GSTF project under the auspices of CITI

<<February 26, 2000>>

Peter T. Knight <ptknight@attglobal.net>

Dr. Joseph N. Pelton <ecjpelton@aol.com>

Dear Peter:
===========

(1) Many thanks for your msg (ATTACHMENT I).

Dear Joe:
=========

(2) My sincere congratulations on your new web site of your Clarke Institute
of Telecommunications and Information (CITI) at
<http://www.informatics.org/clarke/projects.html>.

(3) I found that our Global Service Trust Fund (GSTF) project has now been
adopted by your CITI (ATTACHMENT II). Thank you very much, indeed.

Dear Peter:
===========

Many, many thanks for your efforts for our GSTF project. You have
done a very good job!!

Dear Joe and Peter:
===================

(4) I would like to have a mtg with you how to go about taking the next steps.

Best, Tak
****************************************
ATTACHMENT I

Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2000 09:39:55 -0500
From: "Peter T. Knight" <ptknight@attglobal.net>
To: Carlos Braga <cbraga@worldbank.org>,
Kerry McNamara <kmcnamara1@worldbank.org>
CC: Ravi Vish <rvish@ifc.org>, Atul Mehta <amehta@ifc.org>,
Anna Stahmer <astahmer@worldbank.org>,
Vinod Thomas <vthomas@worldbank.org>,
Eduardo Doryan <edoryan@worldbank.org>,
Claudio Castro <claudioca@iadb.org>,
Christian Gomez <christiang@iadb.org>,
Marco Antonio Contreras <mac@telematica.com.br>,
Fernando Gomes de Oliveira <fgomes@telematica.com.br>,
Marcos Herter <mlherter@bol.com.br>,
Alcyone Saliba <alcyone@pr.gov.br>,
Alexandre Beltrao <abeltrao@intranetparana.br>,
John Rose <J.Rose@unesco.org>,
"Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D." <utsumi@columbia.edu>,
Frank Method <unesco1@cais.com>, Lane Smith <lasmith@usaid.gov>,
Uri Bar-Zemer <uri@ids.net>, Jim Miller <JIMMSL@aol.com>,
"Salah H. Mandil" <mandils@who.int>,
Petko KANTCHEV <petko.kantchev@itu.int>,
Vittorio Di Martino <dimartino@ILO.org>,
Emilio Vento <evento@unido.org>,
Victor Kotelnikov <vkotelnikov@unov.un.or.at>
Subject: Global Services Trust Fund: The Sir Arthur C. Clarke Institute for
Telecommunications and Information- CITI

Please see attached home page (still not being publicized as the site is
under construction) on Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Telecommunications
and Information and its Founders' Conference held at INTELSAT HQ in
Washington on February 5. The Global Services Trust Fund proposal was
presented at that conference.

From the Home page you can click through to the various parts
of the new site. Please note that this email is being sent in both plain
text and HTML versions -- if your email client supports HTML, click on
the HTML version

Four initial projects presented at the Conference and included in the
website (http://www.informatics.org/clarke/projects.html), including
the Global Services Trust Fund for providing free or subsidized bandwith
for education and health applications in developing countries.

We hope international organizations will get behind this proposal and
convene the working groups necessary to implement it.

The final paragraphs of the project paper are reproduced below. More
information is available with additional photographs of the Conference
together another more generic version of the project proposal at

http://www.knight-moore.com/projects/projectsindex.htm

Next Steps ﾟ Recommendations of the Working Group

Establishing the Fund and Coalition requires a critical mass
of global support for these new organizations. The ability to
mobilize financial and in-kind resources for the Fund depends
on the credibility of the membership of the Coalition. That
credibility would be furthered by early support from such key
international entities as commercial satellite and fiber optic
service providers, multi-national businesses, national
governmental aid agencies, foundations, and agencies of the
United Nations such as the ITU, UNESCO, WHO, the World Bank
Group (including the International Finance Corporation), and
the regional development banks (African Development Bank,
Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development, and the Inter-American Development Bank). No
legitimate agency of standing would be excluded from
participating. Creation of a preliminary coalition of
participants to support the bandwidth source" as well as the
financial aid source" would be critical to the initial
testing of this concept.

To that end, the working group recommends that:

1. A more polished and developed draft of the proposal be put
before major international conferences in 2000. These would
include the Second International Global Knowledge Conference
(GKII) to be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 7-10 March 2000,
and other international conferences that follow that of the
Clarke Institute for Telecommunications and Information.
2. An intensive effort be made to enlist the support of the
leadership of the key international institutions mentioned
above, facilitating the mobilization of bilateral aid
agencies, foundations, and multinational corporations.
3. Working groups on telecommunications policy conditionality,
education policy conditionality, healthcare policy
conditionality, and operational aspects of the Fund and the
Coalition be convened respectively by ITU, UNESCO, WHO, and
the World Bank. These working groups would include
representatives of other interested international
organizations, bilateral aid agencies, companies, foundations,
and other NGOs, as well as of relevant information and
telecommunications industry organizations, e.g. the Global
Information Infrastructure Commission.

It is hoped that attendees at the CITI conference will be
willing to offer helpful comments concerning this paper either
to Tak Utsumi, Peter Knight or Joseph Pelton at the following
e-mail addresses: utsumi@columbia.edu,
ptknight@attglobal.net, ecjpelton@aol.com.

It is further hoped that providers of satellite or fiber optic
system capacity would be willing to join in further working
group discussions to shape the framework for the "pilot
version" of the GSTF for tele-education and tele-health.

Cf. http://www.informatics.org/clarke/

Please contact me regarding any support you plan to give to this proposal.

With best regards,
--
Peter T. Knight
Knight, Moore - Telematics for Education and Development
Communications Development Incorporated (CDI)
1825 Eye Street, NW, Suite 1075
Washington, DC 20006, USA

Tel: 1-202-775-2132 (secretary),1- 202-721-0348 (direct, voicemail)
Fax: 1-202-775-2135 (office), 1-202362-8482 (home)
Cellphone: 1-202-255-7215
Email: ptknight@attglobal.net
http://www.knight-moore.com (updated) and http://www.cdinet.com
****************************************
ATTACHMENT II

Synopsis
of
Global Service Trust Fund (GSTF)

Excerpt from
<http://www.informatics.org/clarke/projects.html>

(More detailed information can be obtained through the web.)

(d) The Global Service Trust Fund. This activity is being coordinated through
Glosas and the Global University System, but the proposal suggests that it be
operationalized by international organizations including INTELSAT, UNESCO,
ITU, WHO, and the World Bank Group, with active participation by working
groups to be convened by these organizations. These working groups would
include representatives of other interested organizations, such as
foundations, other NGOs, private companies involved in telecommunications,
other private companies interested in tele-education and tele-health,
bilateral aid agencies, regional development banks, and the like.

The basic idea in the proposal is to mobilize both financial resources, and
under-utilized broad (Internet 2 level) bandwidth on both satellite
transponders and landlines (especially submarine optic fiber cables) which
would be made available for use by tele-education and tele-health projects in
qualifying developing countries. There is also a need to set up a credible,
reliable, and competent structure to administer the allocation of both the
financial resources (which can be used to purchase bandwidth), as well as the
in-kind donations of underused bandwidth which would be solicited from its owners.

International institutions with the relevant mandates (ITU, UNESCO, and WHO)
are being asked to convene the working groups on policy conditionality
for a country to qualify for GSTF resources, and global institutions such as
INTELSAT and the World Bank Group are proposed as convenors of the working
group on operational questions. Either of these institutions could house and
administer the funding mechanism, or it could be delegated to third parties.
That decision would emerge from the recommendations of the working groups. The
project proposal proponents are currently contacting the international
institutions referred to above to verify their interest in convening the working groups.

In the discussion group at the CITI Founders' confernece there were various
opinions about whether the distribution network or the content and programming
for teaching were the key problems. It was noted that finding and getting
commitment of a respected and "nationally neutral" entity for implementation
of such a project would be difficult and that there are likely to be varying
viewpoints about how to proceed with regard to international organizations,
national governments, non-governmental organizations and various industry
groups. The idea that certain conditionality regarding telecommunications,
education, and health care policies would be established, and who would
control the various types of funds also seemed to be a difficult issues.

Return to Global University System Early 2000 Correspondence

****************************************
List of Distribution

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 *
* (GLObal Systems Analysis and Simulation Association in the U.S.A.) *
* Laureate of Lord Perry Award for Excellence in Distance Education *
* Founder of CAADE *
* (Consortium for Affordable and Accessible Distance Education) *
* President Emeritus and V.P. for Technology and Coordination of *
* Global University System (GUS) *
* 43-23 Colden Street, Flushing, NY 11355-3998, U.S.A. *
* Tel: 718-939-0928; Fax: 718-939-0656 (day time only--prefer email) *
* Email: utsumi@columbia.edu; Tax Exempt ID: 11-2999676 *
* http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/ *
**********************************************************************

Return to: Global University System Early 2000 Correspondence
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