Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1999 08:27:52 -0400 (EDT)
Sender: [email protected]
From: Greg Cole <[email protected]>
To: Multiple recipients of list <[email protected]>
Subject: Digest for 99-08-23
Dear Friends,
After a long break this summer, Natasha and I are back with the Friends & Partners Listserver Digest. It has been a very busy summer and before resuming the regular digest format, we want to share with you some progress made over the summer.
1) MIRnet is running!
Maybe you have heard of MIRnet - a new high-performance "next generation" Internet connection between the U.S. and Russia. We've been working hard for over two years on this project and are very glad to report that within the last thirty days this new link began operating and running reliably between its termination points in Moscow and the STAR TAP international network switch in Chicago (where it can connect to all major US academic/research networks).
The link is running at 6 Mbps (in both directions). It is to be used by academic and scientific users in the U.S. and Russia for applications which require high performance network service. These include: high volume data transfer, data visualization, telemedical applications and high quality audio/video-conferencing.
MIRnet is enabling applications that have never before been possible between our academic communities. And we are looking for additional applications now. Please write and let us know how MIRnet may be helpful for your own U.S./Russian cooperative projects which require high performance network services.
To learn more about this project, visit the MIRnet website at:
http://www.friends-partners.org/friends/mirnet/home.html
http://www.friends-partners.ru/friends/mirnet/home.html
In addition to information about the project, you will also find various charts and graphs illustrating current use of the link. You can see some utilization statistics at:
http://www.friends-partners.org/friends/mirnet/activities/perf.stats/
http://www.friends-partners.ru/friends/mirnet/activities/perf.stats/
Partners in this effort include the University of Tennessee, Moscow State University, the Friends and Partners Foundation in Moscow, the Russian Institute of Public Networks and the Russian Academy of Science. Telecommunications services provided by Teleglobe and Rascom.
Friends and Partners would like to express its appreciation to these partners and to our sponsors (the US National Science Foundation and the Russian Ministry of Science and Technology) who are making this possible. A special note of thanks to our program officer at NSF, Steve Goldstein, who has been a primary mover for many years in wiring the world and who continues to do so through new high performance international network projects such as MIRnet. You can learn of other high performance projects by visiting the STAR TAP web site at:
http://www.startap.net
2) Civic Networking Project
We are both pleased and grateful to announce new support from the Ford Foundation to further the U.S./Russian civic networking program started almost two years ago. This program, managed by the Friends and Partners Foundation in Moscow, is working to help develop "civic networks" in local Russian communities to further access to the Internet and to local community information, and to help local communities develop better information and communications infrastructure by using new technologies and emphasizing partnership between local government, non-government organizations, local education, business, the health care community and private citizens.
The two year grant by the Ford Foundation makes possible continued support for the three civic networks in Chelyabinsk, Sergiev Posad and Samara and is also making it possible to extend this model to three new communities to be selected from a competitive solicitation that the F&P Foundation in Moscow will be announcing on the Internet soon. The program also makes possible continued participation by our U.S. team in developing promotional materials for the project and in organizing the second U.S./Russian Civic Networking Conference to be announced later this year.
We have been encouraged beyond our expectations by the progress made by the first three civic networks, which were launched earlier this year. We are very grateful to the Ford Foundation and to our program officer Chris Kedzie, in particular, for making it possible continue the program and to extend its reach.
You can learn more about the project at the CIVnet websites:
http://www.friends-partners.org/civnet/
http://www.friends-partners.ru/civnet/
(Note: we want to thank Henry Molter who continues to help redesign our web sites and who, most recently, has been working on the CivNET sit sí¿
Sergiev Posad: http://stPosad.friends-partners.ru/
Samara: http://www.civnet.samara.ru/
Chelyabinsk: http://www.ccn.org.ru/
We will be announcing the next "invitation for partnership" soon.
3) Friends and Partners
We continue adding content and additional links every day to the Friends and Partners website. Our team in Knoxville has been working to make improvements to the "Russian Communities" section of the F & P website where you can learn a lot about different Russian communities and link to many Internet based resources describing them. Please visit at:
http://www.friends-partners.org/friends/life/communities/index.html
http://www.friends-partners.ru/friends/life/communities/index.html
We want to thank Jovan Ilic who earlier this summer resolved the technical problems we were having with the new Friends & Partners Chat Room. Many of you have already discovered this resource -- we understand there are a lot of good discussions and many friendships made here. URL:
http://www.friends-partners.org/friends/chat/chat.html
http://www.friends-partners.ru/friends/chat/chat.html
4) Moscow Life
Finally, we want to highlight the recent work of one of our oldest and best friends on Friends & Partners, Andrey Sebrant. As many of you know Andrey publishes the "Moscow Life" section on Friends & Partners – a labor of love Andrey has shared with us for over four years. During the last few months, Andrey has published two new features on this site, which you can find at the URL's below:
http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/asebrant/life/1999/jul_99.html
http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/asebrant/life/1999/mar99.html
His latest story is about a long bike ride on Moscow highway A107 - an old military highway that used to carry missile launchers and that more recently carried Andrey on an expedition he shares with us.
Thank you Andrey for your many contributions to F&P and for helping improve U.S.-Russian understanding in such a generous and interesting way.
Well, that's all for this issue. We really don't like to intrude on this space that is better given to your letters, but we wanted to bring you up to date on what we've been up to during a long, busy summer. We will resume regular publication of the F&P Digest this week.
We're glad to be back!
Greg, Natasha
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