Dr Howard N. Van Trease <vantrease_h@usp.ac.fj>
Richard Wah <wah_r@usp.ac.fj>
Wayne Heads <wayne.heads@usp.ac.fj>
Ruby Vaa <vaa_r@usp.ac.fj>
Linda Austin, M.S.J. <austin_l@usp.ac.fj>
Mrs Selai Fa <fa_s@usp.ac.fj>
Asifo 0. Ajuyah, Ph.D. <ajuyah_a@samoa.net>
Jannette Kirkwood <kirkwood@usq.edu.au>
Professor John Dekkers <j.dekkers@cqu.edu.au>
Som Naidu <s.naidu@meu.unimelb.edu.au>
Kimberly K. Obbink <kobbink@montana.edu>
Steve McCarty <steve@kagawa-jc.ac.jp>
(1) Dear Howard, Richard and
Ruby:
==============================
Many, many
thanks for your cordial and generous invitation to
attend
your roundtable mtg held from 11/29th to 12/1st/99 at your
university
(ATTACHMENT I) to discuss strategies and plans to make the
best use
of your newly established USPNet (ATTACHMENT II) which
connects
12 member countries' institutions in the South Pacific area
with audio,
data and video transmission capacity.
I thoroughly
enjoyed the mtg with exciting discussions to utilize the
capabilities
of the USPNet to enhance learning, teaching, research and
administration
at the USP.
I was also amazed at the drenching rain in Suva, Fiji. It was
like some kids on a beach scooping South Pacific ocean water by
the bucket and dumping them on the town of Suva -- especially
on the day when John and Jannette left for home.
My bus trip from Suva to Nadi international airport was very
pleasant through a scenic coastal route, passing by beautiful
resort hotels. It took me almost 5 hours!!
Dear Selai:
===========
Pls take note of this time -- not 3 hours as you said -- since
someone who needs to catch a plane needs to have ample time.
I had to spent almost 11 hours at the Nadi airport -- it was very
hot and humid which was another amazement compared with the other
side of the mountain where Suva still had such rainy weather that
many flights were cancelled.
After arriving home in the very early morning of 12/4th, I was
completely down in bed for a day with fatigue/exhaustion, jet
lag, back-ache and the flu I got at Nadi airport. It was certainly a
long, long trip!!
Dear Howard:
============
My wife appreciated greatly your gift of Fijian clothes. Thank you very much.
Dear Ruby:
==========
Many thanks
for your msg (ATTACHMENT III) -- I received your attachment
all right.
Your people are really efficient, in spite of a congested 64
Kbps leased
line from Fiji to Melbourne, Australia -- Richard's paper
says that
you have to pay US$50,000/Year for only a 4.8 Kbps leased line
from Fiji
to Melbourne!!
When I visited the University of Rondonia in Brazil (which is very
close to Bolivia) a year and a half ago, I also saw the same
situation with their 56 Kbps leased line for several thousand
students. Their professors just gave up the use of Internet
because of long waiting time to download web pages.
(2) Dear Richard:
=============
I was very glad to have a chat with you on 12/2nd though you did not feel well that day.
As we discussed, we welcome your USP's joining in our Global University System (GUS) project.
Dear Kim:
=========
Pls take note of this -- USP can be a sub-region of your Asia/Pacific regional activities.
Dear Steve:
===========
I conveyed your regards to Richard. He then returned his to you.
When you
come up with a plan for testing spread spectrum wireless broadband
Internet
units, pls let me know. You may apply to the InfoDev of the World
Bank for
your units -- see <http://www.infodev.org/projects/prhome.htm>
for its
guidelines, and PART II of the final report of our Tampere event at
<http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/Tampere_Conference/Final_Report/Tampere_Event/Final_Report.html>,
how our
regional groups came up with their drafts of their pilot project proposals.
(3) Dear Richard and Linda:
=======================
(a) Use of mirror of webs:
You may ask Steve how to make mirror Websites -- Steve uses free sites as a backup.
(b) Simultaneous use of web during videoconferencing with Polycom at a 128 Kbps channel:
Once you
have the mirrors of webs, your counterparts, say in Tonga, can
retrieve
the web at the same time as you do in Suva so that your
instructor
can point out necessary materials on the web.
Your media person demonstrated how the color of magic marker could
be faithfully transmitted to other side via satellite. (We did
this kind of test between the University of Alaska in Fairbanks
and the National Technological University in Fort Collins, CO in
the summer of 1993.) However, as far as you use an analog TV
monitor, it is far inferior to the computer screen. Therefore,
try to use a computer screen with the Web as much as possible.
Also, if you use the Web, it can be incorporated with application
programs and simulation models so that your students can play with
it with their hand-on experiments -- this will transform KNOWLEDGE
into WISDOM, since it is said that "Knowledge with action becomes Wisdom."
Eileen said a couple of times that you are now facing a
REVOLUTION of education!! I agree with her, and
strongly suggest you to use the Web and enrich its contents and
its interactiveness and asynchronous communication -- rather than
talking-heads type videoconferencing.
(c) Use of NetMeeting:
You may
also use NetMeeting at 64 Kbps, since it can be accompanied with
PowerPoint,
whiteboard, application programs and simulation models.
1. Simultaneous use of NetMeeting during videoconferencing
with
Polycom at a 128 Kbps channel:
You may experiment with this use to supplement the videoconferencing
with Polycom at 128 Kbps channel.
2. NetMeeting at 128 Kbps or 3 x 64 Kbps channel:
You may experiment with NetMeeting at multiple channels of 64 Kbps,
particularly when the usage is low -- to compare with the VHS tape
I gave to Linda which was the test between Montana State
University/Bozeman and the University of Hawaii via 45 Mbps.
If the usage is low, you may be able to get almost the same
effect as the Montana/Hawaii experiment with your 128 Kbps channel.
I am very much interested in this experiment so please
send me a VHS tape of your results.
Anyway,
I would like to emphasize the use of web and NetMeeting as much
as possible
so that you will come to let your students exercise with
simulation
models -- as you may know I am a simulationist by profession,
and that
is why I promote the use of simulation models rather than a
talking-heads
approach.
(4) Dear Wayne:
===========
You told
me that your equipment received from the Japanese government
does not
have much margin for upgrading in the future.
However,
once your USP is hooked up to a 200 Gbps fiber optic loop
among
Hawaii, Fiji, Australia and New Zealand next year, you may use the
current
64 Kbps satellite link and the line from your central hub to any
web site
in the US (or anywhere) the same as the terrestrial line of the
DirecPC,
if the return (downlink) of the web is sent at 0.5 Mbps
(up to
10 Mbps) via another (or the same) satellite from an earth
station
in Hawaii to be received at your USP or at its 12 consortium islands.
Although this scheme will add additional satellite hop for
uplinking for your students, this time delay may not be much for
Web retrieving -- and this scheme will not need to waste the
current equipment received from the Japanese government.
I may mention this possibility to a fellow from the US Agency
for International Development (USAID) during our mtg in
Washington, D.C. on 12/20th.
(5) The above are some of
my ideas that came up during my return trip --
hope they may be of some help to you.
(6) Dear Asifo, Jannette,
John, and Som:
====================================
I was very
glad to have met with you. I took the liberty of admitting
you into
our listserve. Keep in touch.
Best, Tak
****************************************
ATTACHMENT I
The University of the South Pacific
(USP) was established in 1968 and is a
regional university owned and operated
by twelve Pacific Island countries:
Cook Island, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall
Islands, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Solomon
Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu
and Vanuatu. USP serves a population base of
over 1.8 million people. It has
campuses in Fiji, Samoa and Vanuatu, and
University Centers in all member
countries. After a period of fairly rapid
growth, enrollments reached about
9,200 students or 5,300 Equivalent Full-time
Students Units (EFTSU) in 1997.
****************************************
ATTACHMENT II
The University of the South Pacific Bulletin
Vol 32, No. 31
17 September, 1999
USPNET UPGRADE
PROJECT ADVANCES
(A photo of the main earth station
dish antenna and a diagram for
videoconferencing omitted by Tak Utsumi.)
Reaching out to students ......,
pictured (omitted), the antenna goes up as
the FJ$9 million (about US$4.5
Million -- noted by Tak Utsumi) USPNet project
advances from one stage to another.
It's a project that when completed will
see the USP have its own VSAT telecommunications
network. The USP will own
and operate this private network,
purely for USP activities.
USPNet Project Manager Mr Wayne
Heads said the USPNet satellite earth stations
were designed with different capabilities
to meet the requirements of the
University in an efficient way.
"The "Hub" is at the Laucala Campus with a
7.6 m antenna, pictured (omitted),
with a transmit power of 100 watts and is
the master station. The "Mini Hubs"
at the Alafua Campus in Samoa and the
Emalus Campus in Vanuatu, with
6 and 4.6 antennas, will have reduced
transmission capacity of 50 watts,
thus lesser video broadcast transmission
capability. The "Remotes" at the
University Centres will be 4.6 antennas with
a transmit capacity of 20 watts
to participate in audio and video conferencing
and receive video broadcast. Therefore,
there will be provision for
permanently assigned 64 kbps two-way
data circuits between the Hub earth
station and all Mini-Hub/Remote
earth stations for data, audio and telephony
services, as well as provision
for a maximum of three simultaneous 128 kbps
video transmissions for lectures
from the Hub earth station and single
lectures from Mini-Hub earth stations,
or a maximum of two simultaneous video
conferences between the Hub earth
station and Mini-Hub/Remote stations. The
video services will be scheduled
and managed by the Hub station," Mr Heads said.
Mr Heads explains that the 64 kbps
data channels will be connected to
multiplexers which dynamically
adjust the bandwidth required for audio,
telephone/fax and computer data
transmission. This means if a particular
circuit is used for an audio conference
and telephone calls are made at the
same time there will be lesser
capacity left of the 64 kbps to download large
amounts of data via the computer
which could be quite slow. When the circuits
are 'quieter' very much faster
download times will be possible between sites.
Mr Heads said the management of
major projects such as USPNet has included the
preparation of a Project Plan which
allows the Project Manager to lay out all
the activities or tasks that need
to be carried out for the project, and to
assemble them into sequence which
runs the project. He said Project Plans
often include full details of resources
required, when they are required, and
plans and tracks the hours of work
of people involved. A key advantage of the
plan is to identify when particular
activities, which must be done by a fixed
date, fall behind. "Depending on
how much time the manager allows for float,
such a 'critical path' can be identified
in time to take corrective action," said Mr Heads.
The project's funding has been made
possible through the governments of Japan,
New Zealand and Australia. Japan's
funding has come in way of general grant
aid for Fiji and Samoa; in way
of grassroots aid for the Marshall Islands,
Solomon Islands, Tonga and Tuvalu.
Aid from New Zealand (NZODA) will provide
facilities in the Cook Islands,
Nauru, Niue and Tokelau while Australia
through AusAID will help facilitate
Kiribati and Vanuatu.
Mr Heads said final approvals have
now been completed with each donor country
for all the funds promised at the
Project's conception. He said the
university manages all funds except
for the General Grant Aid funds from
Japan, which are paid directly
to the satellite station contractor, Mitsubishi
Corporation. The aid funds provide
the satellite earth stations in each
country (with associated electronic
equipment), fully installed and
commissioned for operation with
USP's satellite provider INTELSAT. The
funding also provides multiplexers
and audio systems for a number of Centres,
and comprehensive spare parts for
the satellite earth stations.
In addition the University, through
member countries, will provide over
FJ$2million in funds to supply
and install all the video, audio, telephony and
data systems required for connecting
the campuses and the centres to the
satellite network. The USP member
countries also provide support directly in
each country such as duty free
access for equipment and other forms of
assistance to the project.
Mr Heads said for USP's distant
students, USPNet will provide the opportunity
to participate in audio tutorials,
conducted from any campus, communicate by
telephone, fax or email with a
lecturer or tutor or another student; watch a
live video transmission of a lecture
from any of the three campuses and take
part in video conference and tutoring
with the Laucala Campus in Suva.
University Administration will
also become more efficient with the
availability of telephone/fax and
email communications via USPNet to all USP
locations. Access to video conferencing
will save time and travel in many cases.
****************************************
ATTACHMENT III
From: VAA_R@usp.ac.fj
Date: Fri, 03 Dec 1999 15:39:06
+1200
Subject: USPNet Action Plan from
Roundtable meeting 29/11-1/12/99
To: chandra_r@usp.ac.fj, manoa_p@usp.ac.fj,
hughes_r@vanuatu.usp.ac.fj,
jowitt_a@vanuatu.usp.ac.fj, ajuyah_a@samoa.net, bartley_r@usp.ac.fj,
muralidhar_s@usp.ac.fj, muralidhar_k@usp.ac.fj, williams_e@usp.ac.fj,
heads_w@usp.ac.fj, thaman_k@usp.ac.fj, naidu_v@usp.ac.fj, pr@usp.ac.fj
Cc: kirkwood@usq.edu.au, s.naidu@meu.unimelb.edu.au,
j.dekkers@cqu.edu.au,
utsumi@columbia.edu, wragg_n@usp.ac.fj, sharma_d@usp.ac.fj,
adams_a@usp.ac.fj, savu_a@usp.ac.fj, karan_m@usp.ac.fj,
tabualevu_m@usp.ac.fj, harm_p@usp.ac.fj, lesuma_a@usp.ac.fj,
fa_s@usp.ac.fj, vaa_@usp.ac.fj
Colleagues,
Herewith is the USPNet Action Plan
(Word attachment) that was
adopted during the final session
of the roundtable meeting on
Wednesday, 1st December. Many thanks
for putting up with the
fast pace of the meeting and to
those who attended, thanks for
making time. For those who could
not attend all sessions, I'm sorry
about the short notice. By copy
of this I am informing others who
were unable to attend the working
sessions. Please let me know if
you wish to have the hardcopy and
I'll send it along.
This is also being copied to Janette,
Som, John, and Tak with
special thanks for responding so
well to our request for assistance.
And, a copy is also going to Aileen
Savu for her information and
records and any further action
as deemed necessary.
I should like to extend thanks to
the Media Projection unit for their
very good work and support during
the sessions and the UE staff
(Marica, Padric and Ala) for the
great work on producing notes of
each session immediately after.
Indeed, Marica completed the final
changes and passed me the Action
Plan yesterday so that I am
now able to circulate to the working
group before the weekend.
Special thanks also to Selai for
her excellent support, organisation
and attention to all the things
that made the meeting run so smoothly.
Finally, I have not circulated to
"all-staff" as I thought the Chair of
the USPNet Education Group might
prefer to do that.
warm wishes for Christmas,
Ruby
****************************************
List of Distribution
Dr Howard N. Van Trease
Director
USP Extension
The University of the South Pacific
PO Box 1168
Suva, Fiji
Tel (679) 313900 (Office)
(679)
300724 (Home)
Fax (679) 300482
email: vantrease_h@usp.ac.fj
Richard Wah
Head of Distance Education
University of the South Pacific
(USP)
Laucala Campus
Suva, Fiji
tel/fax:(679) 300482
wah_r@usp.ac.fj
www.usp.ac.fj
Wayne Heads
Project Manager
USPNet Upgrade
The University of the South Pacific
Laucala Campus
Suva, Fiji
Tel: (679) 212004
Fax: (679) 314827
E-mail : wayne.heads@usp.ac.fj
Ruby Vaa
Organiser, USPNet Roundtable meeting
University of the South Pacific
(USP)
Laucala Campus
Suva, Fiji
vaa_r@usp.ac.fj
www.usp.ac.fj
Linda Austin, M.S.J.
Media Specialist
University of South Pacific
679-212-129
austin_l@usp.ac.fj
Mrs Selai Fa
University Extension
University of the South Pacific
Suva
Fiji
Ph: (679)212352
Fax: (679)300482
fa_s@usp.ac.fj
Asifo 0. Ajuyah, Ph.D.
Senior Lecturer
Animal Sciences
School of Agriculture
The Uiversity of The South Pacific
USP Alafua Campus
Private Mail Bag
Apia, Samoa
Phone: (685) 21-671
Fax: (685) 22-933
ajuyah_a@samoa.net
Jannette Kirkwood
DipT(DDIAE), GDipReading(BCAE),
BEdSt(Qld), MEdSt(SA)
Head, Unit Team Services
Distance Education Centre
The University of Southern Queensland
Toowoomba Queensland 4350
Australia
Telephone: +617 4631 2578
Facsimile: +617 4631 2868
Email: kirkwood@usq.edu.au
Professor John Dekkers
MSc (UNSW), PhD (ANU)
Professor of Open & Flexible
Learning Systems
Central Queensland University
Rockhampton Qld 4702 Australia
Tel 07 4930 6403
Fax 07 4930 6740
j.dekkers@cqu.edu.au
Som Naidu
Associate Professor
Multimedia Education Unit
The University of Melbourne
Parkville Victoria 3052
Australia
Tel: +61 3 9344 7575
Fax: +61 3 9344 4341
s.naidu@meu.unimelb.edu.au
http://www.meu.unimelb.edu.au
Kimberly K. Obbink
Director
Burns Telecommunications Center
128 EPS Building,
Montana State University
Bozeman, MT 59717-3860
USA
Tel: +1-406-994 6550
Fax: +1-406-994 7856
kobbink@montana.edu
http://btc.montana.edu
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
English language home page and
online publications page:
http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve_mc/
-- for Japanese language home page
http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve_mc/jpublist.html
-- for online publications
http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve_mc/presence.html
http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve_mc/epublist.html
(an Asian Studies WWW Virtual Library
4-star site)
http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve_mc/asia-pacific/projects-ej.html
("Fundamental Projects of Dr. Takeshi
Utsumi")
http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve_mc/asia-pacific/index.html
(Global University System Asia-Pacific
Framework)
**********************************************************************
* 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 Late 1999 Correspondence
Web page by Steve McCarty,
World Association for Online Education
President