Defining the
TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER ALLIANCE
Definition avTECHNOLOGY TRANSFER ALLIANCE
Gabriella Ahlbom
Anna Åman
Examensarbete inom teknik och management
Kandidat
Degree Project in Engineering and ManagementStockholm, Sweden 2011
Kurs IK120X, 15hp
Defining the
TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER ALLIANCE
Final Report
2011-‐05-‐31
The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)
Bachelor thesis by: Gabriella Ahlbom gabahl@kth.se 891007-‐0708 Anna Åman annaahm@kth.se 881209-‐0564 Tutor: Björn Pehrson bpehrson@kth.se Coach: My Anderberg myan@kth.se Examiner: Anders Sjögren as@kth.se
Summary
The aim of this project was to define the Technology Transfer Alliance (TTA), a nonprofit organization for Higher Education Institutions supporting capacity building in ICT and renewable energy through a project-‐driven learning. TTA is today still only an idea, waiting to be launched, which is why the goals for this bachelor thesis are to establish partnerships with institutions that will support the reaching of the goals of TTA, as well as providing a more solid definition of the functions of TTA, as to make the alliance more attracting for future partners. Functions include for example the project-‐driven framework that will serve as template for the educational process within TTA.
To reach the goals with this project, several interviews were conducted with potential partners of TTA in African countries and other individuals that hold an expertise within the scope of this project. The interviews were meant to establish the expectations of TTA in terms of what a partnership would entail as well as to prelude discussions for which the potential partner would ultimately agree to sign a formal partnership agreement. The interviews also served as research about the open source solutions, which originally were developed by Master students at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), and that will be focused on in future TTA-‐projects.
Ultimately were the goals of this project succeeded, in terms of defining the aim and functions of TTA. During the time frame of this project, vision and scope of TTA were set. This resulted in a restructuring of existing websites and in a production of an official partnership agreement, which entails the objectives of a partnership. The project resulted also resulted in that several African institutions expressed a great deal of interest of joining TTA as partners. Getting them to sign the partnership agreement will however be a task for future project teams to fulfill.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ... 4
1.1 Background ... 4
1.2 Problem ... 5
1.3 Purpose ... 5
1.4 Limitation/scope ... 5
2. Method ... 6
3. Results ... 7
3.1 Products and services ... 7
3.1.1 The High Definition Video Conferencing (HDVC) system ... 7
3.1.2 The Bifrost router ... 8
3.1.3 Related websites ... 9
3.2 Results from interviews ... 10
3.2.1 Rwanda ... 11
3.2.2 Malawi ... 12
3.2.3 Tanzania ... 14
3.2.4 Ethiopia ... 14
3.2.5 Nigeria ... 15
3.2.6 Kenya ... 16
4. Discussion ... 17
4.1 Partnership ... 17
4.2 Project model ... 18
4.3 HDVC ... 19
4.4 The Bifrost router ... 21
4.5 Related websites ... 22
4.5.1 NetStudy Africa ... 22
4.5.2 TTA website ... 23
5. Conclusion ... 24
5.1 Deliverables ... 24
5.2 Partnership ... 25
5.3 TTA-‐projects ... 25
6. Future work ... 27
Appendix ... 30
1. Introduction
Like a fauvist painting composed of infinite combinations of colors, are the contrasts of the different stages of development in Information and Communications technology (ICT) in which different countries find themselves today. Areas that currently find themselves in the transition to a more reliable and stable communication technology have great potential and will to develop. By
stimulating students and cooperating on both a national and international level this transition will be more efficient and sustainable. An example is the continent of Africa, which is home to 5.6% of the Internet users of the world, a small number of users considering that Africans make up 15% of the total world population.1
The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)’s contact with exchange students from Africa in particular has given birth to a concept called the Technology Transfer Alliance (TTA). TTA is an alliance that welcomes partners of learning who have the interest and potential to offer their students problem-‐ oriented and project-‐driven courses that integrate personal development of students and education in exchange for academic credit. The main purpose of TTA is to support capacity building of human resources as well as to promote and further develop affordable, technical solutions within areas such as ICT and renewable energy, all done through a project-‐driven learning partnership.
As a non-‐profit alliance, the aim of TTA is not monetary gain but rather to help the students of its partners develop as engineers through cooperation within the alliance. By developing projects with global touch points different partner universities from all over the world can be connected and be part of a structured technology transfer. The capacity building of human resources is supposed to be done through activities which integrate technology development as well as learning. These sorts of activities are meant to be accomplished by involving individual learning of students for academic credit and certification for organizational learning. Private and public stakeholders such as government and industry are invited to join projects via the TTA partner institutions.
1.1 Background
The concept of TTA was born within a course called Communication Systems Design (CSD), which is held at TSLab, one of the laboratories at KTH in Stockholm. The CSD course, taken by master students from various disciplines, consists of a project-‐driven framework. Here students, in exchange for credits, get to work in a CSD project team in close cooperation with experts, faculty members and outside stakeholders, where each project team aims to solve real world problems through the use of open source based IT-‐solutions.
The CSD course is meant to provide as a template for the learning framework within TTA, which is meant to function through so-‐called “TTA projects”. TTA projects are those projects that are directly related to the organization of TTA, unlike the CSD projects that are specific for KTH only. This report will therefore mainly focus on the term “TTA projects” instead of “CSD”, unless the context requires otherwise.
One example of a CSD project is the CARENET-‐se project, which revolves around the establishment of telemedicine services in a research network infrastructure, which is carried out through cooperation between the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), the medical university Karolinska University
Hospital and the Karolinska Institute (KI).2 This multi-‐stakeholder project is part of an effort to
improve the system of healthcare services. Due to its great potential and involvement of students, CARENET-‐se is a project that continuously is worked upon by different CSD groups. The CARENET model has also been implemented in projects targeting different African institutions of which exchange students, who are studying at KTH, have connections to. This is why the CARENET project will be one of the most important ones within TTA since it can easily be implemented as a TTA project for new medical partner universities Africa.
There are also certain physical products that have been have worked upon by iterative CSD projects, which are used for communication and networking; a High Definition Video Conferencing (HDVC) solution and a low power “Bifrost” router. These products are what constitute the CARENET
hardware and software system, and are by themselves’ important open source technologies that can be used in TTA projects. We will discuss these, along with websites related to TTA that have been created through past CSD projects, further in the results of this report.
1.2 Problem
The Technology Transfer Alliance has up to today only been a concept that has been theorized upon and discussed. Many different interpretations have been made which has lead to confusion. In order to move on and recruit partners and build the actual alliance, this problem must be solved. Hence, this is the problem that we aim to solve in our own thesis work. By defining what TTA actually is, the alliance will be able to attract partners and other stakeholders and allow tangible action to take place.
1.3 Purpose
The overarching goal and purpose of this project was to ultimately define the Technology Transfer Alliance. This includes defining the functions, vision and scope of TTA. Even more importantly in this project was to prelude discussions with potential partners in order for TTA to progress from being a concept without formalities or a clear process to an actual alliance. This also meant producing a formal partnership agreement of which our target was, optimally, to get at least three institutions to agree to become official partners of the alliance during the time frame of our project.
1.4 Limitation/scope
To reach the desired goals, we conducted several interviews as to define the best structure for the Technology Transfer Alliance. With respect to the restricted time frame of this project, we chose to limit our scope to only interviewing individuals that already have to some extent been introduced to the concept of TTA, the products it promotes or the CSD framework. Furthermore we decided to restrain our planned interviews to African institutions that could be considered as strong potential partners of the Technology Transfer Alliance.
We also chose to take certain African Research and Education Networks (NRENs) into account. An NREN is a dedicated Internet Service Provider (ISP) supporting research and education communities in a country. Because a NREN normally connects different universities in a country, it could possibly present several potential partners for TTA. Our project owner, Professor Björn Pehrson, had already
before this project created a network of connections of different institutions in Africa, much thanks to the African students that have pursued a Master degree at KTH TSLab. With this we were able to limit our planned interviews to institutions and NRENs in following African countries:
• Rwanda
o Rwanda Education Network (RwEdNet)
o Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) o National University of Rwanda (NUR)
• Malawi
o Malawi Research and Education Network (MAREN) o University of Malawi
§ Collage of Medicine (COM) § Kamuzu Collage of Nursing (KCN) § Malawi Polytechnic
• Tanzania
o Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology (DIT) • Ethiopia
o Ethiopia Research and Education Network (EthERNet) o Hawassa University
• Nigeria
o Lagos Higher Education Connectivity Project (LHECP) / Eko-‐Konnect o University of Lagos
• Kenya
o Kenya Education Network (KENET)
o Kimtachi University Collage of Technology (KUCT) o The Mombasa Polytechnic University College
2. Method
The aim of our project was to define the Technology Transfer Alliance and come up with a proposal for how the organization should be structured. This meant gathering information through interviews with potential partners as well as with specialized individuals, upon which we analyzed the collected data in order for us to recommend what areas the organization should improve in. In addition, our project also required that we initiated the actual work of change within TTA. Our goal was to help TTA proceed to the next step by recruiting new partners, as well as altering available information
about the alliance, such as the documentation on the TTA website, to make it more up to date and attractive to new stakeholders.
In the interviews we wanted to map the expectations and possibilities of potential partners in order to help us define the Technology Transfer Alliance. To reach the stated goals, the focus lied on the following topics in the interviews with potential partners of TTA:
• The baseline capacity of the interviewee’s institution today, in terms of human resources and supply chain
• Thoughts and expectations about the TTA • The interest of joining TTA in a partnership • The TTA projects and its possibilities
• The functions and management tools of the HDVC system • The functions and management tools of the Bifrost router
The individuals from the African institutions that were interviewed during this project were mainly contact persons who either possessed power to make decisions or who could influence others into making decisions about a potential partnership in the alliance.
The outcomes of these interviews were then analyzed for common denominators and we later consulted with Master students from the CSD projects and specialized staff from TSLab to investigate the possibilities of the results. Based on this information we were then able to provide TTA a
concrete proposal as well as commence the work of change within the organization structure.
3. Results
In the results we will briefly present collected data about different open source technology, which can be important for future TTA projects, along with the existing websites that are related to TTA. We will also summarize the information gathered from the interviews with representatives from different African institutions. However, a full-‐length version of the interviews can be found in a special appendix, which is separate from this report.
3.1 Products and services
Listed below is information about the open source products provided by TTA together with a current description of the websites that are related to TTA.
3.1.1 The High Definition Video Conferencing (HDVC) system
The HDVC system (figure 1 bellow) is an open source based conferencing system, which amongst other things is meant to enhance the development of telemedicine by providing High Definition Conferencing to hospitals and health care organizations. It aims to give these institutions the possibility to monitor their patients remotely and allow for home care nursing.3 Apart from the healthcare sector, the system may also be used for educational purposes in lectures or meetings in
order to enable multi-‐party conferences. The design of the HDVC system offers a simple user interface, an easy installation, and multiple video streaming options and management tools to control and organize the users.4 The benefit with open source in the HDVC system is that many
solutions can be tailored to fit specific users (e.g. the graphical user interface (GUI) can be tailored to look one way in a educational setting and one way in a medical setting) so that each user gets their preferred interface.5 The HDVC solution has been worked upon in iterative CSD projects, both within
the CARENET telemedicine projects and in projects which main focus has been the HDVC system alone.
3.1.2 The Bifrost router
The Bifrost router, also called the “green router”, is an open source router with a kernel that runs on the Linux distribution Bifrost, which is optimized for routing. The router is developed to work in environments of high temperatures and power scarce infrastructures, as in African countries. It offers high performance with off-‐the-‐shelf commodity hardware. The routers software and licenses are very cost efficient due to it being an open source technology.6
As for the distribution of Bifrost, it was originally developed at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences at the end of the 1990s. It has since then been deployed and advanced in other universities in Sweden, such as Uppsala University and the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH).7 One outcome of
Bifrost is an iterative CSD project working with the Bifrost router of which the latest version is called the “MinNE” router (2010), figure 2 above. The router is also important in the hardware system of the CARENET network.
4 TTA website, section ”HDVC&S” in catalog, 2010 5 Erik Eliasson, interview, 2011-‐04-‐06
6 TTA website, section ”MINNE” in catalog, 2010 7 Robert Olsson, interview, 2011-‐04-‐14
Figure 2: The HDVC solution. (Source: TTA website)
Figure 2: The MinNE router. (Source: TTA website)
3.1.3 Related websites
In 2010 two CSD projects resulted in two different websites related to the concept of TTA; the NetStudy Africa e-‐learning portal and the Technology Transfer Alliance web application. Following is information about the current state of the websites. I.e. the content they hold before any
modifications are done, which might follow as a result of this project.
The NetStudy Africa web portal was created to educate African students who are to implement networks in collaboration with the CSD telemedicine project CARENET. NetStudy works as a platform with e-‐Learning material that can be acquired remotely.8 It contains network related information as
well as manuals about the products promoted by TTA, i.e. the Bifrost router and the HDVC solution. NetStudy is an open source portal, which means that anyone with an account can download the information available on the website.9
Figure 3: Screenshot of the NetStudy portal.
(http://vm-‐199.xen.ssvl.kth.se/netstudy/course/index.php/)
Today the website is divided into different categories. The first one is called “Courses”, which contains educational information about networking, the HDVC solution, the Bifrost router, CARENET and the setting up of Network Operation Centers (NOCs). This is shown in figure 3. Furthermore, the portal is meant to work as a course administration website where administrators can create courses and enroll students among other things (found under the “Documentation” category).
Technology Transfer Alliance is the title of the other website related to TTA. It will hereafter be
referred to as the “TTA website” since it aims to present the organization as whole. It was created to
8 Networking Africa – A CSD project, section ”About the project”, 2010 9 Netstudy Africa, section ”About Netstudy”, 2010
introduce the products produced in the CSD projects, mainly the HDVC and the Bifrost router, as well as presenting supplier contact information and the supply chain model for the products.10 The
website is also meant to describe the corporation side of TTA.
The TTA website today (before our project result) is mainly separated into two parts; information about the organization and the catalog which contain manuals and suppliers for the products it is offering. In a section called “About us”, TTA is described as an organization based in Sweden that produce and promote products due to the CSD course at KTH. Furthermore the mission of TTA is defined as to “disseminate information about available products and facilitate the acquisition of hardware kits”.11 Figure 4, bellow, depicts the present state of the TTA website.
Before our project, the partners of TTA were listed as KTH, Uppsala University and Lindforst Tech System Distribution (LiTech), which is the supplier of the Bifrost router, on the TTA website.12
However, the purpose and organization of TTA has since then changed, which also means that the concept of a “partner” has another meaning today. This is one of the reasons why one of the goals of this project was to contemporize the information found on the TTA website.
3.2 Results from interviews
Following are the results gained from the interviews made with representatives from different institutions in Africa, categorized under countries. However, due to various reasons, all individuals that we originally planned to interview were not able to respond in time for the deadline of this project.
10 SALCAS, final report, p. 3-‐5, 2011-‐01-‐07
11 TTA website, section ”About us”, 2010 (accessed 2010-‐05-‐07) 12 TTA website, section ”About us”, 2010
Figure 4: Screenshot of the TTA website. (http://tta.ssvl.kth.se/)
3.2.1 Rwanda
The people who we planned to interview concerning Rwanda were Biniam Mekonnen, Udochukwu Akunna, Etienne Ntagwirumugara, Donart Ngarambe, Felix Akorli, and Roland van Hout.
The National Research and education network of Rwanda, RWEDNET, connects three institutions: Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), University Teaching Hospital of Kigali (CHUK) and King Faisal Hospital (KFH) who are connected by optical fiber. The control station of RWEDNET is located at KIST and the network is running internally on four Bifrost routers and one Cisco router, which is the one used to reach higher capacity and to connect to the global Internet. KIST is the institution responsible for managing the network, being the network host.13 HDVC clients have been
placed at KIST, KFH and CHUK. The products have been introduced through CSD projects.14
Biniam Mekonnen, an exchange student who has taken the CSD course, was consulted to get his opinion on the CSD framework, TTA products, and general thoughts. He was specifically involved in CARENET September 2010, and it was through the CARENET project that Biniam came in contact with both the HDVC system and the Bifrost router. Biniam found the CSD course very helpful since
students get a reality based problem to solve. Recently, he has gotten a SPIDER (The Swedish Program for ICT in Developing Regions) internship that has lead to his trip to Rwanda, where he will work closely with the experts at KIST. After his trip to Rwanda he hopes to have helped them manage the system themselves. He states that RWEDNET is to connect all institutions in Rwanda. In order for TTA solutions to be attractive in Rwanda he believes that TTA solutions should be compatible with other products (such as Cisco), and have to be able to work in the hot conditions of Africa. In addition, the products must fulfill Rwandan requirements. 15
Udochukwu Akunna, who has been a master student at KTH since 2009 has also been involved with the HDVC client when working with three different CSD projects in connection to his Master thesis. He has previously been twice to Kigali to provide services, and knows Etienne Ntagwirumugara, the CEO of RWEDNET. Therefore Udochukwu believes that he has some influence concerning the members of RWEDNET when discussing a partnership with TTA.
Like Biniam, he is positive to the CSD framework. He suggests that the technical students of Rwanda could enroll in a project course similar to the CSD framework at KTH. As for motivation, they could offer the students a certificate when they finish the course (which e.g. could be provided by KTH via HDVC communication). This course could for instance last for 18 months, as a Master course, which would attract more people. To make the course possible in countries such as Rwanda, he says that someone from KTH should go down there to motivate the institutions. The requirements to become a partner of TTA, which Udochukwu´s suggests, is that all partners should be registered institutions and should be able to communicate in English, as information and programming codes are both common in English.16
13 Udochukwu Akunna, interview, 2011-‐03-‐29
14 Björn Pehrson and Biniam Mekonnen, e-‐mail conversation, 2011-‐03-‐13 15 Biniam Mekonnen, interview, 2011-‐02-‐22
A formal partnership between TTA and the members of RWEDNET will finally be determined by the CEO of RWEDNET, Professor Etienne Ntagwirumugara. He states that he can represent all institutions by working closely with all Higher Level Institution’s (HLI), universities or colleges that are members of RWEDNET, ICT directors and the head of department (HoD). He is interested in TTA, and says to be ready to start working on it if the money necessary is available. He emphasizes that all HLI’s are potential partners which could be involved in the capacity building within ICT. In the area of renewable energy, he considers institutions such as KIST, National University of Rwanda (NUR) and Integrated Polytechnic Regional Centre (IPRC) to be adequate institutions to get involved.
He believes that TTA in the future could involve students and staff from Rwanda and Sweden to improve Rwandese capacity building in ICT and Renewable Energy, and to help testing European equipment. If Etienne were to become a partner of the Technology Transfer Alliance, he would expect cooperation that could be implemented in Rwanda, where HLI’s and rural area would benefit in the ICT and renewable energy domains. All projects would involve student and staff exchange. In terms of certification, he’s open for discussion with TTA partner institutions. Etienne suggests that partner institutions of TTA should be able to contribute with students who could work in projects.17
Also, the director of KIST E-‐health Center of Excellence, Dr. Donart Ngarambe, has been elected to represent academic staff of the KIST Board of Directors. He is also very positive to TTA and is willing to formally join the partnership once the goals and requirements are defined. During April 2011, Dr. Ngarambe visited KTH at Kista and met us for an interview. He also had a meeting with Prof. Björn Pehrson and Omo Oaiya, the potential partner of TTA in Nigeria. Together they decided on common goals for TTA, which consequentially made Dr.Ngarambe interested in a partnership. Donart also informed us that the local E-‐helath centre currently is developing a new program, where a project course like CSD could be built in, since they are still defining the curriculum. To best introduce the CSD framework, he would like someone from KTH to go to Kigali for a stay of two weeks (which is the standard visit for foreign teachers) to introduce the course. During the visit, a common project for the course could be planned.18
As for the National University of Rwanda (NUR), we attempted to contact Felix Akorli, the principal at NUR, and Roland van Hout, System Engineer at NUR and Chief technology Officer (CTO) of RWEDNET, to discuss a potential partnership of NUR within TTA. Felix seemed interested in joining the alliance. However, they didn’t answer in time of our deadline, and we recommend it for future work. 19
3.2.2 Malawi
The people who we planned to interview concerning Malawi were Solomon Dindi, Bruce Zamaere, Anthony Muyepa, Charlie Maere and Dickson Chinguwo.
The Malawi Research and Education Network (MAREN) started to form in 2005 but is currently being incubated by the Malawi Library and Information Consortium (MALICO) as the organization has not
17 Etienne Ntagwirumugara, electronic interview, 2011-‐04-‐25 18 Donart Ngarambe, interview, 2011-‐04-‐11
yet been legally constituted. This has unfortunately caused a halt in the establishment of the physical network of MAREN. It is undetermined when the work will continue.20
The University of Malawi and Mzuzu University are the two founding members of MAREN. The University of Malawi constitutes of several colleges, of which College of Medicine (COM), Kamuzu College of Nursing (KCN) and Malawi Polytechnic are currently having a dialog with TTA. The first two colleges mentioned having had collaborations with KTH before and are therefore familiar with, at least, the products that TTA is promoting. As a result from iterative CSD projects there are today two HDVC solutions located at COM. Also, a video conferencing session has previously been held
between doctors in KCN, KIST (Rwanda) and Karolinska Institute (Sweden) due to a CARENET project.21
Solomon Dindi is the CEO of MAREN, as well as a teacher at the Chancellor College of University of Malawi. He believes that the University of Malawi would be interested in a partnership with TTA as they could benefit by e.g. an enhancement in the capacity building of the human resources through the project-‐driven learning. Due to his teacher position, Solomon could probably encourage students at the university into engaging in TTA projects if a partnership would occur, although there have not been any deeper discussions with the Chancellor College specifically about this.
Other than strengthening human capacity, Solomon expects optimization of the network and fiber in the University of Malawi by engaging in a possible partnership with TTA. He also believes that they would establish links with hardware and software suppliers through the partnership. However, not all colleges of the university are technical, which means TTA probably should not focus on gaining the whole University of Malawi as a partner.22
Bruce Zamaere works as a network administrator at COM but is currently on a study leave to finish his PhD at KTH. He was one of the students on the CSD project working with MAREN in year 2008. He believes that is it essential for them to finish the establishment of a 225 km long fiber between the cities Lilongwe and Blantyre, where KCN and COM are located respectively. Due to the pause in the MAREN project, there is no one working with this today, even though the fiber is only missing 5 km until completion. Bruce hopes that a partnership with TTA could push the Malawians into finishing this project.
Regarding a potential partnership between TTA and COM, it is the director of the ICT-‐services, Anthony Muyepa, who could hold the key power to decide whether or not to join this initiative. However, we were not able to reach him during the time frame of this project, which meant we have not talked to him personally about this. Anthony is, on the other hand, Bruce’s superior at COM and Bruce thinks he could influence Anthony about a partnership with TTA.23
As for KCN, it is IT Director Charlie Maere who TTA need to approach regarding a partnership. The college recently acquired their own HDVC solution and is now testing the system together with COM.
20 TTA website, section ”REN” in catalog, 2010 21 Udochukwu Akunna, interview, 2011-‐03-‐29 22 Solomon Dindi, electronic interview, 2011-‐04-‐29 23 Bruce Zamaere, interview, 2011-‐03-‐30
Even though we were not able to get in contact with Charlie personally, KCN seem to be satisfied with their product and have also showed an interest in TTA.24
Due to COM and KCN, the Malawi Polytechnic has also expressed interest into obtaining a HDVC solution, which they want to use for virtual teaching and video conferencing. Dickson Chinguwo is the ICT director and in charge of the discussions about this. At the end of the time frame of this bachelor project, Dickson also got introduced to the concept of TTA. 25 His optimistic attitude
towards the initiative has opened a possibility towards including Malawi Polytechnic as a potential partner with TTA.
3.2.3 Tanzania
The people we planned to interview concerning Tanzania were Amos Nungu and John Kondoro. Students and staff of KTH have previously collaborated with Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology (DIT) where they designed and deployed a fiber infrastructure and a campus network at the DIT premises in 2003. Since 2005, DIT and KTH have also been involved in the development of strategies for how to establish sustainable broadband markets where there is demand but no supply, in cooperation with Tanzania Commission of Science and Technology (Costech) and other public and private stakeholders. This is included in a project called The Information and Communication
Technology for Rural Development (known as ICT4RD).26
As a result of the project, two networks have been deployed over dark fiber; one along a water distribution pipeline in the Bagamoyo district and the other along a rural electrification power line in the Bunda and Serengeti districts in Tanzania. 27 Due to the collaboration between the ICT4RD project
and KTH, there are today two (MINNE) routers located in the Serengeti district and one in Bunda. Amos Nungu, who otherwise is a lecturer at DIT, is on study leave to finalize his PhD at KTH where he is working on the ICT4RD project remotely. He has previously been involved with the CSD projects working with the development of the MINNE router in KTH. However, he is currently off testing the routers performance at site in Tanzania as part of the ICT4RD project.28
TTA is currently in discussion with DIT about a partnership. Even though Amos’ position could possibly help influence, it is Principal Prof. John Kondoro who has the ruling say about a partnership. We were not able to contact him in time for the results of this project.
3.2.4 Ethiopia
The people we planned to interview concerning Ethiopia were Samuel Ayane, Kalkidan Alemayehu and Biniam Mekonnen.
EthERNet is the name of the Ethiopian Research and Education Network. It connects thirteen universities as a virtual private network (VPN) under the Ethiopian Telecommunication Network,
24 Björn Pehrson, e-‐mail, 2011-‐05-‐01
25 Björn Pehrson and Dickson Chinguwo, e-‐mail conversation, May 2011
26 Amos Nungu and John Kondoro, ICT4RD Project: Provision Of ICT Access To Rural Tanzania, date of publishing unknown
27 Björn Pehrson et al., information sheet about TTA, 2011-‐04-‐18 28 Amos Nungu, electronical interview, 2011-‐04-‐04
which is the local Internet Service Provider (ISP). EthERNet is currently also working on connecting newly established universities in Ethiopia. The center of the network is located in the capital, Addis
Ababa, where the director of EthERNet, Zelalem Assefa, is positioned. 29
Current changes in the curricula in several of the connected universities will hopefully result in a new generation of graduating IT students capable of working on open source technology such as offered within TTA. However, no institutions connected to EthERNet possess any of the technical solutions offered by TTA, nor do they have any direct involvement with the organization today. This means
that no discussions regarding partnerships with any of the institutions have been conducted.30
Samuel Ayane, Kalkidan Alemayehu and Biniam Mekonnen are all Ethiopians that have taken the CSD project course at KTH and are well aware of the concept of TTA. Together they are currently working on a private project, which is not linked to the TTA organization, where they wish to implement the CARENET model in the universities connected to EthERNet. This would include usage of the HDVC solution. The problem is that the institutions are already using a video conferencing system called Polycom, which runs on proprietary products. The KTH HDVC system is a cheaper solution because of its open source components, but according to Zelalem Assefa it is currently unlikely that the
institutions of EthERNet would switch to the HDVC system as it is not currently compatible with Polycom. 31
However, Zelalem has suggested a resolution where Samuel, Kalkidan and Biniam should instead focus on the smaller of universities that are not yet connected to EthERNet. These institutions do not possess any video conferencing system, and could therefore be willing to undertake a solution such as the HDVC one. There is potential with this proposal since the smaller universities could in the future get connected to EthERNet and could then maybe influence the bigger universities, already connected, into acquiring the HDVC system.32
Unlike Biniam and Samuel, who are still pursuing their Masters at KTH, Kalkidan is already a graduate and is now working as teacher at the department of Informatics at Hawassa University in Ethiopia. She is also member of the university’s ICT team and head of research and business development, which could make her a voice to count on in a possible discussion between TTA and Hawassa.33
3.2.5 Nigeria
The people who we planned to interview concerning Nigeria were Omo Oaiya, and Charles Uwadia. Lagos Higher Education Connectivity Project (LHECP), or more popularly called “EKO-‐KONNECT”, aims to support network connectivity and collaborate with stakeholders to establish a national Nigerian Research and Education Network (ngREN), i.e. the NREN of Nigeria, since there exists nothing of that sort today. Omo Oaiya is working as a project leader for EKO-‐KONNECT, which plays a significant role in the establishment of an ngREN, and is therefore an important contact when discussing a potential partnership. EKO-‐KONNECT is today partly operating on Bifrost routers.
29 Kalkidan Alemayehu, electronic interview, 2011-‐04-‐15 30 iBid
31 Samuel Ayane, interview, 2011-‐04-‐15 32 iBid
Omo was previously the project owner of the CSD project CARENET-‐WACREN. After participating in this CSD project, he believes that certification is meaningful in order to engage students, and sees TTA as a “community of CSD scenarios”. He is positive towards the CSD framework, which includes the CSD orientation when transferring technology by using the Bifrost Router and HDVC: i.e. use the technology to have a technology transfer. He finds the CSD course useful since the environment was project driven, and it consisted of good methodology. TTA creates a possibility to build capacity with the CSD model in institutions.
In order to become a partner of TTA, Omo highlights the importance that a member must be a registered institution, and that they must match part of the “ideal profile” since no one can match the whole profile. He expects the ideal profile of a potential partner, TTA’s background, TTA concept, culture, existing capabilities, framework and its requirements to be specified. In addition, he expects a feasibility study, and a curriculum modernization where ideas could be exchanged and young faculties could have mentor relationships.
In a partnership with TTA, Omo believes that EKO-‐KONNECT could give the culture and ground for TTA projects since it has the right pilot environment (i.e. it could be the testing ground). For instance, routers could be tried in the desert. If TTA was more solid, he explains that EKO-‐KONNECT could help “spreading the word” which would be beneficial for TTA. EKO-‐KONNECT is not an institution, which can provide students for TTA-‐projects, but it could be thought of as an ambassador of the output of TTA instead.34
Apart from the interview with Omo, an e-‐mail correspondence was started with Professor Charles Uwadia, who was to represent the University of Lagos. He was very positive towards TTA, but unfortunately we didn’t receive any answers to the interview questions within the time frame of our project. We therefore leave this academic contact for future work.
3.2.6 Kenya
The people who we planned to interview concerning Kenya were Kenneth Kagoiya, Ndirangu Kioni and Meoli Kashorda
KENET is the NREN in Kenya which consists of the Kimtachi University Collage of Technology (KUCT) and the Mombasa Polytechnic University College (MPUC). The teacher, Kenneth Kagoiya at MPUC represents this institution when discussing a formal partnership with TTA. According to Kenneth, MPUC is very interested in joining the alliance, and the TTA development projects. He sees TTA as a fullfledged international association in the future.35
Kenneth was a member of the CARENET-‐SE project spring 2010. He believes that some project aspects of CARENET need to focus on improving the usability of Bifrost compatibility with mobile handset protocols. In addition, he considers that TTA would help build capacity in open source software development and implementation in areas such as networking, mobile applications, robotics, nanosatellite and medical equipment. He also informs that MPUC would be interested in
34 Omo Oaiya, interview, 2011-‐04-‐11
