OCCASION – Organising Caucasus and Central Asian Internet Offerings to NRENs

TuRENA
Periodic Activity Report
Number: 1
Period: 11.2005 - 8.2006

TuRENA Supreme Council on Science and Technology Ashgabat Turkmenistan Phone: +993 12 39 07 14 Email: ovasov@yandex.ru

Date: November 1, 2006

Table of Contents

• 1. OVERVIEW
• 2. The Objectives of the OCCASION Project in TuRENA
• 3. TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT
• 3.1 WP 1 - OCCASION Project Management
• 3.2 WP 2 - Silk Project Management and Information Services
• 3.3 WP 3 - Network Management
• 3.4 WP 4 - Technical Work and Personal communications
• 3.5 WP 5 - User Groups
• 3.6 WP 6 - Liaison and Dissemination
• 4. Activity

1. OVERVIEW

The OCCASION project will encourage the use for personal communications, and will assist TuRENA in adopting IPv6. The Project will be completely useful in the encouraging of the user groups trough all Turkmen welayat's centres with the following cooperation in the different cience-research areas such as archaeology, distant trainings and so on. Finally it includes training so that researchers in the Turkmenistan can use the services provided. Another aspect of the project is to identify a significant Users Group, which will need to use the Silk network for the collaborations. It will then foster the requisite training and joint workshops to ensure useful collaborations can take place.
Practical implementation of VSH in the interconnection of all possible partners for decision for all necessaries will assist Turkmenistan. Distant Trainings, improving of the Education what is very actually in the current system of education in Turkmenistan.

Project Mainstream

• Creation of a leading srutrure for project implementation
• Technical assesment
• Creation of a new internet centers
• Establishment of a user groups
• Cooperation with a foreign partners in the diferent science-educational spheres
• Lage scale training including distant teaching
• Dissemination
• Sustainability

2. The Objectives of the OCCASION Project

A lot of Students annually leave secondary school in Turkmenistan. And only few of them could continue Higher education if for a number of reasons they have no possibility to do it. One of the largest deficiencies is a lack of highly skilled university teachers with up-to-date knowledge of the subjects they train as well as the modern teaching technologies. For the Turkmen trainers this project gives an insight to new developments in world wide education. This project could be supported by the Turkmenistan President's Programme "Social and Economic Reforms in Turkmenistan for the period till 2010", which also outlines the further development.

A very important complement to the Virtual Silk Highway Programme which sponsors equipment and connectivity would be a well-trained supporting organization called INTME (Turkmenistan work group) which is exist proposed on the basis of on-going TEMPUS project. It is located, centered and headed by the Supreme Council of Science and Techniques under the President of Turkmenistan with the function of systematically interconnect all the partners using the Virtual Silk Highway Programme taking into account different interests, different scientific and technological levels, different INTERNET experience, and different geographic locations.

INTME should manage the administration of the Internet connectivity of the Virtual Silk Highway Programme and secure a transparent and democratic distribution within the partner institutions according to the regulations of the Virtual Silk Highway Programme in Turkmenistan.

Besides there is INFOTUK project in Turkmenistan which is signed by the Government of Turkmenistan and UNDP. In the first stage of this project the science, the education and public health portal were designed, as well as the project of national strategy for dissemination of communication technology information in the fields of science and education. Internet centres were created within the framework of this project in 8 cities of Turkmenistan. The tasks of the second stage of the project are to provide the connection between these centres and to switch them to TuRENA net system. These centres give opportunity for free access to internet for people of different professions. In this way the infrastructure for distant and postgraduate education has been created.

Next step is alaboration of the OCCASION Project in Turkmenistan as one of the suport elements of VSH system.

Development of TME-specific basic concept for a improvement education in TME takes into account the specific situation in the country. Elaboration of a new curricula in computer engineering and ICT (information and communication technologies) and also humanitarian sciences such as archeology is going on (see file AA2.Cooperation agreement archeology.doc).

Large scale training of TME trainers and user groups in new teaching materials and methodology is of great need for Turkmen science-education community.
The next logical step is the development of Internet-based educational networks on the base of Distant Learning (DL) for User groups on a common DL computer platform on the base of "VSH" system is one of the priorities of the project.

There is a specific point in Turkmen education system reforming which was recently introduced as students' "practical work" where they gain professional skills on the job places (very often in the different cities of Turkmenistan). If a student has an industrial practice in Ashgabat (where the most universities are concentrated) he/she has an opportunity to continue his study at the university one day a week. The creation of Internet points with DL facilities throughout the country and the development of e-textbooks for the basic curricula is a strategic necessity for solving this problem.

3. TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT

3.1 Project Management

• Management of scientific-research work in Turkmenistan.
• Management of OCCASION Project in Turkmenistan.
• Participating in Silk/OCCASION Board meeting, OCCASION management via meetings and regular audio and video conferences.
• Analyses of the impact of both the Silk and OCCASION projects, including statistic evaluation data.

It was received different equipment from different recourses:
Video projector SANYO PLV-Z4
Videophone TANBERG TTC7-08
This equipment was successful installed and tested several times.

New internet centers is opened in Turkmenbashi city.

Fast internet Mary:

Mary is totally connected, videoconferences with Guncha Komekova (Teacher of State Power-Engineering Institute in Mary) were held (quality insufficient), based on connectivity provided by Turkmentelecom for one month. The INFOTUK project is already operative, the INFATUK center in Mary will only be operative by autumn 2006 only after that they will pay for communication.

The Turkmen Pedagogical Institute in Turkmenabat

Michael Wilson (Tacis Programme adviser in Turkmenistan) paid for the communication equipment in Turkmenabat. The rest may be paid from the equipment budget of TT JEP 24020-2003-TME Tempus project TME provided there is a permission from Tempus Committee (Brussels) which has been received by March 23, 2006.

The INFOTUK (already mentioned in Quarterly report # 1) project is already operative, the INFOTUK center in Turkmenabat will only be operative by autumn 2006 only after that they will pay for communication.

Internet to Turmenbashi:
Mr. Wilson covered the costs for the interconnection to Turkmenbashi.

NIG 3: Submited, no replay.

NIG 4: Internet to Dashoguz, Balkanabat: It is expected that an optical cable will be available in Dashoguz by the end of 2006. Balkanabat is already connected to the Trans-Asian optical fiber line. It is planned to apply for the interconnection to Dashoguz and Balkanabat. Hanno Schaumburg will contact Robert and find out when the proposal for NIG 4 can be handed in as soon as possible.

3.2 WP 2 - Silk Project Management and Information Services

• Participation in Silk project management via meetings.
• making decisions on the implementation of the project.
• Preparing the periodic/quarter reports and submitting them to the RUG.
• Working with other donors.
• Analyses of situation with national connectivity.

According to the DoW, the Work Package project has three tasks:

• Transition Strategy Liaison with Current and Potential Funders
• Information and Web Services

We have extended this list. We consider our activities to have been the following:
A number of centres have been set up in Mary, Turkmenabat and Turmenbashi; it is hoped to extend the Internet connections to these places by the end of 2006. They are applying to NATO for a further NIG to connect in Dashoguz and Balkanabat.

At present time following institute are included to the VSH System:

1. Supreme Council on Science and Technology under the President of Turkmenistan.
   
2. Turkmen State University named after Magtymguly.
   
3. Turkmen Polytechnic Institute.
   
4. Turkmen State Institute of Transport and Communication.
   
5. Turkmen Institute of National Economy (equipment purchased from Tacis-Tempus Project budget).
   
6. Scientific -Clinical Center of Oncology.
   
7. Scientific - Production Association "Gun" of the State Concern "Turkmendokumchihia".
   
8. Turkmen State Medical Institute.
   
9. Hospital with Scientific-Clinical Center of Cardiology.
   
10. National Institute of World Languages named after D. Azadi (partly equipped from Tacis-Tempus Project budget).
    
11. Turkmen Agricultural University named after S. A Niyazov (communication equipment purchased from Tacis-Tempus Project budget).
    
12. Institute Oil and Gas.
    
13. Scientific Research Institute of Seismology of Ministry of construction and industry of construction materials of Turkmenistan.
    
14. Scientific Institute of Deserts, Flora and Fauna.
    
15. Scientific Research Geological Exploring Institute.
    
16. Institute of History under the Cabinet of Ministries of Turkmenistan.
    
17. Scientific Clinical Center of Eye Disease named after S. Karanov.
    
18. Science Clinic Center of mother and child named Gurbansoltan Eje.
    
19. National Institute of Manuscript named after Turkmenbashi.
    
20. Turkmen National Pedagogic Institute named after S. Seidi, located in Turkmenabat (partly equipped from Tacis-Tempus Project budget).
    
21. State Power-Engineering Institute of Turkmenistan located in Mary (equipped from Tempus and OSCE budget).

Connected users:
About 9.500 of individual users in Turkmenistan, depending from student time scheduling (after 2 years of studying part of student begins the practice at the firms and enterprise and have no access to SILK internet).
Current west to east CIR:
Silk channel:Download - 7.0 Mbps // Upload - 520 Kbps.

Creation TME-specific Curriculum for Distant Training
A large number of electronic lectures has been elaborated for Distance Teaching, which will be completed into a full curriculum closer to the end of the project. All the courses are contained in the distance learning platform specifically designed according to special needs of Turkmenistan (preferably in Turkmen language). This platform is available to all project partners. For the three academic areas Informatics, Economics, and Industrial Practice at first a profound analysis was made about the existing curricula and their contents with the result, that the teaching materials have to be strongly upgraded in order to reach an international level.

Informatics
It must be taken into account, that the contents of the existing curricula in informatics in Turkmenistan formerly were outdated due to the absence of information about contemporary developments. This has been clearly identified during through the preceding Tempus project (World Standard Education in TME Universities - TT_JEP23020/2002/TME).

Within this project the first lecture read in distance teaching was "Programming in Java", which is fundamental to all following courses. JAVA has been virtually unknown in Turkmenistan before. This lecture will be followed by distant teaching in "Computer Networks". Afterwards distant lectured will be read in topics like network administration and data security.

Economics
Previously the university education in the field of economics in Turkmenistan was dominated by topics concerning the Soviet system of central control of all economic activities. Within this project the transition to market economy has to be made, which largely requires new and updated lecture contents. The basic materials for the new courses comes from information obtained from the internet (preceding project), new literature in Russian language, lecture contents from the UAB and teaching materials in the field of economic logistics in which the TUHH is specializing.

Industrial Practice
The curriculum for the industrial practice has to be focused more on the requirements of the industrial companies. At present time priority areas and teaching contents are being developed together with instructors from industrial firms. Important areas so far determined are ICT in industrial environment, industrial logistics, and practical training in subjects specific to the firms. Internship reports of TUHH students in industrial practice have been sent to the Turkmen partners for analysis.

Organization of scientific-research and project- constructional work
Following basic directions for the high schools by the President of Turkmenistan, , using a world scientific - educational network are determined:

• With aim of improvements of a level of preparation of experts and improvement of quality of training gathering of the information in the field of education;
• With the purpose of improvement of quality of the scientific works spent for high schools and qualification of the faculty gathering of the newest information in the field of a science;
• To assist in searches and introduction of the newest technologies in branches of a national economy;
• To learn teachers and students to find the necessary information in the field of a science.

For the accounting period in high schools the project the following works are carried out.

3.3 WP 3 - Network Management

• Participation in the all necessary meetings,
• User meetings,
• Increasing of internal network,
• Cooperation with others internal organizations.

Institutes	Users - Teachers	Users - Students	Female	In all
SCST Ashgabat	-	-	9	21
TSITC Ashgabat	160	234	24	394
TSU Ashgabat	179	331	51	510
TPI Ashgabat	84	546	38	630
TAU Ashgabat	112	414	36	526
SPEIT (Mary)	37	92	24	129
TSPI (Turkmenabat)	64	181	52	245
SCC of eye diseases	14	-	6	14
Hospital with SCC of cardiology	8	-	2	8
SRA "Gun" Ashgabat	3	-	2	3
TSMI Ashgabat	114	367	14	481
TSINE Ashgabat	92	465	45	557
SCC of oncology	9	-	6	9
Total				3503

A very important complement to the Virtual Silk Highway Programme which sponsors equipment and connectivity would be a well-trained supporting organization called INTME (Turkmenistan work group) which is exist proposed on the basis of on-going TEMPUS project. It is located, centered and headed by the Supreme Council of Science and Techniques under the President of Turkmenistan with the function of systematically interconnect all the partners using the Virtual Silk Highway Programme taking into account different interests, different scientific and technological levels, different INTERNET experience, and different geographic locations.

INTME should manage the administration of the Internet connectivity of the Virtual Silk Highway Programme and secure a transparent and democratic distribution within the partner institutions according to the regulations of the Virtual Silk Highway Programme in Turkmenistan.
The project will encourage the use of planned IPv6 system for personal communications and will assist TURENA in adopting IPv6 due to their needs. Finally it will include DL training as for user groups outside capital as for any students and teachers, so that researchers in Turkmenistan can use the services provided optimally.
Another aspect of the project is to identify the significant User Groups which will be involved in Silk network for collaborations. It will then foster and co-fund training workshops to ensure that co-operation will be productive and efficient.

It is planned to extend connectivity to the following institution:

1. Faculty of Oil Processing of the Turkmen Polytechnic Institute (Balkanabat).
   
2. Science-research Institute "Balkannebit" (Balkanabat).
   
3. Medical school named after Gurbansoltan Eje of the Ministry of Health and Medical Industry of Turkmenistan (Dasoguz).
   

Also it is planed at the fourth stage the further development of the common informational backbone to prolong the existing fiber-optic and radio link on the base of following structure to following direction:

4. Ministry of Culture and Television-radio broadcasting of Turkmenistan the Turkmen National Conservatoire.
   
5. Ministry of Culture and Television-radio broadcasting of Turkmenistan the State Academy of Arts of Turkmenistan.
   
6. National Institute of Sports and Tourism of Turkmenistan.
   
7. Ministry of Health and Medical Industry of Turkmenistan Hospital with Scientific-Clinical Center of Physiology.
   
8. State Institute of Cultural Heritage of the Peoples of Turkmenistan, Central Asia and the orient under the President of Turkmenistan "Miras".
   

Strengthening of the center in Mary welayat for realisation of archaeologies work.
TuRENA plays the major part in the communication structure which has been created by the NIGs in Turkmenistan. In each institute there are about 50-100 computers (many of them from former computer generations) which a single workplaces or computer classroom networks.
The existing network is created by the three NIGs and functioning according to their goals. This infrastructure, however, only supplies services to the scientific and educational institutions of Turkmenistan.
NIGs provides a quantum leap in the communication infrastructure of the institutions connected and supply them with reliable Internet communication.

The Cisco Systems Inc. equipment (Routers, Firewall, Switches,), HP-Compaq Proliant servers, Alvarion wireless equipment installed in different institutions.

All institutions that have active network equipment are provided with an uninterruptible Power Supply on 1300 Wt (hp UPS T1500 XR INTL), for guaranteeing the network functionality in case of short-time (up to 1 hour) power cut.

3.4 WP 4 - Technical Work and Personal communications

1. Installation and maintenance of audio and video conferencing system.
2. Testing software for audio and video conferencing.
3. Organizing and design of web sites.
4. Implementation of new system for obtaining detail information about Internet usage statistic including different type of services.
5. Preparation of TuRENA DL platform.
6. Increasing of internal network through country.
7. Upgrade of servers equipment and Cisco network equipment.

Participation in technical meeting.

During the realization of the Project the following goals will be achieved:

On server, which is installed in Turkmentelecom, we specify the extension of the disc subsystem for Institutes' WWW-sites storage, and for FTP Server disc space for the placement of different science and educational information.
And also:

• All partners will have an experience development of world research centers,
• Create international cooperation in the field of research in higher education sphere,
• To participate the discussions of rational use of modern Technology for the benefit of National Economy in Turkmenistan,
• Development of web-sites of educational and scientific institutes.

3.5 WP5 - User Groups

The role of the consortium is focused on the elements of particular expertise, relevant previous experience and contacts.

On Archeology Direction - user group is cleared up. Representatives: Technical University Hamburg-Harburg, Germany (Prof. Hanno Schaumburg), Museum Helms (Dr. Rainer Weis), Germany, Power engineering Institute, Mary (Kurban Klychdurdyev).

On Distance training direction (ICT, Economy. English, Computer trainings) - Technical University Hamburg-Harburg, Germany (Frank Lamers), Autonoma University Barcelona (Prof. Louis Lemlow), 4 Institute in Ashgabat as partners, Faculty of Water transport in Turkmenbashi (Prof. Mihtiev), in Turkmenabat - Prof. Dovlet Kuliev - Head of Computer center of Pedagogical Institute.

It was identified TuRENA user groups located in the three welayats/regions of Turkmenistan:
In Ashgabat (capital):

• The Supreme Council of Science and Technology under the President of Turkmenistan (SCST), Ashgabat: This prominent organization is responsible for the scientific and technological policy of the country. By decree of the President of Turkmenistan it is responsible for the implementation and supervision of the Virtual Silk Highway Programme in Turkmenistan. It also has a key responsibility for the implementation of new concepts in all knowledge-related sectors in Turkmeistan. Also has responsibility for ICT support policy and strategy.
  SCST can offer high speed internet connection, networking, service and supplys, training fasilities, access to distant learning platforms. At the moment two internet center tools is opened and many computers is available here. Internet usages and English language courses for representatives of Turkmen research-educational community are conducted in SCST permanently under support Tacis Unit in Turkmenistan.
  Responsible from this organization is Prof., Dr. O. Vasov



• Turkmen State Institute of Transport and Communication (TSITC), , Ashgabat:
  The TSITC was opened in 1992 under the initiative of the President of Turkmenistan S. Turkmenbashi and prepares highly qualified specialists for all system of transport and communication. There are 11 departments at the Institute. More than 120 personnel staff works and teaches 800 students at 4 faculties of the Institute, such as transport, communication, railway and faculty of water transport.
  TSITC including its department in Turkmenbashi (fuculty of water transport) has the largest experience in the project work with EU partners and play an important role in DL-oriented education in all ICT-related curriculawithin its' direction. As a communication-oriented university it plays a dominating role in establishing the communication network in Turkmenbashi city.
  Responsible from this organization is Prof. Yu. Mihtiev and from Turkmenbashi's city faculty of water transport Prof. E. Shaniyazov.
  


• Mary region
  State Power-Engineering Institute of Turkmenistan (SPEIT), Mary: This institution provides the education for the energy sector of Turkmenistan. Institute has a good co-operation and developed in the university management. This institute will be fully connected to the NATO VSH system. The State Power- Engineering Institute of Turkmenistan is departmental higher educational statement of the Ministry of energy and industry. There are 2 faculties, 7 departments at the Institute, 50 teachers, including 2 professors, doctors of engineering science, 14 senior lecturers and candidates of sciences. More than 10 attracted persons from industry are participates in preparation of the specialists of Institute. As it is the only one of its kind institute in Mary region where is going central archeological work, this Institute collaborates researches work with together Technische University Hamburg-Harburg, Berlin's museum and Helms museum.
  Responsible from this University is Prof. K. Klychdurdiyev.
  


• Turkmenabat region
  Turkmen State Pedagogical Institute, Turkmenabat:
  This institution cover important additional sectors of the educational system of Turkmenistan. The same way as a Power Engineering institute takes part in the archeology research. As addition this institute implement preparation of the students and teachers in education system and also video conference, exchange of documents, joint research.
  

WP 6 Liaison and Dissemination

The progress in the Activities is presented regularly to public. TuRENA has given many talks on the project to its user groups. The following list the conferences where the project and the current state at that time were showcased.

№	Actions on Dissemination	Place	Country	Date
1.	Seminar on Java training	Ashgabat	Turkmenistan	February 6-11, 2006
2.	Conference on achieved project results	Ashgabat	Turkmenistan	August 25, 2005
3.	Seminar - "Pilot projects on internet-oriented education and distant training launched"	Ashgabat	Turkmenistan	February 25-28 and March 1 2005
4.	Conference - "ICT" and computer using in Distance training "	Turkmenabat	Turkmenistan	April 22, 2005
5.	Participation in Conference -"Distance training: problems and prospects development"	Almaty	Kazakhstan	October 28-29, 2005
6.	Twelfth Silk Board and Second OCCASION Meetings	Baku	Azerbaijan	June 27-30, 2006
7.	Seminar on Informational Security	Almaty	Kazakhstan	June 20-22, 2006
8.	Seminar - "Distance Education: problems and prospects"	Ashgabat	Turkmenistan	January 24-25, 2006
9.	Conference - "Curricula in ICT"	Mary (financed by its University)	Turkmenistan	January 20, 2006
10.	Training on Internet Protocols	Ashgabat	Turkmenistan	August 29- September 6, 2006
11.	CERT workshop	Warsaw	Poland	October 16-22, 2006
12.	Seminar on Economy "Managerial economy"	Ashgabat	Turkmenistan	September 6-9, 2006

4. Activity

TuRENA has attending the Silk/OCCASION meetings and has held discussions with User Groups, which have been partially reported in QRs.
TuRENA partner has installed H.323 video-conferencing equipment and has attended at least one of the periodic Project videoconferences.
We have been the following activities in Turkmenistan:

1. Development of TME-specific basic concept for a Education in TME.
   
2. Establishment of User groups.
   
3. Elaboration of new curricula in computer engineering and ICT (information and communication technologies).
   
4. Large scale training of TME trainers on tne base of Distant learning .
   
5. The improvement of informational base for the population as a whole.
   
6. The creation of the favorable environment for the development of information-communication technology in Turkmenistan.
   
7. Improvement of archeological sphere between German and Turkmen specialists.
   
8. The improvement of the level of knowledge of specialists and beneficiaries of the project by undertaking seminars and trainings on "Bases of ICT training", "English language" and trainings instructors on ICT, archeology.
   
9. The improvement of data collection for working out the national strategy on ICT development.
   
10. The active contact and cooperation with all NREN.
    
11. The improvement of the contacts with European partners on TEMPUS and UNDP and other donors.
    
12. The improvement of the access to Internet and electronic information in public organizations and institutions.
    
13. The efficient usage of the Silk project technical equipment.
    
14. Enlargement of the users due to augmentation of new centers.
    

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