From gallivan@usa.healthnet.org Thu Aug 4 08:29:10 1994 Date: Thu, 4 Aug 1994 10:59:34 -0400 (EDT) From: Kerry Gallivan To: Randy Bush Subject: HealthNet: An Integrated Network Environment Using Internet Technology Status: RO HEALTHNET: AN INTEGRATED NETWORK ENVIRONMENT USING INTERNET TECHNOLOGY June 30, 1994 Kerry D. Gallivan Senior Paper World Issues Program School for International Training Brattleboro, Vermont USA 1. Summary 1 2. Introduction 1 3. What is SatelLife? 3 What is HealthNet? 3 Satellite technology 3 Fidonet technology 6 Polling or High-Speed Modem Connections 7 Internet Gateway 8 4. Overview of the Internet 8 Internet Services 10 Electronic Mail 10 FTP 11 Telnet 11 Network News 12 WAIS 12 WWW 13 5. The Impact of the Internet 13 In the North 14 In the South 16 6. Implications for HealthNet 17 7. Integration of Internet Technology with HealthNet 19 Protocols 19 Tools 21 Electronic Conferencing 22 Gopher Server 22 WAIS 23 WWW 24 8. Conclusion 25 Appendix 1 International Connectivity Table 27 Appendix 2 Internet Timeline 28 Bibliography 32 "But time moves on, and currently it is passing FidoNet. Likely there will be a time when it passes the Internet. May we all live in peace to see it." Randy Bush (1) 1. Summary The Internet is rapidly becoming the standard for global data communications and must begin to be integrated into HealthNet system. This paper proposes initial steps of integration which will serve as a model for increased communications for the developing world. 2. Introduction In recent years low-cost communication tools have become available to individuals and organizations within developing countries which allow them to connect to the growing global village. These tools enable people to (a) build regional cooperation (b) share ideas and information, and (c) participate in world activities. In 1989, SatelLife, a Massachusetts-based organization, initiated the HealthNet computer network. Its objective was to create a global communications system which would facilitate a dialogue between the North and South. (2) HealthNet is now based in over fifteen different countries with the majority of them located within Africa. The Internet, an interconnected collection of computer networks, is the largest of all computer networks with connectivity in 150 countries. The Internet is essentially a group of standards for data communication, each one having a unique function. To be a part of the Internet is to agree to use these particular standards or 'protocols.' Access to the Internet, and computer networks in general, has been extremely limited in most developing countries. Projects like HealthNet have been created to help try and fill the communication gap using computer networking technology. These technologies have changed over the years and will continue to do so because with the expansion of the Internet in the North, this particular type of technology is quickly migrating to the South and will continue to do so for some time. This paper proposes the initial steps for integrating the Internet technology with the HealthNet system by adopting its protocols of communication. Some may view my suggestions as inappropriate since they still believe it will be a long time before the Internet fully enters the South. The time is near and the rate of growth in international connectivity is proof. Others may argue Internet protocols are inappropriate for places like Zimbabwe, for example, which is considered to be a relatively harsh networking environment, however, this is no longer the case. The quality of local infrastructures is improving and the effectiveness of the Internet protocols is rising also. At the same time it's becoming evident that the current technology is reaching its own limitations and there will soon be a need to develop beyond it. This paper does not suggest that HealthNet abandon its current activities and migrate solely to Internet protocols, rather both can continue to exist until one becomes more appropriate than another. The future of computer networking in the developing world will be based on the Internet technologies for some time now. Beginning to shift the current approaches used by SatelLife can only prepare HealthNet for the future. It is important to realize that this paper does not go into detail regarding many of the social issues which arise with this technology, although it tries to note them when appropriate. For example, much of the communications technology has been produced in the North so that the logic involved in its design may not be transferable to the South.(3) Access to communication technology and evironments in which people can learn about it are extremely limited, therefore the human resources related to this technology are minimal. Similarly the physical resources related to this technology are also limited, hardware and software generally needs to be imported. The reader should keep these issues in mind throughout the paper. I will present an overview of the HealthNet system followed by an overview of the Internet and its current impact on computer networking, in both the North and South, and what this means for HealthNet. The remainder of my paper will outline the beginning steps of integrating the Internet technologies into HealthNet. 3. What is SatelLife? SatelLife was founded in 1989 by the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) after the group won a Nobel Peace Prize for promoting a dialogue between physicians in the East and West. The group came to the understanding that global relations were shifting from an East West axis to an North South axis, yet there was no means to facilitate such an exchange. SatelLife was created to provide a low-cost means of global communication which would facilitate this exchange. In 1992, the HealthNet system became operational as a global computer network which provided health workers in the developing world a means to communicate internationally. 2. What is HealthNet? HealthNet is located in over fifteen countries with the majority located in Africa. It is composed of numerous computer networks located in each of the participating countries. They are maintained and operated locally with limited assistance and support from the SatelLife staff once operational. The following outlines the technical development of HealthNet. This includes the development of (1) the satellite technology, (2) FidoNet technology, (3) polling operations, and (4) the recent Internet gateway. 3.Satellite technology While SatelLife was researching to build a global communication systems it became apparent, particularly in Africa, that the use of the telephone infrastructure would be ineffective because of the cost and quality of the telephone infrastructure. Five years ago, it was impossible to transfer data at 1200 or 2400 bps via telephone and modem from most African capitals. The circuits just weren't good enough. Similarly, the cost involved with these calls remained beyond the financial abilities of most health workers. As a result, SatelLife developed a system which bypassed the telephone infrastructure. It was based on packet radio satellite technology. And since radio waves are free, the transport cost involved with this technology is practically eliminated. In 1992, HealthNet became operational after the launch of HealthSat-1, a low-earth orbit (LEO) packet radio satellite designed and built by Surrey Satellite Technology (SST) of the United Kingdom. This satellite formed the basis of the HealthNet system. In order for an individual to send an electronic mail message via the satellite, a ground station was needed. Ground stations are composed of a personal computer, a TNC (i.e. modem like device), a radio transceiver (i.e. a ham radio), and a small antenna system about the size of an old fashioned television antenna. Unlike geostationary satellites, HealthSat-1 is constantly traveling in a polar orbit (i.e. north-to-south and south-to-north) as the Earth rotates within it. Every ground station is able to transmit and receive messages at least six times per day during ten minute "windows." A window is the amount of time the antenna can see the satellite pass overhead. When the satellite passes a ground station, a link is established between the two using radio waves set to a particular frequency. During this time, data is transferred between the two machines until the satellite moves out of view. The average amount of data transferred per pass is 50 kilobytes or 50 pages of ASCII text. In this way the satellite acts as a store and forward messaging system for ground stations scattered around the world. It's important to realize this is not a "real-time" system where messages are delivered to their destination instantaneously. Diagram 1. Packet Radio Satellite Technology. The following 15 countries have operational HealthNet ground stations: Zambia Mozambique Ethiopia Sudan Eritrea Tanzania Kenya Mali Cameroon Ghana The Gambia Brazil Cuba Canada United States HealthNet soon evolved into a 'point to point' system whereby people had to either walk or drive to a ground station in order to send a message. There was no possibility of everyone having a station since the satellite can only communicate with two station at a time. This was a serious obstacle against the growth of the system. There needed to be a way to expand the network within countries. As a result , a unique communications protocol was introduced as a means to connect ground stations with users scattered throughout the country. 3.Fidonet technology Back in 1983, Tom Jennings, a computer programmer, began working on a bulletin board software which would provide a connection between the east and west coast of the United States through personal computer systems. The software he created was called Fido and the systems which connected the two coasts grew into FidoNet. Today there are over 15,000 systems on six continents. Because FidoNet emerged in an environment where individuals had to cover their own costs in telephone bills and equipment, it had to be inexpensively operated and able to use standard computer hardware such as modems and computers. The communication software included compression, error-correction, and error recovery capabilities which allowed for file transfers within the shortest amount of time possible. As a result, FidoNet technology became very appropriate for the harsh networking environments of the developing world. In 1993, SatelLife completed integrating the Fido software into the HealthNet system which allowed for national networks to expand beyond the ground station and, in some cases, into the rural regions of the country. During this time other computer networks began operating within the developing world, many of them using FidoNet technology. The difference between HealthNet and these newer systems was that they were able to achieve sufficient transmission rates via high-speed modems over public telephone lines to international locations. What evolved was a number of parallel networks which began providing the same services as HealthNet, except with greater success in some cases. What was once an impractical approach was quickly becoming a standard. However difficult to imagine, the public telephone infrastructures in the developing world had improved over time and the satellite system was slowly becoming less appropriate in urban locations and more useful in remote sites without any telephones. There remain places like Sudan and Eritrea which have virtually no international telephone circuits, but for the most part telephone systems could support high-speed modem transfers. 3.Polling or High-Speed Modem Connections With this understanding, SatelLife has recently initiated a number of automated calls or 'polls' to countries in the developing world. This means electronic mail is being transferred daily between the US and Botswana via high-speed modems, as well as Burkina Faso and Indonesia (as of June 94). This shift in technologies marked yet another point of adaptation in HealthNet's history. There are currently several organizations engaged in 'polling' activities to the developing world. Of these GreenNet is the most far- reaching. Based in London, GreenNet is polling over ten developing countries per week and remains the strongest electronic mail links to the developing world. In fact, several HealthNet sites have developed efficient and reliable local networks as a result of GreenNet's efforts. .c3.Internet Gateway The most recent development of HealthNet is the implementation of an automated Internet gateway. The Internet is the largest computer network in the world and is largely composed of academic and research organizations. The need for health workers to be able to communicate with this network is great (the Internet will be explained further in the next section). Until this gateway, electronic mail messages destined to or from the Internet were manually transferred by a staff member at SatelLife. Based at SatelLife, the gateway program is called RFmail and is configured on a Sun Microsystems Sparc +1 UNIX workstation. RFmail is a full fledged FidoNet program which translates RFCH22 message headers (an Internet mail protocol) to FidoNet message headers and vice versa. This remains the only HealthNet gateway to the Internet and is linked via a TeleBit WorldBlazer high-speed modem using the public telephone network to dial into NEARNet, the New England regional Internet provider. The Internet protocol used is Point to Point Protocol or PPP. The introduction of the Internet gateway marks a step towards a more global network which HealthNet was originally envisioned to be. 4. Overview of the Internet The Internet was created over 20 years ago as a U.S. Defense Department network called the ARPAnet. The ARPAnet was an experimental network designed to support military research, in particular research which was to develop a computer network that could withstand attacks such as a nuclear war. Within this model communication occurs between the source computer and the destination computer. The path through which the two computers communicated was assumed unreliable, therefore the bare minimum of information was a requirement to send messages between two computers. The underlying philosophy to this approach is that every computer on the network could communicate with every other computer. Out of this evolved the TCP/IP protocol suite which was based on UNIX system environments. During this time the Organization for International Standardization (ISO) was spending years designing a standard for computer networking. Unfortunately people could not wait and the Internet developers began to release the TCP/IP software on as many machines as possible. It soon developed the reputation as an effective means for computers of different manufactures to communicate with each another. With the introduction of NSFNet to ARPAnet, a TCP/IP based computer network run by the National Science Foundation (NSF), a greater number of people were allowed access to the Internet. Up to that point it was reserved for researchers in computer science, government employees, and government contractors. NSFNet was soon introduced to the U.S. educational system, and universities quickly began connecting to the Internet. In no time college graduates knew what the Internet was and began promoting it in the private sector (For a more detailed overview of the Internet, see Appendix 2). From then on the Internet has grown throughout the world with figures indicating that the number of users connected doubles every 9 months. There are presently over 22 million users with about 2.6 million nodes and a rate of increase of 1000 nodes per day (every 20 minutes another node is connected). Also, other networks such as HealthNet, which uses different communication protocols, provide their users with access to the Internet through gateways. As a result, the real number of users connected to the Internet can never be calculated. 2. Internet Services The Internet is essentially composed of a series of services, each based on an agreed set of standards or 'protocols.' Many applications or 'tools' use various protocols to create yet another distinct protocol. In this way the Internet "tools" are constantly evolving. The following outlines the major services which exist on the Internet. These include electronic mail, FTP, telnet, network news, WAIS, Gopher, and the World- Wide-Web. 3.Electronic Mail Electronic mail is the most widely used and known service of the Internet and is based on the SMTP mail protocol. This allows any computer on the Internet to exchange electronic messages with any other computer. Each user has an electronic mail address which is entered into the "To" field of a message editor, this remains the most important part of the message. If you remember back to the explanation of the Internet, the network was developed to require the least amount of information necessary for messages to be sent properly. This unit of essential information is the electronic address within the "To" field. A typical address is represented in the following format: username@domain.name. Username is the name of the person while domain.name identifies the computer which the person uses. For example, my electronic mail address is kgallivan@igc.apc.org. The "@" symbol is a good indication that the address is for the Internet. 3.FTP The File Transfer Protocol, or FTP, is the protocol used to transfer files over the Internet. A remote connection is established on the Internet using FTP, and files are transferred from one machine to another after a particular command is invoked. With the FTP protocol, any machine on the Internet can become a server of information and can be accessed remotely from anywhere else on the network. There are several hundred FTP machines connected to the Internet and the information contained on them relates to everything from Stock Market Reports to Zymurgy. (4) 3.Telnet Telnet is the Internet protocol which allows for remote logins to computers hundreds of miles away.(5) By 'telneting' to a computer, users can initiate commands on the remote machine as if they were sitting in front of it. Telnet has become very useful by allowing public databases to be searched remotely. 3.Network News Similar to electronic mail, network news is an electronic conferencing system. It provides an effective means of sharing information over large distances. The distribution of networks news or "newsgroups" is done via NNTP news protocol. Messages are posted relating to a particular topic. The more postings, the further the "discussion" develops. In the Internet, network news is the equivalent of a discussion group or a bulletin board system (BBS). Software is available on the Internet which allow for these discussion groups to be organized in a systematic matter. Like FTP, there is a wide variety of topics to choose from, everything from biology to folk music. There exist about 3000 public discussion groups organized into several categories. The software used can enable a restricted distribution list so that private exchanges can also exist. 3.WAIS WAIS (pronounced "wayz") is an Internet protocol for indexing information and is accessible by remote logins, and is the "database program" of the Internet. It can also be used to access indexed information throughout the Internet, not just in one location. There currently exists WAIS libraries that contain information on computer science, networks or religion. 3.Gopher Gopher is a protocol which allows a user to "browse" the Internet and select resources from menus. Gophers can assists in getting information from just about anywhere on the Internet, no matter where it's located. Built on telnet and FTP, Gopher provides a "friendly" interface to cruising the Internet in search of information. The greatest advantage to the Internet Gopher is that you can browse resources located throughout the Internet regardless of type. In other words, a user can search databases relating to classical recordings as well as view documents relating to vegetarian cooking. 3.WWW WWW stands for "World Wide Web," a project started by CERN (the European Laboratory for Particle Physics), that seeks to build a distributed hypermedia system.This is the newest Internet service and is based on the HyperText Transfer Protocol or HTTP. To access the Web, you need a "browser" program. The browser reads documents, and can fetch documents from other sources. Information providers set up hypermedia servers which browsers can get various documents from. These can be accessed by FTP, NNTP (the Internet news protocol), Gopher and an increasing range of other methods. On top of these, the browsers can permit searches of documents and databases. Hypermedia is a expansion of hypertext it is any medium with "pointers" to other media. This means that hypermedia "browsers" might not only display a text file, but also images or sound or animations. Hypertext is a method of presenting information where select words can be "expanded" to find more information. The expanded words are actually "links" to other files. WWW is different from Gopher or WAIS because in Gopher, data is either a menu, a document, an index or a telnet connection. In WAIS, everything is an index and everything that is returned from the index is in the form of a document. In WWW, everything is a hypertext document which may be searchable. In other words, WWW can represent a Gopher or a WAIS server and perform exactly the same functions as both, and more. 5. The Impact of the Internet The Internet is growing throughout the world at a phenomenal rate. The development exists in two different areas: (1) number of users and machine connected (2) and development of 'tools' or applications. There exist both an emphasis on the development in the North as well as a stronger and more widespread introduction to the South. 2.In the North The Internet is estimated to have over 22 million users with over 2.6 million computers connected as of August 1993. There are now 150 countries connected to the Internet on some level or another. Traffic on the National Science Foundation backbone (the US based part of the Internet) grew by 20.7 percent nearly 2 terabytes (6) during the month of March 1994. This is the largest single jump in the history of the Internet. Gopher and World Wide Web usage are now competing fiercely, according to the Internet Society. Gopher traffic grew by 17.6 percent and the World Wide Web (WWW) grew by 32.9 percent to a new total of one-half terabyte per month. WWW traffic grew by a total of 0.7 percent of total NSFNet traffic and remains on a steady up-rise, usage of the server at CERN doubles every 4 months twice the rate of Internet expansion. Figure X. Gopher and World Wide Web Usage (Copyright 1994, Internet Society). The Internet is in a similar position as the telephone exchanges in the United States during the early 20th century, the common belief was that telephones were practical for businesses but served little use for the average person. And with the introduction of recent tools, the Internet may finally become as dynamic as people had envisioned it to be for years. Author Howard Rheingold sees these new tools, such as the World Wide Web browser Mosaic, as finally impacting mass society. The Internet used to look like a bunch of words on a screen, and the way you navigated was by typing arcane commands. When the human-computer interface changed, in the 1970s and 1980s, the place of the computer in the lives of non-specialists began to change, and our use of computers to conduct business, create art, communicate, collaborate, educate, began to change our lives. The user interface of the Net, until Mosaic, was in the same primitive state of evolution as computers of the 1960s, when you had to issue a command via a stack of punch-cards that you were warned not to staple, fold, or mutilate (Rheingold, 1994). While these may shape the ways of the North, there remains the question of how much impact will they have beyond industrialized countries. In a recent proposal to the Global Environment Fund (GEF), Professor Annis of Boston University claims these tools are not so far removed from developing countries. Mosaic is not exactly a run-of-the-mill gadget in your average developing country NGO. But either is it unknown. On our recent trip, we saw better Mosaic authoring in Brazil than we have seen in the US. Mosaic is certain to become the standard where there are high-speed connections. It is what developing countries will acquire from here on out when they hook up to the Internet (Annis and Karlson, May 1994). But there still remains a large need to get the developing world connected to Internet in order to strengthen regional and international communication, although it's slowly happening. 2.In the South Access to the Internet remains much more limited in developing countries than in the industrialized countries of North America and Europe. In Africa, for example, there are only two countries with full Internet connectivity (i.e. email, telnet, FTP, network news, etc.): South Africa and Tunisia. The majority of Internet connectivity is with "email only" protocols that are either UUCP or FidoNet. FidoNet messages need to pass through an Internet gateway (7) at some point in order to travel beyond the country's border. While the number of FidoNet hosts in Africa remains high, UUCP hosts continue to increase also. Developed as a file transfer protocol on the UNIX operating systems, UUCP is a fully compatible Internet application that provides electronic mail access to the Internet without a high-capacity connection. Similar to FidoNet, UUCP networks have a lack of centralization and the connection between any two computers does not need to have a special link. All that is needed is for two computers to use the UUCP application and to agree to call one another. There are several individual UUCP networks throughout the world with an estimated 2 million users. The Intertropical Network of Computers, for example, is a UUCP network established by the French overseas agency ORSTOM. It provides Internet access for electronic mail in ten African countries: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Niger, Senegal and Togo. Other African countries with UUCP links to the Internet: South Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Seychelles, Namibia, Botswana. The number of organizations with UUCP links is increasing while there has been little initiative to create links between it and FidoNet. Software has been written on both systems to enable them to communicate with one another but most computer networking projects either support one or the other, usually not both. FidoNet hosts are continuing to increase, for the moment, but there is growing awareness of the limitations involved with expanding the networks and integrating them into the Internet a limitation that will inevitably force users to move towards a more Internet compatible system such as UUCP. Daniel Pimienta of the Foundation Networks and Development (FUNREDES) states that, if given the chance they will undoubtably move to an Internet based protocol. "The last years have shown a spectacular move of the developing countries into the networks. Depending on the region, FidoNet or UUCP have been the preferred entry protocols and everywhere the trend is to migrate, whenever possible, towards TCP/IP (Pimienta, Fall 1994). Similarly, Daniel envisions the same trends that exist today in the North to eventually migrate to the South. "If measured in terms of new countries having gateways to the Internet the move has been impressive and one could expect that the same patterns which apply in the industrial world will come shortly in the South (relative stronger growth of commercial nodes, use of navigating software to access the growing resources of the Internet...) (Pimienta, Fall 1994)." These are sure to be issues of concern within HealthNet in the coming years. 6. Implications for HealthNet With the increase of the Internet in the developing world, HealthNet can not continue to serve as "the bridge" which links users in rural locations or within harsh networking environments without shifting its present course of development. In order to continue to serve this niche of individuals and organizations. It must (1) more widely integrate the Internet protocols into its system and (2) develop more dynamic "tools" which model those available to high capacity users, except to be used in low capacity environments. The majority of HealthNet systems have no ability to connect into a UNIX based Internet host running UUCP or any other Internet compatible protocols. For example, Cameroon currently has two computer networks, a HealthNet ground station with local Fido network and an ORSTOM node running UUCP over a X.25 link to France. The two systems are unable to communicate with one other since neither has the ability to talk eachothers language or protocol. If a user on the HealthNet system wants to send a message to a user on the ORSTOM system he must first transfer it to the ground station, which will send it to the Internet gateway in the US, and then on to the UUCP server in France for the ORSTOM system. The message will wait there until the Cameroon node connects to the server in France. It's hard to believe, but this is actually quite common in Africa these days. An almost identical situation occurs in both Zimbabwe and Ghana. As networking develops, more and more systems will start or move to Internet based protocols. This is largely because people are realizing the limitations of FidoNet systems. For example, in a recent discussion within an Internet conference on communicatons technology in Africa, Randy Bush, a pioneer of using both Fido and Internet technologies to connect developing countries to the global networks, summarized the issues accurately by stating: Africa is now learning why FidoNet is not the base anywhere else: the lack of services, the poor scalability, incompatibility with the rest of the networking world (and don't tell of the disgusting gateway hacks that seem to work, I helped develop and still have to support that flakey junk), and all the other problems folk have been mentioning here. "Mike (8) did a great job. Some of the participants in this discussion are doing so by the grace of his work. But time moves on, and currently it is passing FidoNet. Likely there will be a time when it passes the Internet. May we all live in peace to see it." (Bush, 1994). Similarly, as systems migrate to more Internet based protocols, the "tools" which are making the Internet famous will also move with the connections. If HealthNet is to continue to extend its networks it will need to develop a way to integrate these networking tools into the current system. Information tools are becoming more important on the Internet. In the past people mainly used electronic mail and an occasional file transfer. There wasn't much need for anything else. But as greater amounts of information and people are accessible on the Internet, the ability to process it increases also. As a result, "tools" are needed to sort through information and find individuals. This is quickly becoming as important as the actual connections. Tools such as these have never been a part of HealthNet, therefore it's hard for SatelLife to recognize the importance of them. In addition, users on the Internet continue to produce these "tools" but little has been done to transfer them to the low capacity networks. SatelLife can improve the information and communication gap which exists in the developing world. By focusing on the development of "tools" geared towards low-capacity users, it opens up the benefits of computer networking technology to large sectors of the population within developing countries. The Internet has great potential to assist people in the South but it can easily become a tool which is reserved for a small niche of society. This was the situation in the United States for a number of years. However, SatelLife has an opportunity to begin closing the gap. 7. Integration of Internet Technology with HealthNet The following is a proposal, focused on SatelLife, which seeks (1) to develop tools and applications relating to Internet technology and (2) to initiate a shift towards more Internet-based protocols for the HealthNet system. The protocols which I will cover are UUCP, TCP/IP, and PPP, these will including examples of potential integration to the HealthNet system. The Internet tools covered will be FTP, netnews, Gopher, WWW, and WAIS. Each will have an example of how they can be integrated into the operations of the HealthNet system. 2.Protocols UUCP and FidoNet The most immediate step which can be taken to integrate the Internet into HealthNet is to allow the Fido software to be able to call a UNIX machine using UUCP. There is currently Fido-based software which can do this. More specifically, SatelLife should consider using the Marimba (9) Fido software since it already has UUCP capabilities installed. UUCP (polling) As explained, neither the local FidoNet nodes of HealthNet nor the main "polling" machine based at SatelLife are able to call a UUCP based host. As the number of these hosts increases, SatelLife should upgrade its ability to connect UUCP-based users. For example, in Indonesia UUCP is more common than the usage of FidoNet. If a UUCP based local network were established, a "polling" schedule can be created for the UNIX machine based at SatelLife to call the system. Such an application for the UNIX would allow a large population of users to enter into the HealthNet network. UUCP/PPP (terrestrial packet radio) Peter van Heusden, (10) consultant of information technology for the African National Congress, has recently been working on developing a terrestrial packet radio network which links rural sections of South Africa, those without good telephone infrastructures, through PPP connections to the Internet. This would allow for those sites to not only have electronic mail access but also FTP, Gopher, and WWW. In a recent discussion within an electronic conference he described the project: "Firstly, tools like PPP (which allows TCP/IP over a phone linear packet radio) will allow people in rural areas of SA to connect with Unix boxen in the centres. This approach of using such tools (and a 286 box with a fast modem can be very powerful using these tools) could work well in a country such as mine, where there already is an agreement on the use of information networks for development. Its a step above the grassroots networking which has evolved in the rest of Africa, and SA so far (using particularly Fidonet technology), and allows reasonable access to the online benefits of the Internet (Van Heusan, May 1994). UUCP/PPP (station to station packet radio) Through discussions with the engineers at SatelLife, it's becoming clear to me that the efficiency and capacity of transferring packets of data to the satellite using the FidoNet protocol is greatly limited. One proposal is to change the transfer process to the satellite to a TCP/IP based protocol which is "layered" on top of the X.25 protocol which the satellite uses. Using UUCP, ground stations can transfer mail packets to and from the satellite similar to that used in Cameroon with ORSTOM except it will be with radio wave rather than packet switching circuits. The satellite is presently 100% compatible with Internet technology. On the other hand much of the FidoNet protocol had to be changed in order for it work with the system. Using Fido-to-UUCP software, HealthNet nodes can serve as gateways to an Internet-based system by transferring mail packets between the satellite and the Fido node. A greater transport rate over the satellite can occur and there will be no need to maintain the RFMail program on machines connected to the Internet. The only need will be for ground stations to be connected to TCP/IP-based local area networks that have a link to the Internet. SatelLife and other HealthNet-related Internet hosts can maintain a standard Internet connection with schudeled transfers from the ground station to the Internet router. 2.Tools 3.Electronic Conferencing This tool seeks to develop a forum of exchange among health professionals throughout the world, in and around developing countries. The following is an example of a HealthNet program, titled "Dialogue for Health," (11) which can be a model for the HealthNet conferencing facilities. Conferences will be structured initially by country. For example, the following conference names would appear: healthnet.zimbabwe healthnet.uganda healthnet.zambia A limited number of conferences will be distributed throughout the entire HealthNet system. healthnet.news healthnet.globe healthnet.netnews All will be distributed to the UNIX server at SatelLife. This will allow for "users" in the North to connect to the server via remote login from the Internet. If they wish to distribute a message to the HealthNet Uganda conference, the size of the message will be recorded and a charge will be determined for the cost to send the message to Uganda via HealthNet. Conferencing is not unique to the Internet but the HealthNet system doesn't provide any type of electronic conferencing. The need to integrate this into the system is long over due. 3.Gopher Server A Gopher server will allow SatelLife to organize and present information relating to HealthNet operations. The Gopher server will reside on the UNIX machine based at SatelLife and be accessible either by remote login from the Internet or through electronic mail queries. The first menu of SatelLife Gopher might look like: Internet Gopher Information Client v2.9 Root Directory --> 1. Welcome to the SatelLife Gopher. 2. SatelLife Information/ 3. HealthNet Information/ 4. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). 5. Related Organizations/ 6. Related Information/ 7. Other Gopher and Information Servers/ Press ? for Help, q to Quit, u to go up Page 1/1 The following is an example of the different topics accessible through the Gopher. Gopher Flow chart 3.WAIS As explained, WAIS is an indexing tool which enable individuals to search by either remote login using 'telnet' or through electronic mail messages. The following example is one application for HealthNet. It should be thought of as a "people organizer," rather than an index of data, which users could query to find assistance in a special field or area of interest. A WAIS server would allow a listing of individuals and organizations to be produced who are involved in international health and have volunteered to assist people via electronic mail. The program could be the "International Health Inquiry Service." This would be an effort to develop a directory of people involved in international health, accessible via remote login over the Internet or by electronic mail queries. WAIS is an appropriate application to use since similar services are already operating on the Internet, although not unique to international health. 3.WWW The WWW server will be used to (1) publicize SatelLife and HealthNet and (2) to develop an experimental publishing medium based on a hypermedia environment that both high and low capacity network can access. As a means of publicizing the operations of HealthNet, a WWW server could be setup to contain a variety of information. Providing much of the same information as the Gopher, the WWW server can include an interactive map of HealthNet as well as a digitized version of the "HealthNet Uganda" produced by NEC12. The following is an example of what the "home page" might look like when a user is connected to the server. HealthNet WWW "home page" HealthNet Uganda Video. A more far reaching approach could be for the NEC video on HealthNet Uganda to be on the UNIX machine. A WWW page could refer to it. Users would connect to the server, point and click on a graphic titled "NEC HealthNet Uganda Movie," users would then be presented with a digitized video presentation of HealthNet Uganda. HealthNet Map. This is an interactive global map which allows the user to click on a particular country and a summary of the HealthNet system will be present. This could include a digitized photograph of the system operator and any other related information. An good example of Mosaic's hypertext abilities would be the "page" for Uganda within the HealthNet map. An icon would represent a "link" to the same file which plays the HealthNet Uganda video presented in the "home page." Related Materials. Since many reports published in the developing world are not included on larger indexes, Mosaic provides an experimental medium for the distribution of such material. (13) A WWW server would provide a low-cost option for making previously 'unknown' medical documents from the developing world accessible to both high and low capacity users. Hypertext editors could also be distributed throughout HealthNet which would allow users to prepare documents using the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP). This would allow the files to either be uploaded to a WWW server, whether it be at SatelLife or the University of Zambia, and accessible by anyone with a high-capacity Internet connection. Otherwise the files can be distributed on either diskettes or via electronic mail to sites with low-capacity access. People can then view the material without any need of an Internet connection. 8. Conclusion The future of global computer networking will be based on Internet technologies. The rate of growth and development of tools are proof. The Internet is quickly becoming a dynamic network environment for communicating information and ideas on a global scale. SatelLife needs to integrate Internet technologies into the HealthNet system in order for it to continue building effective communications for the developing world. By doing so SatelLife can further its work towards building a stronger dialogue between health workers in the South and in the North. As the Internet expands into the developing world the lack of connectivity will remain, therefore SatelLife must continued to develop information and communication tools which are accessable by both international aid workers based in the urban centers and practicing medical students based in district hospitals. The focus of my paper is on technical improvements to HealthNet but it should be understood that social improvements will result. Such improvements will allow medical students located in the district hospitals of Zimbabwe to receive literature electronically from either the University of Zimbabwe Medical Library in Harare or the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Altanta, USA, both with relatively the same amount of cost and time involved. Above all else, HealthNet must remain a people's network, a technology that serves people. Appendix 1b International Connectivity Table Appendix 1a International Connectivity Map Appendix 2 Internet Timeline Hobbes' Internet Timeline v1.2 by Robert Hobbes' Zakon (hobbes@hobbes.mitre.org) 1968 Network presentation to the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) 1969 ARPANET commissioned by DOD for research into networking First node at UCLA [Network Measurements Center - Xerox DSS and soon after at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) [NIC - SDS940/Genie], UCSB [Culler-Fried Interactive Mathematics - IBM 360/75, and the U of Utah - [DEC PDP-10]. 1970 ALOHAnet developed by Norman Abrahamson, U of Hawaii ARPANET nodes use Network Control Protocol (NCP) through Information Message Processors (IMP) 1971 15 nodes (23 hosts): UCLA, SRI, UCSB, U of Utah, BBN, MIT, RAND, SDC, Harvard, Lincoln Lab, Stanford, UIU(C), CWRU, CMU, NASA/Ames. 1972 International Conference on Computer Communications with demonstration of ARPANET between 40 machines organized by Bob Kahn. InterNetworking Working Group (INWG) created to address need for establishing agreed upon protocols. Chairman: Vinton Cerf. 1973 First international connections to the ARPANET: England and Norway 1975 Operational management of Internet transferred to DCA (now DISA) BBN opens Telenet, commercial version of ARPANET. 1970s Store and Forward Networks Used electronic mail technology and extended it to conferencing. HM Elizabeth, Queen of the United Kingdom sends out an e-mail message. 1976 UUCP (Unix-to-Unix Copy) developed at AT&T Bell Labs and distributed with UNIX one year later. 1977 THEORYNET created at U of Wisconsin providing electronic mail to over 100 researchers in computer science (using uucp). 1979 Meeting between U of Wisconsin, DARPA, NSF, and computer scientists from many universities to establish a Computer Science Department research computer network. USENET established using uucp between Duke and UNC. 1981 BITNET, the "Because Its Time NETwork" Started as a cooperative network at the City University of New York. Provides electronic mail and listserv servers to distribute information. Unlike USENET, where client s/w is needed, electronic mail is the only tool necessary. CSNET (Computer Science NETwork) comes into being providing a dial-up capability to electronic mail. Many universities feeling left out of ARPANET, join CSNET. 1982 INWG establishes the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP), as the protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, for ARPANET. This leads to one of the first definition of an "internet" as a connected set of networks, specifically those using TCP/IP, and "Internet" as connected TCP/IP internets. DoD declares TCP/IP suite to be standard for DoD (:vgc:) 1983 Name server developed at U of Wisconsin, no longer requiring users to know the exact path to other systems. CSNET / ARPANET gateway put in place ARPANET split into ARPANET and MILNET; the latter became integrated with the Defense Data Network created the previous year. Desktop workstations come into being, many with Berkeley UNIX which includes IP networking software. Need switches from having a single, large time sharing computer connected to Internet per site, to connection of an entire local network. Berkeley releases 4.2BSD incorporating TCP/IP (:mpc:) 1984 Domain Name Server (DNS) introduced. # of hosts breaks 1,000 1986 NSFNET created (backbone speed of 56Kbps) NSF establishes 5 super-computing centers to provide high- computing power for all (JVNC@Princeton, PSC@Pittsburgh, SDSC@UCSD, NCSA@UIUC, Theory Center@Cornell). ARPANET bureaucracy keeps it from being used to interconnect centers and NSFNET comes into being with the aid of NASA and DOE. This allows an explosion of connections, especially from universities. 1987 NSF signs a cooperative agreement to manage the NSFNET backbone with Merit Network, Inc. (IBM and MCI involvement was through an agreement with Merit). Merit, IBM, and MCI later founded ANS. # of hosts breaks 10,000 # of BITNET hosts breaks 1,000 1988 Internet worm burrows through the Net 1989 # of hosts breaks 100,000 NSFNET backbone upgraded to T1 (1.544Mbps) 1990 ARPANET ceases to exist Electronic Frontier Foundation is founded by Mitch Kapor 1991 Commercial Internet eXchange (CIX) Association, Inc. formed by General Atomics (CERFnet), Performance Systems International, Inc. (PSInet), and UUNET Technologies, Inc. (AlterNet). WAIS released by Thinking Machines Corporation Gopher released by University of Minnesota US High Performance Computing Act (Gore 1) establishes the National Research and Education Network (NREN) 1992 Internet Society is chartered World-Wide Web released by CERN # of hosts breaks 1,000,000 NSFNET backbone upgraded to T3 (44.736Mbps) First MBONE audio multicast (March) and video multicast (November) 1993 InterNIC created by NFS to provide specific Internet services: directory and database services (AT&T), registration services (Network Solutions Inc.), information services (General Atomics/CERFnet) US White House comes on-line: President Bill Clinton: president@whitehouse.gov, Vice-President Al Gore: vice- president@whitehouse.gov Internet Talk Radio begins broadcasting United Nations and World Bank come on-line (:vgc:) Businesses and media really take notice of the Internet 1994 Communities begin to be wired up directly to the Internet US Senate and House provide information servers First flower shop taking orders via the Internet Bibliography American Assoiciation for the Advancemnt of Science (AAAS). Workshop on Science and Technology, Communication Networks in Africa. Proceedings. March, 1992. Annis, Sheldon and Peter Karlson, "Interim Report on GEFnet." Proposal submitted to the Global Environmental Fund (GEF), May, 1994. Annis, Sheldon. "Mozambique: A Networked Information Environment as a Subcomponent within the Health II Project." Proposal submitted to the World Bank, June 18, 1993. Bush, Randy. "Conversations to a Sysop." A reply to the original posting in the listserv called AFRICANA-L. May 15, 1994. Boutell, Thomas. "World Wide Web: Frequently Asked Questions." A publically available document on the Internet. April 28, 1994. Educom. Edupage. A twice-weekly electronic bulletin. April 28, 1994. Communications Afrique "Satellite cure for distant doctors." Page 15, Feb/March 1994. " Institute of Global Communications. Netnews, "LCV Environmental Scorecard on EcoNet." Volume VIII, Number 2. March/April 1994. Internet Society, Internet Society News. "The Growth of the Internet." Winter, 1994. Van Heusden, Peter. "Thesis ideas in CS and development." A reply to the original posting in the listserv called AFRICANA-L. May 3, 1994. Krol, E., The Whole Internet User's Guide & Catalog. O'Reilly & Associates Inc., Sebastopol CA, September 1992. Monahan, John. Public posting on the DEVEL-L listserv. April 4, 1994. Nihon Keizai Shimbun. "Medical Information to Developing Countries." Tuesday, March 15, 1994. Pimienta, Daniel. "The Internet in the South." Internet Society News. Fall, 1993. Quarterman, John S., "The Matrix Mapped and Measured: FidoNet, UUCP, BITNET, and the Internet." Matrix News, Matrix Information and Directory Services, Inc. (MIDS), Austin. March 1993. Rheingold, Howard. "Tomorrow." Joi Ito's Net-zine. 1994. SatelLife, Internal memo. "Strategic Plan." May 10, 1994. White, Wendy D. and Bob Barad, "FidoNet Technology Applications." Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science. April/May 1993. Glossary FAQ Either a frequently-asked question, or a list of frequently asked questions and their answers. Many news groups, and some mailing lists, maintain FAQ lists (FAQs) so that participants won't spend lots of time answering the same set of questions. dial-up (a) To connect to a computer by calling it up on the telephone. Often, "dial-up" only refers to the kind of connection you make when using a terminal emulator and a regular modem. FTP (a) The File Transfer Protocol; a protocol that defines how to transfer files from one computer to another. (b) An application program which moves files using the File Transfer Protocol. gateway A computer system that transfers data between normally incompatible applications or networks. It reformats the data so that it is acceptable for the new network (or application) before passing it on. A gateway may connect two dissimilar networks, like HealthNet and the Internet. Gopher A menu-based system for exploring Internet resources. Internet (a) Generally (not capitalized), any collection of distinct networks working together as one. (b) Specifically (capitalized), the world-wide "network of networks" that are connected to each other, using the IP protocol and other similar protocols. The Internet provides file transfer, telnet, electronic mail, news, and other services. Leased line A permanently-connected private telephone line between two locations. Leased lines are typically used to connect moderate-sized local network to an Internet service provider. PPP Point to Point Protocol; a protocol that allows a computer to use the TCP/IP (Internet) protocols (and become a full-fledged Internet member) with a standard telephone line and a high-speed modem. server (a) Software that allows a computer to offer a service to another computer. Other computers contact the server program by means of matching client software. (b) The computer on which the server software runs. switched access A network connection that can be created and destroyed as needed. Dialup connections are the simplest form of switched connections. SLIP and PPP also are commonly run over switched connections. Telnet (a) A "terminal emulation" protocol that allows you to log in to other computer systems on the Internet. (b) An application program that allows you to log in to another computer system using the telnet protocol. UNIX A popular operating system that was very important in the development of the Internet. Contrary to rumor, though, you do not have to use UNIX to use the Internet. There various flavors of UNIX. Two common ones are BSD and System V. UUCP or UNIX-to-UNIX copy A facility for copying files between UNIX systems, on which mail and network news services were built. While UUCP is still useful, the Internet provides a better way to do the same job. Endnotes (1) A reply to "A conversation with a sysop" posting on the 'Africana- l' electronic discussionn list.. (2) "North" in this context is meant to describe the industrialized countries of North America and Europe. "South" refers to the less industrialized countries of Africa and Southeast Asia. This is the case throughout the entire paper. (3) A good example of this is the usage of icons in the computer interface, more specifically the usage of a "wastebasket" or "folder" as seen with Macintosh computers. Wastebaskets and folders are not universal symbols, users in the South may find this type of interface very differcult to use. (4) This is an FTP site containing information for home brewers, including software, recipe books, and archives of a homebrew mailing list. (5) I've been working with a colleagues in South Africa where I 'telnet' to a machine based there several days a week. In this case the distance is several thousands of miles. (6) One terabyte is equal to 1,000,000,000 bytes. A byte is equal to one character typed in a word processing program. (7) There are currently two main FidoNet to Internet gateway serving Africa, one is at GreenNet in London and the other is at WorkNet in South Africa. (8) Mike Jensen is based in South Africa as a consult for WorkNet, a public-access computer network located in Johannesburg, and has been one of the main engineers, if the, in building low-cost computer networks throughout Africa. For for information, email him at mikej@worknet.apc.org. (9) The Marimba software evolved out of a two-year project to develop a standard among the Fido software being used throughout Africa and other parts of the developing world. The project was funded by the International Development and Research Center (IDRC) of Canada and coordinated by Arni Michaelson of the WEB which is a public-access computer network based in Canada. For more information send an email message to: africadesk@web.apc.org. (10) For further information, contact Peter van Heusden at:: peter@cecs.wcape.school.za. (11) The phrase "Dialogue for Health" was orginally created by SatelLife staff sometime ago but never developed into a cohesive program. (12) NEC, the Japan-based electronics conpany, have given SatelLife a large amount of money to expand the HealthNet project. A recent video was produced by NEC on HealthNet Uganda. (13) On speaking about publicizing in the developing world, Dr. Clements, Executive Director of SatelLife explains some of the issues involved; "Maybe you have to publish four times a year, three years in a row to be indexed. If there's a paper shortage or problem with foreign exchange, you may not publish. Then you're not indexed. Then that research doesn't exist for the rest of the world or African colleagues."