25-September-2005 Manjit Dosanjh Welcome to CERN International Workshop on African Research & Education Networking September ITU, UNU and CERN

25-September-2005 Manjit Dosanjh Origin of CERN The Mission of CERN (1954): “The Organization shall provide for collaboration among European States in nuclear research of a pure scientific and fundamental character, and in research essentially related thereto. The Organization shall have no concern with work for military requirements and the results of its experimental and theoretical work shall be published…” CERN Convention

25-September-2005 Manjit Dosanjh CERN in Numbers 2500 staff 6500 users 500 Fellows and Associates Member States: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Observers: India, Israel, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, Turkey, the European Commission and Unesco

25-September-2005 Manjit Dosanjh CERN: 20 Member States; 2400 staff+500 fellows, paid associates; collaborates with around 500 institutes with 6500 scientists 4231 MS NMS CERN collaborates with the Universities globally

25-September-2005 Manjit Dosanjh The Web Was a response to the needs of a distributed collaborating community And saved time and effort in fetching information from other places It made sharing information so much easier CERN supports actions to make contents of publicly funded education and research freely accessible on the web, and to connect all universities with sufficient bandwidth that they can exploit this information. Transparent access to information Independent of and removing barriers of space and time

25-September-2005 Manjit Dosanjh Why did CERN get involved in WSIS? United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan issued a challenge to the world’s scientists to address the “clear inequalities” in scientific activities between advanced and developing countries. Present the vision with which most of these technologies had been developed by the scientific community ie publically funded research should be openly available

25-September-2005 Manjit Dosanjh ( ) Result: Education, Training and Knowledge are Keys to Development ICT are the means of storage and access, make us virtual neighbours and enable close collaborations of distant partners

25-September-2005 Manjit Dosanjh RSIS Key themes that emerged from RSIS: - that fundamental scientific information be made freely available; - that the software tools for disseminating this information be also made freely available; - that networking infrastructure for distributing this information be established world-wide; - that training of people and equipment to use this information be provided in the host nations.

25-September-2005 Manjit Dosanjh Objectives of the present workshop 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.  To strengthen collaboration between academic and scientific institutions across Africa and globally through exploring and implementing various measures to improve network connectivity and extend affordable and easy ICT access and services.  To enhance cooperation with similar planned and existing initiatives and networks by promoting transparency, inclusiveness, collaboration and efficiency.

25-September-2005 Manjit Dosanjh Concrete objectives of the AFUNET workshop  To consult with African universities on their needs and objectives.  To build and strengthen collaboration with these universities.  To compile a report based on the case studies that gives a joint description.  Establish a common understanding of financial, technical, services, organizational and content issues.  Discuss and agree on the business principles applicable in a future AFUNET. Develop a strategic plan that describes the way forward.