TRIP REPORT
SARRNeT Workshop
Maputo
May 18-22, 1997

The AfricaLink Advisor visited Southern Africa in order to observe and comment on the first of a series of workshops in support of USAID's regional partner networks in agricultural, environmental, and natural resource management sectors.

Persons Consulted

• Dr. J.M. Teri, Network Coordinator, sarrnet@eo.wn.apc.org
• Steve Shumba, USAID/Lilongwe SARRNeT Liaison

• Na'eem Jeenah, AfricaLink Southern Africa Help Desk, africalink@sn.apc.org

• Engineer Mathe, Projects and Contracts
• Mr. Moiana, Instructor
• Mr. Godinho, Laboratory LAN Administrator
• Mr. Americo Muchanga

• Enrique Portillo, Mission Leland Initiative Coordinator
• Timothy Born, Program Officer
• Richard Newberg, Agriculture Programs

Background

AfricaLink provides technical assistance to USAID/RCSA partners in Southern Africa in two broad areas, the agricultural research networks of SACCAR, and the member organizations of IUCN-ROSA. USAID/RCSA funds have been used at SACCAR in support of a small grants program to assist agricultural network members in obtaining their first electronic mail access. IUCN-ROSA is expected undertake a similar program in the near future.

Now that a large number of SACCAR network members have obtained access to the Internet, problems of technical support naturally arises. AfricaLink has contracted with the Southern Africa Non-Governmental Organizations Network (SANGONeT) to operate a regional electronic Help Desk, and to conduct a series of training workshops. While the hope is that local Internet service providers (ISPs) in each country in the region will provide their subscribers with adequate technical support, it is recognized that at this early stage in the development of the industry there will be problems in some areas. Technical support provided by SANGONeT is intended to backstop that of the local ISPs.

Maputo Workshop

The pilot workshop held in Maputo was designed by SANGONeT in consultation with AfricaLink/Washington and SACCAR. SANGONeT itself has provided a complete report on the workshop, now available at http://www.usaid.gov/alnk/reports/saccar/sarr0597.htm. The AfricaLink Advisor observed the workshop and offers the following additional comments.

The workshop was designed as an addition to an already scheduled meeting of the Southern Africa Root Crops Research Network (SARRNeT). The members of the network were already conveniently assembled in Maputo. It remained simply to arrange a venue for computer practicals with staff of the Informatics Center of Eduardo Modlane University. The total additional cost for the Internet sessions was held to around $4000 for the 20 or so participants.

The opening session of the workshop allowed participants considerable time to voice their concerns and problems with Internet access. It was clear that what should have been routine problems related to electronic mail delivery were in many countries not being resolved routinely.

A common concern was over whether sent email had actually been received. The SANGONeT instructor, Mr. Jeenah, explained in detail the mechanics of electronic mail transmissions so that participants would understand better how their messages arrive in the email boxes of their correspondents. This should at least enable network members to identify the probable cause of lost messages, and then to seek appropriate assistance.

Another concern had to do with difficulties with file attachment encoding and decoding. Assistance is being provided in the form of special software and instruction. However, given the complexity of this problem, particularly when passing mail between such diverse systems as Banyan/Vines, CC:Mail, Pegasus/Eudora, and Fidonet, which are all common in Southern Africa, it was decided to recommend that network members take advantage of the SANGONeT Help Desk whenever problems are encountered. Documents can be attached to email messages sent to SANGONeT, and then reformatted there in an appropriate fashion for retransmittal to the final destination.

Many of the participants expressed considerable nervousness over the use of Internet technologies. For most, this was their first real opportunity to practice sending email or browsing the World Wide Web. Several hours were allotted simply to permit participants time to become acclimated to the software and explore possibilities. Participants first sent emails to each other over the UEM local area network. They were then invited to send emails via the Internet itself.

In some cases it was necessary to explain addressing conventions, e.g. to persons using Banyan/Vines systems. On a Banyan/Vines system, an internal address typically takes a form such as <user name@server name@location> while an Internet address is typically entered as <INTERNET[username@server.class.location]>. This is quite different from addressing used on the typical non-Banyan/Vines system. It was hopefully useful for participants to gain a better understanding of the systems used by their correspondents.

For the World Wide Web session, participants were simply introduced to basic search tools and provided with an example using root-crop keywords. Searches on the word cassava yielded hundreds of hits, depending on the search engine consulted. However it was suggested that participants take advantage of the Help Desk at SANGONeT to assist with specific searches.

The workshop was as useful to SANGONeT and AfricaLink as it was to the participants. A central accomplishment was the establishment of a relationship between network members and SANGONeT, allowing both parties to understand each other better. Participants now know where they can turn for assistance when local support proves problematic. SANGONeT now has a better understanding of the type of support that will be required.

Workshop participants themselves offered the following comments in a closing session:

• Useful, very fast, too fast perhaps for beginners
• Help is needed to assure email messages are received
• An eye opener, good to have exposure, need a locally arranged followup
• Information has been provided, now in a strong position to demand what is needed
• The visual explanation before hands on practice has been good
• Happy to have been exposed
• Increased our understanding
• Good to learn the mechanics of what is happening behind the scenes
• Raised our enthusiasm for possibilities, and we should all make sure to get online quickly
• Zambia is committed, and wants Chris Lungu's commitment to fund connectivity
• Appreciate learning about SARRNeT-L, but what about the Web?

On this last point, Mr. Lungu responded that SACCAR would consider funding the upgrading of certain key coordinating offices with full Web access capabilities.

At the conclusion of the workshop, AfricaLink/Washington, SANGONeT, and SACCAR staff discussed lessons learned. It was decided that special attention should be paid to the needs of network coordinators, such as Dr. Teri of SARRNeT, understanding that such coordinators are key to generating information and facilitating its flow across the network.