it over print publishing for practical if not for esthetic reasons. Uncomfortable tradeoffs are involved, to be sure, but the gains include ease of access, rapid delivery over great distances, and hypertext links from indexing services and bibliographic citations to the full text of cited documents." Hardly any laboratory in the developing world has web access to these databases. How can scientists working in these laboratories be equal partners in the worldwide enterprise of knowledge production? Thus the transition to electronic publishing from print will certainly widen the gap between the developed countries and the developing countries. Most developing countries, especially those with large populations, do not have the necessary infrastructure (computer terminals, networks, communication channels, bandwidth, etc.) and will take a long time to have it in place to be able to take part as equal partners in the worldwide enterprise of knowledge production and dissemination. According to Bruce Girard, former director of Latin America's community radio Pulsar, 95% of all computers are in the developed nations; ten developed nations, accounting for only 20% of the world's population have three quarters of the world's telephone lines. Teledensity in India today is about 1.5 lines per 100 persons. Till 1994, it was less than one per 100 persons. And most of the telephones are concentrated in the metropolitan cities. Many scientists do not have telephones on their desks; those who have cannot make calls outside their towns/cities, let alone overseas calls. Many universities do not have Email or Internet facilities. Some have 1.2 or 2.4 kbps connections. With such low bandwidths and poor terrestrial telephone connections, one can at best send and receive Email messages but cannot surf the net or do online searches on the Internet. The simple truth is the information superhighway is not bringing the fruits of cyber space to all. There are far too many people in the developing world who have not been touched by the information and communication revolutions - the have-nots and the know-nots who risk being always behind. A number of journals, especially in the STM area, are receiving manuscripts by Email, getting them reviewed by Email, and so on. Some journals are available only in the electronic form. Editors of such international journals will naturally be reluctant to use referees from developing countries, even if they are exceptionally competent in their fields, simply because it may be extremely difficult to reach them electronically. Nor for that matter, many developing country scientists will be able to publish their work in these electronic journals. The United Nations is greatly concerned about the imbalance in access to communication facilities. The UN's Administrative Committee on Coordination issued a statement on Universal Access to Basic Communication and Information Services in April 1997 in which it comments: "We are profoundly concerned at the deepening mal-distribution of access, resources and opportunities in the information and communication field. The information technology gap and related inequities between industrialized and developing nations are widening: a new type of poverty - information poverty - looms. Most developing countries, especially the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) are not sharing in the communication revolution, since they lack: * affordable access to core information resources, cutting-edge technology and to sophisticated telecommunication systems and infrastructure; * the capacity to build, operate, manage, and service the technologies involved; * policies that promote equitable public participation in the information society as both producers and consumers of information and knowledge; and * a work force trained to develop, maintain and provide the value-added products and services required by the information economy. We therefore commit the organizations of the United Nations system to assist developing countries in redressing the present alarming trends." While communication revolution is perceived as a liberating influence, what is most likely to happen is that in many developing countries (including India, I am afraid) scientists and scholars will be among the last to be reached by the revolution. Therefore the relative disadvantage they suffer (in the matter of access to information and knowledge) will only increase. The speedy transition to electronic publishing will make it much easier for scientists and scholars in the developed countries to interact with colleagues and members of their invisible colleges. My major worry is that the (current) low level of information and communication technologies and internet access prevailing in the developing countries might lead to the progressive exclusion of a majority of scientists and scholars in these countries from the collective international discourse that is essential for making progress in new knowledge production. Even now, when much publishing takes place in print, participation by India and other developing countries in high Impact journals [such as Science, Cell, Journal of the American Chemical Society] is very low. The already existing gulf in the levels of science and technology performed in the developed and the poorer countries will be widened further, and that could lead to increased levels of brain drain and dependence on foreign aid of a different kind (knowledge imperialism). In an earlier era, a brilliant Indian mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan, who was a genius but who had not gone through a conventional training programme, was nurtured in the intellectually stimulating ambience of Cambridge University, thanks to the vision of Prof. G H Hardy. While such individual initiatives may still be welcome to overcome real and apparent handicaps, what we need to overcome the current crisis is a far more organized and systematic programme of action. Early introduction of satellite-based high bandwidth Internet access to tertiary educational institutions and research laboratories at low cost and differential pricing for information [journal subscriptions and access to databases] to developing countries are high on my agenda. On both fronts, I am not happy with what is happening. For example, India can afford to invest in Internet provision to the 100 or so cities and towns where most of the nation's research laboratories and universities are located. But this has not happened. On the contrary, different agencies in the telecom sector are quarrelling with one another. Indeed, this is characteristic of the Third World: it often takes far too much time for things to happen or to translate something from the realm of the possible to reality. As for differential pricing, both publishers of primary journal and database producers are reluctant. In one rare exception, the Institute for Scientific Information, Philadelphia, offers its Science Citation Index at 50% discount to most developing country subscribers. Even then it is perceived as too costly! I would not be surprised if very soon the gulf between the scientifically advanced nations and the others widen even further, leading to further reducing the role of the developing countries in the enterprise of knowledge production, dissemination and utilization. I sound pessimistic. So did Tony Morrison. About the author: Subbiah Arunachalam (Arun) is an information consultant based in Madras (now renamed Chennai) in South India. He has been associated with the Indian academic and scholarly communities for over three decades. He has been an editor of scientific journals [Indian Journal of Technology, Journal of Scientific & Industrial Research, Indian Journal of Chemistry, Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Sciences, and Pramana - Journal of Physics], a science writer, a researcher in chemistry, a teacher of information science, a librarian in a national laboratory, the executive secretary of the Indian Academy of Sciences, and a member of the editorial boards of scientific journals. Currently he is a Distinguished Fellow in the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation and a part-time Visiting Professor in the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai. His research interests include science on the periphery, scientometrics, and information access. He has recently completed a literature-based study on mapping science in India. He has more than 40 papers to his credit and is on the editorial boards of six refereed international journals. He has delivered more than twenty invited talks in international conferences. His forte is his knowledge and understanding of the Indian scientific and scholarly community and their work. He is a member of both the Indian and the International Science Writers Associations. --------- Item 2 Dirk Asendorpf of Die Zeit interviews Subbiah Arunachalam. A condensed version of this, translated into German, was published in Die Zeit, dated 19 December 1997, page 62. Question 1: Worldwide there is a strong belief that the Internet will contribute to global democratisation and free flow of information. In Africa media organisations, non-governmental organisations and educational institutions from 19 countries expressed this opinion in the July '97 "Dakar Declaration". It says: "We call on African Governments to instil an environment conducive to the rapid development of the Internet and other information and communication technologies. We consider any absence of connectivity not related to technical problems as hindrances to the development of democracy. We support and encourage the emergence and development of the Internet in Africa as a media free of government interference and control in the context of a pluralistic and independent press." Why do you object to this widespread optimism? Answer: I am in total agreement with the spirit of the Dakar Declaration. We need the Internet not only in Africa or India but wherever people live! All I say is that optimism should be tempered by ground realities. The Internet, or for that matter any technology, does not come without its attendant problems. History has repeatedly shown that technology inevitably enhances already existing inequalities. Take the case of electronic publishing. Classical sociology of science tells us that science is universal, anyone anywhere can contribute to knowledge in the sciences and irrespective of who said it the new finding, if it is reasonable, will be accepted or at least taken seriously by all. That is the basis of the system of information exchange - mediated by journals, current awareness, abstracting and indexing services - that is in place today. In reality though, ease of access to information differs considerably from place to place. Many universities in the United States, and possibly in Europe, subscribe to more than 50,000 serials, whereas not even ten libraries in India may receive more than 1,000 journals! And remember, India is fairly advanced in higher education and science. That is the reality when print-on-paper mediates information dissemination. When we move over to electronic means of information transfer, many institutions in the developing world will take a long time to have the technology in place, and will not have the same bandwidth and other capabilities as their counterparts in the advanced countries. Look at the number of telephones and computers per thousand population for different countries. Already some journals are available only as electronic journals. Most scientists in the developing world will not have access to such journals. Both Chemical Abstracts and Science Citation Index are now available on the Web (at an enormous cost). Accessing through the Web offers capabilities that are not possible with the print or the CD-ROM forms. Hardly any laboratory in the developing world has Web access to these databses.How can they be equal partners in the worldwide enterprise of knowledge production? Then there is the distinct possibility of losing one's identity. The electronic technologies are so overwhelmingly homogenizing, the whole world may soon be 'aping' the West! Today, in India, more young people follow pop music of the West than Indian music - either the film songs or the classical systems of Karnatic and Hindustani.Mahatma Gandhi said that we should keep the windows open so that we will get to know what is going on elsewhere, but we should not allw ourselves to be uprooted. Question 2: Is it not a contradiction to complain of the homogenizing effect of electronic technologies and at the same time to point out the low degree of internet-connectivity in the developing world? How can a technology which is hardly accessible overrun the cultural values of a society? Answer: First, let me make it clear. I am not anti-Internet or anti-new technology! I want the developing world to enjoy the advantages of these technologies without, in the process, losing the good things of life they already enjoy and without being swept of their feet (and losing their moorings). You are right in saying that Internet penetration in the developing world is low at the moment. But then computer and telecom prices are coming down rather fast and unlike technlogies of the past the computer-communication technologies will diffuse much much faster. What will therefore happen is a very large population of the developing countries will have access to a set of new technologies (essentially borrowed, in the sense hardly any part of it is invented locally), but will have VERY LITTLE of their own content. Take a middle class Indian family, for example. The parents work so hard and deny themselves all pleasures to save some money and buy a computer for the kids so their future can be bright (!). The kids get to see on their CD-ROM facility Encarta and other products largely meant for and created by the West. They will soon know a great deal about Western culture and civilization and probably little about their own classics (Ramayana, Gita, Mahabharata, Mahatma Gandhi and the freedom movement, etc.). Borrowed tools often come with borrowed knowledge! In fact, many vendors of multimedia computers give free CD-ROM discs, not one of which is India oriented. Every technology has this problem associated with content. Take Gutenberg's (Please check spelling) printing. It not only helped herald Martin Luther's religious revolution but has helped generations of his successors in Europe to colonise and convert people in Asia and Africa. What mattered more was the content the technology of printing helped to be disseminated. For another example, take research scientists. They need to know what others are doing and need others know what they are doing. Thanks to Internet and electronic journals, the well networked Western scientists are by and large well informed or at least can remain well informed with some effort. But most developing country scientists are handicapped. Because many of them are not on the Net, they are out of touch with what is published in electronic journals, and they get to know of what is published a long time after their Western counterparts. A clear case of information haves and information havenots. Question 3: But is exactly this not a very strong point in favour of electronic exchange? You just complained about the lack of scientific journals in Indian libraries. On the Internet most of this information is easy accessible, usually even free of charge. So what could be a better solution for the problem of information havenots than the Internet with its equal opportunities for every user wherever he or she lives? And why not start right now to create Indian contents on the Internet? Nobody would suppress information about Ramayana or Mahatma Gandhi on the Internet. Answer: This talk about "equal opportunities" is fallacious. Try accessing the Net from even the better endowed of Indian laboratories, and you will realise the enormous difference between accessing information from the Third World and accessing it from an advanced country. The powerful servers, the modem speeds and the bandwidth apart, you have the problem of your telephone going dead for hours or even days. Take the case of Prof. Ganapathy Baskaran, one of the world's leading condensed matter theorists. He works both at Princeton, NJ (the Institute of Advanced Study as well as the University) and at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai. He was living in a rented house in Chennai for a long time and moved in to an official quarters allotted by his institute late last year. It took several months for the local telephone department (owned by the Government of India) to shift his telephone and took nearly nine months before he could use the instrument! Yes, many journals are available on the Net, but most of them are accessible only through passwords and these are given to subscribers only. You must have heard about the TULIP project of the Elsevier Group, the world's largetst publishers of scientific journals (about 1,100 titles). They tested the new system of electronic delivery of information in a select set of institutions, all of them in North America or Europe. Not one was in Asia - not even in Japan! The Institute for Scientific Information, Philadelphia, a leading publisher of electronic and web databases in the sciences and social sciences, examined the feasibility of an electronic library for more than two years. Again, the collaborating libraries were all in North America and Europe. For obvious reasons. About creating Indian contents on the Net, your suggestion is well taken. One can put all the classics on the Net, but that doesn't guarantee taht they will be read. As Toni Morrison, the Nobel Laureate, once said, who cares for writing concerning black people. The point is unless what you do is "mainstream" (as defined by the people in the "mainstream"!), you have no chance of being heard. But one need not be cynical. In recent years, many Indian writers in English - Arundathi Roy, Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth, Upamanyu Chatterjee - have been accepted in the West. Here again, most of you in the West wouldn't know that there have been many far more outstanding writers in the several Indian languages, who would forever remain unknown to you. Question 4: What do you mean when you say that there are "obvious reasons" for the fact that the collaborating libraries of feasability studies on electronic libraries were all in North America and Europe? Answer: Only libraries in these regions have the technological means (high speed telephone and Internet connections) which would enable them to participate in the experiment. Also, much of Elsevier's and ISI's market is in the Western world, and these companies know only too well that it would take a long time before libraries in the developing world will be in a position to afford subscriptions to their rather expensive products and services. Question 5: I see your point that due to scarce resources in Indian Scientific institutions it is dificult for you to make use of the expensive databases on the Internet. But in Germany we are always told that today most of the software development and software design are done in India by Indian information scientists, not in Europe. And most of the hardware is produced in Asia as well. This fact is refered to as a proof of the globalization of technology-development in the age of the information-society and of its unchangeable trend to equalize the worldwide scientific community. Don't you think that in this sense the Internet gives new opportunities to scientists in the developing world? Answer: India is poor. It does not mean everybody here is poor. Same way as the rubric "Third World" consists of both Burkina Faso and India, as pointed out by Jean Jacques Salomon, the French intellectual. There are a few stinkingly rich families and business tycoons in India. Similarly, there are some sectors where India has enormous world class quality, and software writing is one of them. In fact, many Indians are performing the key functions in California's silicon valley. [Even so, India's share of the world's software business may be about 1%! While the Indians work, invent and develop, men like Andy Grove and Bill Gates make the money!] The point is there is no rael equalization. All we see is exploiting a new set of resources. In the colonial days the European powers occupied much of the rest of the world and exploited their natural resources and used the territories as their captive markets. When political colonialism became no longer profitable, the economic colonialism took over and the West is exploiting the skilled labour of the developing world to its advantage. The enormous reputation Indian software writers enjoy around the world has absolutely no impact on the way Indian universities and research laboratories access information. It is almost like two water-tight compartments parked in the vicinity of each other. Actually, the intellectual capabilities required to be a first class theoretical physicist or mathematician are of a much higher order than those required to become a Y2K programme developer. But today in India, the Y2K programmer gets a US$60,000/year job rather easily and gets a visa and flies off to the USA while a mathematician with an FRS to his credit earns around Rs 200,000/year (about US$6,000!). The job market is very skewed. You have one point in favour of your argument. Thanks to rapid growth of the use of computers, many people from the poorer countries get opportunities to earn much higher sums than would have been possible only a few years ago. That does not amount to 'equalization' in the true sense. Question 6: How is it posible to keep those "compartments" of high-paid program developers and low-income scientists so water-tight separated? They must have once studied at the same universities, lived in the same residences and went to the same parties. Don't they keep on exchangeing ideas and thereby creating up-to-date scientific know-how in your country? Answer: Yes, many who went into software-related professions are indeed from institutions from where most of our scientists and researchers hail. There is a considerable overlap. But once they move into high-pressure software jobs and companies they lose touch with their alma mater and friends who go into research. I work in the Indian Institute of Technology at Chennai (which was started with technical support from the Federal Republic of Germany more than 35 years ago). A number of our graduates have gone on to become software professionals, but I hardly know of anyone maintaining 'academic' contact with colleagues back home who are in research and teaching. Also, a number of our engineering and technology graduates migrate to management and marketing careers and they also lose 'academic' relations with the rest of us. Regarding scientific knowhow in India, there are some world class scientists, no doubting that. But they are rather few considering our large population. We do publish about 11,000 papers annually in the 3,300 or so journals indexed in Science Citation Index. If we take into account other S&T journals - those not indexed in SCI, but still of some value to S&T researchers - then India may account for roughly 16 - 20 thousand papers a year. Question No. 7: So do you think that there is anything the Indian government or society could do to make real use of electronic communication? Or is there no hope that the Internet-technology - which is borderless in principle - could provide a chance for countries outside the borders of the First World? Answer: Yes, most Third World governments and people themselves can take advantage of the Internet revolution. Take China and Brazil for example. Both have far better access to Internet than India. Right now, steps are being taken to improve the situation in India, mostly by academics. A few months ago Prof. V S Arunachalam, formerly Scientific Adviser to the Ministry of Defence at New Delhi and currently a distinguished professor at the Carnegie-Mellon University in the USA, was in India and he met several key people including Mr P Chidambaram, our Minister fror Finance; Mr Chandrababau Naidu, Chief Minister of the southern state of Andhra Pradesh and the leader of the United Front which governs India; and some technocrats. I spent more than an hour with him. His primary mission was to provide high bandwidth - at least 2Mbps if not T1 - Internet access to at least the top 25 or 30 Indian cities where much research is being carried out. He is also interested in linking up Indian and American university libraries. Subsequently, the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Cabinet headed by Prof. C N R Rao appointed a three-member subcommittee consisting of Prof. Roddam Narasimha, an outstanding aeronautical engineer, as the chairman and two world-class computer scientists - Prof. N Balakrishnan and Dr Vidyasagar - as members to look into improving Internet access in India for academics and researchers. This committee's report is now with the Cabinet, but it may take a long time before the Cabinet will act on it. The Prime Minister and his cabinet colleagues are constantly embroiled in political crises and are fighting for their very survival and Internet cannot be a priority item in their agenda! Fortunately, by a recent decision the government of India has opened up Internet service to private companies. Till now it was a monopoly of the state-run Overseas Telelecom Department (Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd). There is hope that Indians will get better service. I am often reminded of Norbert Wiener's narration of the fight between the mongoose and the snake. Although both are of very nearly equal physical strength, invariably the mongoose emerges victorious. Because it organises its strategy better. The First World countries are like the mongoose and the developing countries are like the snake! In every transaction - including adopting new technologies - the First World wins! Question 8: Coming back to the cultural imperialism of the Internet: You are using this technology yourself - not only to conduct this interview. Has it already changed your own Indian identity? Or did you find a way to avoid the westernizing effect of electronic media? Answer: One must be a saint not to be affected by one's surroundings! I am no longer the same person after I started using the Internet, I should admit. Surfing the net, I learn many things much faster than it would have been possible without access to the net. But the past continues to have a strong influence: I am a print buff and I like newspapers and magazines; so I use my Internet access to read LA Times, Washington Post, The Economist, Slate and so on! As I said before, there is no harm in adopting new technologies as long as you know how to use it to your advantage. If old is gold, as the proverb goes, I don't think all that is new is bad. There can be gold in new also. The same way, simply because something is Western does not make it bad or evil. All one is concerned about is when something is allowed to steamroll and crush other things of long standing. If one is mature enough, one can handle these transitions rather well. Internet is not my first encounter with the Western electronic media. I have been an avid listener of the BBC for a very long time and I must have watched hundreds of English, and some French and German movies (the latter two with English subtitles). I have many friends in the Western world and my friend Davidson Frame , a noted scientometrician, told me once that I am at once equally at home in two cultures. At least I try to be. If I have strong views on certain issues like the one on new technologies born out of Western culture dividing the world further, it is not out of prejudice. ----------- Item 3 Here are some random thoughts on Electronic Publishing and its impact on the developing countries, which were originally posted on the GKD97 list. * The transition to electronic publishing from print will widen the gap between the advanced countries and the developing countries, especially in the field of production and dissemination of knowledge. * Many developing countries, especially those with large populations, do not have the necessary infrastructure (computer terminals, networks, communication channels, bandwidth, etc.) and will take a long time to have it in place to be able to take part as equal partners in the worldwide enterprise of knowledge production and exchange. * While communication revolution is perceived as a liberating influence, what is more likely to happen is that in many developing countries (including India, I am afraid) scientists and scholars will be among the last to be reached by the revolution and therefore the relative disadvantage they now suffer from (in the matter of access to information and knowledge) will only increase. The number of institutions and individual scholars having access to Email and Internet in developing countries and the rate at which this access has grown over time will support this contention. * The transition to electronic publishing will make it much easier for scientists and scholars in the advanced countries to interact with colleagues and invisible colleges, and most Third World scientists and scholars are most likely to be excluded from this "worldwide" network, not because they are intellectually inferior but because they do not have the technological backup. The already existing gaps in the levels of science and technology performed in the advanced and the poorer countries will be widened further and this could lead to increased levels of brain drain and dependence on foreign aid of a different kind (knowledge imperialism). * Mastery of technology has led the West to dominate the world to such an extent that even in areas where the traditional societies of the poorer countries had a lead of millennia (such as ethnobotany and plant-based medicine), now it is the West which is exploiting this knowledge base and converting it into products (of modern medicine) and profits. What has happened in the area of plants and medicine will happen with even greater vigour in the area of knowledge production and dissemination (including publishing and patenting). * Most journals and databases are produced in the advanced countries and developing country scientists read articles written by their own countrymen in expensive journals produced by commercial publishers in the West and gain access to the same articles through exhorbitatntly priced secondary services produced in the West! Electronic publishing and online access will only make the situation even worse. * There is another very serious problem. The traditional knowledge systems, because their practitioners are not well-versed in electronic communication, will die out very soon. This has already happened, even before the arrival of electronic publishing, thanks to the homogenising effect of western cultures which made many facets of other cultures extinct. ------------- End of message. From owner-s-asia-it Fri Jun 26 01:03:06 1998 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) id BAA11768; Fri, 26 Jun 1998 01:03:06 +0900 (JST) Received: from psg.com (root@psg.com [147.28.0.62]) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) with SMTP id BAA11764 for ; Fri, 26 Jun 1998 01:03:01 +0900 (JST) Received: from localhost (11000 bytes) by psg.com via sendmail with P:stdio/R:inet_resolve/T:smtp (sender: ) (ident using unix) id for ; Thu, 25 Jun 1998 09:05:53 -0700 (PDT) (Smail-3.2.0.101 1997-Dec-17 #1 built 1998-Feb-8) Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 09:05:53 -0700 (PDT) From: "Steven G. Huter" X-Sender: sghuter@psg.com To: s-asia-it@teckla.apnic.net Subject: Internet Survey in Nepal (fwd) Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-s-asia-it@apnic.net Precedence: bulk ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 20:54:25 +0000 From: kishor@icimod.org.np INTERNET IN NEPAL: OPINION POLL THE RESULTS 22 June, 1998 This is a plain report. The opinion poll questionnaire was electronically sent out in the second week of April 1998. Responses were received till June 19, 1998. SURVEY MATRIX/SURVEY UNIVERSE I've assumed that when the poll was conducted, the total number of Nepal-list members plus others were somewhere around 100. The number of tangible responses were 12. The number of responses as being 12, compute to 12 percent of the total survey matrix or universe. Applying the standard social science sampling method, I've taken 12 percent of the responses as large enough to generalize. It is to be noted that in social science 10-15 percent of the total universe is considered/practiced as standard/accepted figure for generalization. Also, it is to be noted that this survey may be debated as being more technical than social. However, with the technical data and information collected, the analysis has been basically undertaken in the social science framework, and emphasized, as it entails respondents who have diverse background. NATURE OF RESPONDENTS Of the 12 respondents, 7 were associated with private sectors like hotels, travel agencies, airlines, computer enterprises. The other 5 respondents were involved in non-governmental development organizations. It also needs to be noted that of the total respondents 10 were Nepal-list members, and 2 were others. Furthermore, gender-wise 2 were female and 10 were male. Female-Male participation ratio in the poll was 2:5. However, this is subject to be determined by the number of female/male members in the Nepal-list; exact information (data) on which I was not able to obtain. ACCESS, PERIOD OF USE, AND FREQUENCY OF USE Of the 12 respondents, 9 had full access to Internet, and the remaining 3 had e-mail only. Regarding the period of use of Internet, that is, how long the respondent had been using the Internet. The maximum period was 3 years plus, and the minimum extreme was 3 months. The average period of use of Internet calculated to 1.2 years. As far as the responses to the question on duration of use of the Internet in a day was concerned, the maximum use was for 6 hours, and the minimum was 30 minutes. The average use of Internet in a day of the sample population calculated to 1.30 hours. Most of the respondents use the Internet for e-mail message sending. Other purposes included surfing (browsing), information retrieval, discussion list, on-line news. One/two respondents who fell in the category of being the maximum users, and who are also professionally engaged in computer/information technology(IT) enterprise, opined that apart from using Internet for e-mail, downloading freeware, update on new computer and IT products, were some of the purposes for which they resorted to using the Internet. BENEFITS FROM INTERNET USE The common benefit the respondents find in using the Internet is that by the use of e-mail their communications have been improved. All of them find the e-mail as "cheap" means of communications, and is "reliable", "fast", "convenient". Some of the respondents opined that by having access to Internet their horizon of contact has broadened. They are virtually making new contacts. And of course, the corpus of information that is available on the Web has been a great asset for some of the respondents by using Internet. Typical opinions were that the Internet has provided a platform to expand business, contacts, client relationships. HOW IS INTERNET GOING TO EXPEDITE THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS IN NEPAL? The responses to this question were varied. Though the answers were varied in expressions, the underlying commonality was "sharing information and communicating". Opinions varied from promoting business via Internet, advocacy for social development, advocacy for sustainable development, to networking of like minded individuals and organizations. It is interesting to note that there were such intangible answers like: "No difference. If you are going in the wrong direction, getting there faster is no help". Some of the technical responses were, by increasing the number of Internet users it is going to contribute to expedite the development process. Having more advanced dynamic Internet tools like real time etceteras can bring about changes in the development process. One respondent opined that Nepal Telecommunication Corporation acting as an ISP and subsidizing the Internet connectivity service charge to the public, can also contribute to speed up the development process. The responses to the supplementary question to above strayed. Not very many respondents were able to precisely answer by doing what they will be benefiting more from Internet use. The answer by a computer/IT entrepreneur was though not precisely optimum to be generalized, however, is worth noting. This particular respondent opined that the Internet users should be increased from roughly 5,000 at present (April '98) to 100,000 by the end of the century. To do so the government/Nepal Telecommunication Corporation should subsidize computer/IT to (I)NGOs, government offices/departments and others. It will be also necessary to make the content of the information on the Web compatible to the requirements of the users. This response amongst others was the closest to the expected response. There was not any response, which clearly opined about having an Internet network on development and research, education, commerce, social welfare etceteras, even though these possible answers were exemplified while elaborating the question. The responses that came closest to expectations were having commercial Web pages, government subsidizing the Internet connectivity cost, Nepal specific data development on the Web. Besides, there were interesting opinions like: "The gap between the natural development of Nepal and Internet will widen as years go on (sic)/by. I am not optimistic with development of Nepal vis-a-vis Internet." DEALING WITH THE NORTH-SOUTH BALANCE Only 5 respondents tried to opine on the question regarding what Internet users in Nepal should do to have a balance of information flow on the Web. The opinions received in this respect were not largely accurate, which indicated that Internet users are not clearly aware of the prevalent general apprehension that the Information on the Web (information superhighway) is predominated by the North (developed countries). There were few opinions which came close to the expected answer that the South should contribute more information to the information superhighway by coming up with more Web pages on Southern information. There were some interesting expressions in this regard, for example: "Get the government and the whole beaurocratic system hooked on the Net. make (sic) them all Internet Junkies! That will make it a lot easier for things to get done in Nepal." Other opinions were, " _ half the gap would be bridged by just increasing users." One respondent opines the number of places like "cyberhouse (cafe)" should be increased--a response somewhat close to the concept of telecottage/telecentre. Other varied responses were growth of IT industry, exploitation of the purpose of the information superhighway, Internet use awareness, government policy for price control and distribution, making the Internet as accessible as the telephone. GENERAL OPINIONS Apart from the above reported specific opinions, there were general opinions regarding the use of Internet in Nepal provided by the respondents. One respondent opined that the use of Internet in Nepal would grow, and gradually integrate into everyday life of a Nepal family like the way television in Nepal has precipitated to over the decade. He opined that when the television first came to Nepal, the skepticism was there. The same is observed of the Internet, but it will be overcome, like the television did. Another respondent, however, is worried about all the inappropriate things that come through the Internet and it may pose as a bad influence to the children, which in fact is a problem that the North is faced with, with pervasive adoption of Internet . CONCLUSION First and foremost, only 12 percent of the total of the survey universe responded to the survey. From this an indication can be derived that the Internet users in Nepal are not remarkably responsive to such Internet conducted poll. It can be surmised that by frequently conducting e-mail polls the degree of response will escalate. However, the cost for using Internet and stipulated access can be considered as a factor inhibiting the response to the poll. The private, non-governmental organizations, are found to be using the Internet more. Average number of the users have full Internet access. And most of these users are using Internet to better manage their communications and respective works. An average user uses the Internet for about 1.2 hrs a day. The people who have been using the Internet are very optimistic about the use of Internet. They are satisfied with the benefit that they have been able to derive from using the Internet. Though few opinions differ, most of the respondents find the Internet cheap, fast and convenient to use. Most of the respondents were of the opinion that by making the Internet more accessible to wider population by the government subsidizing the Internet cost will be contributing to affect expediting the process of development in Nepal. The respondents in the same manner firmly believe that the government by subsidizing the Internet cost will attribute to users benefiting more form the use of Internet. Again by subsidizing the Internet cost and contributing extensively to the information superhighway, the respondents opined that the Internet users in Nepal could contribute to the North-South balance on the Web. It is estimated that in Nepal there are to date nearly 7000 Internet users. In comparison to this figure the assumed 100 members in the Nepal-list is insignificant. By conducting a survey of the total Internet users in Nepal that is near 7000 figure a more accurate and reliable insight can be obtained. Is there anybody out there ready to collaborate on this? *** Survey conducted and reported by Kishor Pradhan, kishor @icimod.org.np *** P.S. Those of you who are interested in getting more info on Internet in Nepal in particular and South Asia in general, read HIMAL, VOl.11, No.1, at http://www.himalmag.com *** From owner-s-asia-it Fri Jun 26 01:55:57 1998 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) id BAA12628; Fri, 26 Jun 1998 01:55:57 +0900 (JST) Received: from server.super.net.pk (server.super.net.pk [203.130.2.3]) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) with ESMTP id BAA12622 for ; Fri, 26 Jun 1998 01:55:44 +0900 (JST) Received: from ngorc (khi-line-058.super.net.pk [203.130.5.197]) by server.super.net.pk (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id WAA12669 for ; Thu, 25 Jun 1998 22:04:35 +0500 (GMT+0500) Message-Id: <199806251704.WAA12669@server.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@teckla.apnic.net Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 22:06:47 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: Panos Briefing -- THE INTERNET AND POVERTY: Real help or real hy Sender: owner-s-asia-it@apnic.net Precedence: bulk "THE INTERNET AND POVERTY: Real help or real hype?" (Panos Briefing No 28; April 1998) is available on the web at http://www.oneworld.org./panos/briefing/interpov.htm (see 'table of contents' below for details.) The size of the text file is about 77 KB (html file is about 80 KB), which makes it less desirable to be posted on the list. Those without internet access, and willing to receive the file as a zip file (size: 28 KB) by e-mail may contact me at khanIA@super.net.pk. Irfan Khan ----------------------------------------------------- TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Key Facts 1 WHO'S USING THE INTERNET IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD? 1.1 Is it just for the rich, male elites? 1.2 Rural access CONSTRAINTS TO INTERNET GROWTH 2.1 Poor telecommunications - obstacle and stimulus 2.2 Access to computers Telecentres - access for whom? 2.3 Greater need, but much more cost Education-a crucial missing link 3. THE INTERNET AS A DEVELOPMENT ISSUE 3.1 Can we avoid the rusting tractor? Winning and losing in the Earth market place 4. THE INTERNET IN ACTION 4.1 Education and academia Rural education in South Africa Virtual universities 4.2 Medicine and health HealthNet - a network in action 5. CONCLUSION Contacts References From owner-s-asia-it Fri Jun 26 14:31:01 1998 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) id OAA05155; Fri, 26 Jun 1998 14:31:01 +0900 (JST) Received: from garlic.negia.net (root@garlic.negia.net [206.61.0.14]) by teckla.apnic.net (8.8.7/8.7.1) with ESMTP id OAA05150 for ; Fri, 26 Jun 1998 14:30:52 +0900 (JST) Received: from idn.org (p22.negia.net [207.43.201.32]) by garlic.negia.net (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id BAA05034; Fri, 26 Jun 1998 01:26:48 -0400 Message-ID: <3593327F.7CDBD593@idn.org> Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1998 01:32:47 -0400 From: "Christopher L. Byrne, Director" Organization: International Development Network X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.04 [en] (Win95; U) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "s-asia-it@postoffice.apnic.net" , wbedpol , WID-RES-L , international-development , INTDEV-L , "DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU" , AG-DEV , "afro-nets@usa.healthnet.org" Subject: Making A World of Difference: USAID Looks Back At 30 Years of Development Progress While Facing Funding Cuts Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-s-asia-it@apnic.net Precedence: bulk Apologies for any cross-posting-- The subject story and the following are available on the June 26, 1998 upfate of the International Development Network Web Site located at http://www.idn.org/ USAID And South Africa Black Lawyers Association In Agreement To Train 240 Disadvantaged Students For The Bar USAID Official Highlights Anti-Corruption Efforts In Africa USAID'S Atwood Speaks On Global Energy Efficiency At USEA Forum Development Specialists Reflect On Africa Corruption South African Government Renews Its Support For The UNDP Promoting Poverty Reduction In Vietnam Through Rural Development New Vaccines Could Have Huge Impact in Reducing Child Deaths UNESCO Advisor To Help Bosnia Herzegovina Develop Independent Media OECD Holds Workshop On Steel Trade Issues IMF Approves Three-Year ESAF Credit for Tajikistan IFPRI And China Hold Workshop Examines Chinese Food and Agricultural Policy Goals IDB Approves $25.65 Million To Support Cotton Producers In Paraguay IDB, Venezuela Sign $8 Million For Venezuelan Youth Orchestras ECLAC Presents Proposal For Urban Management Of Medium-Sized Cities In Latin America And The Caribbean German Development Minister Discusses Human Rights Position In Guatemala With Bishop Flores ADB To Improve Education Opportunities For Female Ethnic Minorities in Lao PDR ADB Provides A Package Of US$1.5 Billion To Address Indonesia's Reforms Of Governance Of its Financial Sector ADB Study Urges Rural Development for the Philippines ADB Grant to Micronesia for Economic Policy Reform and Management; Funding To Include Scholarship Program Pesticides Control Boards Of The OECS And Barbados Concludes 3rd Annual Meeting From owner-s-asia-it Mon Jun 29 14:35:25 1998 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by teckla.apnic.net (8.9.0/8.9.0) id OAA01983; Mon, 29 Jun 1998 14:35:25 +0900 (JST) X-Authentication-Warning: teckla.apnic.net: majordomo set sender to owner-s-asia-it@postoffice.apnic.net using -f Received: from garlic.negia.net (IDENT:root@garlic.negia.net [206.61.0.14]) by teckla.apnic.net (8.9.0/8.9.0) with ESMTP id OAA01978 for ; Mon, 29 Jun 1998 14:35:19 +0900 (JST) Received: from idn.org (p26.negia.net [207.43.201.36]) by garlic.negia.net (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id BAA30832; Mon, 29 Jun 1998 01:27:52 -0400 Message-ID: <359727BC.4D253448@idn.org> Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 01:35:56 -0400 From: "Christopher L. Byrne, Director" Organization: International Development Network X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.04 [en] (Win95; U) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: info@idn.org Subject: This Week At the International Development Network (June 29, 1998) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: owner-s-asia-it@apnic.net Precedence: bulk Apologies for Any Cross Posting __________________________________________________ Good day! First off our sincerest apologies for any inconvenience encountered on Friday if you tried to access the USAID and other stories that were posted. There were server errors )and coding errors which resulted from these server errors) which we did not catch until some of you let us know. Thanks again to those who let us know. The stories from Friday are still available on the main IDN page. New or updated items this week on the IDN Web Site (http://www.idn.org/) ____________________________________________ IDN Membership Directory Updated to include a Member's CV/Resume for downloading. ____________________________________________ Tools You Can Use: This week's tool is PrivatizationLink, a service of the World Bank Group to deliver information on privatization in developing countries and transition economies to privatization professionals world-wide. ____________________________________________ Quick Link of the Week: This week's IDN Quick Link is to 12th World AIDS Conference Web Site. Here you will find stories and information about this important conference. ____________________________________________ New Conferences, Meetings and Symposia International Health Geographics Conference ____________________________________________ New in the IDN Bookstore 17 Titles on Tourism and Development (http://www.idn.org/bookstore/tourism.htm) The IDN Bookstore Bestseller List: Gender Planning and Development Women Working Together for Personal, Economic, and Community Development : A Handbook of Activities for Women's Learning and Action Groups Gender Analysis in Development Planning : A Case Book Seeds 2 : Supporting Women's Work Around the World Gender and Development These and other gender titles are available at http://www.idn.org/bookstore/gender.htm ____________________________________________ New Publications: Women's Voices, Women's Lives To present results from its five-year study on the impact of family planning experiences on women's lives, Family Health International's Women's Studies Project (WSP) has published Women's Voices, Women's Lives. The comprehensive report highlights findings from 37 studies and secondary analyses in 14 countries and identifies crosscutting themes that emerged from research on the impact of family planning on women's lives. The WSP examined how family planning affects various aspects of women's lives, including relationships with family, self-esteem, and participation in the work force and in economic development activities. ____________________________________________ New Links APEC Business Advisory Council - the private sector arm of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada - an independent, non-profit organization established in 1984 by an Act of the Parliament of Canada. Its mandate is to enhance awareness and understanding among the peoples of Canada and the Asia Pacific region, build networks and promote trade and investment. The Consortium for International Crop Protection (CICP) - goal is to advance economically efficient and environmentally sound protection practices in developing countries and to ensure the health of rural and urban communities. Creative Associates International, Inc. (CAII) - supports governments, non-governmental organizations and private companies who make and manage change. Council on Foreign Relations - composed of men and women from all walks of international life and from all parts of America dedicated to the belief that the nation's peace and prosperity are firmly linked to that of the rest of the world. The Export-Import Bank of Japan - To supplement and encourage financing by commercial banks and other financial institutions in Japan in order to facilitate Japan's economic interchange with foreign countries. Global Reproductive Health Forum (GRHF) - aims to encourage the proliferation of critical, democratic discussions about reproductive health, rights, and gender on the net. International Center for LivingAquatic Resources Management (ICLARM) - an international research organization devoted to improving the productivity and management of aquatic resources for the benefit of users and consumers in developing countries. International Federation of Agricultural Producers - is the international organization of the worlds farmers. Lawyers for Human Rights - a non-governmental organisation that strives to promote, uphold and strengthen human rights in South Africa. National Councils for Sustainable Development - Mechanisms for Civil-Society Participation in Decision-Making and for Localizing Sustainable Development NetAfrica - is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting African development and communication objectives. Transparency International - a not-for-profit, non-governmental organisation, to counter corruption both in international business transactions and, through our National Chapters, at national levels. Transparency International South Africa - TI-SA commits itself to combating corruption in the public and private sector and in civil society through networks of integrity. United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification - seeks to engage donor nations and agencies and recipient countries in a new partnership. The World Conservation Monitoring Centre -  provides information services on conservation and sustainable use of the world's living resources, and helps others to develop information systems of their own. World Economic Forum - provides its Members and Constituents with opportunities to share experiences and insights and to assess new opportunities. World Energy Council - to promote the sustainable supply and use of energy for the greatest benefit of all. __________________________________________________________ The IDN plans to continue our growth and offerings. If you have not yet thought about a membership/sponsorship in the IDN, we encourage you to consider becoming a sponsor/member of the fastest growing, most comprehensive and current International Development Web Site on the Internet! Information is available at http://www.idn.org/membership/index.htm From owner-s-asia-it Tue Jun 30 04:54:57 1998 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by teckla.apnic.net (8.9.0/8.9.0) id EAA19107; Tue, 30 Jun 1998 04:54:57 +0900 (JST) X-Authentication-Warning: teckla.apnic.net: majordomo set sender to owner-s-asia-it@postoffice.apnic.net using -f Received: from server.super.net.pk (server.super.net.pk [203.130.2.3]) by teckla.apnic.net (8.9.0/8.9.0) with ESMTP id EAA19072 for ; Tue, 30 Jun 1998 04:54:40 +0900 (JST) Received: from ngorc (khi-line-062.super.net.pk [203.130.5.201]) by server.super.net.pk (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id XAA16613 for ; Mon, 29 Jun 1998 23:17:48 +0500 (GMT+0500) Message-Id: <199806291817.XAA16613@server.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 23:19:49 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: India lets private Internet firms have gateways (News) Sender: owner-s-asia-it@apnic.net Precedence: bulk *** India lets private Internet firms have gateways June 29, 1998 Indian Communications Minister Sushma Swaraj said Friday private Internet service providers would be allowed to have international gateways. A gateway consists of a telephone exchange and a satellite station. It is used to establish international telecommunications links. Until now, state-controlled carrier Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. has had a monopoly on international Internet traffic. The firm has six gateways in India, and all ISPs have had to use its facilities to connect to the Internet. Swaraj said the ban on Internet telephony remained in force, and ISPs could not use their gateways for voice traffic. See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2554809269-ba1 ------------------------------------------------ Copyright 1998 InfoBeat Inc. All rights reserved. http://www.infobeat.com From owner-s-asia-it Tue Jun 30 04:55:12 1998 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by teckla.apnic.net (8.9.0/8.9.0) id EAA19128; Tue, 30 Jun 1998 04:55:12 +0900 (JST) X-Authentication-Warning: teckla.apnic.net: majordomo set sender to owner-s-asia-it@postoffice.apnic.net using -f Received: from server.super.net.pk (server.super.net.pk [203.130.2.3]) by teckla.apnic.net (8.9.0/8.9.0) with ESMTP id EAA19096 for ; Tue, 30 Jun 1998 04:54:50 +0900 (JST) Received: from ngorc (khi-line-062.super.net.pk [203.130.5.201]) by server.super.net.pk (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id XAA26006 for ; Mon, 29 Jun 1998 23:17:49 +0500 (GMT+0500) Message-Id: <199806291817.XAA26006@server.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 23:19:49 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: The internet and the developing world Sender: owner-s-asia-it@apnic.net Precedence: bulk The internet and the developing world *Richard Smith talked to India's premier information scientist, Subbiah Arunachalam, about whether the internet will solve the information problems of the developing world* Subbiah Arunachalam, India's most distinguished information scientist, is a gentle fellow with a gift for controversy. When the New York Times covered a speech in 1982 by India's prime minister, Indira Gandhi, it quoted extensively from an article that Professor Arunachalam had written entitled, "Why is Indian science mediocre?"--just at the time that Mrs Gandhi was telling the world that India would soon catch up with the advanced countries with the quality of its scientific research. She was of course wrong. Now Professor Arunachalam has been asked to go to Germany to debate with Nicholas Negroponte, the guru of the digital age, on whether the digital revolution will solve the information problems of the developing world. Professor Negroponte thinks it will. Professor Arunachalam says it might eventually, but first it will increase the gulf between the haves and the have nots. Professor Arunachalam, who shares his time between the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras and the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, has also made himself unpopular with those running research in India by pointing out that much Indian medical research is not relevant to the needs of the country. The major health problems faced by India are diarrhoeal diseases, diseases of children, infectious diseases, malaria, and tuberculosis, while Indian researchers are mainly active in general medicine, pharmacology, tropical medicine, neurosciences, radiology, and oncology (National Medical Journal of India 1998;11:27-34, and Current Science 1997;72:912-22). At least two funding agencies have responded by turning down his requests for research grants. In particular, his request for funds to set up an Observatory for Science and Technology in India has been turned down. But many Indian scientists agree with him. Professor Arunachalam became an information scientist when he switched from being a "not so successful chemist." It was while he was a student of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, that he discovered that he had a flair for finding information that others could not find. "The tall man in the library will help you," researchers would say. And the two years that he worked for the Indian Academy of Sciences--1973 to 1975, as editor of publications and secretary--gave him ample opportunities to watch men who managed Indian science from close quarters. His new found interests led him to science writing and scientometrics. Researchers and doctors in India are, he says, deprived of information: "There are some universities in the developed world that receive not less than 50000-60000 journals. No academic or research library in India receives more than 2100, and most receive only a few hundred. So access to information is a major problem in India. And for individual doctors it's even worse. Honest doctors have so many patients to treat that they have little time to do research or read. Other doctors are more interested in making money than reading. Many doctors are happy with the free pamphlets that drug companies give them." So will access to electronic information help? "Probably not yet in India because very few doctors have access to the internet or email. And often medically trained people are not good with communication technology and computers. They take time to learn. Very few doctors use computers. Plus they have not been made aware of the benefits of using computers." Of course, there are agencies in Mumbai, Professor Arunachalam points out, which use new technologies to provide information to doctors, but their clients are mostly pharmaceutical companies. The internet may eventually be a great equaliser for research scientists around the world, but in the early days, says Professor Arunachalam, it will widen the gap. Many researchers in India cannot access the technology for various reasons. "The government is not making it easily available. The telecom regulating agency and the only internet service provider do not get along well with each other. Cost is another factor. Telephone lines are very poor and connections are not stable. This means that even those who have access to the internet must spend hours downloading material that would take only minutes for those in the developed world with the best access." "But," Professor Arunachalam continues, "it's not just a matter of resources. India has enough resources to provide access in the major cities where higher education institutions and major research laboratories are located. But it takes time. That's what makes us third world. The major difference between the first and the third world is the time it takes to transfer something from the realm of possibility to reality." There are examples of where new technology has been introduced quickly to India--for instance, the green revolution and the installing of telephone lines to make long distance and international calls in small towns and villages throughout India. "But," says Professor Arunachalam, "they are far too few." "The internet will grow in India, but I'm concerned that my countrymen are taking too long to recognise its importance. Many scientific journals now are purely electronic, and many Indian researchers simply cannot get access to them." ------------------------------ BMJ 1998; 316: 1111 (11 April) http://www.bmj.com