The facilitation of networking in developing nations is one of ISOC's primary goals, and our third Network Technology Workshop for Developing Countries was held the week before INET '95, at the University of Hawaii. The workshop was attended by over 180 carefully screened students from 80 developing nations. ISOC Vice President George Sadowsky headed a staff of 28 volunteers from 15 nations, 5 of whom had themselves attended prior workshops.
There were four workshop tracks. The Network Management track was for students who are responsible for establishing and supporting regional and national networks. The Network Navigation and Services (NNS) track was attended by students who will be training trainers and users in their countries. There were two connectivity tracks -- one for those building TCP/IP networks, and one centered on dial-up options (including SLIP/PPP). The style of instruction varied to fit the track. The network management track featured lectures on a variety of technical and managerial topics by distinguished network managers. The NNS track alternated between lectures on network services and trends and hands-on net surfing and software installation. While the connectivity tracks also had lectures, hands on sessions where students built and modified networks -- configuring routers and crimping connectors -- were stressed.
Each student received copies of the material from every track at the end of the week -- a four-inch stack of hard copy teaching material and handouts, and a CD-ROM with copies of the teaching material and public domain software used in each track. Depending upon the track they were in, students also received commercial software and books. None of this would have been possible without support from agencies like NATO, UNDP, Novell, the US State Department, the International Science Foundation, the World Bank, IDRC, and theInternet Association of Japan which supported student travel and expenses, O'Reilly Associates which contributed literally thousands of technical books, and Microsoft which contributed software. During hands-on sessions, students worked one or two to a computer at over 100 machines lent to the workshop by Sun, DEC, IBM, Apple, and Cisco.
This was the third Workshop for Developing Nations, and it is interesting to note some of the changes. At the 1993 workshop, in Palo Alto, nearly all the attendees were from academic and research networks, many of which connected through the US National Science Foundation, and abided by its acceptable use policy. This year there were attendees from commercial networks, and most of the academic and research networks have branched into commercial connectivity or are planning to do so. The World Wide Web has also spread to developing nations. Many now have Web servers, and even those with dial-up connectivity to the Internet are using Web servers internally within their nations or institutions. IP connectivity is also spreading. The proportion of nations with UUCP or Fido connectivity has dropped during the years, and even dial-up users are moving to SLIP/PPP.
Major international carriers like MCI and Sprint have also discovered Internet connectivity in developing nations. There are now many parties involved -- the academic and research networks, newer commercial providers, governments, national PTTs, and now major carriers. This rapid change has raised questions and concerns. Will the governments recognize the strategic importance of Internetworking to intellectual and industrial development, or see it as a political threat? Will the PTT see Internet access as competition to be stifled, a cash-cow to be milked, or a strategic service to be offered as effectively as is possible? Will the new commercial providers compete or cooperate with the academic and research networks? Do the large carriers see the local networks as customers or competitors? Such questions are being asked in every developing nation, and each nation will have different answers.
I am looking forward to the next workshop in Montreal. We may get a few answers, and we will surely discover new questions. Like this year, the workshop attendees will receive a week of excellent instruction, hands-on experience, and material to stuff into their suitcases. Still, I suspect the most important thing they take away will be contacts -- among their peers at the workshop and the people they meet during the following week at the INET conference. The contacts and esprit de corps among the "class of 95" will enable mutual support and regional cooperation as these people build truly global networks during the coming years.