RNP > RNP News > 2004 News

III LAC – EU Ministerial Forum on the Information Society

Clara Network is officially launched

Clara network, the first Latin American education and research network, was officially launched during the III Latin America and the Caribbean – European Union Ministerial Forum on the Information Society, which took place in Rio de Janeiro, on November 22 and 23. The symposium gave continuity to the debates held during the forums of 2002 in Seville and of 2003 in Lima.

With the theme “An Alliance for Social Cohesion through Digital Inclusion,” the forum had the aim of intensifying the cooperation between the two regions by means of a shared view of the potential of information and communication technologies as tools for social cohesion. During the event, two documents were made: the Declaration of Rio de Janeiro and the Biregional Work Program for Digital Inclusion.

Free or open code software, system interoperability, Internet governance, security and adequate financing and support mechanisms were some of the relevant themes discussed in the event.

The symposium counted on the participation of sector ministers and their representatives from both regions, Information Society and/or Digital Inclusion national coordinators, representatives of regulating agencies and representatives of the civil society, of the private sector and of invited international organizations.

In the opening session were the governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Rosinha Garotinho, the executive secretary of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT), Luis Fernandes, the representative of the presidency of the European Union and of the Ministry of Foreign Relations in Holland, Marion Kappeyne van de Coppello, the Information Society general director of the European Commission, Fábio Colasanti, the executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL) in the United Nations, José Luis Machinea, and the president of AHCIET, Luis di Benedetto.

During his speech, MCT executive secretary Luis Fernandes pointed out the intention of the Brazilian government of developing together with Europe an agenda of digital solidarity, which can represent a path to the sustainable and balanced progress of Latin America and the developing countries in general.

— It is fundamental to increase the debate and the actions in order to permit the participation of all the interested sectors, such as the civil society, the private sector and the international organizations involved with the issues of development and inclusion – claimed the secretary.

As a concrete example of the biregional dialogue between Latin America and Europe, Fernandes cited the Clara Network as an initiative of strategic value for the integration of the Latin American and Caribbean regional space by means of a high performance Internet network.

— Besides establishing a direct connection among the countries involved, with cost reduction and an increase in the speed of data transmission, the network offers bandwidth which will make it possible for multinational research projects to happen in real time, joining universities, research institutes and laboratories among themselves and with counterparts in other parts of the world.

The use of Clara Network is related to greater quality of life Nelson Simões

The official launching of Clara Network happened right after the opening session, with the presence of Nelson Simões, general director of the Network, of Fábio Colasanti, general director of the Information Society of the European Commission, and of Dai Davis, general director of Dante (responsible for the European network).

Simões talked about what Clara Network can do for education, research and health in the countries of the region.

— We can have the most innovating communication and collaboration applications at our disposal to promote the professional development of high school teachers at a distance; we can share expensive and unique appliances such as a telescope in the Andes; we can gather, store and manipulate information about the climate and the weather, about El Niño or the Amazon; we can play and listen to music, dance and watch others dance; create and develop the contents and applications that support the education of new citizens, exploring the riches and the values of our Latin American culture.

After his speech, Simões invited the audience to watch a video about the T@lemed project, an example of the use that can be made of Clara Network. The T@lemed Project provides health services in isolated regions of Brazil and Colombia, allowing doctors to diagnose pathologies at a distance and to prescribe medicine to sick people despite being separated by thousands of kilometers.

Colasanti mentioned the stimulus that Clara Network will bring to the Information Society.

— Clara Network will provide great possibilities of collaboration inside Latin America. It will make it possible to develop research in many areas that now depend on the availability of a fast broadband connection. It will enable Latin American researchers to collaborate with those in Europe as well as with the rest of the world and will also permit the rest of the world to have access to a great deal of scientific activities carried out in Latin America.

Davis stressed the importance of the human use of academic networks and remembered the T@lemed Project. According to him, it is a very important point since it helps us understand that the work on the networks can help people save lives and improve the citizens’ quality of life, using intelligence and being able to distribute this intelligence through the net.

— I believe that one of the challenges that we face is to foster the use of the capacity of Clara Network and its connection with Europe by researchers whose interest is not fundamentally in technology, but in medicine and in human sciences.

Still on November 22, there was a plenary session aimed at a dialogue between the governments of Latin America and the Caribbean and those of the European Union about policies and regulating matters related to the Information Society, from the point of view of social cohesion and digital inclusion.

During the afternoon, the audience was divided into some parallel theme sessions: Cooperation for the development of applications of the Information Society; Factors for an inclusive Information and Knowledge Society; Cooperation in policies and regulations of the Information Society; and Working together in terms of e-government to update public administrations.

On the following day, the event included the discussions about cooperation models between the Private Sector and the Civil Society in the Information Society. In the closing session, the Declaration of Rio de Janeiro and the “Political and Regulatory Dialogue” in the context of the @LIS program were presented.

The organization of the event was in charge of the Brazilian government and of the European Commission, and it counted on the support of the @LIS program of the European Commission and on the technical and institutional assistance of the Economic Commission of the United Nations for Latin America and the Caribbean, CEPAL. The government of the state of Rio de Janeiro and AHCIET, a member of “@LIS International Stakeholder Network”, also contributed to the organization of the Forum.

Symposium was followed by three other events

From November 23 in the afternoon to November 27, three other events followed the symposium: the Seminar on Partnership Opportunities between Brazil/Latin America and the European Union on Research and Development of Technologies of the Information Society; the first technical meeting of Clara Network and the Alice Project; and the third meeting of Alice Project.

The seminar was held on Tuesday afternoon, November 23. Its opening session counted on the presence of representatives of the Brazilian government, of the European Commission and of Nelson Simões, RNP’s CEO. In addition to the presentation of activities related to the European Community’s Sixth Research Scene Program, the event offered theme sessions about the following topics: appealing services for citizens for fostering social cohesion; mobile and audiovisual platforms; free software, software and distributed system technology; and e-Infrastructure: Grid and next generation networks.

On November 24 to 27 two meetings were held simultaneously: that of the technical staff of Clara Network with the technical staff of Alice Project, and that of Alice Project. Still on November 26 and 27, RNP’s Security Incident Response Team (CAIS) had security training for technicians of the Latin American networks.

[RNP, 12.29.2004]