African Plan and Current Status of infoDev Final Report

<<November 25, 1999>>

John C. Afele, Ph.D <jafele@plant.uoguelph.ca>

Steve McCarty <steve@kagawa-jc.ac.jp>

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

Shahab Khan <Afroz@khi.compol.com>

Dear John and Steve:
====================

(1) Many thanks for your msgs (ATTACHMENT I, II, III and IV).

(2) I uploaded the draft of your pilot project proposal to the Outline of
Report to InfoDev" at
<http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/Tampere_Conference/Final_Report/Tampere_Event/Final_Report.html>.

Pls click "African Group" in PART II at the end of this page.

(3) As compared with your original, you will find that many portions of the
original were removed. We will need to focus your project further and state it more clearly.

Dear Steve:
===========

(4) Many thanks for your help to John's draft, and thanks also for your kind
words in ATTACHMENT IV.

(5) Referring to the matter of <TITLE> in ATTACHMENT IV, my GoLive web
     authoring software does not have any place to put the title -- PageMill
     has it. This must be a serious defect of the GoLive. Pls let me know
     how to cope with this problem -- otherwise, I have to open hundreds of
     files and give the title for each of them manually.

Dear Tapio:
===========

(6) Although Shahab may need to revised his draft, PART II of our final
report is almost completed, thanks to considerable efforts made by
chiefs of each region.

(7) I will work on PART I/Section II and III-4 after I come back from Fiji.

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

From: "John Afele" <jafele@plant.uoguelph.ca>
Organization: Plant Agriculture, Univ. of Guelph
To: utsumi@columbia.edu, John Mack <jlmack@erols.com>, lasmith@usaid.gov,
Steve McCarty <steve@kagawa-jc.ac.jp>
Date: Sat, 6 Nov 1999 16:18:59 EST

Dear Prof. Utsumi-san:

1) I have an edited version of the African Initiatives which is still
not in the infoDev format but has incorporated some items from the
Latin American group, as you suggested. I have also deleted reference
to the Mobile Van system.

2) Steve has placed it at the URL (but we will continue to modify it
until it is DONE. For now, it is a working document.

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Pantheon/7197/Afele/africa-g.htm

http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve_mc/global-univ-99/africa-plan.html

3) I will be going to the infoDev's Networked Economy and will be in
Washington from November 8 - 14. I have scheduled appointments with
some of the Bank's people who have expressed interest in our program.

4) Africa's education and research communities are facing
severe problems at all levels therefore our design is from the
perspective of integrated distance learning and research. Yesterday,
I read from on-line African news systems about the state of students
performances in some of the on-line news systems about Africa.
Specifically, about the West African Examination Council's annual
review, and the state of scientific investigations which could be
generalized for Africa.

5) The examination board is responsible for secondary and high
school examinations in Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra-Leone, and The Gambia.
That is GCE O and A levels. It said "... there was a high failure
rate in the November/December 1998 SSCE for private candidates ...
in which the Chief Examiners reported "massive show of poor knowledge
on the rules of grammar."
<http://www.africanews.org/west/ghana/stories/19991102_feat11.html>

6) In a separate case, the Committee of Vice Chancellors and
Principal (CVCP) of the universities of Ghana held on Thursday 23rd
September, 1999 the committee deliberated on the current crisis in
funding tertiary education and the events that led to the closure of
the University of Ghana. The committee made the following
observations Purchase of items such as chalk, chemicals, books and
journals, equipment and what goes into direct teaching has been
virtually impossible. This has made it very difficult for the
Universities to effectively carry out their programmes.
<http://www.africanews.org/west/ghana/stories/19991102_feat6.html>

7) In a third news item, the Director-General of the Counci lfor
Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) said the new expenditure
framework could not provide the needed funds to address demand-driven
researches. Prof. Alhassan said the awareness had been created but
the commitment to practise does not appear to be total and it is
contributing to low performance. Other factors were lack of seed
money to carry out projects through pilot-phase testing
<http://www.africanews.org/west/ghana/stories/19991103_feat2.html>

8) That is why for the Ghana/Africa proposal I have a large network.
What we aspire to is that we converge efforts to bring knowledge to
bear on these insecurities. It would be the only way to make real
gains. Our stakeholdership includes CSIR, etc.

With kind regards,

John Afele
****************************************
ATTACHMENT II

Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1999 14:15:39 +0800
To: "John Afele" <jafele@plant.uoguelph.ca>
From: Steve McCarty <steve@kagawa-jc.ac.jp>
Subject: Re: African Initiatives
Cc: utsumi@columbia.edu

Dear Colleagues,

Kindly see the results with reformatting and an African-style color scheme:

African Component of the Global University System

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Pantheon/7197/Afele/africa-g.htm
or
http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve_mc/global-univ-99/africa-plan.html

One change in the content was to take my name out of those mentioned as
GUS representatives, although I deeply appreciate Prof. Afele's kind gesture.

Respectfully submitted,
Steve McCarty in Japan
****************************************
ATTACHMENT III

Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 13:24:31 -0500 (EST)
From: John C Afele <jafele@uoguelph.ca>
To: utsumi@columbia.edu
Subject: Revised Draft of African Initiatives

Dear Prof. Utsumi,

The revised draft of the African hub is located at the URL below (Steve's
site). I hope it meets with your expectations, otherwise would you please
make suggestions.

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Pantheon/7197/Afele/africagu.htm

Thanking you,

John Afele

P.S. I am in Ottawa today.
****************************************
ATTACHMENT IV

Date: Mon, 22 Nov 1999 09:22:33 +0800
To: Takeshi Utsumi <utsumi@columbia.edu>
From: Steve McCarty <steve@kagawa-jc.ac.jp>
Subject: Re: Revised Draft of African Initiatives

Sensei, thank you for your kind support as I plan the Tokyo trip.

At 5:06 PM -0500 99.11.21, Takeshi Utsumi wrote:
>Can you send its file as an attachment to your next msg?

Okay, Prof. Afele's fine work seems to be attached.

>(3) I downloaded it with source from Netscape, but I cannot reproduce it
>with my GoLive.

When you download from free Websites you need to clear out the javascript
they add for their banners. As I recall, it's below the </HEAD> and you erase
everything from <DIV> to </DIV>.

Before you complete your infoDev final report Web pages, make sure to
give each page a descriptive title in the HEAD between <TITLE> and </TITLE>.
When I saw how much work you had put into that, again I wished to be your
full-time assistant.

Give my best regards to Richard Wah and colleagues in Fiji.
            ****************************************
                      List of Distribution

John C. Afele, Ph.D
Director
International Program for Africa
Department of Plant Agriculture
Ontario Agricultural College
University of Guelph
Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1
Tel: +1-519-824-4120 ext 3934
Fax: +1-519-763-8933
Email: jafele@plant.uoguelph.ca
       jafele@uoguelph.ca
Chair, Grants & Research Committee,
Ghana Computer Literacy and
Distance Education project< http://www.ghaclad.org >
Member of Africa TeleHealth Consorutium
< http://ccen.uccb.ns.ca/nairobi >
Member, IT for Development Working Group
Council for Tropical and Sub-Tropical
Agriculture, Germany < http://www.dainet.de/gil >

Steve McCarty
Professor, Kagawa Junior College
President, World Association for Online Education (WAOE)
3717-33 Nii, Kokubunji, Kagawa 769-0101 JAPAN
+81-877-49-8041 (office, direct line); Fax: +81-877-49-5252
steve@kagawa-jc.ac.jp, mccarty@pop06.odn.ne.jp -- his wife's
http://www.waoe.org -- for WAOE
http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve_mc/WAOE-founding.html
http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve_mc/ -- for Japanese language home page
http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve_mc/jpublist.html -- online publications (Jpse.)
http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve_mc/presence.html -- home page (English)
http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve_mc/epublist.html -- online publications (Eng.)
(an Asian Studies WWW Virtual Library 4-star site)
http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve_mc/asia-pacific/projects-ej.html -- bilingual
("Fundamental Projects of Dr. Takeshi Utsumi")
http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve_mc/asia-pacific/index.html
(Global University System Asia-Pacific Framework)

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

Shahab Khan
Director
Planwel University
Planwel Institute of Science and Technology (PLANWEL)
A-1, L.C.H.S
Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Block-20
Karachi. 75290, Pakistan
Tel: 011-92-21-811-5851
     011-92-21-811-5094
Fax: 011-92-21-811-6178
Afroz@khi.compol.com
afroz@planwel.edu
http://www.planwel.com
http://www.planwel.edu
http://www.planwel.edu/Research/tampere.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/                                   *
**********************************************************************

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