Estonian Educational and Research Network Network Users in CEE 1 Network users in CEE. Ways to identify their needs Anne Märdimäe Estonian Educational and Research Network (EENet) Tartu, Estonia NATO ANW: The Fourth CEENet Workshop on Network Management Management Issues for Excellence in Research and Education Networking (MIXREN) Moldova 2004

Estonian Educational and Research Network Network Users in CEE 2 Overview ● User categories in CEE ● Identifying the needs of the user community ● User surveys by EENet

Estonian Educational and Research Network Network Users in CEE 3 Categories of users (institutions) (1) 1.Universities 2.Research institutes 3.Libraries, Museums, National Archives 4.Secondary Schools 5.Institutes of higher/further education 6.Government departments (national, regional, local) 7.Primary Schools

Estonian Educational and Research Network Network Users in CEE 4 Categories of users (institutions) (2) 8.University Sites 9.Hospitals (other than University hospitals) 10.All Others

Estonian Educational and Research Network Network Users in CEE 5 NREN-s whose data was extracted from TERENA Compendium data: ALANA ATACOnet BABIHARNET BGIST Foundation BYBASNET CSAMREJ CZCESNET EEEENet GRGRNET HRCARNet HUHUNGARNET LTLITNET LVLATNET MDRENAM PLPIONIER RORNC RURBNet/RUNNet SIARNES SKSANET UAURAN

Estonian Educational and Research Network Network Users in CEE 6 Allowed user categories in CEE (1) Data source: TERENA Compendium 2004

Estonian Educational and Research Network Network Users in CEE 7 Allowed user categories in CEE (2) Data source: TERENA Compendium 2004

Estonian Educational and Research Network Network Users in CEE 8 Identifying the needs of the user community ● How does the NREN in your country find out the actual needs of its different users (institutions)? ● In your opinion, in what areas are the needs of researchers and educators different?

Estonian Educational and Research Network Network Users in CEE 9 Ways to find out the actual needs: 9 - Our customers themselves contact us for expressing their needs [also: regular contacts with users] 8 - Our specialists estimate the needs of users according to current usage of services, use the experiences of other NREN-s 6 - The board consisting of representatives of users defines the needs of users

Estonian Educational and Research Network Network Users in CEE We organize user conferences where the users can express their needs 3 - We run user surveys regularly (EE, GR, HU) ● direct contacts with decision-makers or technicians in institutions ● generalization of the information received from the main client and applying that on other end- users ● participation in conferences which are organised for schools involved in IT projects

Estonian Educational and Research Network Network Users in CEE 11 Areas with different needs of researchers and educators: Researchers need more: ● Available bandwidth ● More advanced services like VLAN, IP telephony, manageable bandwidth... Educators need more: ● End-user support

Estonian Educational and Research Network Network Users in CEE 12 Rather no difference in need for: ● Reliability of service ● Centrally offered services by NREN like electronic mailboxes in the NREN-s server, webhosting

Estonian Educational and Research Network Network Users in CEE 13 Summary about needs “...all researchers, teachers and students require cost-effective, reliable, widespread and advanced network services, regardless of their geographical location or subject discipline.” SERENATE studies 31 December 2003

Estonian Educational and Research Network Network Users in CEE 14 User surveys by EENet ● Annually since 2000 ● High response rate (58% of all user institutions in 2004) ● Possibility to keep track on changes of needs ● Respondees: one contact person per user (institution)

Estonian Educational and Research Network Network Users in CEE 15 NREN can learn from answers: ● Are all existing services familiar to the users? ● How the users evaluate the current services? What they think should be changed in them? ● Fields of usage of Internet connectivity ● How the needs of users have changed? ● Need for additional services

Estonian Educational and Research Network Network Users in CEE 16 Importance of surveys for users: ● Their opinion matters ● A channel for suggesting changes, give new ideas, to transmit both critic and praise ● Possibility to compare the answers to these of others as the report is publicly available ● Getting information about newer services

Estonian Educational and Research Network Network Users in CEE 17 More benefits: ● Feedback to the board of NREN, to the ministry and other politicians ● Reasoning of funding applications ● PR ● Positive feedback to NREN personnel

Estonian Educational and Research Network Network Users in CEE 18 EENet’s user survey 2004 ● Target group: Institutions (research, educational, cultural) using one or several services in the Estonian academic network ● 781 questionnaires posted ● Responding activity 58%

Estonian Educational and Research Network Network Users in CEE 19 ● Find out the number of end-users of the academic network (permanent connection only) ● Examine the contentment with different services, find out needed changes ● Get information about how well the users know the existence different services (thereby also promoting the services which are less known) Aims

Estonian Educational and Research Network Network Users in CEE 20 Some results Permanent connections ● About end-users using EENet's permanent connectivity in 2003 ● 65% satisfied with their present Internet connectivity via academic network

Estonian Educational and Research Network Network Users in CEE 21 Satisfied with current permanent connection?

Estonian Educational and Research Network Network Users in CEE 22 Current bandwidth and actually needed bandwidth (research)

Estonian Educational and Research Network Network Users in CEE 23 Current bandwidth and actually needed bandwidth (universities, high education)

Estonian Educational and Research Network Network Users in CEE 24 Current bandwidth and actually needed bandwidth (high schools, gymnasiums)

Estonian Educational and Research Network Network Users in CEE 25 Evaluation of different services

Estonian Educational and Research Network Network Users in CEE 26 Additional services/changes asked for: ● more bandwidth ● guaranteed bandwidth during the videoconference ● GRID ● information about all (incl. very short) connectivity breaks ● central server for archive of video lectures ● backup services via backbone

Estonian Educational and Research Network Network Users in CEE 27 ● WiFi services in academic nework ● VoIP ● LANtoLAN ● support for building of homepage of the smaller institutions ● possibility to administer the boxes in EENet's server (create, delete) ● courses (for system administrators, on security, data communication etc)

Estonian Educational and Research Network Network Users in CEE 28 ● more HOWTO-s in Estonian ● consultations about security, warnings about security holes etc ● different databases (e.g. about art schools, music schools, software for teachers etc) ● etc...

Estonian Educational and Research Network Network Users in CEE 29 Actions after the User Survey ● Full report in the Internet ● Translation into English will be prepared and published later ● All the organizations which asked specific information of complained about specific technical problems were contacted, informed, helped out

Estonian Educational and Research Network Network Users in CEE 30 Links ● ● ● ●

Estonian Educational and Research Network Network Users in CEE 31 Thank you! Anne Märdimäe