Network Infrastructure Development and Defense Industry Conversion for Satellite Towns:Using and Building an Electronic Distance Education System for Russia with Connections to the Worldwide Information Society A. V. Galitsky P. T. Knight M. E. Tichonov J.A. Chapljgin A.V. Vopilov Revised version of paper prepared for the International Conference on Distance Education in Russia, Moscow, 5-8 July 1994. The authors thank Takeshi Utsumi, Gary Hyde, Carolyn Turbyfill and Greg Kearsley for helpful comments on an earlier draft. The views presented in this paper are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the World Bank. Abstract Significant developments over the past few years in communications and computer technology have encouraged many new applications. The Internet allows Russia's newly privatized enterprises, especially those in satellite towns of the former military-industrial-scientific complex, new ways to access worldwide scientific and technical research; to market their products; and to make contact with potential investors, partners, and suppliers as well as customers. Remote learning over Wide Area Networks offers a cost-effective way for these Russian enterprises to realize their considerable potential in a market-oriented economy. And some of these firms can profitably produce the equipment and services necessary to build a Russia-wide electronic distance education system. Such a system can produce educational services for the domestic market, import education services where appropriate, and participate in a growing export market. The Internet as a Tool for Gathering Information and Organizing a Remote Education Program The most powerful technologies, intended for gathering information worldwide over the Internet are: E- mail, Mosaic, and videoconferencing. Through E-mail one can reach any recipient having an E- mail address -- on the order of 20 million people in over 146 countries and growing at about 8 percent a month -- delivered within several minutes by sending him or her a text message, which can be returned. Computers with full TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internetworking Protocol) Internet connections allowing direct access to other computers and the information they contain (a growing proportion of the world's knowledge base) totaled an estimated 2.2 million at the end of 1993, linked together in some 35,000 networks in 78 countries as of May 1994. The number of networks in the United States increased by 160 percent in 1993. The rate of growth outside the U.S. was even faster -- 183 percent (Internet Society, 1994). Mosaic is intended for allowing any recipient having a publicly available free software, called Mosaic Client, to connect with any computer on the Internet having installed software, called Mosaic Server. These connections provide client access to Hypertext documents, rendered by the Server. Hypertext documents can also include multimedia data (text,graphics, sound, etc.) in a single Hypertext page. Also, Mosaic Hypertext can have information cross- references, with the possibility of linking to other Mosaic Servers worldwide through the Internet. This technology allows building scalable information databases and very closely fits remote education needs. Now, even full-color, full-motion video can be retrieved with Mosaic. This makes asynchronous, "just-in-time" individualized education which can be retrieved around the globe a real possibility. Mosaic is a state-of-the-art Internet-based hypermedia information system that has recently taken the computer world by storm. In the year since its release, it has acquired a global user base of about 2 million people and has been widely hailed as the "killer application" of the Internet and of data networks in general. Mosaic was developed at NCSA by the core staff of Mosaic Communications Corporation and has until now only been available in unsupported, non- commercial- grade form. The next Internet technology supporting distance learning is the organization of audio and video conferences. Special (commercial and publicly available) software allows establishing multi-point connections with possibility of translation audio and video data through the Internet. Such technology may be closely compared with interactive TV, where the recipient may intervene in a TV discussion, but be located many thousands of miles away. And note that costs of organizing Internet conferences can be much less than transmission of broadcast TV learning programs. A demonstration of three such videoconferencing systems -- CU-See-Me, MBONE, and ShowMe -- via the Internet will be organized by Takeshi Utsumi on July 7, 1994, during his Global Lecture Hall demonstration, which will be received at the International Conference on Distance Education (ICDED94) in Russia. Russian Satellite Towns as Leaders in Development and Use of Electronic Distance Education Satellite towns (near industrial cities) are a prominent feature of the former USSR and today's Russian Federation. Numerous examples of these are satellite-towns near Moscow (Kaliningrad, Jokovsky, Krasnogorsk, Troisk, Zelenograd), Novosibirsk (Academgorodok), Saint- Petersburg (Sosnovyi Bohr, Petergouph) and many others. These towns were very important elements of former USSR planned- economy society. A typical satellite-town has:
These elements provide the basis for high-tech market-oriented complexes similar to Route 128 and Silicon Valley, with the potential to exploit Russia's comparative advantage in high-technology products and services. But what is the most significant problem for all these elements today? As they are privatized and lose state orders for military production, both old and new spin-off companies in these satellite-towns must change their management style, accounting systems, sources of finance, and markets. Well- educated, experienced Russian scientists and engineers need to learn Western- style management techniques if they are to successfully develop commercial applications of their ideas, technologies, products, and services. It is too expensive to invite large numbers of western business teachers to Russia, or send large numbers of Russian managers abroad for training. Moving electrons rather than people through a modern distance education system -- using communications satellites, fiber optics, the Internet, and computers to facilitate remote learning -- offers a cost-effective solution. Using such a system Russia can both uplink its existing centers of excellence in managerial, financial, and accounting education, and import needed skills from abroad -- electronically. But satellite towns (like many other Russian cities and towns) lack modern telecommunications infrastructure, since in the past they were developed as top-secret closed societies. Zelenograd is an example of the typical Russian satellite- town. It is located near Moscow (41 km outside the capital). It has a powerful microelectronic industry (the former USSR's Silicon Valley) and the Moscow Microelectronics Technical University (the basic technical university for the former USSR's and modern Russia's microelectronic industry). It has several scientific/technological organizations (microelectronics, applied physics, microdevices and equipment design). Zelenograd now has about 4,000 new small private industrial, banking, trade, technological, and research companies. But only one in fifty workplaces has a telephone line and these lines cannot be the basis for new communications infrastructure, including for remote education. Elvis+ Proposal— An Example of Defense Industry Conversion in Electronic Distance Education Development Elvis+, a private company in Zelenograd, proposes creating a powerful and reliable communications infrastructure which can link Zelenograd with a new modern distance education system and promote the town's integration into world markets. This proposal draws on a combination of radio and computer/computer networks expertise developed in military and intelligence applications, which offers considerable commercial promise in a world increasingly interested in nomadic computing in environments where traditional telecommunications facilities are rudimentary or non-existent. As such, it is an excellent example of conversion from military to civilian applications of high-tech industry. In the case of Zelenograd (the potential application to other satellite-towns is a straightforward extension), Elvis+ proposes:
ELVIS+ has 2- years experience in providing Internet services in Russia -- including fax service, E- mail, World Wide Web (WWW), and Wide Area Information Server (WAIS). Since 1992 ELVIS+ has been developing the key technologies for wireless computer networks, including radios, radio modems, and radio antennas (in accordance with a Joint Development Agreement, JDA, with Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation). The original radio frequency targeted is 2.45 to 2.54 gigahertz (microwave), which can be used without license in the United States and Western Europe if spread spectrum technology is used and the power is kept below one watt. Both these technologies were demonstrated successfully in COMTEK'94 (Moscow, April, 1994). ELVIS+ radioadapters are based on forward Spread Spectrum radio- technology -- Direct Sequences Spread Spectrum (DSSS). DSSS radios with Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK) modulation work very well in the presence of interference. Other advantages of the proposed technology include international license-free 2400- 2483,5 MHz band- controlled power (flexibility) - - range up to 10 km with omnidirectional antennas. The basic radio- technologies (antennas & transceivers) are being patented in the USA. Desktop applications include:
Of course, any kind of communications infrastructure needs investment for its development. Various interested organizations (prefectures and Moscow government, universities, private Russian banks, the Committee on Higher Education, and the proposed Russian Training Foundation, to be financed by a World Bank loan to the Russian Federation) could cooperate in this project. But how could investors earn a return on funds they invest? In our opinion, Internet commercialization offers a promising approach today. Making Money from the Internet There are many examples of commercial usage of Internet. Internet provides information highway worldwide at a reasonable cost. This highway may be used by companies which lack the resources to use television or radio for advertising and supporting their products or services. Powerful Internet tools for gathering information (Mosaic, Gopher, WAIS) allow organizing new forms of information business such as publication of electronic magazines, providing remote Fax Service, various commercial database services, and supporting new kinds of banking and other financial services. Zelenograd, for example, has several electronic plants with research centers, and the Microelectronic Engineering University. Many of these Zelenograd organizations have great scientific and/or production potential, but lack the ability to exchange information with other sources. Developing network infrastructure will help to organize information exchange, and promote employment of highly-experienced scientists and engineers who are currently unemployed or have reduced salaries. Information exchange will also allow small companies to cooperate in carrying out large projects in areas of their specialization, common efforts coordination, accurate materials and components for final production. Another approach for attracting and making money through the Internet is to develop a banking system which will allow electronic funds transfer between companies and/or individuals. Elvis+ has its own approaches in Internet service provision, related to developing a global network of commercial databases, remote FAX service, to place at the disposal of banks the supporting of remote client bills checking, supporting a hotline for software products customers and so on. Elvis+ plans to show some business features of Internet and Elvis+'s own information model at the ICDED94. Other examples of how Russian high-tech companies could make money using the Internet include the following:
Building a Russian Electronic Distance Education System: Conversion to Civilian Production in Practive The above examples are only indicative of what can be achieved by Russia's high-tech satellite-towns by taking advantage of the Internet and helping build a Russian distance education system. First of all, such towns can be among the leading users of a distance education system to help remedy the lack of managerial, financial, and accounting skills which prevent them from taking full advantage of their otherwise very strong human resource base. But building this system and extending it throughout Russia and then to other countries, starting with those that make up the former Soviet Union, can provide excellent opportunities for civilian production. The production of computers, radio modems, multimedia equipment, satellite dishes, two-way satellite earth stations for centers of excellence in market-oriented management and financial education, and adaptation of Russia's under-used military satellites for instructional use will find a broad market. A modern system can be built, reaching directly higher education establishments, industrial training centers, and large businesses by narrowcast satellite television and Internet. In this way, a limited number of foreign experts and Russians who have already acquired the needed skills can reach out across Russia's eleven time zones and spread these skills rapidly, facilitating Russia's industrial rebirth. The demand for these skills is enormous. In the United States and Europe, electronic distance education is developing rapidly, and becoming global. For example, National Technological University (NTU) now uplinks 45 universities in North America, which are then downlinked to over 550 academic, industrial, and governmental sites. NTU seeks to be fully global by the year 2000. In the United States, computer networks are spreading beyond the scientific-technical community through the development of "community computing" in which regions and cities create a wired community that links up all citizens and services. CapAccess in Washington, DC, is an interesting model, which integrates well into the development of what United States Vice President Al Gore calls the National Information Infrastructure, which then can link into a growing International Information Infrastructure (Gore, A., 1994). Building a distance education system to meet Russia's own needs can provide the economic basis for Russia's taking a leading role in the emerging worldwide market for quality distance education. It is likely that the first areas in which Russia will be able to successfully export educational services electronically will be precisely those areas of science and technology which have their centers of excellence within the former military-industrial-scientific complexes centered in the satellite towns. References Gore, Albert (1994). Remarks Prepared for Delivery, Vice President Al Gore, International Telecommunications Union, March 21, 1994, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Internet Society (1994). State of the Internet, May 1994. |
