Margita Kon-Popovska MARNet MACEDONIAN ACADEMIC & RESEARCH NETWORK Need of key technological changes

Margita Kon-Popovska Need of key technological changes and developments A analysis of the situation of the Western Balkan countries concerning the scientific educational and cultural co- operation provided by experts from UNESCO and Academia Europaea in March 2001 have found among other things, the difficulties for trans-national access to facilities such as research infrastructures, digital libraries, computing facilities, web based distance training and e- learning. These difficulties can be seen on the maps available against the background of the high performance networks in Europe, that shows a lack of sufficient connections, and therefore possibility of wider research, education and training e-services.

Margita Kon-Popovska Digital divide up to 10 Gbps Macedonia aad Balkan countries MARNET 1 Mbps

Margita Kon-Popovska The conclusion about the priority of developing a EES high-speed regional electronic network was made by: The UNESCO/AE/ESF expert conference on reconstruction of the scientific cooperation in South East Europe, Venice 24th/27th March 2001; Confirmed by the round table of the ministers of science held in the framework of the 31st general conference of UNESCO in Paris, 24th October 2001; Further confirmed on the ministerial conference in Sofia, 3rd of December 2001;

Margita Kon-Popovska quite recently confirmed on the ministerial conference in Bucharest on 5th April 2002, where the necessity of creating a large bandwidth regional network was once more explicitly mentioned in the declaration; Remphasised and extended with a clear intention towards the sixth framework programme on the "Workshop on Co- operation in Research, Science and Technology with the SEE-Countries within the framework of the SAp" in Bad Honnef 14th/15th March 2002

Margita Kon-Popovska Negative factors concerning developing strategies for ICT in Macedonia e- business, e-government, e-science, e-learning Low rate (up to 5%) of PC usage among the population, Low rate of stationary telephone lines (25% of population), Low rate of mobiles (18% of population) Telecom monopoly until beginning of 2005, resulting in high prices Unemployment rate of up to 35%, substantial number of workers being technological surplus manpower or has not received their salaries for last 6 month, 25% of population having status of poor (under 50 euro/month) Still not enough developed information systems concerning on-line public services, e-business and similar. Great brain drain of young especially educated work force

Margita Kon-Popovska Challengeable factors Relevant factors (government, universities, schools, intelligence, parents and the young generation) realized the need of ICT education and accepted the world vision of a Information society. Obligatory ICT courses on secondary and high levels of education, elective ( depending on availability of computer laboratories ) on elementary schools level in 7 and 8 grade. e-Declaration adopted by Macedonian Parliament e-Macedonia Committee established by President of R Macedonia (2000) as advisory body for developing strategies for the entrance of Macedonia in the Information Society

Margita Kon-Popovska MARNET History Established in 1994 year as a organizational unit of Ss Cyril and Methodious University in Skopje. Operational work (internet service) started in 1995 by support of ACONet and Open Society Institute of Macedonia. through the 64 Kbps satellite link to Vienna (and EBONE). service started earlier in 1992 year through the National and University library, X.25 network through EARN (and Former Yugoslavia Scientific and Technological Information System SINTIJ).

Margita Kon-Popovska Academic community served by MARNET is spread in 6 towns, while wider potential community (elementary and middle schools, libraries, heritage and cultural institutions) is in over 32 municipalities and their neighborhood. MARNET

Margita Kon-Popovska MARNET actual and potential users

Margita Kon-Popovska Ongoing activities and projects the need of key technological changes and developments  SEEREN (start 1.Dec. 2002) South East Europe Research Educational Network Financed by Information Societies Technology (IST) Programme Contract No IST  MANI (start 20. Dec. 2002) MARNET Advanced Network Infrastructure Financed by NATO NIG Science programme

Margita Kon-Popovska SEEREN Establish the South East Europe infrastructure that will interconnect the NRENs of AL, B-H, BG, MK, YU, GR, HU and RO with International links of 2-34 Mbps.

Margita Kon-Popovska Interconnect the regional NRENs to the major Geant PoP’s in this area and thus to the Pan-European research and educational network.

Margita Kon-Popovska Serve as a guide for future upgrades so that all regional NRENs will be able to participate in GÉANT(+) and be part of the European "e- Science" distributed platform.

Margita Kon-Popovska Other wider goals Ease the "digital divide" that still separates most of the SEE countries from the developed world. Build awareness of IST in SE Europe and non- EU countries provide a platform for cooperation of scientific and educational communities. Investigate other source of funding. The author is solely responsible for the presented material. It does not nesseseraly represent the opinion of the E Community and the Community is not responsible for any use that might be made of data appearing therein.

Margita Kon-Popovska MANI - MARNet Advanced Network Infrastructure Project Co ‑ Director from NATO country P.J.A. Sanchez/ Dr-Ing. GRNet Project Co ‑ Director from Partner country M. Kon-Popovska /Prof. Dr MARNET Participant: O. Popov/Prof. Dr, M. Gushev/Prof. Dr, B. Popovski/ Prof. Dr, G. Muratovski/ Mr-Ing. Team members: V. Ajanovski/ Ing, A. Mishev/Mr Ing Budget 207,800 eur

Margita Kon-Popovska SKOMAN Academic community in Skopje (80% of MARNET)

Margita Kon-Popovska SKOMAN