Mar
2010
1
FEAST Findings about AfricaConnect
| Source | FEAST Partnership |
| In short | The final FEAST workshop held on Feb. 25, 2010, in Brussels (EC premises, Berlaymont), attracted about 60 key stakeholders in the field (African governments, EU and African NRENs, EC DG INFSO, DG AIDCO, DG DEV and DG RTD, etc.) and allowed very fruitful discussions about FEAST. FEAST was a one-year feasibility study supported by the European Commission (EC, Unit F3, DG INFSO) to prepare a roadmap for the AfricaConnect Initiative, one of the nineteen projects of the EU-Africa Partnership for Science, Information Society & Space (8th Partnership). FEAST explored the options of deploying sustainable and extensible regional backbone networks in Africa, exclusively dedicated to research and education, to connect National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) to each other, and to global research and education resources via the GÉANT backbone network. The findings are that there is enough infrastructure and ready research and education communities to start the first phase of AfricaConnect. The main challenges include political awareness about the nature and importance of dedicated research an education networks as well as the necessity and will to accelerate the transformation of the communication market making communication infrastructure an affordable utility. The recommendations are to immediately support the ready communities to acquire links to build their networks, to strengthen the capacity in terms of educated and trained human resources both in the ready communities and in the emerging communities, and to high-light applications demonstrating the return on investment and motivating a second phase sup- porting the emerging communities. |
| Full text | http://www.feast-project.org/ |
| Contact | bpehrson@kth.se |
| Related link | http://www.feast-project.org/ http://www.feast-project.org/documents/20100208-kth-final-feast-brochure.pdf |
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