Digital Divide Working Group Website Project Update

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Digital Divide Working Group Website Project
Update
International Committee for Future Accelerators
(ICFA) Standing Committee on Inter-Regional
Connectivity (SCIC) July 11, 2003 Cern,
Switzerland

Heidi Alvarez Co-PI AMPATH CIARA heidi_at_fiu.edu,
www.ampath.fiu.edu
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Digital Divide Working Group Members

• Chairperson Professor Alberto Santoro, UERJ, Rio
  de Janeiro, Brazil
• Members
• Heidi Alvarez heidi_at_fiu.edu Julio Ibarra
  julio_at_fiu.edu Slava Illyin Ilyin_at_sinp.msu.ru
  Marcel Kunze Marcel.Kunze_at_hik.fzk.de Yukio
  Karita yukio.karita_at_kek.ip David O. Williams
  David.O.Williams_at_cern.chVictoria White
  white_at_fnal.govHarvey B. Newman
  newman_at_hep.caltech.edu

Alberto Santoro with Julio Ibarra and newest
AMPATH staff member, Chip Cox in Rio May 2003
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Digital Divide Report Summary February 8, 2003
as the pace of network advances continues to
accelerate, the gap between the technologically
favored regions and the rest of the world is,
if anything, in danger of widening.
The purpose of the Digital Divide sub-committee
is to suggest ways to help alleviate and, where
possible, eliminate inequitable and insufficient
broadband connectivity. As part of this process
this report documents the existing worldwide
bandwidth asymmetry in research and education
networks.
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ICFA SCIC Digital Divide Executive
ReportFebruary 8, 2003
Section IV. Recommendations

• Share and systematize information on the Digital
  Divide.
• The SCIC is gathering information on these
  problems and developing a Web Site on the Digital
  Divide problems of research groups, universities
  and laboratories throughout its worldwide
  community.
• The web site will provide a repository to
  centralize general information on link
  bandwidths, quality, utilization and pricing.
• The repository will enable SCIC members to
  promote understanding of the nature of the
  problems from lack of backbone bandwidth, to
  last mile connectivity problems, to policy and
  pricing issues.
• Specific aspects of information sharing that will
  help develop a general approach to solving the
  problem globally include
• Sharing examples of how the Divide can be
  bridged, or has been bridged successfully in a
  city, country or region.
• Making comparative pricing information available.
  
• Identifying common themes in the nature of the
  problem, whether technical, political and
  financial, and the corresponding methods of
  solution.

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Next Steps Funding, Development, Maintenance

• Review existing and potential grant programs to
  identify support where the ICFA SCIC DD Website
  could be a REU project, graduate student
  project.
• CHEPREO Physics Learning Center Activity includes
  a web presence and some programming support.
• Web site design has begun http//id.fiu.edu/chepre
  o/index.htm
• CIARA graduate student fellowship to research,
  develop and maintain the site Funding pending
  ITR-Medium
• Solicited / Unsolicited proposal to NSF MPS-EPP ?
• Supplement to another grant award
• DOE/MICS support?
• Other ideas?