Internet Society News, V1 N2, 1992

		A Latin America Update,

By Daniel Pimienta

   The most important regional  news since  the first edition was
the launch of the Peruvian network (RCP: Red Cientifica Peruana).
The RCP serves  users from  all  type  of  research  centers from
universities  to  NGO's  (Non  Governmental  Organizations).  The
development is  the  result  of  a  coordinated  effort involving
national  and international Organizations under  the "passionate"
lead of  Jos‚ Soriano (Union Latina's REDALC Sub Director at that
time).

    Venezuela is approaching the point of the return  of years of
people and   technical investments.

  In Ecuador,  where coexist at least three projects, the ECUANEX
network  formal launch was announced, last February, in a project
counting with UNDP  and APC supports.  CONUEP played   a key role
on behalf universities.  An association was formalized (INTERCOM)
where  more  than  20  NGO's  and  universities  join.  For  more
information write directly  to  Sally Burch, INTERCOM@ECUANEX.EC.
There is also a private initiative  leaded by Banco  del Pacifico
to organize and offer to the research community a BITNET  node. A
national  project (REYCIT),   where CONACYT is   the counterpart,
completed a feasibility study funded by BID and the  Central Bank
of Ecuador.  The last one is described in detail hereafter by one
of   the   involved  consultant.   Please  note   that   all  the
abbreviations are explained hereafter.

  CUNET  (Caribbean  Universities  Network)  is an effort to help
Caribbean islands (so  far  mainly  the  English  speaking one's)
start their network growth.  The project is leaded by CRACIN (Red
Academica Cientifica y de Investigacion Nacional de  Puerto Rico)
Director's   Roberto   Loran   and  receives   support  from  OAS
(Organization of  American  States).  The  current  status  is to
connect by   reverse charged   (to OAS) daily dial-up connections
PC based  UUCP  nodes.  CUNET's  administration   reports  a fast
traffic growth at various nodes.

  Dominican Republic  network,  REDID (Red de Intercambio para el
desarrollo),  following  the same  "REDALC  methodology"  used in
Peru,  is  entering  the last  step before launch  and the effort
presents some  original  characteristics (full  and  free support
from national  private  Telecommunication  companies,  first full
scale use of the state of the art PC based user interface MULBRI)
which makes the experiment specially interesting. 

  Isoc Nø3 will get in more details about the last two items in a
special Caribbean Basin  issue (Huracan, Cunet and Redid).

  The  Latin American  group  formed  during  the  Rio de Janeiro
workshop   met in   Buenos Aires in January,   then  in Mexico in
February,   and  is  planning  to  meet again in Puerto  Rico  in
April. No public feed-back have been made available yet.


SPECIAL REPORT ON LATIN AMERICAN DISTRIBUTION LISTS OR NEWSGROUPS

  This  is a synthesis  of the outstanding  work offered by Pedro
Saizar  (pedro@ohstpy.bitnet)  which  details  are  obtainable by
sending the command GET LISTS GUIDE to LISTSERV@HARVARDA.

  The pieces  of information collected  from the mentioned source
have  been  completed or  slightly  modified,  in rare occasions.
However,  it   have not   been thoroughly controlled. Please send
additions  or  corrections directly  to  Pedro  Saizar.  The main
language  used  is  generally  Spanish.  Only  public  offers are
listed.

A) PROFESSIONALS 

TOPIC             REGION/COUNTRY       LIST NAME  NODE NAME     
Artificial Intel. Latin America        IAMEX-L    TECMTYVM.bitnet            
Astronomy         Latin America        ASTR-O     BRFAPESP.bitnet
Networks          Latin America        LACWE-L    BRFAPESP.bitnet 
Networks          Latin America        LACWS-L    BRFAPESP.bitnet
Networks          Latin America        REDALC     FRMOP11.bitnet
Networks          Latin America        SIRIAC-L   ENLACE.bitnet
Computer Science  Brazil               COMP-NET   PSP.FAPESP.ANSP.BR   
Computer Science  Chile                CHILENET   UCHCEVM.bitnet
Health Science    Latin America, USA   PANET-L    YALEVM.bitnet               
Informatics       Latin America        ESLAI      FORWISS.UNI-PASSAU.DE
Physics           Latin America        FISICA-L   BRUFMG.bitnet
Psychology        The Americas         IAPSY-L    ALBNYVM1.bitnet        
Social Science    Quebec               RQSS       UQUEBEC.bitnet      
        

B) CULTURAL

TOPIC          LIST NAME          NODE NAME
Argentina      Argentina          asterix.eng.buffalo.edu
Bolivia        Llajat             readingj@cerf.net
Brazil         Bras-net           Non-European users: bras-net@lanai.cs.ucla.edu
Brazil         Bras-net           European users: bras-net@uk.ac.man.cs
Brazil         UFRJ-NCEN          ufrj.bitnet
Brazil         .BR domain         brfapesp.bitnet
Brazil         Padais             pccvm.bitnet
Caribbean      Caribe             enlace.bitnet 
Caribbean      USENET News        soc.culture.caribbean 
Central Amer.  CentAm-L           ubvm.bitnet
Chile          Chile-l            purccvm.bitnet
Colombia       Colext             andescol.bitnet
Dominican Rep. Sdomingo           enlace.bitnet
Ecuador        Ecuador            ners6k1.ncsu.edu
Ibero-America  Iberian_issues     bitnic.bitnet
Latin America  LASNET             emx.utexas.edu
Latin America  USENET News        soc.culture.latin-america
Mexico         Mexico-l           tecmtyvm.bitnet
Mexico         Mexico-d           tecmtyvm.bitnet
Mexico         Mexico             vmtecmex.bitnet
Panama         Panama             lamar.colostate.edu
Peru           Peru               athena.mit.edu
Puerto Rico    Boriken            enlace.bitnet
Uruguay        Uruguay            db.toronto.edu
USA            MCRL-L             msu.bitnet
Venezuela      Venezuela          athena.mit.edu