Dr. Hillary S. Wiesner <h.wiesner@unesco.org>
Dr. David A. Johnson <daj@utk.edu>
Alexandre Rivas <alex_mau@argo.com.br>
Dear Dr. Wiesner:
=================
(1) I am writing this at the suggestion of David Johnson who visited
you
recently, just before he had a heart attack
-- he is now recovering well in Paris.
He still has
to stay there under the observation of a doctor, and
hence, he cannot
regrettably attend our Manaus workshop, though he
was the prime
initiator of our connection with Manaus people.
(2) I am very pleased to hear of your strong interest in our projects,
particularly of our Manaus workshop and a
workshop on "Rescue Iridium."
(a) The former will be held from May
31st to June 2nd. Pls visit its
web site listed
in ATTACHMENT I.
(b) The latter will be held on June 20th
in Arlington, VA. Pls visit
for its details
"Workshop on Rescue Iridium project - May 18,
2000" at this
index.
This lists our previous distributions on this matter.
(3) By the kind invitation of David, we held a "Global Lecture
Hall (GLH)"
multipoint-to-multipoint, multimedia, interactive
videoconferencing from
his UTK in July of 1994. It connected
several universities around the
US and with an international conference on
distance learning in Moscow,
Russia, with the use of Plain Old Telephone
Service (POTS) and
ShareVision on desktop computers, ISDN with
videoconferencing units, and
analog satellites.
We greatly appreciated the video taped greeting
by Dr. Colin Power, then
Assistant Director-General for Education,
for this event.
(4) Dr. Alex Rivas, former student of David, invited me to conduct
a GLH
from Manaus in October, 1998 to enact a similar
one as he saw at the
UTK. This was at the occasion of the conference
on "New Technologies
and Distance Education." It was an extraordinary
historical event in
the middle of rain forest Jungle, with panelists
located from Tokyo,
Japan to Lviv, Ukraine, spanning almost 18
time zones.
Tokyo team presented Medical Information Network
by Communication
Satellite for University Hospitals (MINCS-UH)
which connects about
thirty hospitals around Japan with two-way,
broadband digital satellite
channels for medical diagnosis with HDTV --
return for question uses
C-band analog channel simultaneously.
Ukrainian team demonstrated the cutting-edge
audio/video streaming
technology via Internet to those Amazonians,
in spite of mere 1.5 Mbps
Internet linkage from Lviv to Warsaw, Poland.
Amazonians also
broadcasted the video of our event via Internet
throughout the world.
The most significant finding at this event
was the clear audio of
NetMeeting videoconferencing on distance learning
from Houston Community
College via mere 56 Kbps Internet line.
This was thanks to EMBRATEL's
installing four of 34 Mbps digital satellite
channels between the US and
Brazil -- in the previous year, my test use
of Internet telephony from
Florianopolis, Brazil was complete failure,
though there were 15 lines
of 2 Mbps Internet connections between Brazil
to the north America.
(5) The above hard track experiences prompted us to establish
a Global
University System with advanced global broadband
wireless and satellite
Internet (*) with Global Service Trust Fund
(GSTF) which is an emulation
of the Universal Service Fund of the US Federal
Communications Commission (FCC).
(*) an
emulation of the NSF's program of extending broadband
Internet to
overseas countries (e.g., UTK's MirNet to Moscow, Russia, etc.).
(6) We then held a highly successful International Workshop and
Conference
on "Emerging Global Electronic Distance Learning
(EGEDL/'99)" from
August 9th to 13th at the University of Tampere
in Finland, with
financial support from the World Bank, the
NSF, USIA, British Council,
Soros Foundation, Finnish Ministry of Education,
etc.
This event brought together approximately 60
education professionals,
decision-makers and leaders in distance learning
and telemedicine from
14 nations. They discussed practical
ways to establish a Global
University System (GUS) with prominent groups
in the major regions of
the globe, e.g., Asia-Pacific, North/Central/South
Americas, Europe and
Africa. The GUS is to harness the emerging
technologies to provide
learners of all ages with affordable global
distance learning across
national and cultural boundaries.
We subsequently invited Dr. Rivas to participate
in this event who then
submitted us his draft pilot project proposal
for the international
distance learning and telehealth/telemedicine.
(7) Thanks to the introduction of UNAMAZ (a consortium of 77 universities
in
8 Amazonian countries) to Dr. Rivas by Dr.
Marco Antonio Dias (Former
Director, Division of Higher Education of
UNESCO), Dr. Rivas and UNAMAZ
officials decided to pursue the proposed pilot
project further. Marco
is attending the Manaus event, and I am looking
forward to meeting with
him there. Marco also kindly accepted
to be the Vice President for
Administration of our Global University System.
They are now committed to succeed this Manaus
event as the first example
to other regional activities. We also
intend to make this occasion for
securing close partnership between universities
in Amazon areas and the
universities of the Tennessee Virtual University
System and in the US to
ensure students' learnability. This
partnership will not only initiate
export of US distance learning courses and
telemedicine services, but
will also be the educational exchange among
them in the near future --
i.e., "the 21st century version of the Fulbright
exchange program."
(8) We greatly appreciated to receive the video taped greetings
by Dr.
Federico Mayer, former Director General, for
our GLH in October of 1995
and for our Tampere event.
Meanwhile, I had pleasant correspondences and
meetings with John Rose
and Jan Visser (who recently retired) of your
office.
Should you ever meet with them, pls convey my best personal regards.
(9) Pls feel free to contact me if you have any further inquiries.
Best, Tak
****************************************
ATTACHMENT I
1. GLOSAS/USA
3. Global University System:
Paper on GUS for the Manaus, Amazon mini-workshop (May 2000)
Memorandum of Understanding for GUS Partnerships
4. Global University System Asia-Pacific Framework
5. Global broadband Internet networks
6. Global Service Trust Fund (GSTF):
GSTF as [Arthur C.] Clarke telecommunications project
7. Manaus workshop (English version)
****************************************
List of Distribution
Dr. Hillary S. Wiesner
US liaison to UNESCO
Office of the Director General
UNESCO
7, Place de Fontenoy
75352 Paris 07SP
FRANCE
h.wiesner@unesco.org
Dr. David A. Johnson, AICP
Board member of GLOSAS/USA
Former President of Fulbright Association
Professor Emeritus, School of Planning
College of Arts and Sciences
University of Tennessee
108-I Hoskins Library
Knoxville, TN 37996-4015
USA
Tel: +1-865-974 5227
Fax: +1-865-974 5229
daj@utk.edu
davidj@buncombe.main.nc.us
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
+55-92-644 23 22
Fax: +55-92-644 23 84
alex_mau@argo.com.br
http://www.argo.com.br/~alex_mau/alex.htm
http://www.argo.com.br/~alex_mau/workshop/workshop.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
*
* (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/
*
**********************************************************************