Date: Thu, 24 Feb 1994 18:00:13 EST Reply-To: "Pimienta Daniel " From: "Pimienta Daniel " To: "Steve Goldstein, NSF" Cc: "Philippe Rossillon, Sec. Gen. Union Latina" , "Union Latina Peru" , "Vinton Cerf, President ISOC" , "George Sadowsky, INET94 DC Workshop" , "Enzo Puliatti, UNDP" , "Jose Silvio, REDALC Project Mgr for CRESALC/UNESCO" , ", President RCP" , "LAyC Network Administrator Listserver" , "Randy Bush" Subject: RE: On the connection of RCP to Internet X-Mulbri: 00**0000000000 CC: Jean Pierre Lebrun, EEC DG13 Fax: 32 2 Steve, You had a sane idea putting again in historical perspective the RCP success story, after the diffamatory statement addressed, by Randy Bush, (apparently) to the UNDP, via a listserver we created, administrated and moderated, which is widely open to persons (in majority non specialist end-users) interested in research and networking in LA&C (see attachment). While the practice of celebrating and congratulating after such events sounds good to everybody (as a genuine expression of shared happiness), one may wonder if the practice must be encouraged to become a recurrent game of obscure or personal fights. First, listservers have to be considered as mass media, with ALL the implications that carries. Second, working for networks requires too much energy to spoilt it in useless struggles. Your note recording the contributors of the RCP birth obviously did not pretend to be exhaustive. However, it is probably correct, at this point of time, to provide the whole picture and remember the contributions from the Union Latina and, indirectly, from the EEC. Please, let me do so now and complement your wise and timely statement. UNION LATINA CONTRIBUTION REDALC's Office took care of all the non technical matters (instititutional, organizational and financial aspects) for the creation of the RCP, as described hereafter: -GENERAL COORDINATION, PLANS, STRATEGY AND CONTROL: Daniel Pimienta, Head of Redalc Office and Daniel Prado, Second Program Director, with the participation of all the REDALC team (some 10 people), special mention, from that team, to Jose Soriano, who was given the project execution lead. -FIRST STUDIES: May-June 91, including Jose Soriano's Lima mission (11/5/91 - 5/6/91); -FEASIBILITY STUDY: August 91, including Jose Soriano's Lima mission (7/8/91 - 14/8/91); -PLANNING: October 91, including Daniel Pimienta and Jose Soriano's Lima missions, respectively (17/10/91 - 23/10/91) and (17/10/91 - 14/11/91); -EXECUTION: November 91 and December 91, including Jose Soriano's Lima mission (14/11/91 - 21/12/91) REFERENCE: "RCP, the Peruvian network", Daniel Pimienta, Internet Society News, V1 N2, 1992 BUDGET: 30,000 US$ (includes salary, mission expenses and a 5000$ cash donation for the RCP administrative and legal matters. Does not include indirect costs). EEC CONTRIBUTION The whole process followed a specific framework, we referred to as "Redalc methodology" (since mid-91). This is a by-product of the comprehensive study (REDALC) funded by EEC (and executed by Union Latina in cooperation with Unesco, between 1990 and 1992). REFERENCES: -"Research Network in Developing Countries: Not Exactly the Same Story!", Daniel Pimienta, INET93, Economic Policy Track, August 93 (the first version of the paper was published in January 92 and the final version published in July 92). -"The REDALC methodology", Daniel Pimienta, Matrix News, V3N9, September 93. BUDGET: No direct contribution, but the REDALC methodology, which is one of the result of important EEC investments, has been used and published thanks to EEC special authorization. These statements do not mean to reduce the importance of the contribution of the technical partners: UNDP (Enzo Puliatti), Randy Bush, and the team leaded by Ted Hope. Obviously, the credit and responsibility for actions executed after 21/12/91 for the RCP does not belong to Union Latina. As for the professional credits and responsibilities of Jose Soriano's actions and statements, after he leaved Union Latina, in February 92, they belong to him and/or the RCP. Just few comments about the discussions imbedded in the actual celebrations: -Giving credits to persons is often a subjective and delicate matter (giving credits to teams is probably more appropriate in most of the case). Giving credit to institutions is part of the rights and obligations of the cooperation process. -Internet is, above all, a PEOPLE (team) odyssey, there is no doubt about that. However, cooperation is a matter of both INSTITUTIONS and persons (teams). Internet in developing countries is then a matter of persons (teams) AND institutions. -Professionals of cooperation know well than the critical path of the process consists in finding the right trade-off between persons and institutions. As a conclusion, reinforcing the weakness of the level of institution in the developing countries is an extremely poor action, when it is done accidentally. When it is done systematically, the name is lack of responsibility. Most of the countries and people of LAyC consider one of the key challenge of the coming decade to reach a level of institution comparable to industrial countries. Internet should participate and contribute to this essential objective, and become one of the building stone of the coming participative democracy. Take care Steve, and keep working for the benefit of all of us, as you did with your useful clarifications. Daniel Pimienta, Daniel Prado, Pablo Liendo, Senaida Jansen, and all their colleagues who worked for the REDALC project. PS1: As for the INET94 discussions, we do not want to participate to an unclear debate, but let us take that opportunity to express two wishes: 1) that after consecutive unjustified absences, a technical representative of the REDID network will, at last, be sponsored to participate in the INET94 DC Workshop. 2) that the workshop focus will be, at last, widen to cover non technical matters (which network administrators all know represent the bulk of the workload and challenges of networking in developing countries). ================================================================ ATTACHED: EXTRACT RANDY BUSH POST TO THE REDALC LISTSERVER Received: from codemail by pimienta (UUPC/extended 1.11n) with UUCP; Sat, 19 Feb 1994 16:47:18 EST >From FRMOP11.CNUSC.FR!owner-redalc Sat Feb 19 14:17:47 1994 remote from upr2 Received: from upr2 by codemail; Sat, 19 Feb 1994 15:57 EST Received: by upr2.clu.net (/\==/\ Smail3.1.28.1 #28.13) id ; Sat, 19 Feb 94 14:15 EST Received: from FRMOP11.CNUSC.FR by FRMOP11.CNUSC.FR (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 8860; Sat, 19 Feb 94 19:46:13 EST Received: from FRMOP11.CNUSC.FR (NJE origin LISTSERV@FRMOP11) by FRMOP11.CNUSC.FR (LMail V1.2a/1.8a) with BSMTP id 8828; Sat, 19 Feb 1994 19:46:11 -0500 Message-Id: Date: Sat, 19 Feb 1994 08:12:18 -0800 Reply-To: Randy Bush Sender: Reseau Amerique Latine et Caraibes Comments: Warning -- original Sender: tag was js@UUNET.UU.NET From: Randy Bush Subject: Peru pingable X-To: info-nets@Think.COM X-cc: INET93 TCP/IP Woskshop To: Multiple recipients of list REDALC Content-Type: text Content-Length: 1950 After over two years of work by the cooperative networkers of Peru's Red Cientifica Peruana, Peru's national network became connected to the rest of the Internet this morning. Credit goes to many people, as Peru's effort is outstanding in its open cooperation and, in the majority, its self-funding. But my personal congratulations to Jose Soriano, whose dream it has been and whose personal drive got it done, two generations of smart hard working Peruvian engineers at RCP, the Consejo of RCP, who supported Jose and the engineers, and two tios, Steve Goldstein (NSF) and Saul Hahn (OAS) who supported, encouraged, cleared obstacles, ... [ And shame to a noted international organization whose minion meddled, blocked, and fought, and will now liklely try to attach their name to it. ] randy ......