THE AmIUG BULLETIN

     local electronic publication of the Armenian Internet Users Group

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September 1, 1998 Vol. 3, No. 4
hostmaster@amnic.net
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THE AmIUG BULLETIN is a bimonthly electronic newsletter of the Armenian
Internet Users Group composed of timely information about Internet-related
events and services in Armenia, Armenian Internet Users Group updates,
summaries of Internet news from Armenia, the international press, and
announcements of relevant conferences, seminars, and workshops.
THE AmIUG BULLETIN is on the Web. You can visit the AMNIC www server,
www.amnic.net to find the AmIUG Bulletin there.

In this issue:

Nothing is too late

By David Tolpin, Ex-Technical Coordinator, US-Armenia IATP

(dvd@hragir.aua.am)

At the time I came to Armenia as the newly-brewed Technical Coordinator of
US-Armenia Internet Access & Training Program, a program financed by USIA,
administered by IREX and oriented toward creation of so-called Internet
public access sites, the most frequent response to my attempts to represent
our goals was 'you're two years late'. Well, probably.

By the end of 1997 Armenia had obtained several satellite telecommunication
channels, at least three Internet providers were offering their services,
and access to electronic mail had become, although not as affordable as
permanent electricity, quite conventional in many institutions. Poorly
connected to the outside world by almost any other means, Armenians had
ridden all of the limited possibilities to maintain private and business
relations with their friends abroad, and the Internet was one of the most
heavily used ways.

First, we tried to change priorities and to direct our efforts toward
projects related to electronic publishing, distance learning, and similar
advanced activities. However, we learned soon that the part of society
familiar with the capabilities provided by the Internet was not so
significant as one urged us it was, and even a smaller fraction had a
reliable and affordable access to them. Therefore, we decided to go on in
the usual way, that is to establish our Internet sites and to start
providing training on basic telecommunication skills, including the use of
electronic mail and World Wide Web.

From a dozen-and-half of received applications, we chose five organizations
to make them our partner institutions, the places were our pubsites would
open. The list included the National Library of Armenia, the Yerevan
Institute of Architecture and Construction, the American University of
Armenia, Gyumri, Educational Complex of Yerevan State Technical University
and English Language Center in Vanazdor. The first two sites, in the
Library and in the AUA, were open by the beginning of April, and their
popularity and number of people willing to visit our training sessions by
far exceeded our expectations.

Three other sites got opened during the spring and summer months, and
finally we have got our program successfully acting in three largest cities
of Armenia and for various layers of society: students, scholars, NGO's
representatives and for all those willing to explore the richness of modern
information world.

Access to the Internet and training, although important, is not the only
activity of our program. The other job was to cooperate with providers in
order to improve and enhance Armenia's 'Intranet', as well as to discover
ways to extend the outer channels. Although we worked closely with some of
providers, including Arminco and the Institute of Physics, our main role,
(and it was successfully played, in my opinion) was to create conditions
which makes the changes unavoidable. Offering to our users free access to
the Internet five days a week 10am to 6pm, we exposed services of the
providers to occasional visitors, and almost anybody could compare quality
of their work.

Well-maintained internal connectivity, i.e. the network inside Armenia was
very important for our program too; in attempt to decrease the load on
external channels, we developed several frequently-used internal services,
including free web-based e-mail (Hragir, http://hragir.aua.am/) and web
pages hosting (Davidashen, http://davidashen.aua.am/), and ability for our
users to access their e-mail accounts from all the pubsites around the
country (and the sites are served by different providers) was a must for
us, so we payed a good deal of our efforts to insisting on establishing
reliable internetwork exchange here.

Now, when almost a year has been passed since the start of the program, the
situation is drastically changed in Armenia, and we hope we participated in
this changes. The program, at least in its original shape, is close to its
end, and the end promises to be successful. I would like to express deep
thanks to all of our partner institutions, divided with us all difficulties
of our hard work, to the Internet providers we worked with (it wasn't
always easy to find the right solution, we found it in all the cases
though), as well as to all other organizations we collaborated with trying
to reach our common objectives.



Statistical data regarding IATP activity in Armenia.

AUA - 899 users (since April 3,1998)
The site is equipped with four computers and connected via Arminco.

NLA - 718 users (since March 24,1998)
5 computers, via YerPhI

YerIAC - 248 (since May 27, 1998)
4 computers, via YerPhI

Gyumri - 236 (since July 11,1998)
4 computers, via Shirak Internet Users Society (Arminco)

Vanadzor - 47 (since September 30,1998)
4 computers, via Vanadzor Business Center (Arminco)

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