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Date:         Mon, 14 Sep 1992 07:12:40 EDT
From:         "John A. MacDougall" <apakabar@ACCESS.DIGEX.COM>
Subject:      ASIA-PACIFIC: The Pactok Project

Forwarded message:
From apakabar@igc.apc.org Mon Sep 14 06:57:11 1992
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 92 03:58:52 PDT
From: Indonesia Publications/Task Force <apakabar@igc.apc.org>
Message-Id: <9209141058.AA05934@igc.apc.org>
To: apakabar@access.digex.com
Subject: Asia Pacific gets Earthed!

/* Written  4:05 pm  Sep 14, 1992 by peg:agarton in cdp:reg.pacific */
/* ---------- "Asia Pacific gets Earthed!" ---------- */
        Pactok - Asia Pacific Electro-media gets Earthed!
        -------------------------------------------------
                     Paper prepared for the
             Adult Open Learning Information Network
            Conference, Australia, Sept 7-9, 1992, by
                Rob Garnsey <pactok@peg.apc.org> &
               Andrew Garton <agarton@peg.apc.org>
        -------------------------------------------------

Abstract

Computer communications between Non-Government Organisations are
growing the world over. This paper outlines the growth of these
networks and how they are seen to be utilised by NGOs. The paper  also
considers the cost benefits and administrative advantages to NGOs in
the Asia Pacfic region thinking of utilising communication and
information technologies. Pactok is one such service already active in
the Pacific Islands and South East Asia.



Introduction

The most serious problems facing the world today are substantially
different in scope and character from any that have faced the world
before. They are shaped by the increasing ecological and economic
interdependence spawned by a century of tremendous technological and
economic change.

Problems such as the proliferation of nuclear weapons, imbalanced
resource use, hunger and poverty, the destruction of the rain forests
and the developing "greenhouse effect" are so large in scope and have
such geographically dispersed effects as to limit the effectiveness of
solutions developed by local governments or even superpowers.

To solve these problems, we need cooperative efforts, involving large
numbers of people throughout the world. Communication is intrinsic to
cooperative effort. With today's technologies, properly supported, we
can greatly speed and enhance communication and its application toward
solving global problems.


Computer Communications Networks

Computer networks and tools based on them are increasingly used to
link individuals and organisations, and to develop new means for
collaboration on the complex problems of our increasingly
interdependent world. These tools enable people to interact
productively without the time and space constraints that a
geographically dispersed group or groups normally face in
communicating.

The benefits of computer communications technologies have only
recently begun to be realised. The telephone, telex, and fax have had
a profound impact on international organisations and collaborations.
Yet it is still very difficult to get a geographically diverse group
to work together on a sustained basis. Meetings are expensive and
time-consuming. Telex and Fax are expensive and not interactive.
Telephones demand the synchronous presence of both parties, are
expensive, leave no record of decisions, and are not suitable for
group interaction on an international level.

New communications technologies can help solve many global problems.
Military, academic, banking, and industrial groups already use
electronic mail, computer conferencing and databases to coordinate
large, diverse, or geographically distributed activities. These
techniques are also used to share research information and collaborate
on projects. With electronic mail, managers can send messages around
the world instantly, at low cost. Computer conferences allow users to
react to one another without the demands of synchronicity, physical
presence, or the delays of mail. Databases can speed research and
understanding.

However, this explosion of communications technology has placed
individuals, non-profit organisations and other community groups at a
distinct disadvantage. Many of them are unable to afford the currently
expensive network and communication services available, usually via
calls direct to either USA or Europe.

While spending substantial amounts of time on an international phone
line reading lists of messages and instructions off a computer in
another country may be feasible for corporate users and larger
institutions, it effectively excludes many individuals and NGOs from
access to these tools, and therefore from participation.

In answer to the economic constraints, various networks have sprung up
offering alternative services to their users. One such network is the
global Internet. Though largely government funded it has, since the
1970's, enabled academics and those working in the international
research community to share their knowledge with colleagues the world
over. At the same time, in the amateur arena, personal computer
enthusiasts were developing their own standards and the software to
support an electronic network (FidoNet) based on PC's.

A more recent development has been that of the The Association for
Progressive Communications (APC). The APC network exists to increase
the efficiency and effectiveness of peace, environmental, social
justice, community and educational organisations by providing them
with tools and services for communications, collaboration and
information sharing.


Computer Communications for NGOs

Many NGOs have been innovative when it comes to investigating and
utilising new developments in communications and information
technologies. Some NGOs in the Asian region have been amongst the
first few subscribers to new communications and database services
offered by the telecommunications authorities or private companies.

Computer use has grown rapidly among NGOs, mainly for word processing,
mailing lists, and more recently, for desk top publishing. This
utilisation of computer technology has paralleled the general trend
towards more professionalism amongst NGOs.

For some NGOs, computer communication has become an integral part of
their networking activites, enabling qualitative as well as
quantitative improvements in their work. For example, those NGOs
accessing commercial online databases for swift and detailed response
to information requests, or for their own research, could not
reproduce this manually.

An analysis of NGO email traffic on the APC has indicated the
following most commonly used applications of computer communications:

        -       Discussing articles for publication, editing and
                layout

        -       Administrative messages concerning conference
                planning, travel itineries, budgets and reports,
                etc.

        -       News and analysis of serious incidents such as
                mass arrests (Malaysia) coups (Philippines) or
                massacres (China)

        -       Communication between staff away on fieldwork and
                the head office

        -       Appeals for solidarity actions over human rights
                violations, strikes, and other campaigns

        -       Announcements of new publications and services

        -       Requests for information

        -       Debates on significant issues

        -       Announcements of conferences and meetings

        -       Technical questions and responses

A highlight in the development of computer communications networks for
NGOs was the APC involvement in the United Nations Earth Summit 92,
Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. This conference has strengthened the role of
networks as they have fast become a common medium for NGOs to access
and disseminate information critical to the outcome of this historical
conference.

As a result of the utilisation of the APC's facilities for the Earth
Summit, NGOs have found the network to:

        -       be a central forum for debate, and these debates
                are unique to email systems;

        -       provide a key source of information, published
                electronically in a variety of languages, much of
                which is not available in printed form, and;

        -       offer considerable savings in postal costs for
                announcements and circulars as more and more NGOs
                have subscribe to the network for Earth Summit
                related activites.


Pactok - Asia Pacific Community Computer Network Project

Communication is fundamental to the social change process. The success
of an NGO whether it be an environmental group, a development agency
or a resource centre will largely depend on its capacity to access,
analyse and disseminate information relevant to its sphere of
interest.

In the Pacific Basin - an area which covers almost one-third of the
earth's surface - communications between NGOs and the regional and
international agencies and institutions that support their activities
is hampered by the geographical isolation of the island states which
renders communications by mail unresponsive and communications by
telephone, telex and fax costly.

Appropriately designed computer-based communications offer a
convenient and cost effective tool for overcoming the constraints
which vast distance, different time zones and limited financial
resources pose for the timely exchange of information between local,
regional and international NGOs.

These impediments to communications, together with the high cost of
attending regional meetings have severely curtailed opportunities for
Pacific Island NGOs to share information. At a regional seminar on
Partnership in Development held in Suva in November 1990, it was
observed that many of the participating NGOs were undertaking similar
programs in agriculture and nutrition, water supply and sanitation,
environment awareness, small business training and the like, yet the
only time they actively shared ideas and experiences about their
common activities with groups other than their direct partners, was at
seminars and workshops.

The establishment of a computer network linking Pacific Island NGOs
provides a mechanism for them to readily access up-to-date information
and share ideas on topics of common interest. Networking provides
opportunities to work co- operatively to develop solutions to common
problems.

Computer networking also has enormous potential for improving
communications between funding agencies and their grassroots partners.

Since it was first publicised in October 1990 Pactok has received
enthusiastic support from the NGO movement, educational institutions
and regional development institutions operating in the South Pacific.
Over 60 organisations have registered their interest in the Pactok
project.

Pactok has been particularly encouraged by the strong interest from
grassroots organisations involved in community development, informal
education and environmental awareness activities. These groups showing
a keen appreciation of the ways in which computer networking can
enhance the effectiveness with which they perform their day to day
operations.

Despite the diversity of possible applications the underlying
functions for which the technology is to be used generally falls into
one or more of the following four categories:

-         Forming and maintaining links with groups sharing
          similar interests with the intention of exchanging
          information and sharing experiences;

-         Communicating with partner agencies and affiliates
          located in other countries;

-         Dissemination of information by umbrella organisations
          to their membership;

-         Co-ordination of regional education and training
          programs.

The above operations can be facilitated by the the three main Pactok
functions

-       Electronic mail:
        Commonly known as "email", provides person to person
        communication.

-       Computer conference :
        A public area on the computer network in which many users
        can read and place messages about the subject of
        interest. An electronic conference can also be designed
        to be a private domain for specific users only.

-       File and document transfer:
        Exchange of formatted documents such as spreadsheets and
        newsletters.

The following applications, as detailed by Peter Anderson in his
research report, "Disaster Mitigation in the Age of Distributed
Networking" (CIRCIT, April 92), are the result of many years of
observing network activity and reflect only a few of the
possibilities:

Email and conferencing

        -       more and more organisations are using email as
                their preferred method of correspondence;

        -       personal correspondence;

        -       coordinating activities with others;

        -       co-authorship of papers and reports;

        -       maintaining contact with peers nationally and
                internationally

        -       reducing sense of isolation;

        -       contacting authors directly to discuss contents
                of their writings;

        -       socialising;

        -       preparing joint proposals and facilitating
                project management;

        -       obtaining input from working groups assigned to
                specific projects;

        -       engaging in "global" think tank sessions and
                discussions;

        -       establishing new sub-networks through mailing
                lists and conferences

        -       preparing and posting newsletters;

        -       preparing public presentations;

        -       enhancing decision-making by facilitating
                enquiries, requests and/or advice on particular
                topics and issues;

        -       locating and gaining assistance from those who
                have specialised knowledge, and who can provide
                technical information in useful formats;

        -       sharing workloads;

        -       managing field offices;

        -       strengthening bonds between government and
                non-government organisations;

        -       providing a common framework for linking across
                communities of interest.

Resource Sharing

        -       distance education - distributing learning
                materials and facilitating interaction between
                students and teachers;

        -       providing specialised inter-organisation
                applications. For example, there are now 6,000
                hospitals using the InterNet who use the network
                for medical research and other purposes;

        -       exchanging computer programmes;

        -       acquiring information resources, quickly,
                reliably and cost effectively, including reports,
                papers, and manuals;

        -       enabling wide area data collection and analysis
                such as international collection and processing
                of climatic data. In some cases, this may be the
                only means by which research information can be
                quickly obtained.

How Pactok works

The twin problems for electronic communicators in the Asia-Pacific
region are the high cost of overseas calls and the indifferent line
quality which is often encountered. Despite the recent proliferation
of packet data networks which provide high technical performance,
their high cost structure place them beyond the means of NGOs.

Because of this Pactok does not follow the Bulletin Board model, in
which users interact on-line with a central computer. Pactok aims
instead for a decentralised network of "mailers" communicating with
local mail hubs and using the public switched telephone network.
Pactok mailers conform to "Fido" standards.

The centre of the Pactok network is located at the Ideas Centre in
Sydney. The network currently supports three additional local hubs in
Port Moresby, Honiara and Melbourne. In addition, a number of
individual users from Australia, Asia and the Pacific call Sydney.

Users prepare their messages and queries offline and their system
dials up their hub as often as required. The local hub exchanges
messages with the Network Hub. Messages are compressed before sending,
further reducing the amount of connect time required.

The Network Hub is linked to Pegasus with over 1000 subscribers in
Australia and the local region. Pegasus is itself part of the
worldwide network of the Association for Progressive Communications
(APC) which has many thousands of subscribers and interconnections
with all major electronic mail networks in academia, science and
commerce.

Fido technology mailers can only talk to other Fido mailers and are
not immediately compatible with the software used in other networks.
For Pactok users to talk to Pegasus, and through it the wider
networking community, an intermediate step is required.

This takes the form of a "gateway" system; a computer connected to
Pegasus which runs a piece of software to translate messages between
the Fido and APC formats. Mail and conference messages exchanged
between Pactok and other networks pass through this gateway.

A mailer program relies on all transactions being planned in advance.
Users need to decide which conferences they are going to take in
advance, prepare their system to receive them and send a message to
the Gateway asking it to turn on the "feed".

Avantages of the mailer approach include:

-       transactions are scheduled in advance of the dial-up, and
        the data transfers take place automatically without human
        intervention. This keeps the duration of the call to a
        bare minimum. On-line interactive sessions by contrast
        necessarily take much longer.

-       Poor line quality such as that experienced in many
        developing countries can render on-line interactive
        sessions difficult, if not impossible. The Fido
        transfer protocols are very tolerant of line noise
        and ensure error free communications under all but
        the most difficult conditions.

-       The mailer can be set to operate without human
        intervention and can therefore take up less of the
        operator's time. A preconfigured mail session can take
        place unattended overnight when phone costs are lowest.


However, mailers do result in some loss of flexibility compared with
an on-line system:

-       The smaller Pactok hubs and nodes would be overwhelmed
        with the hundreds of conferences which are available
        over the APC network, so Pactok carries only a small
        subset which have been identified by users as being of
        interest.

        Pactok users do not have the same ability to browse
        among the contents of hundreds of conferences as their
        direct dial colleagues.

-       Fido compatible mailers are more difficult to install
        than terminal emulation software, although once set up,
        they are more friendly to operate than most bulletin
        board interfaces.


The software used by the Pactok project also includes a terminal
emulation program and users are also able to dial Pegasus directly if
they are in a position to do so.

Many new Fido technology networks are emerging. Many of these
networks, such as MANGO, operated by a collective of NGOS in Zimbabwe,
Africa, have email and conferencing gateways with the APC. These
groups have found that the low cost and efficiency of data
transmission across Fido platforms has made possible their
participation in global networking.


Conclusion

Computer-based communications offer a solution to the constraints
posed by time and space on geographically dispersed organisations
seeking to communicate with each other. The Pactok project was founded
by a group of Australian NGOs to provide an affordable computer
networking service for use by their counterparts and other
non-commercial groups working in the Pacific region.

This has been achieved by adapting Fido technology to enable users to
access the wider APC network without the high on-line
telecommunications costs associated with access from developing
countries.

By automating the interaction with the APC network using mailer
programs the costs associated with electronic communications can be
kept to a minimum and grassroots groups can benefit from the
communications revolution.

The most important benefit computer networking brings to the Asia-
Pacific NGO movement and its affiliates is the opportunity to
collaborate in the development of solutions to local, national,
regional and global problems.


References:

The Pactok Project: Computer Networking for Community Organisations in
the Pacific Region. Prepared by the Pactok project team, August 1991.

Disaster Mitigation in the Age of Distributed Networking: The
Development of and Australian Disaster Management Information Network.
Peter Anderson, Research Fellow, Centre for International research on
Communication and Information Technologies (CIRCIT), April 1992.

Communications for Progress: A guide to International E-mail. Grahame
Lane, CIIR, Antenna/Interdoc, EDRC, ISBN 1-85287-069-9, 1990.

Computer Communications in Asia: A report on the use of computers for
communications by non-government organisations in the Asia region.
Asia Monitor Resource Centre, 444 Nathan Road 8-B, Kowloon, Hong Kong,
October 1990.

Pegasus Networks User Manual. Paul Wilson, Andrew Garton,
Pegasus Networks Pty Ltd, Border St, Byron Bay, NSW,
Australia, November 1991.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Pactok - Asia Pacific Community Computer Networking Project

PO Box 49, Annandale
NSW 2038 Australia.
Tel: +61-2-692-0231
Fax: +61-2-660-1404

APC Email:  pactok@peg.apc.org
Internet:   pactok@peg.pegasus.oz.au
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