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Consortium of Latin American networks will be formalized in February 2003

For the second time, representatives of the Latin American academic networks have gotten together in Rio de Janeiro with the aim of defining strategies for the integration of these national initiatives. The meeting, which took place on September 25th, served to further the discussions regarding the CLARA organization (Latin American Cooperation of Academic Networks), its mission and statute, as well as the technical aspects of a regional network.

The CLARA initiative has two branches: the formation of an infrastructure joining the Latin American advanced networks and the creation of a non-governmental organization representing the interests of this group. The discussions around this idea began during an event of the @LIS program (Alliance for the Information Society), sponsored by the European Union in June 2002. The first meeting of the Latin American networks, already aimed at the CLARA, took place in Rio de Janeiro in July. Another encounter in Buenos Aires, on September 5th and 6th, served to coordinate actions and prepare the second meeting in Rio de Janeiro.

The people participating in the CLARA have defined that its mission as a form of cooperation among national education and research networks in Latin America must be established according to the following strategic objectives: (1) coordination among academic networks in Latin America and other blocks; (2) cooperation for the promotion of scientific and technological development; (3) planning and implantation of network services for regional and global interconnections.

Representatives from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay were present in the second CLARA meeting, supported by Unesco and by the UNO's Task Force on Information and Communication Technology. Representatives from Chile, Mexico and the European Union participated in the meeting through videoconference devices.

Videoconference between Europe and Latin America

In a meeting of advanced networks, there was plenty of state-of-the-art technology. In the morning, a videoconference environment was assembled, through the Internet2, with the Spanish academic network (RedIris). A Multi point Control Unit (MCU) was used in Mexico. From Spain, representing the European partners in the @LIS program's initiative to interconnect academic networks, Cathrin Stover (DANTE), Victor Castello (RedIris) and João Cunha (FCCN) presented and discussed, together with the participants in Rio de Janeiro, Mexico and Chile, the results of the recently finished joint viability study. This study, called CAESAR - Connecting All European and South (Latin) American Researchers -, will show the strategic and technical viability in the interconnection of the academic networks of the Latin American countries in a regional infrastructure and its interconnection to Europe, through GÉANT, the Pan-European network.

In the afternoon, the videoconference had the participation of Florencio Utreras, executive director of the Red Universitaria Nacional (REUNA), in Chile, and Carlos Casasús, general director of the Mexican Corporación Universitaria para el Desarrollo de Internet (CUDI).

A formal organization for the CLARA

The main discussion topic was the formalization of the consortium that will run the CLARA initiative. The general guidelines of the statute of the organization, formulated in the previous meetings, were debated. The idea is for the consortium to be ready by February 2003. In some agreements made about the organization, it was decided that a network per country will be a CLARA member. This network must have been supported, in writing, by the government of each county. It was also decided that there will be no distinctions between CLARA's founding members and those that join the organization later.

[RNP, 10.04.2002]