Growing an eduroamed Zambia

Eduroam is the secure, world-wide roaming access service developed for the international research and education community. According to the eduroam website, eduroam allows students, researchers and staff from participating institutions to obtain Internet connectivity across campus and when visiting other participating institutions by simply opening their laptop.

Eduroam is one of the services that some of the Zambia Research and Education Network (ZAMREN) members pride in. ZAMREN has connected 38 institutions, that range from universities to cancer research centres at major hospitals, to its high speed backbone network.

A recent study on eduroam usage in Zambia has revealed that eduroam has enabled Zambian academicians and scholars to enjoy freedom and free of access to research and education resources.

The study was conducted by Christopher Chembe et al and presented at UbuntuNet-Connect 2014 in Lusaka Zambia on 13 November 2014.

Eduroam is available at five sites in Zambia. The study also showed that most users use the service resources everywhere.

However, Chembe cites the need for harmonisation of ICT policies as being among the major challenges in maximising the benefits of eduroam in Zambia.
“Eduroam is a very beneficial service to education. We need to look at the challenges to promote freedom and free access,” says Chembe.

Zambia is one of 4 countries in Africa that have implemented eduroam. The others are South Africa, Kenya and Algeria.

Symposium on Ebola brings out ICT tools in Ebola fight

Mike Schmoker  said “In a research-poor context, isolated experience replaces professional knowledge as the dominant influence on how teachers teach.”

UbuntuNet Alliance carries the vision of becoming a facilitator  of innovative solutions to the health challenges facing the African continent through promotion of telemedicine.

Building on collaborative remote telemedicine initiatives on research and education networks such as the Dengue Symposiums in the Caribbean and in Asia, the Alliance, against all  organisational and technological challenges.

held a Symposium on Ebola as a pre-conference event to UbuntuNet-Connect 2014 held on 12^th November with an impressive audience of conference participants.

Mali’s Doctor Ousman Ly, General Director of National Agency of Tele-health and Medical Informatics in the country’s Ministry of Health, despite being called to attend to a case of Ebola that Mali reported earlier that month and a break in the data link,  availed his presentation that offered insight into a new e-health strategy  of using ICT tools in Mali to create awareness  but also track Ebola in real time.

The electronic alert system for Ebola is an application developed for mobile phones that allows real-time trace data for Ebola and all diseases of epidemic potential. This application is a digital display interface called Digital Integrated Health Information System (SNISI) and is installed on phones responsible for Health Information System at the District [Mali]. 

Representing the Ministry of Health in Zambia, Dr Constantine Malama,  Virologist and Public Health Specialist indicated that Zambia was currently conducting research on Ebola and allayed fears of the virus spreading to Zambia directly from the fruit bat  indicating that a recent study had shown that the country’s climate does not support the fruit bat which is a natural career of Ebola. 

The Doctor further indicated that Zambia had instituted professional health checks at its airports to screen all entrants into the country and had already created Ebola isolation facilities in a remote location. 

Another global Telemedicine event is slated for December 2014 at Asia Telemedicine Symposium (ATS2014) to be held on December 13, 2014 at the Telemedicine Development Center of Asia (TEMDEC) of Kyushu University Hospital in Japan.

According to Yasuichi Kitamura, the board of director of Asia-Pacific Advanced Network (APAN), the  regional research and education network of Asia Pacific area the symposium brings together doctors to tackle emerging medical issues.

“One of the working groups of APAN is the medical working group. This WG is very active for having the collaboration about the telemedicine.  And this is the special thing but this working group is organized by the medical doctors not by the network engineers and the WG's scope is the real medical matters.
UbuntuNet Alliance’s Joe Kimaili will present remotely from Uganda's renown Makerere  University. According to Kitamura there is a strong collaborative partnership in between Uganda’s Makerere University and Japanese and university hospitals that have previously facilitated collaborative initiatives in orthopedics. Interested Ugandan researchers can enlist to participate in the Telemedicine Symposium by emailing info@ubuntunet.net

Pan-African research and education network to be realized soon

“We are  convinced that working together, the dream of a pan-African research and education network will be fulfilled soon, through the junction of the UbuntuNet Alliance, West and Central Africa Research and Education Network (WACREN) and Arab States Network  (ASREN) in North Africa,” Said Dr Boubakar Barry, Board Member of UbuntuNet Alliance, the regional association of National Research and Education Networks  (NRENs) in  Eastern and Southern Africa when he opened UbuntuNet-Connect 2014, the 7th Annual Conference of the Alliance, on November 12, 2014.

Africa has so far been mapped into three regions in as far as  high speed connectivity of research and education networks: West and Central Africa, North African and Eastern and Southern Africa. A new Initiative in the offing is expected to fast track actualisation of the dream of Africa_wide connectivity to huge speed data networks.  This is all expected to revolutionise the continent through reduction of brain drain of qualified researchers, provision of innovative solutions through research to problems such as infectious diseases, climate change and food shortage, corruption currently dogging African states.

Meanhwile, Dr Barry also described UbuntuNet-Connect 2014 as an international event in a global environment. The Conference held at the prestigious Hotel Intercontinental in Lusaka, Zambia started with a minute of silence in honour of Africa’s fallen leader and Zambian President Michael Chilufya Sata who died on October 28, 2014.

UbuntuNet-Connect 2014 brought together participants from 28 different nations in unearthing ideas, experiences and research finding spanning across the fields of ICT, education, research and connectivity.

“In the globalised environment that we have today, a challenge that impacts any part of the world must be the concern of all nations. The latest example that illustrates this is the Ebola epidemic we are facing today, and about which we organized yesterday an International Symposium as part of the UbuntuNet-Connect 2014 programme.” Said Dr Barry about the conference themed Infrastructure, Innovation, Inclusion.

Meanwhile the Zambian Government through the Deputy Minister of Transport, Works, Supply and Communication Hon. Col. Panji Kaunda challenged researchers and academicians to fully utilize UbuntuNet, the high speed data networks being rolled out under the AfricaConnect project.

“I am posing a challenge to our researchers and academicians to aggressively use the research and education networks which are now being rolled-out to collaborate and bring about innovation and workable solutions to our unique  situations,” said Kaunda, who’s Government has been exemplary in supporting rolling out of a backbone network in Zambia and promoting international interconnectivity. 

From the GÉANT Association, Cathrin Stöver said in pan-African nature of the new phase of AfricaConnect would require increased liberalisation of the telecommunication markets in order to avoid regulatory impediments to an otherwise beneficial project.

UbuntuNet-Connect 2014 explores ways of giving real value to African researchers

UbuntuNet Alliance, the regional research and education networking organisation for Eastern and Southern Africa, lastweek held its 8th Annual Conference, UbuntuNet-Connect in Lusaka at the prestigiuos Hotel Intercontinental.

The Conference unearthed ideas, experiences and research finding spanning across the fields of  ICT, education, research and connectivity from across the globe. 

Commenting in one of the panel discussions, Dr Pascal Hoba incoming CEO of UbuntuNet Alliance added that indeed there is need for the Alliance to harmonize its efforts with researchers by surveying what their needs are and meeting them.


Eng. Dr Tusubira has described the Conference as a 'wonderful event.'

"It looks to me like UbuntuNet has already gone well beyond a conference to an annual gathering of the clans where we share knowledge and experience, and ensure the growth and sustainability of the research and education networking tribe both in Africa and around the world."

WACREN and the UbuntuNet Alliance programme to foster internet development in Africa

The West and Central African Research and Education Network (WACREN) and the UbuntuNet Alliance for Research and Education Networking, the regional Research and Education Networking organization for Eastern and Southern Africa, have signed an agreement to adopt the Africa Training Initiative (ATI) a programme that is highly expected to foster accelerated development of the Internet across the African continent. 

www.google.comThis MOU serves to enable the two regional research and education networking bodies to implement the ATI as a defined and endorsed project under their auspices.

The ATI is an independent community initiative developed and previously operated by Eko-Konnect, a cluster of the Nigerian Research and Education Network (NgREN) in the Lagos area.   

Apart from contributing to the development of the Internet in Africa, the ATI  which will be facilitated and supported through the NREN members, will also promote the  adoption of best practices in building and protecting the Internet as well as fostering the emergence of a productive environment for the growing community of African users. 

It is expected that ATI will provide a sustainable capacity building ecosystem for African professionals through training and input into university programs, student involvement, industry participation, fostering Internet research and support structures such as Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) and Network Operators Groups (NOGs).  

The initiative is a sustainable, ongoing and replicable framework for skills and capacity growth, and it will also provide a platform for collaboration with internal and external sources of expertise.    

Commenting on the development, Dr. Boubakar Barry, CEO of WACREN said he looked forward to expanded relationships with African organizations and their partners.

“This initiative is of common interest to the regional research and education networks because we recognize the importance of self-sustainability, independent growth, continuity of learning and self-support in establishing long term technical and Internet capability in Africa,” declared Dr Barry.

On his part, Dr. Francis Tusubira, CEO of UbuntuNet Alliance highlighted the need for strategic and tactical approaches to sustainable capacity building.  

“We have been doing a lot of stopgap training and building capacity outside the training institutions.  We need to ensure that our universities internalize the approaches so that graduates are more market ready to operate data networks,” said Dr Tusubira.

WACREN and UbuntuNet Alliance are partners in the ongoing AfricaConnect project and have been collaborating closely since their establishment.

Germany are world champions

Congratulations are due to Germany.Germany are fourth time world champions after beating Argentina 1-0! Not much pomp and funfair this part of Lilongwe, Malawi I suppose most of us had placed our money on Argentina.

Hello ICT, hello African folktales

Raising a couch-potato is probably every parent’s nightmare. Unfortunately, the development and affordability of digital satellite television, video and computer games, means that raising potatoe-couches who escape into virtual societies by watching TV or playing computer games for hours on end is a reality most working class parents in Africa have to live with.

The African child of the 21st Century may never know the joy of playing with mud dolls or making wire cars but they can learn African stories and songs of old. Stories such as Mebelo and Lebelo[An adaptation of the pied piper], Kalulu [Hare]and Hyena, Mikalange and the Ghost, stories, now nearly forgotten, passed on from generations and generations before, stored through word of mouth. This is why the National Library Service (NLS) in Malawi has established a National Folktale Resource Centre within the Library which will preserve traditional forms of folktales including legends, myths, and fables in digital form with the aim of making them freely available to all.

According to the NLS website much of the work encompasses the identification, collection and storage of folktales from a rapidly diminishing pool of traditional intellectuals: elders, clan heads, priests, historians and story tellers. The project is funded by Malawi National Commission for UNESCO and the Global Future Charitable Trust (GFCT), provides audio-visual recording equipment and technical training for Malawian engineers states the website. Trully, modern technology needs not to drive us away from our roots. Instead Africa can use innovations in ICT to embrace culture and reinforce positive societal norms such as respecting elders and sharing.

Globally, there has been an awakening to the importance of preserving folklore. Now more than ever Hollywood is cashing in on creatively re-told folklore such as Little Red Riding Hood, Star Wars, Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella and many more.Maybe someday popular folktales like Kalulu and Mikalange might make it to the Box Office but even if these age-old tales do not become Hollywood hits, these folktales are ours and ours to keep and share with our children and our children’s children.

Africa no longer in the dark

Every minute of everyday more and more Africans are getting access to some form of Information Communication Technology (ICT). Mostly, phones are available to almost every person on the continent. Take Nigeria for example, out of a total population of 177,155,754 a total of 167,371,945 own cellphones representing 94.5% of  the population! That is amazing! No longer are African children running around in the dust playing hide and seek from dusk to dawn. Nowadays, even a two-year old will pick up a phone and say "ello."The new generation is definitely not leaving a stone in social media tools unturned.

For this reason, more and more governments are now turning to using the mobile phone for facilitating not only social development but also financial prosperity through programmes such as the social cash transfer. 

ICT is fast becoming an interesting subject for young professionals in Africa. Participants at the social media training organised by Malawi National Library Service funded by CTA currently undeway in Lilongwe, Malawi