unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (09/02/89)
* * * S P E C I A L A N N O U N C E M E N T * * *
UNITEX presented a paper today (August 31, 1989) at the
United Nations headquarters in New York City. The paper
addressed issues first raised by the 1979 Vienna Programme
of Action which is now holding a special ten day meeting
at the UN to acknowlegde the Programme ten years later.
The paper was presented to the Intergovernmental Committee
on Science and Technology for Development.
The full text of the paper is presented below:
STATEMENT BY
Dr. James Waldron
Director, UNITEX
And
Dorothy Nicklus
International Federation of Business
and Professional Women
at the
Intergovernmental Committee on Science
and Technology For Development
Tenth Session
August 31, 1989
-------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY
The UNITEX Project: New Ideas & Approaches for the Future
An ad-hoc pilot project was begun in the spring of 1987 to
demonstrate the utilization of low cost - large volume
data throughput technology in the form of distributed and
wide-area networks. The principal driving force was the
gathering and dissemination of United Nations information
and data that was released for public knowledge. Several
novel developments in the communications and computer
systems field resulted from this two-year R&D effort in
the form of specialized systems design, gateway and
network interfaces and the growth of an experimental
network that distributes UN information to over one
million end-users on a daily basis.
The UNITEX network resulted from a direct application
of a key synthesis or 'marriage' between two principal
elements: the necessary high-end technology to design
a truly international system and the application or
integration of that technology with a viable and
noteworthy mission: The dissemination of UN information
on a truly world-wide basis. To this end, UNITEX
addresses the Vienna Programme of Action.
------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Chairman, distinguished delegates,
I am honored to have this oppurtunity to address the
Intergovernmental Committeee on Science and Technology for
Development and to summarize the results of our ongoing
UNITEX project which addresses some of the key points
originally proposed in the Vienna Programme of Action.
The UNITEX Project grew out of an affinity for addressing the
issues first raised in The 1979 Vienna Programme of Action:
Conference on Science and Technology for Development.
In the spring of 1987, research and development was begun by
UNITEX in the areas of microcomputer distributed networks and
wide area networks as a main vehicle for the rapid, reliable and
cost effective movement of information, data and technology
transfer.
A key element and principal factor was to effect a "marriage"
between the high technology that was under development to a novel
and worthwhile utilization of that technology. By employing low
cost microcomputers and special high speed modems and protocols
specifically designed for long distance international phone lines
the overall project plan was conceived. Our goal was initially
to distribute United Nations Agency and General Assembly public
information and UN Press Releases to International Non-
Governmental Organizations, ergo UNITEX came into being, which is
an acronym for United Nations Information and Technology
Exchange. A direct spin-off from this development work is an in-
place global online network operating 24 hours a day, 365 days a
year resulting in a two way exchange of information between North
and South. In fact, the UNITEX network supports an 'interactive'
news and information media that utilizes a continuous 2-way
exchange of information between the information provider (IP) and
the user/researcher.
Initially UNITEX was sponsored in part by a not-for-profit cor-
poration called Programme Initiatives Inc., [PII], but for the
most part, it was privately financed by its principal founders,
Dr. James Waldron and Dorothy Nicklus.
The highlight of the Vienna Programme of Action for UNITEX was
the use of Science and Technology as essential instruments for
making positive leaps in the socio-economic development processes
to effect a greater harmony and well-being of humanity as a whole
and to reduce international misunderstanding. The use of the
new distributed network technology seemed ideally suited to
meet these ends. We designed several microcomputer based
information systems, network & gateway interfaces and proprietary
communications software to accomplish these goals.
A major obstacle to overcome was the "traditional" methods used
for data and information transfer, especially the acquisition and
delivery of this information to the end-user. Information brokers
(middlemen and jobbers in the information game) coupled with
expensive and unwieldy mainframe technology that is currently in
use by dozens of commercial services left a lot to be desired. A
large portion of the UN public information and specialized
information as well, that was routinely generated by various UN
divisions, remained in a static state of existence insofar as
global distribution to other systems and the ultimate end-user
was concerned. UNITEX developed "dynamic" cost effective methods
for disseminating this information and getting it to end-users
around the globe. The 'targeted' sites were major university
centers, such as, MIT, JPL and Caltech, Harvard, and other well-
known networks (BitNet, UseNet, NSFnet, etc), foundations,
private networks and single user microcomputer systems scattered
around the globe in more than 20 countries. In less than 2 years
we have built a global network that started with less than seven
original network nodes in 1987. Initially, the experiment began
with one link in the USA (UNITEX), five links (nodes) in Canada
and one node in Australia. We now link directly to over twenty
thousand computer sites that range from simple PC microcomputers
to massive super computers (Cray, etc) at the large university
sites.
The UNITEX network has expanded exponentially in the short time
span of two years since the project was first conceived. We
gather and disseminate UN public information and news on a daily
time schedule (300,000+ bytes or characters per week consisting
of, in part, UN Press Releases, UNICEF News, UN disaster relief
alerts, articles and papers presented at the UN General Assembly,
papers from UN Special Committees) to connected systems
worldwide. This information is delivered via high speed modems
(19000+ baud, using state-of-the art data compression algorithms
and the latest protocols such as Zmodem and Sealink. In addition,
we distribute large volumes of environmental data and news
concerning the biosphere since we have established connections
and gateways to most of the major ecology and environmental
networks, such as, GreenNet, GreenPeace, EcoNet, GeoNet, PeaceNet
and others.
On the technical end, UNITEX has been involved directly in the
ongoing development of proprietary error-correcting and restartable
protocols - that are ideally suited for long distance
transmissions over low quality phone lines. Other outgrowths of
this R&D effort have resulted in new electronic-mail standards
for conferencing software, duplicate message elimination and
customized gateway software interfaces to bridge the gap between
disparate systems and so-called non-compatible networks. At the
present time, UNITEX reaches well over one million computer users
every day!.
Remote and private networks can be interfaced transparently into
public access systems while maintaining individual autonomy for
corporate or specialized data and information handling.
In summary, the UNITEX pilot project which began in 1987, is an
unequivocal success. A one hundred page document can be sent from
New York to Argentina in less than two minutes (an original, not
a facsimile) *without* the need for human intervention, with
automatic scheduling and matrix-routing techniques utilizing the
latest liner programming algorithms for distribution efficiency
and maximizing data throughput, machine-to-machine transfers,
inversion of the standard information transfer process (delivery
of information to the end-user in-place of seeking out and
acquiring the data) and several other specialized functions
that go far beyond the commercial email systems in use today.
UNITEX has, by utilizing technology which is low cost and widely
available, been able to develop a network which includes not only
the developed countries but the developing countries as well.
It has demonstrated ongoing North South information and
technology exchange with increasing country participation. This
outgrowth from what originally started as a communications
'experiment' and vehicle for various NGO organizations has now
attracted the attention of individual governments. This, it is
hoped, facilities understanding between countries. We support
the Vienna Programme of Action and look forward to an increasing
participation, perhaps on a more formal level, to share, teach
and demonstrate the results of our research and to participate in
and/or assist the Intergovernmental Committee in the integration
of this research and the implementation for its development.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Dr. James Waldron
* Origin: UNITEX --> Toward a United Species (1:107/501)
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