<<February 26, 2000>>
"Michel J. Menou" <Michel.Menou@wanadoo.fr>
Peter T. Knight <ptknight@attglobal.net>
Dr. Joseph N. Pelton <ecjpelton@aol.com>
Dear Prof. Menou:
=================
(1) I am responding to your correspondence with Peter Knight (ATTACHMENT I).
Many thanks for your valuable comments on our GSTF project.
(2) I will identify your comment with [Menou-X] and Peter's
with [Peter-X]
in ATTACHMENT I.
(3) About [Menou-1]:
At our Tampere event <http://www.uta.fi/EGEDL/>,
we discussed the projects of
establishing following three;
(a) Global University System:
<http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve_mc/asia-pacific/index.html>,
(b) Global broadband Internet:
(c) Global Service Trust Fund (GSTF):
<http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/Tampere_Conference/GSTF/Synopsis_2-15-00.html>.
Our approach is a community development with non-profit organizations
(education, health, library, local government, etc.) in the initial
phase and later with commercial firms' involvements to subsidize
telecom
infrastructure for K-12 schools' connections.
We hope that the local higher educational institution with
broadband
Internet downlinking earth station is to become a major Internet
Service
Provider (ISP) in their locality so that the institution can also
provide technical services and teacher training to nearby secondary
and
K-12 schools, and others.
Joe Pelton depicted at the mtg of GSTF working group at PAHO
on 12/20/99
the sequence of waves of activities as;
Wave #1: Construction of telecom infrastructure and facilities,
Wave #2: Tele-education and content development,
Wave #3: Tele-health, telemedicine and medical education,
Wave #4: Economic development and job placement.
We intend to construct a global private virtual network (PVN)
of
broadband Internet among non-profit institutions of education
and
medical fields in the initial phase (*), with the GSTF which will
be
collected from the Official Development Assistant (ODA) funds
of G7 (or
OECD) countries. However, in due course, it will need to be opened
to
commercial fields in order to have self-sustainability as having
profit-oriented organizations subsidizing the K-12's accessing
the broadband
Internet in the later stage of the development -- as the US Universal
Service Fund is now doing or the case of the US St. Thomas Island
with
the support of its governor with medical background.
(*) the predecessors are PEACESAT of the University of Hawaii
and
USPNet of the University of the South Pacific in Fiji.
(4) About [Menou-2]:
Our GUS now has seven regional activities, i.e., the Amazon
basin,
Ukraine, Africa, Philippines, Pakistan, Central America, and for
indigenous peoples in North America -- Fiji group may soon join,
too.
Each regional group works together with their counterparts
in North, yet
they will have global connection each other through their administrative
centers.
In order to meet regional groups' need with the distance learning
courses available from their counterparts in North, the groups
are now
holding mini-workshops; e.g.,
(a) Ukrainian:
Mini-workshop at Open University/UK with the University of
Tampere, Distance Education Network of the European Association
for International Education, etc.,
<http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Pantheon/7197/global-univ-2000/2-2-a.html>
(b) Philippines:
Mini-workshop at the University of Philippines/Open University
with University of Hawaii, Montana State University, University
of
Michigan, University of California/Los Angels, Maui Community
College, Houston Community College, etc.,
<http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Pantheon/7197/global-univ-2000/2-16-b.html>
(c) Amazonas:
Mini-workshop in Manaus, Amazona on May 31, June 1 and 2 with
UNAMAZ (a consortium of universities in 8 countries in Amazon
area) and PanAmerican Federation of Associations of Medical
Schools (a consortium of medical schools in Latin America), local
TV station, etc. with the University of Tennessee/Knoxville,
Columbia University, etc.,
<http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Pantheon/7197/global-univ-2000/2-8-a.html>
(d) Africa:
1. University of Guelph in Canada with their counterparts in Africa,
2. A proposed joint project for the US Agency for International
Development (USAID) with Japanese government,
3. Workshop in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for 6 African countries
and technology centers of the U.N. Industrial Development
Organization (UNIDO).
<http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Pantheon/7197/global-univ-2000/1-21-b.html>
(5) About [Peter-2]:
The USPNet of the University of South Pacific just now inaugurated
from
this month 4 satellite channels (at 64 Kbps/each) Internet to
connect a
dozen nearby small island countries around Fiji, with Japanese
made
equipment and funds from governments of Japan, Australia and New
Zealand.
(6) About [Menou-3]:
We are all inclusive, but there is priorities of project steps.
Feasibility study, detailed system engineering design of telecom
infrastructure, action plan, etc., are to be made during the workshops
at each region, after careful investigations on their needs.
(7) Pls inform me your full address (name of your affiliation,
snail mail
address, phone/fax, etc.) so that we can place you at an appropriate
location in our main mailing list. We will then admit you in our
listserve so that you can be kept updated with our daily progress.
Dear Peter:
===========
(8) About [Peter-2] and ATTACHMENT II:
I am sorry I don't know Masayoshi Son.
I read his bio in the web which was listed in your msg, with
great
interest.
He is certainly with dynamic charisma, as investing various
huge
business projects, even optical fiber network from Japan to Singapore,
etc.
Anthropologically, all Japanese came either from Taiwan and/or
China
through Okinawa or from Mongolia through Korea.
He has Japanese first name and Korean last name, since his
family came
from Korea recently (though probably several decades ago). This
may be
the factor of his success -- there are several big Korean businessmen
in Japan.
Dear Prof. Menou:
=================
(9) Thank you so much for your interest in our projects. Keep in touch.
Best, Tak
****************************************
ATTACHMENT I
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2000 17:56:18 -0500
From: "Peter T. Knight" <peter@knight-moore.com>
To: "Michel J. Menou" <Michel.Menou@wanadoo.fr>
CC: Frank Method <unesco1@cais.com>, Joseph Pelton <ecjpelton@aol.com>,
Lane Smith <lasmith@usaid.gov>, Carlos Braga <cbraga@worldbank.org>,
"Michael G. Moore" <mgmoore@psu.edu>
Subject: Re: Int. Coalition for Global Info Infrastructure in
Ed &Healthcare
Dear Professor Menou:
I will address your helpful comments one at a time. Thank you
for your email.
I feel I already know you from your contributions to various listservs
in
which I participate, and occasionally contribute.
"Michel J. Menou" wrote:
> Dear Dr. Knight
> I read with great interest the proposal.
> There is no question that the provision of access points
with the bandwidth
> required for realtime multimedia traffic, on an interactive
mode is the key
> to delivery of quality instruction on a global basis.
> I'd like to make the following friendly comments.
[Menou-1]
> The proposal may need to expand on the structure of the network
which is
> required for achieving this in each country of the South.
Do we speak of
> connecting for instance all universities (or other types
of educational
> institutions)? What alternative is feasible for local redistribution?
> More importantly, even though this may require much effort
and time, I bet
> the physical facilities will be in place much before there
is locally
> relevant, if not locally produced content available for education
and
> health care.
[Peter-1]
We did not spell out in detail the proposed mechanisms and policy
conditionality because we feel they should be elaborated by the
working groups
we propose be convened by respected international organizations.
This
participatory process is very important, but we hope it will not
much slow the
establishment of the GSTF.
[Menou-2]
> A parallel action is urgent in order to build these resources.
> You know even better than I do, that the material infrastructure
will not
> make uch difference, and can indeed be itself harmful, unless
local
> intermediairies are ready to assist in the utilization of
the resources
> which the large bandwidth network will make available. This
again requires
> a parallel effort.
> I hope the required support can be obtained from the North
in order to
> develop the network. I would be more caucious about the support
and
> endorsement this action might win from the South if the above
lines are not
> made an integrap part of the program.
[Peter-2]
I agree that an effort is necessary. One respone is that if you
build a road,
it will get travelled on. That happened with the US Internet under
ARPA and
NSFNet. But a big help would be private investment capital to
support the
development of content and a big stride was the announcement on
February 12 of
the new SOFTBANK Emerging Markets (SBEM) fund by IFC and SOFTBANK
-- see
http://www.softbank.com/sbem/
. I personally know a number of projects on
which I am working which would benefit by access to the GSTF.
Interestingly,
the Press Release for SBEM (available at http://www.ifc.org
) says "SBEM will
also promote free or subsidized Internet service to schools and
other
educational institutions to increase knowledge and access for
people in
developing countries."
[Peter-3]
I learned about this new development yesterday while watching
Japanese TV news
on WNVC which I have on non-stop but muted on a cheap TV on my
desk. I noticed
James Wolfensohn with the owner of SOFTBANK on the screen, and
immediately
turned on the audio and learned about the project. I then called
an IFC
contact and learned that a videoconference press conference was
underway
between IFC Headquarters and Tokyo, and rushed over to the IFC
building, where
I managed to participate along with IFC managers and journalists,
and get the
GSTF proposal on the table via IFC and by direct communication
with SBEM.
Interesting use of modern communications!
[Menou-3]
> Finally, I wonder why education and telemedicine are the
only two target
> areas, though their high priority is quite obvious. Why not
sustainable
> agriculture for instance? And why not distinguish in the
program the
> infrastructure component on the one hand, which has its own
constraints in
> both North and South, and the contents and delivery components,
which have
> other constraints?
[Peter-4]
The proposal is not to finance content, but bandwidth. It is important,
we
feel, to keep the proposal relatively simple. Mortarboards and
white cloaks
pushing the monopoly telco bureaucrats to get lower telecom prices,
which we
feel will come only when there is real competition. But we are
not against
broadening the clientele if more constituencies can be mobilized.
But getting
every good cause served may be having the best be the enemy of
the good and
make it harder to sell. And is there really the need for broad
Internet 2
level bandwidth for many of the other uses?
We welcome more comments and have no problem if you would like
to circulate
the proposal or this communication.
With best regards,
Peter
****************************************
ATTACHMENT II
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2000 12:30:57 -0500
From: "Peter T. Knight" <peter@knight-moore.com>
To: "Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D." <utsumi@columbia.edu>
Subject: SOFTBANK Inc.: BIOGRAPHIES Masayoshi Son
Tak, do you know Masayoshi Son?
He is the key guy behind a new joint investment in Softbank
Emerging
Markets by IFC.
Cheers,
Peter
http://devland.montclare.com/softbankinc_iupdate/pageload.asp?pagename=bio.html
Return to Global University System Early 2000 Correspondence
****************************************
List of Distribution
"Michel J. Menou" <Michel.Menou@wanadoo.fr>
Peter T. Knight
Knight, Moore - Telematics for Education and Development
Communications Development Incorporated (CDI)
Strategy, Policy, Design, Implementation, Evaluation
1825 Eye Street, NW, Suite 1075
Washington, DC 20006, USA
Tel: 1-202-775-2132 (secretary), 1-202-721-0348 (direct)
Fax: 1-202-775-2135 (office), 1-202-362-8482 (home)
ptknight@attglobal.net
webmail: ptknight@netscape.net
http://www.knight-moore.com
http://www.cdinet.com
IP for CU-SeeMe: 198.77.80.46
http://www.knight-moore.com/projects/GSTF.html
-- about GSTF
Dr. Joseph N. Pelton
Senior Research Scientist
Institute for Applied Space Research, Rm 340
George Washington University
2033 K Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20052
202-994-5507
Fax: 202-994-5505
ecjpelton@aol.com
jpelton@seas.gwu.edu
Or,
Acting Executive Director of CITI
Vice-Chair of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation of the U.S. (ACCFUS)
Arthur C. Clark Institute for Telecommunication and Information
(CITI)
4025 40th Street North
Arlington, VA 22207
(703) 536-6985
ecjpelton@aol.com
http://www.informatics.org/clarke/projects.html
**********************************************************************
* Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D., P.E., Chairman, GLOSAS/USA *
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*
* Laureate of Lord Perry Award for Excellence in Distance Education
*
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*
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