Value of the Internet (8)
-------------------------
Dear Jeremy,
Regarding the internet I have no doubt about its use. One good exam-
ple is your project. Jeff wishes (I hope I am not misquoting him)
that African scientists have a mechanism to quickly reply to calls
for proposals and collaborations.
Several problems are mentioned ranging from infrastructure to cost.
Given enough time, African governments will allow competitions in the
market, cost will be down, they will invest enough funds so that Af-
rican schools will be equal participants, etc. But I strongly believe
that in this process, the African Diaspora will play a major role.
There are several organizations which work towards linking African
Universities with US universities. African Educational Research Net-
work, Bushe Inistitute supported by Trieste International, African
Distance Learning Association, Ethiopian Distance Learning Associa-
tion, and many new societies and professional associations are work-
ing towards that goal. The task is to organize this effort so that
there will not be repetition.
You may be aware of Indian Physical Society or the China or Korean
etc. and how these societies help research in their respective coun-
tries.
Africa can have its own now. Of course there are alternative ap-
proaches, for example an African organization based outside Africa
acting as a liaison for customer universities. Why not ?
Sincerely,
Abebe Kebede
Department of Physics
NC A&T State University
Greensboro, NC 27411, USA
mailto:gutaye@mercury.ncat.edu
http://www.physics.ncat.edu/~michael/ak/resume.html
--
Send mail for the `AFRO-NETS' conference to `afro-nets@usa.healthnet.org'.
Mail administrative requests to `majordomo@usa.healthnet.org'.
For additional assistance, send mail to: `owner-afro-nets@usa.healthnet.org'.