FACT FINDING MISSION TO GEORGIA

September 29 - October 1, 1996

Mission report, attempted situation analysis and suggestions for further actions

Geo-historical background: Republic of Georgia (population approx. 4.8 mln) is situated to the south of the Great Caucasus, bordering Russian Federation at the north, Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan at the south. Georgia has a long coastline at the extreme eastern coast of the Black Sea with major seaports. Georgia became independent in 1991. The political regime in the republic changed several times during the indepence period, and the coutry suffered extensive internal clashes, sometimes qualified as civil war.

There is no complications with the bordering states, but the internal conflict with Abkhazia (a region at the north-west, seeking independence from Georgia) is far from being settled yet and armed incidents occur there sporadically. Another complication of a smaller magnitude is concerned with Ossetia - an autonomous region at the north of Georgia, near Georia-Russian border, where the status of the autonomy is not completely clarified. Inside Georgia, the political situation, however, has stabilized.

Economically, Georgia was affected by the same destructive processes as other new independent states in the region, seriously aggravated by the period of civil unrest and ongoing tension at the Abkhazian border.

Although a part of economic links has been restructured to cope with the new realities, the enegry crisis still persists. Initial signs of recovery become visible, but at the present time the sitution in Georgia is rather difficult. Blackouts of electricity and central heating supply continue. The capital city of Tbilisi still bears the signs of military clashes and the city infrastructure is under strain because of a large number of refugees from Abkhazia and Ossetia.

Even so, despite the technical difficulties implied, Georgia remains the most feasible site for regional meetings in the Trans-Caucasus, where both participants from Armenia and Azerbaijan can travel easily.

Existing computer and network resources suitable for STACCIS purposes:

Network connection in Georgia is offered mostly by two commercial providers: SANET, using a satellite link to the USA, and IBERIAPAC - originally an X.25 based network, developed and launched during the Soviet time in collaboration with VNIIPAS. IBERIAPAC is now modernizing its services inside Georgia, linking national banking system and similar users, and plans to add Internet connection to its services in the near future.

SANET offers connection, mostly through dial-up lines, on commercial basis and is quite expensive ($150 per month for a 2 hours non-cumulative daily OL quota ). Non- affordable as it is for many non-commercial organizations in Georgia (a typical salary is equivalent to $15-$20 a month), some organizations are receiving sponsorship from Soros and Eurasia foundations to pay for terminal equipment and traffic.

Using network services in Georgia is seriously complicated by regular interruptions in electricity supply. In most computer centers the personnel have auxiliary diesel-generators installed which are started and used exclusively for running computers during black-outs. With today’s pricing and available services, SANET - by large a natural monopolist in network services in Georgia - can hardly cope with modern requirements, particularly those associated with STACCIS activities. There exist, however, alternative solutions, surprisingly underexploited at the moment.

The Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) of the Georgian Academy of Sciences has in its possession a full set of equipment of a satellite-linked network node, including a 5-meter antenna working with the communication center of Moscow State University (RadioMSU) via the Russian "Raduga-35" communication satellite. Ground equipment includes a UNIX based server and a local network. To provide for continuous operation of break-sensitive UNIX machines, the node is using a powerful array of UPS modules and auxiliary generators launched when necessary by a round the clock shifts. The cost of equipment, the satellite channel and the traffic costs are covered from a grant from INTAS, which will last for another 18 months.

The Presidium of the Academy of Sciences has recently received a grant from NATO which will be used to connect the central academic network node with the IHEP through radio-modems, which will provide a stable 64Kbps connection, to be used, at later stages, by 14 work stations in the Institutes of the Academy.

The IHEP has suffered large reduction in force lately, and has more office space than it can use. The deputy director of the Institute has agreed to consider the IHEP as a possible base for hands-on training in course of STACCIS activities. The Institute is located relatively far from the city center, but very close to one of the University campuses. Another alternative, proposed by the national coordinator of the project is to establish a relatively high speed connection ti the IHEP from the BCC, in order to combine the communication potential of the IHEP with convenient location, appropriate training facilities and available personnel of the BCC for training and demonstrations.

Main national focal point:

The initial national focal points proposed by UNESCO were the national Research Institute for Scientific and Technical Information "TECHINFORMI" and the Business Communication Center affiliated with it.

Profile of the institutions:

TECHINFORMI is the leading state institution in handling scientific information (publications, reference, legal, etc.) in Georgia. Most of computer and network activities are performed by the Business Communication Center (BCC).

BCC was established in 1994 to assist SME in business information (directories, commercial databases, etc.) under aegis of the Europartneriat program. So far the BCC is not providing on-line service, partly because the present access to the national service providers is not very efficient. BCC has adequate facilities and personnel to launch a training for users, best suited for training in business applications (SME information managers, telemarketing specialists etc.).

Despite good working contacts with many important users groups in Georgia, Techinformi and BCC are not directly associated with the national service providers and cannot efficiently affect their policies. One of the most important networks for STACCIS - Georgian academic network (acnet.ge) is largely outside of the influence of the main national focal point. Considering the unique and strategic geo-political status of the country in the Trans-Caucasus region, extensive additional efforts are needed to integrate users and providers in the republic for efficient cooperation in the framework of the project.

Other national contacts:

The Georgian State University is developing plans for step by step connection to the existing non-commercial channel (IHEP) via the Presidium of the Academy (in the old downtown campus, too far from IHEP for a reasonably-priced direct connection) or directly (new campus). Alternative dial-up inter-institute connections are also considered as a temporary measure.

Apart form university education, there is a project developed by the Ministry of Education, which envisions building up an array of 17 pilot schools across Georgia equipped with IBM PS/2 computers (provided by IBM). A grant of $25K from the Soros foundation is expected in the near future, intended specifically for Internet connection of some of these schools. Working contact with one of these schools in Tbilisi was established and backed by Prof. Gvaramia (Ministry of Education).

Under aegis of the Scientific Industrial Technical Union "Informatics" a group of specialists has successfully developed a family of high quality stand-alone educational programs for schools. In terms of equipment, trained personnel and experience this group is fully prepared for promoting telematics applications in their specific domain, the obstacles being of a technical nature (low speed high priced channels available). The group was particularly interested in the STACCIS, being in need of high quality multimedia authorware and consultancy concerning the use of multimedia in early stages of education (1-4 grades of secondary school).

Among the most important (in terms of current activities and potential participation in the STACCIS) environmental specialist groups in Georgia, an UNEP-sponsored group G.INFO was localized and contacted. Being presently cut from the national networks because of high prices for limited service, the group is electronically publishing computer maps of natural resources and pollution in Georgia through the courtesy of their Norwegian colleagues ( http://www.grida.no/prog/cee/enrin/htmls/georgia/soegeor/). Formally the group belongs to the Ministry of Environment of Georgia and may be an efficient national liaison in the domain, provided that a solution for Internet connection is found.