Development of Ukrainian STACCIS

Information Demonstration Centre in Kyiv

Kyiv 1998

Important contribution into development and usage of new technologies in Europe and in CIS countries is connected with the realization of the international project STACCIS (Support for Telematics Applications Cooperation with the Commonwealth of Independent States). The present report contains the main results on creation Ukrainian STACCIS Information Demonstration Centre (IDC) in Kyiv. The national IDC users have an access not only to the information base of IDC itself and WWW-servers connected with it, but also to the information resources of the Internet global network.

The STACCIS project which started in 1996 is directed to the development of collaboration in the sphere of the applied networking technologies used in education, scientific research and works on ecology in the states of the European Union (EU) and the European states of CIS: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belorussia, Georgia, Moldova, Russian Federation, and Ukraine. Later the circle of the CIS countries participating in STACCIS project has widened by including the Middle Asia states of the former USSR.

The principal tasks of the project include:

• Study of the existing networking resources and formation of the specialized national coordination structures;

• Analysis of the achievements, work methods and the problems of the applied networking technology development;

• Elaboration and realization of the information strategy plans.

At the previous stages in 1996-1997 the first two problems were solved and the principles of Information-Demonstration Centres system formation were defined in order to realize the project information strategy. In 1998 the second phase of STACCIS project started. A schedule of work accomplishment and carrying-out of the main organization measures for the period of 1998 beginning - 1999 middle has been elaborated. The creation of the Ukrainian STACCIS Information Demonstration centre (IDC) started at 1997, when Web-site of educational component of Ukrainian STACCIS IDC deployed at IRTC at Glushkov institute of Cybernetics.

The contract Ref.98 STACCIS 03, made between EDNES (Earth Data Network for Education and Scientific Exchange) and the NTUU "KPI" (National Technical University of Ukraine "Kyiv Polytechnic Institute") appeared to become the grounds for activation of second stage of the Ukrainian STACCIS Information Demonstration centre (IDC) developing. The main task of Contract to carry out the duties of subcontractor to EDNES as defined in the project "Support Telematics Application Cooperation with the Commonwealth of Independent States (STACCIS)", executed by UNESCO and EDNES on behalf of EC DG XIIIC, including:

1. Develop functions, structure and contents of research and environmental component of Ukrainian STACCIS Information Demonstration centre (IDC) in National Technical University of Ukraine "Kyiv Polytechnic Institute" providing access to relevant information resources in Ukraine. Provide liaison with educational component of Ukrainian STACCIS Information Demonstration centre deployed at International Research and Training Centre (IRTC) at Glushkov Institute of Cybernetics.

This position of contract includes the following stages:

1. Prepare the enumeration of relevant existing local IDC resources, including:
   library;
   computer equipment;
   WWW resources (including the STACCIS Web-site at IRTC);
   on-line courseware;
   and submit to EDNES not later than December 7, 1998
2. Submit to EDNES the workplan of Kyiv IDC research and environmental component development in 1998 not later than December 7, 1998. Specify:
   a) equipment and documentation;
   b) schedule and scheme of functioning;
   c) training/consultations of the personnel responsible for the IDC development.
3. Deploy local area network in Kyiv IDC including installation of computer equipment not later than December 25, 1998
4. Update STACCIS Ukrainian Web-site by creating Kyiv IDC Research and Environmental Web-site not later than December 25, 1998
5. Submit to EDNES the report on the development of Kyiv IDC not later than December 25, 1998 (including references from three IDC users).
6. Ensure full operations and permanent linking and mirroring at Moscow STACCIS high speed connection Internet server of Kyiv IDC Web site. Supply the information to EDNES for updating Kyiv IDC mirror in Moscow not later than December 30, 1998 and January 15, 1999.

Additional task, formulated in Contract, is to carry out following:

1. Conduct all required preparations to the second STACCIS Demonstration Workshop "Telematics Applications for Research and Environmental Protection", 18-20 February, 1999, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2. Perform the second STACCIS Demonstration Workshop "Telematics Applications for Research and Environmental Protection", 18-20 February, 1999 in Kyiv , Ukraine.

This position of contract includes the following stages:

In accordance with the information strategy program for STACCIS IDC the detailed plan of the Ukrainian STACCIS IDC in Kyiv practical realization corresponding to the contract conditions (Article 1 point 1,3,4,6) was submitted to EDNES and approved in September, 1998.

The Ukrainian STACCIS IDC in Kyiv have a wide circle of users in the scientific-educational sphere: professors, post-graduates, students and research workers, — in the mastering and using of the applied networking technologies. The information base resources are continually renewed, the information exchange with other national IDC and the WWW STACCIS IDC in Moscow is conducted.

The infrastructure of Ukrainian STACCIS IDC in Kyiv has been worked out on the basis of recommendations, examined and adopted at the meetings of national coordinators in Kyiv (December, 1996) and in Moscow (October, 1997). The main tasks and approaches to creation of IDCs in Russian Federation (Moscow), Belorussia (Minsk), Azerbaijan (Baku), Moldova (Kishinev) and other countries-STACCIS project participants, permitted to diversify Ukrainian STACCIS IDC in Kyiv content and to take into account the experience on working out of the IDC information infrastructure.

The main aims and purposes of Ukrainian STACCIS IDC in Kyiv include:

• Support of direct connections with the Ukrainian specialists working in the networking technologies in various organizations with their colleagues in Ukraine and their colleagues in West Europe and CIS countries, including joint participation in international projects.

• Development of information exchange and creation of networking infrastructure on the basis of the international standards, using the experience of the European countries;

• Training for users of information and networking technologies, including the methods of distant education.

In July-October, 1996, STACCIS project coordinators from UNESCO and EDNES visited Kyiv in order to acquaint themselves with the real position in the sphere of the development of networking resources, staff qualification and users groups requirements. They had contacts and discussions in the Ministry of Education of Ukraine, National Academy of Science of Ukraine, National Technical University of Ukraine "Kyiv Polytechnic Institute" (NTUU "KPI"), International Research and Training Centre (IRTC) at Glushkov Institute of Cybernetics. The national coordination structure on STACCIS project in Ukraine has been created; the leading institution and the national coordinator was determined as a result of these consultations. In accordance with the plan on STACCIS project in Ukraine, being a part of the Telematics Application Program — Project No. SU 1116 EU (STACCIS), from the middle of 1996 the National Technical University of Ukraine "Kyiv Polytechnic Institute" (NTUU "KPI"), International Research and Training Centre (IRTC) at Glushkov Institute of Cybernetics and State Research Centre "Fonon" was established as the leading organization in Ukraine. Later on the process of the STACCIS project development, a number of other organizations, such as Institute of Applied Systems Analysis of National Academy of Science of Ukraine, showed their interest in participation in the project according to some concrete directions.

The list of organizations and persons, responsible for promotion and realization of the project main blocks (education, ecology and environment protection, Geophysics monitoring and basic telecommunication means), has been formed (Appendix 1).

The work leading executor and coordinator on Ukrainian STACCIS IDC in Kyiv creation project is National Technical University of Ukraine "Kyiv Polytechnic Institute" (NTUU "KPI") — STACCIS national Focal Point in Ukraine. NTUU "KPI" specialists have fulfilled the principal stages of work on design and practical realization of Ukrainian STACCIS IDC. Web-site of Ukrainian STACCIS IDC, connected with education & training was worked out in International Research and Training Centre (IRTC) at Glushkov Institute of Cybernetics in 1997.

In conformity with the Workplan of Ukrainian STACCIS IDC creation and concerted distribution of duties between the organizations-participants NTUU "KPI" handled the following tasks: IDC structure elaboration; Technical providing of IDC Web-site; Software support of IDC Web-site functioning; Practical work on information filling of IDC; Management of IDC Web-site and the continuous development of databases and information services.

In carrying out separate works, preparation of materials and information for including into IDC Web-site took part:

• Information Systems Design Bureau (ISTB), National Technical University of Ukraine "Kyiv Polytechnic Institute";
• Information Technologies Laboratory (ITL) of Physics & Technology School, National Technical University of Ukraine "Kyiv Polytechnic Institute";
• Computer Systems Laboratory (CSL) of Institute of Applied Systems Analysis, National Technical University of Ukraine "Kyiv Polytechnic Institute";
• International Research and Training Centre (IRTC) at Glushkov Institute of Cybernetics;
• Ukrainian Institute of Scientific-Technical and Economic Information (UISTEI);
• Information Technology Research Centre;
• Centre of Information Resources;
• Consulting and Intellectual Property Centre;

The works on realization of Ukrainian STACCIS IDC in Kyiv infrastructure is carrying out the scientists and specialists from various scientific and educational organizations were involved. It gave the opportunity to take into account the specificity and the interests of the users in different establishments on the stage of the designing of a functional structure of a national IDC with the aim of the maximum usage of the accumulated potential and experience.

In accordance with the Contract No. Ref. 98 STACCIS 03 a detailed Workplan of creation of STACCIS IDC in Kyiv has been elaborated and submitted to EDNES. The specialists of National Technical University of Ukraine "Kyiv Polytechnic Institute" and International Research and Training Centre (IRTC) at Glushkov Institute of Cybernetics by joint efforts have worked out the basic variant of the plan. The plan has been discussed with the representatives of the organizations, participated in creation of Ukrainian IDC. Many of their proposals and additions were included into the next reductions of the Working plan. After the stage had been fulfilled the representatives of the leading organizations of other countries, taking part in the STACCIS project, could acquaint themselves with the working plan. The notes of EDNES STACCIS executive staff have been taken into account in the final variant of the Working plan. The practical realization of Ukrainian IDC Web-site has been conducted in accordance with the program, contained in the Workplan.

Information needs of the potential users of Ukrainian IDC have been examined. The main groups of IDC users have been systematized. The first group includes those who interact with the IDC information base within or via the organizations, participating in STACCIS. This group was supposed to dominate on the first stage of realization of the IDC. The second group includes those who use Internet resources for the access to IDC information base via Web-site. The first group includes;

• Research scientists, professors, teachers and specialists;
• Post-graduate students, students, and college pupils — mainly from Kyiv;
• Specialists in the sphere of informatics and computer science, who study the Internet network facilities;
• Listeners of various courses organized in the framework of the STACCIS project in Ukraine, as well as listeners of other courses organized by the IRTC.

The second group will possibly include:

• Specialists, post-graduate students, students, college pupils from different cities of Ukraine;

• Representatives of the educational organizations, interested in development of contacts and exchange of experience and information with the colleagues in different cities of Ukraine;

• Foreign scientists and specialists, participating in joint investigations and projects with representatives of the scientific community of Ukraine;

• The representatives of the scientific community of European countries, wishing to acquaint themselves with science development in Ukraine, with the results of Ukrainian research workers;

• Representatives of international and state organizations of European countries, wishing to receive information about Ukraine according to the directions, being in the frames of the STACCIS project.

Taking into account that the STACCIS project aim is to widen contacts of the communities of the countries from CIS and Europe in various spheres, being of mutual interest, the created information base must be wide enough and facilitate in future the information exchange not only in the scientific-educational domain, but in economics, business, culture, etc.

The obtained information on potential needs of the users was utilized at the design of the IDC information base structure. During the process of the practical exploitation of IDC the corresponding corrections will be introduced into IDC Web-site structure.

Information about the aims of the STACCIS project, the general situation of works according to the project in Ukraine, the main results on the creation of Ukrainian IDC Web-site will be presented at on-site demonstration at the Workshop to take place in Kyiv on February 18-20, 1999.

At the first stage the Workplan of creation of the Information-Demonstration Centre (IDC) was prepared. The plan included the detailed information on basic purposes of the project, structure of the project, concept of creation, stages of realization of IDC Web-site and necessary equipment. The working plan was submitted to EDNES. The questions of convenience of usage, presentation of the information and informative capacity of databases were considered. After discussions on the presented Workplan the updating and additions were done, which have allowed improving structure and design of the WEB-site.

The decision was made to develop two Web-sites of the Ukrainian IDC. The first one had to be placed in the International Research and Training Centre (IRTC) at Glushkov Institute of Cybernetics, which had better Internet connectivity. The main topic of that Web-site was educational aspect of the STACCIS project. The second one had to be placed at the National Technical University of Ukraine "Kyiv Polytechnic Institute" and had to integrate in its database all concerned topics, including the first Web-site as its part.

After approval of the given plan the technical base for creation and installation of information base IDC was prepared. On the basis of detailed inventory of software and technical equipment for realization of IDC the basic toolkit was chosen. Taking into account Web-surfing possibilities of potential users of IDC Web-site, some decisions on principles of Web-site design were made.

The most of potential users of the IDC Web-site use such Web-browsing programs as Netscape Navigator and Netscape Communicator (v. 2.X, 3.X, 4.05, 4.06) and Microsoft Internet Explorer (v. 3.X, 4.X) running under the following operating systems: Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, LINUX, Free BSD on personal workstations and different UNIX systems like AIX and SOLARIS on servers.

Since most of the users possess relatively slow Internet connectivity and different (sometimes not up-to date) versions of Web browsing software, the decision was made not to use in basic pages of the Web-site such sophisticated possibilities in Web design as multiple-frame pages, Jawa applets, etc. Main Web-pages of the Ukrainian IDC Web-site are developed on the basis of HTML — Hyper Text Markup Language — and simplest Jawa scripts, and can be browsed by different browsing software with basically identical appearance.

The works on creation of the Web-site were carried out according to the working schedule of realization of the project. Technical base of the project, information servers and the communication lines will be in details described below.

The development of the first Web-site of Ukrainian STACCIS IDC was finished in 1997. All developers of the project have taken part in discussion of the detailed scheme of information structure of IDC and its basic sections. The created pilot IDC Web-site project version was exposed to careful testing on all mentioned above Web-browsers to eliminate the known problem of different display of pages in different browsers, and even in the different versions of the same browser, for example in Netscape Navigator and Netscape Communicator. Reprogramming of the information database was carried out to achieve basically identical display of the information on all browsers. The special attention was given to design of Web pages, uniform style of information representation.

The development of the second Web-site of Ukrainian STACCIS IDC was finished in December 1998. This Web site is considered to be the main integrating site. The experience of the exploitation of the first Web site as well as some new tendencies in Web design led to slightly different approach to the design of pages. For example, designers decided to avoid using frames at all, since even simplest pages with frames look differently in different browsers, and this problem became even more serious with the new versions of the most popular browsers. The created pilot project of the second Web-site was also exposed to careful testing on different Web-browsers. The special attention was given to design of Web pages, uniform style of information representation, and to integration of the first existing Web site into the structure of the second one.

IDC Web-site was placed on Ukrainian IDC Web server at NTUU "KPI" with the following URL — http://ptf.ntu-kpi.kiev.ua/staccis/. At the same time works were organized for mirroring of Ukrainian IDC Web-site on Moscow major Web-site — basic unit of the project STACCIS. The high-speed connection with Moscow server is provided by means of available IDC technical base.

The Ukrainian IDC Web-site consists of two parts, each actually being a separate Web-site. The main Web-site, located at the NTUU "KPI", contains links to the other one, located at the IRTC. The complete IDC Web-site structure is presented on Fig. 1.

The main idea of design of the IDC Web-site was to create an integrating Web-pages containing a large number of links to other Web-sites with the information of interest, rather than to collect all the information within the IDC Web-site.

The introductory index page of the Web-site, shown on Fig. 2, contains five basic links to the sections of the site.

At this page, subdivided in a number of sections, an information about STACCIS, objectives of the project, National coordinating structure, organizations participating in the project can be found (Fig. 3). The page contains a number of links to related Web-sites, especially to STACCIS Web-sites, and Web-sites of participating organizations.

At this page, subdivided in several sections, an information about Kyiv IDC is given. The page contains the information about the objectives of the IDC, structure of the IDC, its computer and network resources, location of the IDC.

This is a direct link to the IDC Web-site, located at the International Research and Training Centre (IRTC) at Glushkov Institute of Cybernetics. The introductory page of this site is shown on Fig. 4. The site contains a lot of information, especially about telematics in education and training (Fig. 5), Internet literacy, virtual libraries, different courses-by-Internet, etc.

This page contains information about STACCIS activities, Ukrainian IDC activities, and also links to publications of STACCIS Newsletters.

The page contains a big collection of Internet links, classified and ordered in a number of sections. The collection especially contains links to Web-sites of organizations participating in STACCIS, organizations specialized in telematics, Ukrainian Internet providers, WWW directories, guides and search engines. A big section of the collection contains different classified and ordered links to the Web-sites providing information about Ukraine, its culture and history, official sites of governmental organizations, virtual libraries, etc. The top of the page is shown on Fig. 6.

For the maintenance of normal operation of the Information-Demonstration Centre and ensuring an execution of the tasks a number of services are supported in the structure of the Centre. At present the following services are developed:

• library service;
• consulting service;
• Web-visibility service;
• demonstration service;
• observation service;
• information search and retrieval.

Library service is directed to the realization of systematic collection and organization of a simple access to all own information bases, granting of demonstration and consultation services.

Library service should ensure systematic collection and easy access to relevant publications on telematics related standards, networking technology, human-computer interfaces, multimedia, network security, etc.

Consulting service should provide free advice and consulting on the development, exploiting and upgrading of the existing computer telecommunication resources for the network users, assistance for establishing the direct links between the developers if the telecommunication technologies and the end users, troubleshooting with already acquired telematics application products. Part of the service should be provided by an on-line help desk incorporated in the STACCIS Web site.

One of the functions of a Ukrainian STACCIS IDC in Kyiv is to develop and to run permanently the Web site of Ukrainian STACCIS IDC in Kyiv with up-to-date information on the STACCIS project and specific project-related activities in the area of competence of the Ukrainian STACCIS IDC. This service also assumes responsibility for the electronic publishing of the project-related documentation, such as Newsletters, documentation directories and archives, mailing lists and bulletin boards.

The Web site contains the information for all interested persons about activity, structure, plans, projects, possibilities of all services of Ukrainian IDC. The Web site also contains references to the main Web site of STACCIS project in Moscow and on the IDC sites of countries-participants in STACCIS project.

The functions of demonstration service are to establish and maintain technical cooperation and direct contacts with the developers and providers of the applied telecommunication technologies in the scope of STACCIS project activities. It provides to maintain stable connections with the relevant Web sites to make of on-demand interactive demonstrations of remote resources as well as specialized on-site computer demonstrations of the applications and products.

Observation of the recent developments in the telematics technologies, developments and available products in the classical horizontal scheme (tracing of the existing applications and the information analysis targeted on the efficient chaining of the applications and potential users) should be augmented by a system of interstate observation. And interconnection of the telematics activities and users groups in the CIS partner countries with the goal to achieve synergy in the use of resources and current developments in the sectors of mutual interest.

Ukrainian STACCIS IDC in Kyiv should provide efficient mechanism for information search and retrieval in the global telecommunication networks to users and the STACCIS project participants. For this purpose, in addition to standard search mechanisms, specialized custom search bases for different users groups and professional interests should be built and disseminated within the network of Ukrainian STACCIS IDC in Kyiv. In course of day-to-day operation, this service is supposed also to accumulate and process access statistics so as to provide guidelines and recommendations for the central and regional cache services.

At present Ukraine possess developed network infrastructure. While at the beginning of the STACCIS project it was noted that Internet services are not accessible to the most of Ukrainian people and even to many organizations, now the situation changes rapidly. A number of Internet providers offers their services with competitive prices and quality in all big cities of Ukraine. In the sphere of telecommunications rapid development of fiber networks and digital telephone communications are observed (Fig. 7). This makes STACCIS objectives more actual, and sets high standards to the IDC services and technical basis.

The Ukrainian IDC in Kyiv is located at the organizations that posses developed infrastructure available for IDC purposes. The structure of network at National Technical University of Ukraine "Kyiv Polytechnic Institute" is considered below.

NTUU "KPI" network is based on the fiber network backbone (Fig. 9, 10). LANs of departments are based on 10 Mbps Ethernet of different topology. A number of faculties of the University possess computer laboratories for specific educational purposes. Typically such laboratories are equipped by 10-20 IBM-compatible workstations with 486 DX 2 – 66 or higher processors, SVGA color monitors, running under Windows OS, and LAN server based on Intel Pentium® processor, running under Free BSD, Red Hat Linux of Windows NT operating systems. For the IDC purposes the two most advanced laboratories were selected. The detailed description of the laboratories is given below. Currently the NTUU "KPI" is connected to the Internet via Kyiv Pilot Network ISF node. Typically the bandwidth of the channel is 128 kbps.

Thus the creation of the IDC demanded only purchasing of some additional equipment to satisfy some specific needs of the Information-Demonstration Centre activities.

The following equipment purchased, delivered and installed in Kiev IDC:

• Kiev IDC server of such configuration: AMD-K6-2-300 MHz, SDRAM 128Mb, HDD 6Gb IBM UDMA-33
• Two educational computer laboratories at the Faculty of Physics & Technology (FP&T) and the Institute of Applied System Analysis (IASA) of National Technical University of Ukraine "Kiev Polytechnic Institute" (KPI)

Structure of laboratory at Faculty of Physics and Technology:

Structure of laboratory at Institute of Applied System Analysis:

• Computer laboratory at International Research and Training Centre (IRTC) in the Institute of Cybernetics of Ukrainian Academy of Science.

The IDC is located at two organizations. Main part of the IDC is located at the National Technical University of Ukraine "Kyiv Polytechnic Institute". The IDC uses the developed infrastructure of the university, including its network based on the fiber backbone, library, several computer laboratories, Internet connection channel. For special activities of the IDC some other facilities of the university are available, e.g. conference halls, hotel, etc. Two computer laboratories are considered to be integrated into the IDC structure — the laboratory of the Faculty of Physics and Technology and the laboratory of the Institute of Applied System Analysis.

The educational component of the IDC is located at the International Research and Training Centre at the Glushkov Institute of Cybernetics. The Centre is proficient in telematics technologies in education, especially in the field of computer sciences. Both components of the IDC have good Internet connectivity.

The structure of Ukrainian IDC is shown on Fig. 11.

In accordance with the contract Ref.98 STACCIS 03 conditions, such activities were conducted: functions, structure and contents of research and environmental component of Ukrainian STACCIS Information Demonstration centre (IDC) in National Technical University of Ukraine "Kyiv Polytechnic Institute" were developed, providing access to relevant information resources in Ukraine. Liaison with educational component of Ukrainian STACCIS Information Demonstration centre deployed at International Research and Training Centre (IRTC) at Glushkov Institute of Cybernetics was provided.

In more details, the enumeration of relevant existing local IDC resources, including library; computer equipment; WWW resources (including the STACCIS Web-site at IRTC); on-line courseware was prepared and submitted to EDNES. The workplan of development of Kyiv IDC research and environmental component, specifying equipment and documentation; schedule and scheme of functioning; training/consultations of the personnel responsible for the IDC development was submitted to EDNES. Local area network in Kyiv IDC deployed including installation of computer equipment. STACCIS Ukrainian Web-site updated. full operations and permanent linking and mirroring of Kyiv IDC Web site at Moscow STACCIS high speed connection Internet server ensured.

According to objectives of the STACCIS project the Ukrainian Information-Demonstration Centre was founded in Kyiv. The IDC is located at two organizations — National Technical University of Ukraine "Kyiv Polytechnic Institute" and International Research and Training Centre at Glushkov Institute of Cybernetics. Both organizations are proficient with education and training in the field of computer science. The IDC mainly uses equipment, network facilities and other infrastructure of these organizations. A part of equipment in the International Research and Training Centre was purchased and installed within the STACCIS project.

Activities of the Ukrainian STACCIS IDC in Kyiv serve more widened use of telematics achievements in education, training, scientific research and environmental protection in Ukraine.