Prof. Jose Brenes Andre <jbrenes@cariari.ucr.ac.cr
Dr. David A. Johnson, AICP <daj@utk.edu>
Alexandre Rivas, Ph.D. <alex_mau@argo.com.br>
Dear Jose:
==========
(1) Many thanks for your msg (ATTACHMENT I).
(2) Congratulations to your progress in Central America.
(3) Referring to Item (a)
of your msg, you are the one who will be
responsible
to raise funds for your project.
Should
you continue your project, pls contact David Johnson who
indicated
his strong willingness to help you.
(4) You would need to hold
a mini-workshop -- similar to the one at Open
University
in UK for European Group which was mentioned in my previous msgs.
As you
proposed before (ATTACHMENT II), this workshop may be held at the
same time
and place as the conference of UNAMAZ and as the mini-workshop
for South
American Group which is now being organized by Alex Rivas.
Dear Alex:
==========
Referring to ATTACHMENT III, pls let us (David, Jose and me) know
the decision of UNAMAZ on where and when their conference will be
held, at your earlies convenience -- since David has to prepare
his travel grant application to NSF.
(5) This mini-workshop will
plan for the larger workshop/conference (as to
the follow-up
to our Tampere event) where your people will jointly work
on the
feasibility study, action plan, etc. to realize your project.
This will
then subsequently come up with a concrete budget which will then be
submitted
to appropriate funding sources in various countries.
(6) Our projects are long,
long range projects. Don't give up easily!!
Otherwise,
people would not follow you and your project will never be realized.
Best, Tak
****************************************
ATTACHMENT I
Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 12:18:09
-0600 (CST)
From: Jose Brenes <jbrenes@cariari.ucr.ac.cr>
To: utsumi@www.friends-partners.org
cc: Jose Brenes <jbrenes@cariari.ucr.ac.cr>
Dear Tak
Greetings.
You may wonder why I had not make contact with you before. The reasons are
a) As you know, I was not expecting
that my project was going to be chosen
as a possible pilot project. Hence
I had made other commitments. Besides,
I was in charged of the Iberoamerican
Physics Olympics, which I organized
sigle handed, for the others left.
b) As I was already commited to
go to Panama and teach a small workshop on
the use of Internet in teaching,
I took advantage of the opportunity and
gave the high school professors
who attended the workshp, a computer
Physics simulation program which
they have to install by fetching the
resources via Internet. Each of
them had to develop a small demo, using
one of the simulations, and present
it to the group on Friday.
This created a lot of enthusiasm,
gave them a feeling of accomplishment,
and they did not go home empty
handed. In this way I contacted some of the
possible users of GUCA.
c) While at Panama I explored the
possibility of setting up a
Latin-American e-mail list to discuss
problems on physics education.
It initiated with 20 Panamanian,
and myself from Costa Rica. Very soon 2
Paraguayan professors, whom I met
while at the Physics olympics have
joined, and also some bolivians
have shown interest.
We have to wait till February,
because our school year goes from ends of
Feb to mids of Dec.
d) I managed to get accepted in
a distance course on Political Sciences,
related to Kosovs, which Roger
told me about while at Tampere. Five
students enrolled in the workshop,
and this created momentum at
Universidad de costa Rica. That
way I managed to get a second computer,
Pentium II, full extras, and tried
out several ways to carry non-expensive
but good quality distance classes.
I proved Roger's template, and got in
touch with other people involved
in Distance Ed.
e) I participate in the GLD3 excercise,
and tested some other methods. As
a GLD list participant have got
to know several people who have dealt with
Distance Ed, and found several
other ways of looking at the problems
Distance Ed faces.
f) Also, as a result of Tampere
I met Jerry Richter, of CAPE, with whom we
strated to explore different ways
of interacting. This idea has grown, and
we have the first VTEL videoconference,
with 3 nurses, one of tme the
Vice-Director of UCR Nurse School.
There is a possibility that one
representative of CAPE will drop
by on Jan 23, to explore in situ
different ways to interact. If
this goes on, a joint proposal will be
submitted to different organizations
for money.
g) Have installed LINUX in my new
PC to take advantage of more speed, and
be able to show others that the
system used for Distance Ed works. Of
course this is taking some of my
time to learn the new environment but my
feeling is that it will help at
the end.
h) I ave NOT yet got in touch with central american people because of several things
h.1- There is an increasing conflict
between Nicaragua and Honduras about
boundaries,which has increased
to the extent that OAS has intervened.
h.2- Today that boundary problem
has been blown to touch Costa Rica.
Nicaraguan president has warned
that there will be problems if Costa Rica
signs a treaty with Colombia. He
has threatened us publicly, and already
some reactions are appearing.
h.3- A Central American Physics
congress just finished in Guatemala. They
offered a lot of things but at
the end they barely had money, and we have
to look for some ourselves to send
our 7 students. Being this the 24th
Congress, people were very toucy
and pessimistic as to what the future will be
starting the new millenium.
As you can see, I have to strengthen
my position first, if I have to move
out of Costa Rica to push for a
Central American project. It has happened
several times before that some
people in Central America wait till
everything is ready and then ask
for ransom: I will pull my political
contacts and throw you out unless
I take over the WHOLE thing.
Starting year 2000 I will have more time to systematically work for GUCA.
Merry Christmas to you and your wife.
Jose
****************************************
ATTACHMENT II
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1999 16:14:31
-0600 (CST)
From: Jose Brenes <jbrenes@cariari.ucr.ac.cr>
To: utsumi@www.friends-partners.org
cc: jbrenes@cariari.ucr.ac.cr
Subject: Central American meeting
Dear Tak
Had a long tlk with high authorities
of Universidad de Costa Rica. Showed
them a copy of the message you
send to WHO offitials, describing the GU
coordination role for INTERNET
2, and how this will be done among
countries. They like the idea,
and are willing to continue.
Hence, I think time has come to
start thinking about the next workshop
I have some questions in that respect
========================================
<<December 15, 1999>> Removed here by T. Utsumi,
========================================
LAST but not LEAST: you people are
planning to meet at Colombia in
February, for the Amazonian. Colombia
is a rather cheap place to be at,
and travel expenses to Costa Rica
are not that different from those to
Colombia. Wonder if we can aim
for TWO meetings simultaneously: Central
America, and Amazonian. We will
have in this way the whole Latin America
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
I still do not have the scratch version of GU bylaws
Best regards
****************************************
ATTACHMENT III
From: "Alex Rivas" <alex_mau@argo.com.br>
To: "djohnutk" <djohnutk@utkux.utcc.utk.edu>
Cc: <utsumi@columbia.edu>
Subject: Re: Workshop/conference
for UNAMAZ
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1999 20:48:18
-0200
Dr. Johnson,
As I mentioned in the other e-mail,
Unamaz's board of directors will meet
here in Manaus in the coming 18th
to decide about the place where the
conference will be held. I already
suggested Manaus but Venezuela also wants
that. As soon as I have this information
I'll let you to know.
Alex
----- Original Message -----
From: djohnutk <djohnutk@utkux.utcc.utk.edu>
To: Alex Rivas <alex_mau@argo.com.br>
Cc: <utsumi@columbia.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 1999
10:29 PM
Subject: RE: Workshop/conference
for UNAMAZ
> Alex:
>
> Thanks for your msg regarding
UNAMAZ. I think it would be wise to move the
> conference to Manaus. Should
you manage to do this, I will pursue request
to
> NSF to fund participation of
myself, Tak Utsumi and perhaps one or two UTK
> people who might be essential
to the link. There is a real opportunity to
> work in the Amazon Region and
I hope we can realize it.
>
> All the best from here,
>
> Dave
****************************************
List of Distribution
Prof. Jose Brenes Andre
President of Consta Rica Fulbright
Association
Escuela de Fisica
Universidad de Costa Rica
San Pedro
COSTA RICA
Tel: +506-207-5019
Fax: +506-225-5511
jbrenes@cariari.ucr.ac.cr
Dr. David A. Johnson, AICP
Board member of GLOSAS/USA
Former President of Fulbright Association
Professor of School of Planning
College of Arts and Sciences
University of Tenneseee
108-I Hoskins Library
Knoxville, TN 37996-4051
USA
Tel: +1-423-974 5227
Fax: +1-423-974 5229
daj@utk.edu
http://web.utk.edu/~djohnutk/
Alexandre Rivas, Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor
Director of the Center for Environmental
Sciences
University of Amazonas - Brazil
C.P. 4208, Manaus 69053-140
BRAZIL
+55-92-635 32 33
+55-92-644 23 22
Fax: +55-92-644 23 84
alex_mau@argo.com.br
http://www.argo.com.br/~alex_mau/alex.htm
**********************************************************************
* 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
*
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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;
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*
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*
**********************************************************************
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