NUANCE – July 2013

Reminder!  Submit an abstract for UbuntuNet-Connect 2013

The Conference, that has been expanding every year, attracted 150 participants last year, including policy makers and regulators in Information Communication Technology (ICT), researchers, academicians, and the private sector from across the continent and around the world. There will, as usual be travel and conference scholarship opportunities for accepted authors from the developing countries of Africa.

Authors are invited to submit a 500 word abstract (with up to 5 keywords) to info@ubuntunet.net. The abstracts should describe the proposed papers, clearly indicating the key content to be presented. Abstracts will be peer reviewed, and accepted papers are published in the on-line Proceedings.

To read the full call for papers, click here

New CEO and Chair for WACREN, as CKLN appoints new Chair

WACREN held its 1st Annual General Meeting on 3rd July 2013 at the National Universities Commission in Abuja, Nigeria, with ngREN, the Nigerian NREN playing host. The AGM endorsed and announced the appointment of Dr Boubakar Barry as CEO of the regional REN, and Dr Nii Quaynor former Vice Chair as Chair of its Board of Directors (see below on the induction of Dr Quaynor to the Internet Hall of Fame).

Dr. Barry, who is currently the Coordinator of the Research and Education Networking Unit at the Association of African Universities in Ghana will take up his new position on 1st October 2013. He has contributed a lot to the emergence of national and regional Research and Education Networks in Africa. He is also serving his second term as a member of the UbuntuNet Alliance Management Board.

Dr Barry holds a PhD in Nuclear Electronics and a Master’s Degree in Nuclear Physics. He is a Lecturer of Computer Networks and Electronics at the Faculty of Science and Technology at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar (UCAD), and Chairman of the Network Information Center (NIC) of Senegal, which manages the country-code Top Level Domain.  Full article is avalable here

Across the Atlantic, the Caribbean Knowledge and Learning Network (CKLN) elected Professor Archibald McDonald, Chairman of the Jamaica Research and Education Network (JREN) to serve as the Chairman of the regional REN’s Board. This was announced at the 19th Meeting of the Board of Directors held on July 5, 2013.

Professor McDonald is a surgeon and has practiced in trauma and emergency medicine. Between 2005 and 2012. Before his appointment Prof McDonald served in several positions including Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Deputy Principal and Principal of the Mona campus of the West Indies (UWI).

NSRC-UbuntuNet Alliance Collaboration Delivers: Copperbelt University has new campus wireless network

In his thank you letter to Steve Huter, the Director of NSRC, Bonny Khunga, the ZAMREN CEO, wrote that he acknowledge[d] with deep appreciation and thanks to [the] team which was led by Sebastian Buettric for their wonderful works that they undertook at the Copperbelt University after the 2013 Africa Internet Summit and workshop. Bonny further wrote “that he is confident that the linkages formed between NSRC and ZAMREN will be strengthened to enable further collaboration on future initiatives and looks forward to having the two organisations signing an MOU”.

During the 4-day mission, the team embarked on a number of activities at Copperbelt University. They configured and installed the wireless network on the campus, allowing 425 students to access Internet simultaneously around the campus. The team also provided valuable skills transfer to the members of the ICT department to enable them support and manage the installed equipment. Equipment comprising eighteen (18) access points and two Switches was donated.  In doing all this, NSRC truly delivered under the ongoing collaboration with between the Alliance and NSRC, aimed at building cutting edge engineering capacity among the engineers of the member NRENs and providing direct engineering support where needed.

ZAMREN is among the 6 NRENs connected to the UbuntuNet network through Points of Presence (POPs) in London, Amsterdam and Mtunzini.  The NREN also established the first cross-border research and education Internet link in Africa connecting Zambia and South Africa in July 2012. This allows researchers, lecturers and students in Zambia to participate fully in global research and education networking activities.

NSRC works collaboratively with UbuntuNet Alliance in technical capacity building and their work in the region is greatly appreciated.

 Nii Quaynor inducted into the Internet hall of fame

Dr. Nii Quaynor is among people who bring the Internet to life. He pioneered Internet development and expansion throughout Africa for nearly two decades, establishing some of Africa’s first Internet connections and helping set up key organizations, including the African Network Operators Group.

To add on that, Dr. Nii Quaynor was the founding chairman of AfriNIC, the African Internet numbers registry. He was the first African to be elected to the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and served as director-at-large of ICANN for the African region from 2000 to 2003. Dr. Quaynor was a member of the United Nations Secretary General Advisory Group on ICT, Chair of the OAU Internet Task Force and President of the Internet Society of Ghana.

He won numerous awards including the Jonathan B. Postel Service Award which he was given for his pioneering work in advancing the Internet in Africa. He is a member of the IGF Multi-Stakeholder Advisory Group (MAG).

He has vast knowledge in Engineering and computer since and obtained a Ph.D from the State University of New York at Stony Brook

The Internet Hall of Fame is an annual awards program that has been established by the Internet Society to publicly recognize a distinguished and select group of leaders and luminaries who have made significant contributions to the development and advancement of the global open Internet.

Double celebration for Dr. Nii Quaynor as he takes over the Chairmanship of WACREN from Professor Tiemoman Kone. This announcement was made at the 1st Annual General Meeting on 3rd July 2013 at the National Universities Commission in Abuja, Nigeria.

More information on link article

DANTE celebrates 20 years of networking excellence; RedCLARA clocks 10

DANTE has played a crucial role in enabling the profound change that high-speed networks have had on research and education in the last 20 years.  By building and managing these high-capacity infrastructures, DANTE is creating a global village for millions of scientists, students and researchers to work together.

To add on that, the network continues to plan, build and manage very large-scale global projects on behalf of the European Commission and Europe’s National Research and Education Networks (NRENs): the Mediterranean (EUMEDCONNECT), Sub-Saharan Africa (AfricaConnect), Central Asia (CAREN) and Europe-China collaboration (ORIENTplus). DANTE also supports R&E networking organisations in Latin America (RedCLARA), Caribbean (CKLN) and Asia-Pacific (TEIN*CC).

Commenting on the anniversary, Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission, said: “I give my full congratulations to DANTE for 20 years of networking excellence. DANTE’s work is essential to the European and global research community. World-class internet networks, through GÉANT and the regional networks it manages, is fundamental to realizing the EU’s 2020 vision for the European Research Area, and key to helping us tackle societal challenges such as food and energy security, health and aging, and environmental protection.

DANTE has my full support and well wishes to continue its innovative journey in support of research and education, across Europe and beyond.

Tusu, the UbuntuNet Alliance CEO, also paid tribute to the innovative spirit of DANTE and its staff.  “DANTE introduced new dynamic to the market. Through their international negotiation experience and our local knowledge, we were together able to make a change in the supply mode and get a fair deal.  This has a huge impact for R&E network providers.”

DANTE was founded in 1993 as a not-for-profit organisation to provide a high-speed internet network for the European research community.  Since then DANTE has created and managed four consecutive generations of this network and today, the world-class GÉANT network is used by the European Commission as a blueprint for funding similar networks all over the world.

In a related development, RedCLARA, the Latin American Cooperation for Advanced Networks clocked 10 years on 12th June 2013. In a statement released on 10th June 2013, RedCLARA said “Ten years ago, as a result of the ALICE project, the representatives of 13 Latin American countries signed the RedCLARA Constitutive Act, which officially signed the founding of the Latin American Advanced Networking Corporation, a non for profit organization dedicated to scientific development through advanced telecommunications networking for research, innovation and education.”

Today, RedCLARA strengthens and enhances the academic and scientific work of over fifty regional research communities of nearly 800 universities and research centres from Latin American countries.

As non-profit International Organisation, RedCLARA develops and operates the Latin-American advanced Internet network that was established for regional interconnection and linked to GÉANT2 in 2004 via the ALICE Project (which until March 2008- was co-funded by the European Commission through its @LIS Programme).

Read DANTE’s full article here