SCHOOL ON RADIO USE FOR DIGITAL AND MULTIMEDIA COMMUNICATIONS 11th February - 1st March 2002 , Trieste (Italy)
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Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2002
Prepared by: Michael K. Vowotor <vowotorm@ictp.trieste.it>

                   Fourth DAY DIARY
                         Of
School on Radio use for digital and multimedia communication


The day started with the smell of St. Valentine. 
Yes today is Valentines day!
With fifteen participants in the lecture hall at about 9:00am 
Prof. Gennady G. Yanovsky started day with the continuation of the 
lecture on "IP Technology: History, Current State Prospective". 
The rest of the participants arrived about 20min later. Today his 
watch worked I think? He spoke about how The Internet has caused a 
great revolution in human life.
   A question like "Why use IP?" was answered by its'
- Wide acceptance,
- Internet popularity,
- Global reach
- etc
   He explained that the Intranet looks more of a private version 
of the Internet. And Extranet being also a private network that uses 
the IP and the public telecom system to securely share a part of a 
business information with partners and customers using dedicated lines 
(tunnels). A new and effective tool for creating tunnels (MPLS) created 
by an immigrant Russian boy called Yakov Rechter. He made participants 
to know that with the enabling environment the sky is the limit for all.
He also spoke about the key factors of Internet Evolution:
-New regulations in telecommunications
-New technologies
-Market requirements

9:48 we had short a break though Prof. Yanovsky had more to say.

At 10:48 Prof. Radicella introduced Prof Ajayi from Obafemi Awolowo 
University(OAU) in Nigeria to the participants with a brief history 
of how and why ICTP had to come to Africa.  Prof. Ajayi thanked ICTP, 
RINAF etc, who had Africa at heart for sowing the seed of Information 
Technology in Africa by targeting the universities, which are the points 
of sustainable growth. He lectured on the African situation, problems and 
prospects of IT. It was powerfully delivered. He touched on the fact 
the foriegn donors' neglect the university system being the backbone of
knowledge. Prof. Ajayi stressed on the fact ICTP's training system here 
is geared towards the removal of isolation of scientists on return to 
their home countries. After talking about a recent occurrence in Africa 
as the GSM he concluded that the development in ICTs would eventually be 
the solution to under development unemployment and higher earning for many 
in Africa.

Prof. Radicella took the stage to invited participants to the get-together 
Party organized by THE SCHOOL ON RADIO USE FOR DIGITAL AND MULTIMEDIA 
COMMUNICATION at the MAIN BUILDING CAFETERIA at 18:30 in the evening.

Prof. Ajayi went ahead with his second lecture. Here he talked about the 
convergence technology...etc He made us aware that a primary school in the 
USA have a better Internet connectivity (~1.5mbps) than a university in 
Africa (in kbps) 
He said that:
-IT needs to go into university functions
-Teachers needs to teach students to use IT
-Teachers needs to use IT to support traditional instructions
-Teachers needs to use IT to enrich curricula..... etc
Participants were so delighted by the lecture and this generated a lot of 
questions till launch.


AFTER LAUCH:

Prof. G. Yanovsky gave the concluding part of his lectures on the "IP 
Technology: History, Current State Prospective". It was so interesting. 
He has lots of facts, you know?. Thank God he has written a book.

Prof. Ajayi took over to deliver his final lecture on the "Information 
Technology development in Nigeria - Role of all Sectors". He gave a 
comprehensive talk on Nigeria policy on IT. He concluded with more 
slides of the collaboration in IT between ICTP and OAU,Ile Ife,   


IN THE LABORATORY

Carlo Fonda explained what is required from all participants. Participants 
were divided into four groups, two to a computer. This C. Fonda explained 
would increase efficiency. He took us through the schools web page so we 
could see changes in the daily timetable. He also helped us to configure 
the Netscape in Slakeware OS to reach outside ICTP websites. He next took 
as through some of the commands at the command shell.(How to create files, 
who am i....etc). This was an interesting practical session, which saw 
participants playing around with the different types of commands.

Unfortunately we could not finish all the commands in Linux for the day due 
to the fact that this exercise will take a lot of time. However, participants 
were happy for the day's work.

At 18:30 we had a nice time at the dinner party. I will call it a VALENTINE PARTY.

Oh what a nice and great day!!!

-------------------
Michael K. Vowotor
Department of Physics
University of Cape Coast
Cape Coast - C/R
Ghana
Email: delavowotor@netscape.net

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