The Works of DANTE - Issue 3
RedCLARA in Review
The ALICE project created the RedCLARA network for Latin America. It began operating on 1 September 2004, and has already produced important and tangible results. Florencio Utreras, Chief Executive of CLARA (the research and education organisation established to co-ordinate activities within Latin America), visited the DANTE office recently. We took the opportunity to sit down with Florencio and review RedCLARA’s first few months of operation.
What is the current status of research networking in Latin America?
I would say that the current status falls into three broad categories within the region.
Firstly there are some countries where research networking is a very important national policy, and there is strong awareness. These include Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico. In the first three countries, research networks have been in existence since the 1990s. The Mexican research network CUDI started later in 2000, but has developed very quickly.
In the second group of countries, there have been national policies for research networking, but until recently, funding was insufficient to support their scope. Countries such as Colombia, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay fall into this category. Once ALICE began, they immediately said, “We want that”. Uruguay, for example, is now developing a very good network, motivated by the ALICE project and by CLARA. The same is true for Colombia. When the ALICE project started, it brought together different working organisations, and motivated them to agree on a protocol to build a national network. In the case of Peru, networking was born in the 90s. At this time it was essentially an initiative of NGOs (non-governmental organisations). The focus was more on communication than research. Now the government is pushing for technological development in research and innovation. They receive grants from the World Bank and from other sources to enhance research capacity in Peru. These grants, in conjunction with the ALICE project, have provided a real catalyst for development.
For the third group of countries, until very recently national policies and funding for research were weak. This was the result of a combination of low economic performance and little official national commitment to research. Most of Central America, with the exception of Costa Rica and Panama, would fall into this category. However, since the start of ALICE, many countries, including El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua, have built networks. For these countries, being able to connect to RedCLARA has been a real drive for development. In Guatemala, for example, seven universities got together and decided to connect solely for this purpose. The development of these national networks is a direct result of the ALICE project.
How were project partners identified?
Within Latin American academic research networking, the motivation to create a regional network already existed. DANTE contacted some of the more developed networks, such as REUNA in Chile, and asked us to identify who could be invited to join the project - we simply got in touch with those who we’d already been talking to. That’s why the answer to the European Commission’s invitation was so immediate – “Let’s go for it!”
The European Commission played a very important role. They contacted national governments through their national offices. Through the ALICE project we have been able to bring together academics, research experts and governments. Even with the national differences in economic policies and political situations, each partner has been able to create its own model for a research network.
The generous offer of help came at a very crucial moment. If this offer had been made five years ago, it would not have been possible because telecoms infrastructure prices were ten times higher or more. The drop in the cost of connectivity in the last five years has helped to make it possible.
What applications do you see benefiting from the network?
That will vary from country to country, but basically I foresee two levels of applications.
Firstly, there are visible, high-science applications, which are technologically advanced, transferring large amounts of data between huge scientific facilities - astronomy, oceanography and seismology, for example. Also, regionally important issues will benefit, including research into El Niño, climate change and biodiversity loss in the Amazon. The fostering of the development of clusters of scientists is going to be a big benefit of the network for these sorts of applications - developing strong people networks as well as the physical ones.
Secondly, you have applications which are enabled by the high-speed network, but that are not necessarily high science - for example, applications such as videoconferencing, virtual reality, e-learning, digital libraries and telemedicine. These may already be available via the commercial Internet but not with the quality or capability that research networks offer. These types of applications will reach more people, utilising the expansive geographic reach of RedCLARA. We need to identify who needs them, because it is these people who will be covering the costs of the network. We cannot pay for this type of infrastructure with high-science projects alone.
What are the main problems that the project has faced?
In general the project has run smoothly. Of course there have been problems - it was quite complicated to carry out the tender process, and it took us longer than we had expected. It’s a complex project – there are 18 different nations involved, with different rules and different cultures. Even though they are similar, they are not the same.
Funding for the project ends in May 2006. How will the network be sustained after that date?
It’s a huge challenge. We have not yet fully deployed the network, and cannot carry on with a lot of sustainability work until that point. We are introducing, in a certain sense, a new service, and we have to develop a customer base, to prove that there are the customers for this service. We may need three years or so to develop a large enough community to pay for this type of network.
We have to learn the needs and the problems in each country. There will be commonality, but there will also be some differences. According to that, we first need to design the marketing and support activities we are going to foster in each country.
The second phase involves designing a business model for the network in each country to allow them to self-sustain. CLARA has been created to co-ordinate activities, while taking care of the differences. Our community can work together, but we have to be careful to design a process that can be adapted to specific cultures, economic situations and regulations - you can’t necessarily copy a model from one country to another. It would be nice if we could change these circumstances, but that is easy to say and not so easy to do!
Several groups of people already have a high awareness of ALICE and RedCLARA. Now we have to increase awareness amongst political authorities, and in the scientific and academic community, and to communicate the new possibilities that the network offers. To do that there are different levels of work – with communications tailored to the group, both scientific and political, and at a regional and international level.
Are you looking to use the GÉANT connection to Europe to extend collaboration with European researchers?
Of course - Latin America has been in touch with Europe for all its history, and we are seeking opportunities to create joint projects and strengthen those links. We know there are interesting funding possibilities within Europe, where we can participate. Some countries have signed science and technology agreements with Europe. However, there needs to be the underlying infrastructure there to allow these people networks to develop.
How do you see future collaboration between DANTE and CLARA?
Working with DANTE has been great. We have been able to build the network and always with excellent support. We see ourselves as part of the international networking community, and organisations like DANTE, and APAN in Asia, as our natural partners. We feel we need to work more with international networks and partners to ensure sustained connectivity.
There are clear benefits on both sides. There are a lot of interesting things going on in Latin America, in climate change, deforestation etc. There are many high–scale problems where the whole world has to be involved, and we want to be part of that.
We need to strengthen and continue to build the infrastructure that we need for our own scientists. This will allow us to contribute to global research networking.
Recent network developments include a new connection to Peru at 10Mbps, which became operational during April 2005. Uruguay will also shortly join RedCLARA. Equipment is being installed and testing began in the first week of May.
