There's very little centralized information about what each university has accomplished so far in the digital realm.  What little reporting there is tends to be technically oriented: it accounts for one technical feat or another, but does not accurately describe its impact or use.  An important measure which has been ignored (and this happens in institutions around the world) is participation: how many people have access to the technology and how many of these have the training and wherewithal to access the information they need efficiently? 

We discussed the need to gather better statistics from each NUC institution.  Possible indicators at this point are:

• Number of computers?

• Number of computers available to faculty?  Students?

• Network?

• Number of ports?

• Number of Email accounts?

• Amount of Internet bandwidth?

• Plans and goals?

• Number of trained staff?

We discussed how a tendency to exaggerate reporting will require developing a means of verification.  How to enforce?

We discussed setting entry requirements for those institutions wanting to participate in a NUC satellite Internet access project, requesting institutions to meet a standard set of requirements to participate.  i.e.  a certain number of computers on a LAN, a backup power supply, a secure area, etc.

How do we measure participation?  Ile-Ife has a much-heralded wireless network, but few actual connections and few participants.  What constitutes participation?

The NUC staff would very much like to work with reluctant institutions like Calabar.  Calabar has been strongly encouraged and enticed to join NUNet, they even had a few technicians trained at NUC expense, but hasn't yet participated.

If the NCC will issue a single license for the entire NUC university system, the NUC would be willing to pay a one-time fee.

Need to be on the lookout for possible collaborations with those who already have satellite dishes or other Internet connections.

It may be feasible to partner with a current ISP so that the NUC ground stations act as a POP for them while they cover a portion of the expenses and/or possibly provide free dial-in service.

One of the key reasons to use satellite dishes is to reduce the number of potential points of failure.  Setting up a wireless feed from a partner should be viewed with this in mind.

NUC’s linkage with Italy has run its course and the Nigerians are feeling like they haven’t seen as much progress as they'd like.