<<October 1, 1999>>

Mr. Barry McLarnon, P. Eng. <barry.mclarnon@crc.ca>

P. Tapio Varis, Ph.D, Professor <tapio.varis@uta.fi>

Mr. John Pearce <john.pearce@dfait-maeci.gc.ca>

Roger Lee Boston <rboston@tenet.edu>

Peter T. Knight <ptknight@ibm.net>

Dr. Lauri Hirvonen (NMP) <Lauri.Hirvonen@nmp.nokia.com>

Mr. Ivan de Moura Campos <ivanMC@mct.gov.br>

(1) Dear Barry:
===========

Many thanks for your excellent report (ATTACHMENT I).

(2) Dear Roger:
===========

Pls send me your report ASAP -- Peter Knight wants it by October 5th --
see ATTACHMENT II. Thanks.

Dear Electronic Colleagues:
===========================

Pls send me your comments to our Tampere event, also, so that
Peter can present them to the board of the InfoDev.

(3) Dear Peter:
===========

Many thanks for your msg (ATTACHMENT II).

In addition to my msg sent to you on 9/1st, I will add the following:

(a) On the future of mobile wireless:

I said in the 9/1st msg that:

"Albeit necessary to have a detailed survey and investigation
for each locality, wireless broadband Internet is the future trend
of delivery system for electronic distance education and
telemedicine, by satellite for long range, microwave for medium
range and spread spectrum for short range, particularly in
developing countries."

This is for the so-called "fixed wireless" approach, i.e.,
connecting mainly buildings.

What I learned as a new trend at the Tampere event was, albeit rather
technical, that Nokia is now forging ahead with their R&D to create a
video-phone which can access Internet at 34 Mbps by the year 2004!!
This is the so-called "mobile wireless" approach for the use by
individuals at the so-called "last mile."

This is an amazing future, since it can have HDTV, telephony, fax, voice
mail, email, web accessing, videoconferencing, etc., i.e., almost
everything at that speed. Namely, the distance learning for "anyone,
anywhere, and anytime" can be realized with it.

Only missing during the Nokia presentation was the question of who
is going to provide such broadband Internet backbone. They then
indicated that they would be willing to work with our project of
establishing global wireless broadband Internet.

(b) On the InfoDev's grant application screening:

For my workshop at SENAI (an industrial training organization) in
Florianopolis, Brazil, in the summer of 1996, I applied for a grant to the
InfoDev with my plan of setting up wireless broadband (3 Mbps)
Internet between the SENAI and the University of Santa Catarina in
Florianopolis which is the leading university in the use of wireless
data telecommunications in Brazil.

My application was declined saying that I should have had a license to
use the wireless unit.

When I visited the sales person of the wireless unit in Sao Paulo before
my workshop, he was astonished to hear that, since not only such
licensing had been cleared in Brazil several years before -- see Barry's
msg in ATTACHMENT I, but also he himself had sold such units, more than
100 by that time in Brazil. (Incidentally, AT&T claims to have more
than a 65% worldwide market share of the unit.)

Consequently, I would like to request the InfoDev to upgrade the quality
and capability of their peer group members in such a way that the grant
application will be evaluated fairly.

(c) On the need of Global Service Trust Fund (GSTF):

I said in the 9/1st msg:

"Deployment of wireless broadband Internet on a global scale,
training of facilitators, development of advanced courseware,
administration of delivery systems, etc. require huge investment
which can only be made by the multilateral joint overseas
development assistance of major countries."

Internet is the future of telecommunication. Broadband Internet is the
inevitable need. The deployment of such broadband Internet requires
huge investment, particularly to reach the "have-nots" in remote/rural
areas of developing countries -- see Barry's msg in ATTACHMENT I.

While more than 200 universities in the US now have 45 Mbps
Internet and more than 85% of elementary schools have 1.5 Mbps
Internet, the Leland program of the USAID provides only 128 Kbps
Internet to two dozen African countries, and the international
linkage of Ukraine is at 1.5 Mbps only.

Such investment for distance learning and healthcare in those areas can
only be made by the Overseas Development Assistant (ODA) fund of G7
countries.

We advocate the establishment of GSTF with the ODA funds under the
auspices of international organizations, e.g., the World Bank, UNESCO,
ITU, WHO, ILO, etc.

Many countries now have similar programs as the USFCC's Universal
Service Fund to upgrade Internet domestically. However, none
talks about the similar upgrading internationally, i.e., among
countries across oceans and continents for distance learning and
healthcare, hence creating bottlenecks with congestion that cause
barriers for the deployment of such humanitarian activities.

I would greatly appreciate it if you can kindly appeal this necessity to
the board of the InfoDev.

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

Date: Fri, 01 Oct 1999 14:56:57 -0400
To: utsumi@columbia.edu
From: Barry McLarnon <barry.mclarnon@crc.ca>
Subject: Re: Your report

Tak,

Below is my brief report on the Tampere event (in plain text to avoid any
formatting problems).

========================================
<<October 1, 1999>> Removed here by T. Utsumi,
========================================

Best,

Barry
========================================

Report on the EGEDL meeting in Tampere, Finland (August 1999)

Although I do not work in the distance learning field, I found the Tampere
meeting to be very interesting. Indeed, it was quite stimulating to be among
a group of educators who are committed to tackling the challenges of providing
affordable distance learning on a global scale. I particularly appreciated
Roger Boston's workshop on low-cost teleconferencing. This was a very
practical and down-to-earth exposition of how inexpensive conferencing tools
can be used effectively with connections of differing bandwidths and
latencies. In general, the meeting was very well organized, and the local
hosts are to be commended for their thoroughness, and for their hospitality.

My presentation on wireless Internet seemed to be well received, judging from
comments I received later. Although it was focused primarily on the use of
unlicensed spread spectrum technology, I tried to put this in its proper
context by providing an overview of wireless technologies that could be used
for Internet connectivity. A central point of the presentation was that many
players are now entering the wireless Internet arena, and one has to assess
them all. In some cases, it may make good economic sense to leverage an
existing wireless infrastructure rather than deploying something new. I
regret that I was unable to contribute much in the brainstorming sessions,
as the proposals were rather general in nature at that stage, but perhaps I
can provide some input at a later stage.

The Tampere meeting was a study in contrasts, and clearly showed the enormous
gap between the haves and the have nots. On the one hand, some of the
players have tremendous resources with which to deploy broadband wireless
technology; on the other hand, some must operate on a shoestring budget, and
even lack adequate basic wireline services as a starting point. A major
challenge will be to identify technology which will be appropriate (in terms
of startup and operating costs, maintainability by local people, etc.) in the
have-not situations.

In closing, I will also note that the Tampere meeting has attracted some
interest from the Canadian government. Although I did not attend the meeting
as an official representative of the Government of Canada, I have been
contacted by officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and
International Trade, and from Industry Canada, and asked for my comments on
the meeting. I conveyed my perception that the Global University initiatives
should be taken very seriously, and urged them to follow the activities of Dr.
Utsumi, Professor Varis and their colleagues more closely in the future. I am
pleased that my presence at the meeting contributed in some small way to
raising awareness in Canada of this work.

Barry McLarnon
September 1999

--
Barry McLarnon (barry.mclarnon@crc.ca)
Project Leader, Radio Broadcast Systems
Communications Research Centre, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2H 8S2
WWW: http://www.drb.crc.ca Fax: 613-993-9950 AKA: VE3JF
****************************************
ATTACHMENT II

Date: Sat, 25 Sep 1999 06:53:07 -0400
From: "Peter T. Knight" <ptknight@ibm.net>
Organization: Knight-Moore: Telematics for Education and Development/CDI
To: gu-l@www.friends-partners.org
CC: utsumi@columbia.edu
Subject: Re: Strategic mtg on fund raising

Dear Tak and colleagues,

I am sorry I will be in Brazil at the time of your Washington
conference. In the meantime, I would very much appreciate comments on
lessons learned at the Tampere conference from any of you, and also any
lessons learned by you about the infoDev grant-making and administrative
processes. The objective of the study I am working on for infoDev is to
cull lessons which can help sell the board of donors on the value of the
infoDev program (catalytic effect beyond the relatively small projects
it funds, how lessons learned are applicable in other present or future
projects in technologically enhanced education, especially distance
education).

Thanks in advance for any comments you may be able to send. I have to
present a preliminary report at an infoDev conference on October 5.

All the best,

Peter

--
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)
Email: ptknight@ibm.net
www: http://www.knight-moore.com www.cdinet.com
****************************************
List of Distribution

Mr. Barry McLarnon, P. Eng.
Project leader, Radio Broadcast Systems
Communications Research Center Canada
2696 Regina Street
Ottawa, Ontario K2B 6Y1
CANADA
Tel: +1-613-998 5005
Fax: +1-613-993 9950
barry.mclarnon@crc.ca
http://hydra.carleton.ca/info/wlan.html
http://www.drb.crc.ca

P. Tapio Varis, Ph.D, Professor
Acting President, Global University System
Chairman, GLOSAS/Finland
Professor and Chair
Media Culture and Communication Education
Hypermedia laboratory
University of Tampere
P.O.Box 607
FIN-33101 Tampere
FINLAND
Tel: +358-3-215 6110
GSM: +358-50-567-9833
Fax: +358-3-215 7503
tapio.varis@uta.fi
http://www.uta.fi/~titava

Mr. John Pearce
Councellor Commercial
Canadian Embassy
Helsinki, Finland
john.pearce@dfait-maeci.gc.ca

Roger Lee Boston
Rockwell Chair Instructor
Distance Education/Technology Center
Houston Community College System
4310 Dunlavy
P.O.Box 7849
Houston, Texas 77270-7849
USA
Tel: +1-713-718 5224
Fax: +1-713-718 5301
rboston@tenet.edu
http://www.teched.org/
http://www.hccs.cc.tx.us

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)
Email: ptknight@ibm.net
webmail: ptknight@netscape.net
http://www.knight-moore.com
http://www.cdinet.com
IP for CU-SeeMe: 198.77.80.46

Dr. Lauri Hirvonen (NMP)
Senior Manager, Customer Services
Wireless Data
NOKIA MOBILE PHONES
P. O. Box 68 (Sinitaival 5)
FIN-33721 Tampere
Finland
Mobile +358 50 55 88 930
Fax +358 (0) 10 505 6733
MobiIe fax +358 50 8558 8930
Lauri.Hirvonen@nmp.nokia.com

Mr. Ivan de Moura Campos
Secretary of Informatics
Ministry of Science and Technology
Esplanada dos Ministerios
Bloco E, 2nd floor
70067.900 Brasilia
BRAZIL
Tel +55-61-225 54 40
Fax +55-61-225 15 02
ivanMC@mct.gov.br
**********************************************************************
* 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/ *
**********************************************************************

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