Newsbits

http://comet.columbia.edu/ESS/events/conf98/

New deadlines!

Late Papers or presentation proposals should be submitted by July 25th, 1998 to [email protected].

To Register send email to [email protected], Subject: Telecom98 registration, by August 2nd, 1998.

Announcement and Call for Papers

INTRODUCTION

The Ethiopian Scientific Society is proud to sponsor its third annual conference on telecommunications. The focus of the ESS Telecom '98 will be on "Africa's On-Ramps", technologies and policies for facilitating access to the Internet in Africa.

Over the last three years, the number of African countries connected to the Internet has risen from less than half a dozen to all but three. However, despite this remarkable rise, much remains to be done. Indeed, a few countries remain without any permanent connection at all, and only a handful have high-speed, permanent, reliable, multiple links to the outside world. For many countries, the connection consists of a single link with only a fraction of the access bandwidth of a small business (or even a home) in the North America, for example. With the exception of Southern Africa, intra-regional connectivity is low, with most traffic typically routed through Europe. Locally, access remains difficult and expensive; even the existing potential base of literate urban users is far from being fully reached. Yet these generalizations mask a very wide range of success across the continent. The conference, focusing mainly but not exclusively on local access, has the following goals:

to get an accurate picture of the actual situation, and identify the key roadblocks to broadening and deepening access

to examine potential solutions, in terms of technology and policy

to provide a forum for interaction and basis for collaboration for equipment vendors, service providers, policy-makers, academics, support agencies, as well as business, institutional and individual users, and other interested parties.

CONFERENCE DETAILS

The conference will be held on: August 7th 1998, in Washington, DC, at the World Bank headquarters and is open to all.

TOPICS

Professionals both in and outside the continent, from industry, government, international agencies, and academia, are invited to contribute on the following topics:

wired local exchange: dial-up and leased lines

wireless local loop

satellite access

"Internet kiosks" and other forms of alternative public access

software facilitating the sharing of limited resources

ISP operations

user education and training

user-friendly policies and incentives

telephone service

Other topics related to enhancing Internet access

Papers and presentations should cover

proposed solutions (including equipment, software, and services)

practical experiences and lessons

surveys, statistics

analytical studies.

Material that has been presented/published elsewhere is acceptable provided no copyrights are violated.

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

Papers or presentation proposals should be submitted by July 25th, 1998 to [email protected].

Submissions must be by electronic mail in one of the followingformats:

plain text (ASCII)

postscript

HTML

PDF

powerpoint

and should contain:

Author(s) name and affiliation

contact information (email and telephone)

REQUIREMENTS

Papers submissions:

an abstract

a body not longer than 15 double spaced pages

full paper must be included in the submission

Presentations proposal submissions:

an extended abstract or summary of the presentation should be submitted

details on product demonstrations if any

In addition a copy of the slides/charts (preferably in electronic form) should be given to ESS at least 1 week before the conference

Papers as well as slides/charts used in presentations will be published by ESS on the WWW. A print version will be available for conference attendees.

SPONSORSHIP

Companies, agencies or individuals interested in co-sponsoring the event should contact [email protected] or [email protected].

ESS

The Ethiopian scientific society (ESS) was established as a non-profit organization in the State of Maryland in December 1987. The society is a non- political organization and has the following as its primarygoals:

Foster better relation and promote interaction among Ethiopian scientists and engineers;

Provide a medium for technical information exchange among Ethiopian and other scientists; and

Encourage collaboration among technical experts on projects that would contribute to the development of Ethiopia.

Newsbit furnished by:

A: NetShift Software Ltd.
A: Hughenden Yard, Marlborough, Wilts,SN8 1LT, UK
T: +44 (0)1672 511 094
F: +44 (0)1672 511 078
E: [email protected]
W: www.netshift.com

Thanks Tim!

Thanks Kinetic!