What is it about?
National research and education networks (NRENs) play a critical role in the development of communication network infrastructure and networked services for researchers and educators. They help close ‘digital divides’ between and within countries and are an essential factor for national and international development. In collaboration with the West and Central African Research and Education Network (WACREN), the TANDEM project has developed a roadmap for the development of NRENs in the region. This was based on the results of a survey that was conducted to investigate user requirements of networked services. This article reports on the results of the survey with respect to research services.
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Why is it important?
Our findings show that respondents wanting regular access to online conference and academic articles (89%), a range of research services including online library resources, video conferencing, collaboration tools, online data access and storage, online library resources and inter-university login (>87%), access to remote computing facilities (80%) and high-performance computing facilities (77%). A desire to share data with others online (74%) was also identified. Respondents also indicated that they would like to access research services through a range of device types–Laptops (96%), Fixed PC (86%) and Mobile Devices (81%). Poor network connectivity was consistently identified as being a major barrier to research in the region.
Perspectives
The results of the survey formed the basis for discussion in three major workshops in the region with representatives of the African and European NREN communities. Members of the TANDEM project produced an initial service list that was derived from these discussions. This was further discussed in the African NREN community and the results from these discussions formed the basis of the NREN Service Roadmap that has now been adopted by WACREN for the NRENs in its region. These steps were taken to ensure that the survey results were repeatedly discussed and validated. The resulting roadmap balanced end-user requirements with the practical necessities of regional network development. This is a significant step forward as this will assist WACREN in negotiating with regional economic communities, telecommunications regulators, national policy and decision-making institutions in West and Central Africa, as well as future EC-led AfricaConnect projects, in developing reliable, high-performance communication networks in the region.
Dr Armin Kashefi
Brunel University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: User requirements for national research and education networks for research in West and Central Africa, Information Development, May 2018, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0266666918774113.
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