eGY-Africa: addressing the digital divide for
science in Africa
Charles Barton, Australian National UniversityMonique Petitdidier, CETP/CNRS, FranceLes Cottrell, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, USAPeter Fox, RPI, Troy, USA
EGU 2009, Vienna, 21 April 2009
Population
Tertiary Educationhttp://www.worldmapper.org/
Internet Users 2002
Area
The Scientific Divide
African Situation
Access to the internet is so desirable to students, teachers, and scientists in Africa that they spend considerable time and money to get it.
Many students surveyed, with
no internet connection at their universities, resorted to private, fee-charging internet cafes to study and learn.
Internet Café in Ghana
www.arp.harvard.edu/AfricaHigherEducation/Online.html
孫子兵法
Dawn of the machine-readable Web
Integrative science - integrated data
0 11 11 01 00 00 11 01 10 11 1
Courtesy: Mark Parsons
Earth & space science informatics responses
One Geology
CGI
ESSI
US National Geoinformatics System
Informatics Division
CEOS-WGISS
GEOSS Architecture & Data Committee
ESSI
IUGG
From IGY to eGY
Data access
Data discovery
Data release
Data preservation
Data rescue
Capacity building - reducing the Digital Divide
Outreach & Education Virtual Observatories
Executive: Alem Mebrahtu (Ethiopia), Victor Chukwume (Nigeria), Monique Petitdidier (France), Abebe Kibede (USA), Colin Reeves (Netherlands), Jean-Pierre Tchouanchoue (Cameroun), Victor Rochon (USA), Charles Barton (Australia), Les Cottrell (USA/UK), Arsène Kobea (Ivory Coast), Mohamed Gaye (Senegal), ….
eGY-Africa
• raise awareness (problems and benefits)• strengthen cooperation• influence policy + decisions.
Goal: better Internet access for African scientists and educators
Use the voice of the scientific community at the institutional, national, and international levels (advocacy)
IUGG
eGY-Africa Program
• Organisational infrastructure (lever off eGY and IHY)National groups (use existing networks)Website, newsletter, conference presentations, articles (to share information and raise awareness)Measure Internet performance (PinGER Project)Survey present status, problems, and benefits (Questionaire)Collate policy statements (naming and shaming)and case histories2009 Workshop in Africa (jointly with others?)
• 2010 CODATA meeting in South Africa
Work with related programs CODATA, UN-GAID (eSDDC), IAP, ICTP, INASP, IST-Africa, UN-ECA, GIRAF, …
Visit www.egy.org and go to eGY-Africa
Contact:[email protected] [email protected]@anu.edu.au
Interested in getting involved?