IUGG egy-africa: addressing the digital divide for science in Africa Charles Barton, Australian National University Monique Petitdidier, LATMOS/IPSL, France Les Cottrell, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, USA
Africa in a nutshell More than 1,000 indigenous African languages including several spoken by tens of millions such as Igbo, Swahili, Hausa, Amharic, and Yoruba; Plus Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, Afrikaans, Indian languages, others Too huge to get fibres everywhere
From IGY to egy Data access Data discovery Data release Data preservation Data rescue Capacity building - reducing the Digital Divide Outreach & Education Virtual Observatories
Area Internet Users 2002 Population Tertiary Education http://www.worldmapper.org/ The Scientific Divide
egy AFRICA Goal: better Internet access for African scientists and educators Use the voice of the scientific community at the institutional, national, and international levels (advocacy) raise awareness (problems and benefits) strengthen cooperation influence policy + decisions. IUGG Executive: Alem Mebrahtu (Ethiopia), Victor Chukwuma (Nigeria), Monique Petitdidier (France), Abebe Kibede (USA), Colin Reeves (Netherlands), Jean-Pierre Tchouanchoue (Cameroun), Victor Rochon (USA), Charles Barton (Australia), Les Cottrell (USA/UK), Arsène Kobea (Ivory Coast), Mohamed Gaye (Senegal),.
egy-africa & IHY egy : Bottom-Up initiative from geoscientists During IHY Workshop in Ethiopia 2007- egy-africa meeting 63 African scientists from 20 countries Questionnaire to all the Africans Recommendations written during IHY in Ethiopia Nov. 2007 Publication and presentation of the issues at IST Africa 2008 Digital Divide in Sub-Saharan Africa Universities: recommendations and monitoring (B. Barry, V. Chukwuma, M. Petitdidier, L. Cottrell, C. Barton)
Recommendations - 2007 Context Weakness on Internet in Africa and as a consequence on ICT technologies Multiple local, national, regional and continental initiatives Vision statement Developing internet in Africa at the same level as other regions in the world for the general population and the University, Research and learning centres. Sharing information, knowledge, pedagogy and human resources Develop Infrastructures High priority to be given to improving the cyberinfrastructure for universities, college, research organisations (NREN) Reliability and cost-effective Regional networks & interconnection Quantitative performance indicators (Pinger ) Develop scientific collaborations using ICT International programmes Inter-African collaborations
egy Program [1] Organisational infrastructure National groups (use existing networks) Inter-African collaboration Scientific groups, base of collaboration among African team not only North-South African Geospace Society (creation in 2008) Website, newsletter, conference presentations, articles (see Eos) to share information and raise awareness)
egy Africa Program [2] Survey present status, problems, and benefits (Questionaire) Questionnaire disseminated at the IHY workshop 2007, at the next IHY workshop next week IST-Africa 2008 -Paper Digital Divide in Sub-Saharan Africa Universities: recommendations and monitoring Measure Internet performance (PinGER Project SLAC & ICTP) New African sites since 2007 (Algeria, Burkina Faso, RDC and RC ) Collate policy statements (naming and shaming) and case histories 2009-2010 Workshop in Africa (jointly with others?) 2010 CODATA meeting in South Africa Work with related programs CODATA, UN-GAID (esddc), IAP, ICTP, INASP, IST-Africa, UN-ECA, GIRAF,
Scientific collaborations important to create synergy among African teams, to provide them data and expertise in order they support internet and Science Scientific African communities African Geospace Society (213 members from 45 African countries) Launched next week at IHY workshop AMMA: Analysis Multidisciplinary of the African monsoon AMMANET, AGRHYMET, ACMAD, ASECNA IHY Next Week in Zambia egy meeting V. Chuckuma IHY School in Nigeria (2008), in ICTP (2009) GPS-GIS and new technologies School Brazzaville Dec 2009 Future project: Implementation of SPIDR-server of databases (NOAA, GCRAS) Climatological databases, updated with new data regularly Repository for GPS African Data Possibility to add their own African data Importance to implement it in several African Countries (regional centers)
Internet improvement Thanks to the Football world Cup! From B. Barry, 1st Euro Africa Cooperation Forum on ICT Research (25 March 09)
National Research and Education Network (1) NREN in each African country (2) Regional NREN: Connection of clusters of NRENS (3) Continental NREN: Interconnection of all Regional NRENs (Backbone) (4) Interconnection with the European Geant2 Projects UbuntuNET: build backbone and foster, stimulate and support NREN development AAU:Promote of NREN in West and Central Africa to create a regional NREN
1st Euro-Africa Cooperation Forum on ICT Research March 25-26, 2009 320 Participants from 50 countries Governement and organisation representatives, policy-makers, ICT researchers in the public and private sectors Concept Long term cooperation with and in Africa, managed in Africa and by African personnel A lot of technological solutions are available to reduce the digital divide Projects African Mathematical Institutes Network (CPA) TWAS-AAS-Microsoft award, PhD in Cambridge Nokia :three research institutes Programmes Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa European programme: 31 retained participations of sub-saharan Africa Global University Network for Africa - ICTP
Conclusions Impact of the recommendations on the African scientists, and organisations Importance of African scientist communities around Geosciences projects Involvement of the African scientists in the ICT technologies as developers and users egy-africa has to continue its work! International and national effort to improve internet in a larger concertation Long-term partnership and global approaches are key points to-day
Interested in getting involved? Visit www.egy.org and go to egy-africa Contact: alemmeb@yahoo.com victorchukwuma@yahoo.com charles.barton@anu.edu.au