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3	Overview The WiderNet Project The Internet in Developing Countries The Bandwidth Conundrum The eGranary Digital Library Creating Better Access to Knowledge
4	The WiderNet Project Since 2000, building capacity at African institutions for academic collaborations 3,000+ participants from 20 universities in Nigeria, Ghana, and East Africa (~30% women) Collected $990,000 in new & used hardware, software, and refurbished 1,000+ used computers for partner universities in Nigeria Volunteers have put in over 6,500 hours Focus on practical, cost effective solutions Helping to build a digital culture (best practices, user groups, student internships, gender equity…) “see one – do one – teach one”
5	Making Critical Distinctions
6	Computing
7	Communicate
8	It’s not a comput-er. It’s a communicat-or.
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11	Internet Users/Non-Users by Region – 2003 (in millions)
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15	Neocolonial Networks
16	Most Communication is Local and Personal
17	Building Local Area Networks Local Area Networks (LANs) are the basic building block of the Internet. For most universities, ~80% of email and ~90% of network traffic stays on the local area network. Most teaching and administrative applications only need a LAN. With Local Area Networks, one owns the network devices and the network’s bandwidth is essentially free. It’s possible to build a 70-computer network for the cost of a satellite dish installation: $60,000
18	Campus ICT
19	A Bandwidth Comparison
20	Universities Making Hard Choices Spending a considerable amount of external gifts on bandwidth/ICT (to the detriment of other potential large-scale academic improvements) Limiting who can use the bandwidth Charging for Internet use Foregoing multimedia (images, video, and audio) Utilizing their best technical talent to run “revenue generating” programs to pay for bandwidth
21	The Myth of Internet Bandwidth Internet bandwidth ≠ institutional improvement Bandwidth on campus does not necessarily improve teaching, research, and/or administration In many cases it fuels brain drain Many universities simply overblown Internet cafés In some cases, ½ of the university’s whole ICT budget is spent just on satellite bandwidth
22	Bandwidth Usage No.1 = external email (Yahoo, Hotmail…) (2K messages become 150K of advertisements) No.2 = on-line chat, sports, and romance sites Frivolous, fun stuff (Although music and pictures are too large to download) At the bottom of the list: bona fide academic research and journal access
23	Testing User Bandwidth
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25	The Reliability of the Internet Connection Very rarely 24 x 7 Many institutions hard pressed to deliver 6 hours a day Frequent lapses of a day or more Occasional lapses of a week or more Many points of failure, the external connection to blame about 70%
26	Unusual Solutions for Unusual Situations We are looking for effective communication and collaboration solutions that deliver better access to information… …which may or may not center around an Internet connection. Important to understand our partner’s paradigm Out-smart the “Digital Divide”
27	The eGranary Digital Library
28	Replacing Bandwidth with Storewidth 250+ GB information store inside LAN Millions of educational documents Collection created and maintained by librarians Multimedia, audio, video at full network speeds No bandwidth costs Augments a conventional Internet connection
29	The eGranary Digital Library provides every networked computer high-speed access to millions of documents and multimedia files.
30	The eGranary Digital Library Permission from over 600 authors & publishers (MIT OpenCourseware, Wikipedia, WHO, Math TV, Virtual Hospital, etc.) Over three million documents Tens of thousands of books, hundreds of journals, hundreds of Web sites & CDs 75+ installations in Africa, Bangladesh, Haiti Patrons open documents 100 – 5,000 times faster than over their Internet connection
31	eGranary Demonstration
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33	The eGranary Digital Library Appliance Plug-and-play server Provides all basic network services (DNS, DHCP, etc.) Customized proxy & search services URLs in native format Integrated with Internet connection Space for local Web content Local content indexed with eGranary content
34	The eGranary Digital Library Appliance Proxy First attempts to locate document in eGranary collection Then, if the subscriber has an Internet connection, it looks in the regular proxy cache Finally, if the document is not found in INSIDE the subscriber’s network, it looks to the Internet Where patrons are charged for Internet access, they are queried: “Are you ready to pay and go slow?”
35	The eGranary Digital Library Appliance Provides tracking of usage and errors Real feedback for authors/publishers Statistics on patron preferences Indicators as to what additional content is desired by patrons Looks, smells, and acts just like the real Internet. Develops transferable skill set. OS and software updateable via eGranary Update Service Local store of service packs, virus definitions, free software, etc.
36	The eGranary Digital Library Update Service Changes to the collection delivered via any transport: IP (full-time or intermittent), satellite broadcast, CD-ROM, USB memory key… Entirely asynchronous All documents indexed, categorized Self-healing mechanisms for field repair Encryption capabilities built-in
37	We’re Inventing Everyday A publication platform for all There’s room for everyone Portal possibilities are limitless Free wireless public libraries Handheld libraries eCalabash – personal libraries
38	Immediate Goals Develop the Capacity to Scale to Thousands of Installations Create a Self-Sustaining Enterprise Focus on User-Centric Services Encourage a Culture of Collaboration Find More Partners with Content and Curriculum
39	Seeking Passionate Partners Believe that information access is important for all populations Primary, secondary, tertiary education Health care, legal services, public libraries Recognize that inexpensive information delivery is key Ready to contribute to serve the information poor
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41	The eGranary Digital Library
42	The eGranary Digital Library From the WiderNet Project at the University of Iowa http://www.egranary.org http://www.widernet.org