taylor@hplabs.hp.com (Dave Taylor) (09/30/88)
[This article, by Dave Phillips et. al. of the State University of New
York at Buffalo, comes to us via the BITNET publication "NetMonth". It
is a followup to a previous article on connecting BITNET with machines
in the USSR. -- Dave Taylor]
An EARN-Poland Link
A May, 1988 NetMonth article proposing an academic computer
link to the USSR spawned a series of discussions, a couple of
which surfaced in subsequent issues of this publication.
Since June a discussion group has formed, comprised of Polish
graduate students studying in the West, Western scientists who
have worked in Poland and/or who have Polish colleagues, and
others on the network who are familiar with the potential
scientific and cultural benefits offered by a link between EARN
and Polish universities. The private list is small but
growing, and extends from Vancouver to Lund, Sweden.
This group has as its purpose to identify the problems involved
in establishing such a link, and to elaborate the benefits, and
to place a developed proposal before EARN and some of the more
autonomous institutions in Poland.
From John Duchowski, 4th year PhD student, Carnegie Mellon
University, originally from Warsaw:
"Being a chemist, I fully appreciate the need for rapid access
to information. The advent of Chemical Abstracts On-Line has
greatly simplified and improved the usual literature searching
methods. However, personal communications between scientists
in the West and the East still have to rely on sometimes
lengthy standard mailing procedures. At present, we in 'the
West' have only a limited access to 'Eastern' publications and
vice versa. Providing an EARN link could be set up, both of
these problems would be alleviated.
"Historically, since the end of World War II, people on both
sides of the 'iron curtain' have also been drifting apart
culturally. Open discussions on subjects other than science
are few and far between. Access to electronic discussions,
such as RELAY, would also lead to a greater and presumably more
open minded exchange of cultural viewpoints. Idealistic as all
this sounds, and where the initial discussions on subjects such
as history may be heated, with time the differences on certain
issues may become of purely academic interest. This would of
course lead to the decrease in tension between the two sides.
"Finally, from a purely social point of view, the benefits of
open communication are particularly easy to see. Although this
may be looked upon as a glorified 'pen pal' aspect of the
Electronic Mail, the free exchange of ideas and opinions
between private citizens on both sides should not be
underestimated.
"The above comments apply equally well to any Eastern European
country. Nothing has been said thus far about why the first
candidate for a BITNET connection should be Poland. Being of
Polish origin, I may indeed be accused of some kind of a bias
in that direction. From a historical perspective however,
Poland has always been a very western-oriented country. Even
as a member of Soviet bloc Poland probably enjoys the least
controlled society, vis a vis Bulgaria or even Hungary, albeit
at the expense of a ruined economy. Therefore, an EARN link to
Poland would probably be under a lesser degree of government
control as compared to other Soviet bloc countries.
"We also have to consider the drawbacks on equal footing with
the benefits. The most obvious is the sad state of Polish
economy. To maintain a good quality telephone line in Poland
is far from cheap and frequent breakdowns should be taken into
account. Moreover, the cost of EARN membership, yet another
drain of badly needed Western currency, may not be seen as one
of the first priorities by the Polish government. Also, the
existence (or lack of it) of a sufficiently up-to-date
technical base, such as mainframe computers, may limit the
number of candidate sites. Another question that needs to be
asked is how is the access to the EARN-linked computer going to
be controlled. Even minimal (by East Bloc standards)
government control might invalidate the benefits mentioned
above."
From Andrew Duchowski, Simon Fraser University:
"I just learned recently from a friend of mine here in
Vancouver of another example of potential for scientific
exchange. Biochemistry at several educational institutions in
Poland is at a fairly close level to some research institutions
here in Canada. Specifically, protein purification research is
one such example. With an EARN link, this research may be
assisted by the use of information exchange between the East
and West. "
From David Phillips, SUNY at Buffalo:
"The benefits to the world outside the Soviet bloc would
outweigh any real or imagined risks incurred in establishing
such a link, particularly if that link is connecting a
relatively independent society like Poland's.
"Although Poles suffer official censorship, a pervasive secret
police and laws similar to those in the USSR, there are
thousands of underground publications, a legal independent
Church, private agriculture, and the East bloc's first and only
independent trade union federation, NSZZ Solidarnosc, which is
an affiliate of both the International Confederation of Free
Trade Unions and the World Confederation of Labor. There is
literally a world of difference between Poland - even in its
present state of collapse - and Soviet society at the peak of
its "glasnost." This difference has been maintained at great
cost by the Poles since 1944.
"There is also a thriving independent student movement in
Poland, and thus there is a strong possibility (though no
guarantee) of making an EARN-Poland link, should it ever come
about, a genuine link - not a vacuum cleaner attachment for a
Bloc information gathering apparatus rationed to trusted
apparatchiks.
"The problems are at four levels: 1) Faculty, students and
administrators at the more autonomous universities and
polytechnics in Poland have to be made aware of the potential
for a link and of our support for such a venture; they will
request it once it appears possible, of this (viz. the students
at least) we're certain. 2) EARN must decide in principle that
such a link, if requested, is OK; this involves in part EARN's
members' relationship with the US government, which leads to
3) the assessment by the US government of the relative merits
versus risks in acquiescing to a positive decision by EARN.
Finally, there are 4) the technical problems of a first link
itself, involving site selection, phone line, money and
institutional commitment.
"The perception of the US government would seem to hinge on
concerns of technology leakage and perhaps potential sabotage.
How much such a link would expose genuine US security interests
is hard to say, but there would seem to be a large and ongoing
exposure in the territory of the USA itself (from East Bloc
diplomatic personnel, intelligence gatherers, communications
monitoring, illicit export of hardware).
"Finally, we cannot guess in advance whether the regime in
Warsaw will accept requests from schools for a link; this would
depend in part on their perception of the international
climate."
John Duchowski - Pittsburgh (jd3a+%andrew.cmu.edu@CMCCVB)
Andrew Duchowski - Vancouver (USERQP4C@SFU)
David Phillips - Buffalo (V184GAVW@UBVMSA)