International Workshop on African Research & Education Networking September 25-27 2005 CERN - Geneva, Switzerland Sitio web de la actividad
Descripción de la actividad:
The workshop is jointly organized by CERN, ITU and the United Nations University (UNU) in close cooperation with AUF, AIG/INTIF, DANTE, IDRC, IEEAF, Internet2, ISOC, RENATER, TERENA and UNESCO. The Norwegian Agency for Development (NORAD) is funding a feasibility study for the African University Network (AFUNET) as a practical response to the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) Plan of Action. AFUNET's main objective is to enhance the capabilities of African academic and scientific institutions to take advantage of the opportunities associated with the emergence of the global information society.
The purpose of the Geneva workshop is to facilitate scientific and medical collaborations with Africa by building on the momentum created by the Internet2, IEEAF and IDRC workshops in co-organizing this event with them, but also bringing in additional European and International actors, namely: European governments and European Union representatives, and International organizations such as ITU, UN University, ISOC & WHO. We will also involve other international organizations such as AUF, AIG/INTIF, ICTP, TWAS & UNESCO, Telecom Operators with local or global African's presence, as well as the TERENA association and European National Research networks such as RENATER that are already active in Africa, DANTE through the EUMED-CONNECT project, and, last but not least, scientists particularly from the countries concerned will of course be invited to participate and/or co-organize this workshop.
The outcome of the workshop is described in detail at:
http://event-africa-networking.web.cern.ch/event-africa-networking/
The results were presented in the WSIS Plenary meeting: Friday, 18 November 2005: Plenary Session, 16:00h-17:30h GMT+1 under the title: African Research and Education Networking by Mr. Robert Aymar; Director General of CERN
For WSIS I on Geneva CERN, together with ICSU and TWAS had organised a summit event named “The Role of Science in the Information Society”.
The event was reported in the Plenary of WSIS I in Geneva on Friday, 12 December 2003: Report from Multi-stakeholder Events, 15:30h-17:00h GMT+1; compare: http://www.itu.int/wsis/geneva/coverage/archive.asp?lang=en&c_type=pl|&c_num=5|6
Several general themes emerged as guidelines and received clear support:
- fundamental scientific information must be made freely available;
- software tools for disseminating this information must also be made freely available;
- networking infrastructure for distributing this information must be established world-wide;
- training of people and equipment to use this information must be provided in the host nations;
- general education is an indispensable basis for the Information Society.
Several of the objectives defined by the RSIS are already recognised in the WSIS Declaration of Principles and the WSIS draft Action Plan
For more Information compare the proceedings of the event under:
http://preprints.cern.ch/cernrep/2004/2004-004/2004-004.html
The African Research and Networking event reported above is the first action of CERN towards improving the networking infrastructure
Other information:
from the address above a CD-ROM with the proceedings can be obtained.
This project has been submitted to the Golden Book database.
Líneas de acción de la CMSI relacionadas con esta actividad: Tema 2. Infraestructura de la información y la comunicación
Tema 3. Acceso a la información y al conocimiento
Tema 4. Creación de capacidades
Tema 11. Cooperación internacional y regional
Socios:
CERN, ITU, the United Nations University (UNU), close cooperation with AUF, AIG/INTIF, DANTE, IDRC, IEEAF, Internet2, ISOC, RENATER, TERENA and UNESCO and the other stakeholders.
