UbuntuNet Alliance elects new Board Members |
 UbuntuNet Alliance held its 7thCouncil of Members Meeting on 12th April 2013 at Metropole Hotel in Kampala, Uganda and among other agenda items elected new Directors for a 2 year term and approved the Annual Report and Audited Accounts for 2012. The Council of Members is the Alliance’s Annual General Meeting and is where policy issues of the Alliance discussed. Itis comprised of the Chairperson, Deputy Chairperson, Representatives of Member NRENs, and Directors.
The Management Board comprises up to 9 Directors, including the Chairperson and the Chief Executive Officer, who are ex officio Directors. The Directors do not represent their individual countries, but the interests of the Alliance. Below are the names of the new Directors and their short bios: Professor Iman Abuel Maaly Abdelrahman Prof Iman Abdelrahman is the Chief Executive Officer of the Sudanese Research and Education Network and Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Khartoum. She holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering obtained from the University of Khartoum. She previously headed the Directorate of Information and Communication Technology in the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research; and before that she was the First Planner in the Department of Planning of Sudatel. She has been on the Board of the Alliance since 2009 and served as Deputy Chairperson. Dr Boubakar Barry Dr Barry holds a PhD in Nuclear Physics and a Masters Degree in Nuclear Electronics. He is the Head and Coordinator of the Research Education Network Unit at the Association of African Universities in Ghana. He is also a Lecturer of Computer Networks and Electronics at the Faculty of Science and Technology at Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD), and Chairman of the Network Information Center (NIC) of Senegal, the one that manages the country-code Top Level Domain.sn. He has been on the Board of UbuntuNet Alliance since 2011. Mr Duncan Greaves Duncan Greaves is the Chief Executive Officer of TENET, the South African National Research and Education Network. He joined TENET in 2003 and worked in various positions including being the Executive Officer: REN Services and Public Relations and Executive Officer Capacity Development Programmes before appointed as the CEO. He has a Masters Degree in Political Science which he obtained from University of Natal, Durban. Professor Nelson Ijumba Professor Ijumba holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Strathclyde. He is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and a Professor of Electrical Engineering. His affiliations include, Professional Engineer, Registered Engineer in both Kenya and Tanzania, Member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (MIET),and also a Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.He has served on various positions in higher education in Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa. Professor Dibungi Kalenda Professor Kalenda holds a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences and is a Professor and conducts research on medicinal plants at the University of Kinshasa in DRC. He is alsothe Chief of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy and Coordinator of Eb@le, the Congolese, a National Research and Education Network from 2007 to date. He has been on the Board of the Alliance since 2009. Professor Meoli Kashorda Professor Kashorda is the Executive Director of Kenya Education Network (KENET) and Professor of Information Systems at the School of Science and Technology of the United States International University in Nairobi, Kenya. He holds a PhD in Electronic Systems Engineering from the University of Essex. He has been on the Board of the Alliance from 2008. He is a Member and Kenya Representative of COMESA Innovation Council. His affiliations includeMembership of the Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (MIEEE) and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (MIET). Professor Stephen Simukanga Professor Simukanga has been the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Zambia since 2007. He holds a PhD in Process Metallurgy from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, UK. He is Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and Chartered Engineer of the Engineering Council of the United Kingdom. He is also a Fellow of both the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and the Engineering Institution of Zambia. He served as Registrar of the Engineers’ Registration Board of Zambia from 2000 to 2010. He sits on various Boards both locally and internationally, including ZAMREN, which he chairs. |
NREN engineers trained in advanced routing and Eduroam |
 UbuntuNet Alliance in collaboration with NSRC, ISOC, INASP, AfricaConnect and Eduroam organised a five day hands-on Advanced Routing and eduroam training workshop in Kampala, Uganda ahead of the 7th Council of Members Meeting.Eighteen network engineers from seven member NRENs of the Alliance attended the workshop, which was split into2 tracks: 4 days for the Advanced Routing; and a day for eduroam.
The four-day hands-on technical workshop focused on peering design and routing techniques for Research Education Networks (RENs).It falls part of the major capacity building programme that the Alliance is implementing in collaboration with NSRC, ISOC and INASP. The one-day eduroam training grilled the engineers on how to deploy eduroam. Eduroam, a service of TERENA and DANTE, enablesUniversity staff and studentsto use wireless networks at cooperating universities without the need for an extra account. It also allow visiting staff and students to log-in with their usual “user name/password” to wireless networks at participating campuses around their country and the world, enabling access to resources at their home institution. Two member NRENs of the UbuntuNet Alliance, KENET (Kenya) and TENET (South Africa), are atadvanced stages of setting up eduroam services in their countries.It is hoped that the training will assist other NRENs to offer the service in the near future. More capacity building activities are lined up for NRENs under the jointUbuntuNet/NSRC/ISOC/INASP programme. The next one will be held in Lusaka, Zambia in June 2013. The workshop was held at Metropole Hotel in Kampala, Uganda between Monday 8th and Friday 10th April 2013 at Metropole Hotel, Kampala. |
Professor Zimani Kadzamira steps down from Chair of UbuntuNet Alliance |
 Professor Zimani Kadzamira, who was founding Chairperson of UbuntuNet Alliance and has served for the past 6 years, bade farewell to Directors and Representatives of Member NRENs of the Alliance at the 7th Council of Members Meeting on 12th April 2013 in Kampala, Uganda. He officially stepped downfrom the position of Chairperson on 12th February 2013 after the Search Committee established by the Association of African Universities appointed Professor Silas Lwakabamba to take over the reins of the Alliance. However, Professor Lwakabamba withdrew when he was appointed Minister ofInfrastructurein Rwanda by President Paul Kagame. He notified the Alliance regretfully that he would be able to take over the chairmanship from Professor Kadzamira.
Professor Zimani Kadzamira was appointed as the first Chairperson of theAlliance in 2006 through a process run by the Association of African Universities. He served two terms as allowed by the Articles of Association as the Alliance. While in office, Professor Kadzamira played a critical role in building a solid foundation for the Alliance and in bringing it to where it is today. He is regarded as a great ambassador because of hisabundantleadership qualities. He brought together members from different ethnic and culturalgroups and made them work as one family under one culture and treated them equally. His great leadership style made the Alliance score high in facilitating the development of NRENs Africa and linking them to the rest of the world. Commenting on the founding Chair, Mr Albert Nsengiyumvaa founding Board Member of the Alliance and Minister of Education in Rwanda said “I enjoyed so much working with Professor Kadzamira as the first Chairman of UbuntuNet Alliance as I was his Deputy. I still have in memory his humility and result oriented person. He inspired me very much as a policy maker.” |
Common NREN Information Model to document the work of NRENs worldwide |
 A Common NREN Information Model has been developed to document the work achieved by national research and education networking organisations (NRENs) around the world. A global panel that formed in January guided the work, which was a collaboration between APAN, ASREN, CANARIE, Internet2, RedCLARA, TERENA, UbuntuNet and WACREN, and built on earlier accomplishments in Europe, Asia and Latin America by TERENA, APAN and RedCLARA.
Documenting global NREN development In many countries around the world, NRENs play an important role as providers of essential advanced Internet services to the research and education sector. In some regions, such as in Western Europe, NRENs have been around since the late seventies. In other regions, such as in Africa, NRENs have only recently started to emerge. In all regions, developments are moving fast. The Common NREN Information Model will document the achievements of all of these organisations; show current best practice and act as a stimulus for accelerating progress in making advanced Internet connections and services available to researchers and students worldwide. Online access A web interface for NRENs to provide information to the Model is currently being developed by TERENA within the framework of the GÉANT project that is part-funded by the European Commission. Support for the project has also been provided by Google. The interface is expected to become available in mid-May. In a later phase, a global publication and a searchable database are anticipated. Panel The development of the Common Information Model was overseen by the following panel members: Joseph Kimaili and Omo Oaiya (Africa), Salem Alagtash (Arab region), Markus Buchhorn and Shankar Karuppayah (Asia), Thomas Tam (Canada), Claudio Allocchio, MirjamKühne, Helmut Sverenyák and Thomas Lenggenhager (Europe), and María José López and Florencio Utreras (Latin America). Further information A pdf preview of the Model and more information about this and the 2013 TERENA Compendium and questionnaire are available via the TERENA NREN Compendium webpage. Source: TERENA |
Louis Fox Receives Internet2 Richard Rose Award |
 Louis Fox, president and chief executive officer at CENIC and friend of UbuntuNet Alliance, has been honoured with the 2013 Richard Rose Award which recognizes extraordinary individual contributions to extending advanced networking to the broader education community; this took place on the April 23, 2013 at the Internet2 Annual Meeting.
“Louis has committed his career to ensuring all learning communities, particularly those in underserved and isolated areas, benefit equally from access to advanced broadband enabled technology,” said H. David Lambert, Internet2 president and chief executive officer. “His work clearly illustrates how the value of research and education networks increase the more broadly inclusive they become.” Prior to joining CENIC in February 2012, Fox spent 25 years spearheading efforts to bring advanced network-enabled technology into the service of teaching and learning, across the education continuum, as a faculty member, researcher, and senior administrator at the University of Washington. Louis Fox attended the 2010 and 2011 UbuntuNet-Connect conferences and gave inspiring presentations, bringing awareness of UCAN as a potential new service delivery model (unified community anchor network) The UbuntuNet Alliance community joins in congratulating Louis.. The full press release is available. Read the full press release on the Internet2 website |
Kennedy Asseda wins award to participate in TNC2013 |
 Kennedy Aseda, Senior Network Engineer at KENET has been awarded a fully funded trip to participate in TNC 2013, after submitting a winning essay, titled ‘KENET &Regional Collaboration Networks: A critique of KENET’s readiness’. The essay competition was run by the AfricaConnect project.
“Participation in TNC is a great opportunity for myself and for KENET. I will do my best to network and share what I learn with NREN colleagues. Many thanks to AfricaConnect,” said Kennedy. With this award, Kennedy Aseda will be funded by the AfricaConnect project to attend TNC2013, which will be held at Maastricht in Netherlands on 3-6 June 2013.TNC is the flagship event ofTERENA, the Trans-European Research and Education Networking Associationwhich offers a forum to collaborate, innovate and share knowledge in order to fosterthe development of Internet technology, infrastructure and services to be used by theresearch and education community. Read Kennedy’s essay here. |