Global Interoperability Of Broadband Networks This Project example essay topic

Building Online Communities of PracticeForewordInformation and communication technologies are developing at a breath-taking pace. They repr e-sent the foundation of the coming Information Society which will establish completely new struck-turns in economy and society. This process is chiefly characterised by the globalization of com-muni cation and of all activities linked to it. National frontiers are losing their significance. We are becoming global players, and services and goods can be produced in any part of the world. At the same time there is no aspect of human life and no group in society which is not affected by the new information networks and their potential for growth, wealth-creation and prosperity.

In order to exploit this potential we urgently need international cooperation at all levels and on all factors which impede the full development of the Information Society. In view of this challenge the German government has always placed great emphasis on global cooperation. This was reflected in its active role in the Global Information Society initiative taken by the G 7 Heads of State and Government at the summit meeting in Naples in July 1994 and at the subsequent Ministerial meeting in Brussels in 1995 which launched eleven pilot projects for the Global Information Society. I am delighted to present the final report on this work to the public on the occasion of the Co-lone G 8 summit meeting, which is being held under the German presidency. The pilot projects are an impressive demonstration of the potential of the Information Society in many areas, such as commerce, culture, education, the environment, health and public -ti on. They have led to the establishment of new structures of cooperation which will remain effect-time even after the end of the pilot phase.

The involvement of a growing number of Non-G 8 countries, including developing countries, was one of the most encouraging aspects of the pro-jets, as was the participation of representatives from industry and research. With an enhanced exchange of information and experience the work has raised awareness of po-tertial applications and of policy requirements. The projects have also yielded more tangible re-suits like memoranda of understanding and have given an impetus for standardization and the de- of new goods and services. This was done without any new institution or new funding: the process relied on the goodwill and the commitment of the participants. I hope that the global cooperation to which the pilot projects have contributed, can be further developed and extended. Dr. Werner M"ullerFederal Minister of Economics and Technology Germany June 1999 Contents Foreword by Dr. Werner M"ulcer, Federal Minister of Economics and Technology page 1 Final report on the G 8 Global Information Society Pilot Projects page 4 Annex: Project Reports Global Inventory Project page 12 Global Interoperability for Broadband Networks page 15 Transcultural Education and Training for Language Learning page 19 Electronic Libraries page 23 Multimedia Access To World Cultural Heritage page 28 Environment and Natural Resources Management page 32 Global Emergency Management Information Network Initiative page 35 Global Healthcare Applications page 38 Government On-line page 44 Global Marketplace for Small and Medium Enterprises page 48 Maritime Information Society page 51 The G 8 Global Information Society Pilot Projects Final Report The information society is developing at a rapid pace.

It is changing the way business is done in the private and public sectors and is having real impact on the lives of citizens. The Global Infor-mati on Society initiative taken by the G 7 Heads of State and Government at its summit meeting in Naples in July 1994 and the subsequent Ministerial meeting in Brussels in 1995 with the launching of eleven pilot projects has catalyzed thinking and action for the information society in areas such as commerce, culture, education, the environment, health and public administration. It has enc ou-raged public and private sectors to work together and has led to new common platforms and net-works for cooperation, involving industrialized and developing countries. It has stimulated the creation of markets for new products and services. A number of techno-cal and other obstacles have been identified related to the implementation of practical ap plica-t ions.

In some cases work will continue through collaboration in appropriate international fora. This final report reviews achievements and future pro-sects. 1. Terms of reference The pilot projects had a number of key objectives. They were set up to support the goal of international consensus on common principles governing the need of ac-cess to networks and applications and their interoperability; establish the groundwork for productive forms of cooperation among G 7 partners in order to create a critical mass to address this global issue; create an opportunity for information exchange leading towards the further development of the information society; identify and select projects of an exemplary nature having tangible and clearly under-stand able social, economic and cultural benefits which demonstrate to the public the po-ten-till of the information society; identify obstacles related to the implementation of practical applications serving the creation of a global information society; help to create markets for new products and services, where appropriate. Several guiding principles were agreed for selecting and implementing the project themes in-clouding: adding value for the development of the information society; being relevant to the citizen; stimulating cooperation; encouraging open access and bringing in other countries.

In particular, the pilot projects should not create new bureaucracies or institutions, and should be financed by existing programmes. 2. The pilot projects - Highlights of results Global Inventory Project (GIP) Implemented as an infrastructure of de centralised national inventories, the Global Inventory Project has established a single access point for information on approximately 4000 projects and studies on the development of the global information society. Many sites all over the world are accessible on a multilingual basis, and interest in this inventory is still growing.

Global Interoperability of Broadband Networks (GIBN) This project has accelerated the development of globally interconnected and interoperable broadband information infrastructure, essential to the global information society of the 21st century. It demonstrated a series of advanced broadband applications, raised the general aw a-re ness of their potential and contributed to the development and deployment of advanced tech-no logy, products, services and networks. Transcultural Education and Training for Language Learning (Tel Lingua) The project aimed to give producers, teachers, trainers and citizens a single ac-cess point to re-sources and experiences for language and trans cultural lear-nine through an international net-work of servers. An operational prototype was set up and helped to lay the ground for several virtual language servers. These services follow similar structures in different languages. Electronic Libraries: Bibliotheca Universalis This cultural project has coordinated part of the digitization programmes of the participating libraries through an agreed theme for document digitization "Exchanges between people".

It also led to the establishment of a formal agreement to pursue this co-operation on organisation-na and technical aspects. Multimedia Access to World Cultural Heritage The project has coordinated the combined experience gained by each country in the field of methodological and technological standards thus ethan-c ing the international multi language he-rit age with specific projects such as the Multilingual The sau-rus of Religious Objects of the Roman Catholic Church. Environment and Natural Resources Management (ENRM) The project created the necessary tools for establishing a "virtual library" of environmental and natural resources mana-gem ent using international standards for networked information, dis-co-very and retrieval. It reached an international consensus on a Global Environmental Infor-ma-ti on Locator Service for climate change, biological diversity and other resources.

Global Emergency Management Information Network Initiative (GEMINI) GEMINI covered through demonstration projects and conferences the areas of net-works, communication, support functions and specific hazards with the aim of taking adv an-take of in-formation society tools to help in emergency management on a global scale. The project has been instrumental in laying the ground for a follow-up initiative to develop a Global Disaster Information Network. Global Healthcare Applications (GHAP) Subprojects demonstrated how medical databases, images, health cards and computer based training material can be used internationally, and how remote second opinions in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and heart di sea-ses can be achieved. The project contributed to the set-ting of global standards.

Government On-Line (GOL) The project focused on ways of providing on-line services to citizens. Collaboration in 32 key subject areas has resulted in shared approaches, identified best practices, and given added im-pet us on the development of new policies and actions around the world. Global Marketplace for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Concentrating on increased competitiveness and participation in global trade for smaller com-panties, the project set up an international business information network on the Web. It success-fully catalyzed a common vision of electronic commerce policy development around the world, supported some thirty international testbeds and published a best practice guide for SMEs.

Maritime Information Society (MARIS) MARIS supported applications of information technologies in the maritime sector - creating synergies and new solutions for the benefit of maritime industries. The project actively contr i-but ed to standardization in the field and established global and regional maritime information and collaboration networks. A detailed description of all projects and their results can be found in the Annex. 3. Assessment The G 8 pilot projects succeeded in giving strong impetus to- an enhanced exchange of information, experience and expertise in the various project areas on a global level reaching far beyond the G 8 countries- the establishment of strong cooperative links between various partners in the world leading to a substantial number of concrete projects and initiatives- demonstrating the potential and raising the awareness of information society applications- promoting cultural diversity and demonstrating the importance and feasibility of multilingual applications - the worldwide establishment of physical infrastructures and applications as well as of co-operation networks- identifying barriers regarding the implementation of applications and ways to overcoming them- the development of new products and services.

The work has contributed substantially to the promotion of standards in in for-mati on networks and has given inputs to digitize information resources and promote their dissemination. Operative cooperation structures were established which will be kept alive after the end of the pilot project phase. The pilot projects have given an important input to policy development and have led to inter-national agreements. In line with the Ministerial decision in Brussels in 1995, the pilot projects were implemented without the creation of new bureaucracies or institutions, and were financed by existing pro-gram mes. 4.

Conclusions and Perspectives The G 8 Global Information Society pilot projects have successfully demonstrated the potential of the Global Information Society in areas such as commerce, culture, education, the environ-men, health and public administration. They have stimulated cooperation of various actors in G 8 and Non-G 8 countries thus foster-ring a common vision and direction of information society applications. This growing involvement of Non-G 8 countries including developing countries was one of the most en-cour aging achievements and reflects the global character of the new information society. The pilot projects will have a lasting effect through the establishment of cooperative structures and the continuation of various joint projects and initiatives, the generation of various inputs for discussion and negotiation in national and international fora, and the support of knowledge and technology transfer to third countries including developing countries. The continuation of these efforts should be encouraged in the appropriate national and international frameworks.

Annex Theme 1: Global Inventory Project (GIP) Theme 2: Global Interoperability for Broadband Networks (GIBN) Theme 3: Transcultural Education and Training for Language Learning (Tel Lingua) Theme 4: Electronic Libraries (Bibliotheca Universalis) Theme 5: Multimedia Access To World Cultural Heritage Theme 6: Environment and Natural Resources Management (ENRM) Theme 7: Global Emergency Management Information Network Ini- (GEMINI) Theme 8: Global Healthcare Applications (GHAP) Theme 9: Government On-line (GOL) Theme 10: Global Marketplace for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Theme 11: Maritime Information Society (MARIS) Global Inventory Project (GIP) G 8 Pilot Project Theme 1 Final Report 1. Purpose and Objectives of the Pilot Project The purpose of the Global Inventory Project (GIP) was to provide a one stop facility on the World Wide Web by linking distributed national and international inventories of projects, studies and other activities relevant to the promotion and the further development of knowledge and un-der standing of the Global Information Society. The objectives of the Global Inventory Project were set as the following: 1 To act as an international point of reference that will assist in the promotion of the Infor-mati on Society, 2 To establish a network for the free exchange of information about national and interna-tonal initiatives relating to the Information Society (electronic forum), 3 To promote and gain understanding of the impact of the Information Society activity on the economy, industry and society as a whole, 4 To foster international alliance building and multinational projects and investments. The Global Inventory Project was launched in 1995 as a G 7 Information Society pilot project, un-der the leadership of the European Commission (chair) and Japan (co-chair). 2. Accomplishments The members of the G 8-GIP Steering Committee agreed that the pilot service has reached the objectives and expectations: it provides a single multilingual window to a large number of projects related to the Information Society providing clear interfaces and ways to welcome further contr i-but ions and partners.

Its success was achieved by a cooperative effort of the participating G 8 and non-G 8 countries. The resulting Global Inventory is accessible at web Its original and transferable solutions add value to similar initiatives carried out by other countries. It is of interest and of use to businesses, in particular SMEs; it illustrates innovative information technologies and best pray-times; it is significant from an educational and training point of view; and it fosters research and development geared towards the advancement of the Information Society. The Global Inventory is a real working system, using advanced state-of-the-art technology. It uses standard World Wide Web browsers, making it easily accessible.

The GIP is designed to be a de-centralised inventory; participating countries use their own national servers for their national in-ven tories, although the GIP server is also available as an offshore host. Each inventory is a self-contained unit with indexing and search capabilities. All indexes are combined on the GIP host to create a global master search index of all national entries based on a multilingual keyword search. Data entry is based on a common Minimum Data Set. The central server is hosted by ISAC (Information Society Activity Centre) of the European Commission, to which the individual, na-tonal inventories are linked. The Global Inventory makes information accessible to all in several languages.

At the moment, Arabic, French, German, Italian, English, Japanese, Spanish, and Portuguese are supported. An "electronic forum" provides an opportunity for the creation of partnership, and for sharing of experiences. This constitutes opportunities for creating alliances for the development of Informa-ti on Society applications. The number of GIP database entries, including national inventory links, off-shore links, NGO links and a number of R&D and other program-based links, totals currently 3.760 entries and the number of GIP website customer hits amounts to 14.000 hits per day in February 1999. Approxi-mate ly eighty-five country domains contacted the GIP servers.

The visibility of the GIP has been promoted by all partners in several international conferences. Special GIP Awareness days were organised, leading to an increase of customers. Technical sup-port as well as public relations materials were provided. In this way, the GIP has evolved beyond its G 8 boundaries and now welcomes the participation of all countries, international institutions, non-governmental organizations, initiatives of the private sector etc., having interest in developing a strategy towards the deployment of the Global Information Society and wishing to share in this experience. The participating countries include the original G 7 countries (Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, United States), and also the Republic of Korea, Switzerland, Egypt, Po-land, as well as South Africa. Other entities include the European Commission, Global Bang-mann Challenge, GIP (African Global Inventory Project) and PICT A (Partnership for ICT in Africa), The World Bank, and the Internet Fiesta initiative.

All partners have contributed to the success of the GIP. Its achievements and its impact are: The coordination of physically distributed inventories through a simple and robust data struck-turn and a simple management structure (GIP Steering Committee), The integration of various independently developed databases, expanding out of the initial ker-new of the few founding IS inventories, The provision of a multilingual interface, easily extensible to new language interfaces, The rapid and efficient handling of initiatives through an off-shore service, The potential of the software to monitor the development of the Global Information So-city and to provide on-line services (catalogue, newsletter, posted requests, forum, etc). The GIP has had a positive impact on implementing the G 7 initial goal to demonstrate the po ten-till of the Global Information Society and to promote its deployment. It is a true example of in-ter nationalization of efforts. The Global Inventory Project has had an enormous success in attracting, through its national in-ven tories, a lot of individual sites of various sectors, also in countries outside the G 8 area. It al-lows to identify Information Society related activities world-wide, in many national languages.

This led to a strong interest, and the number of visitors to the GIP site has enormously increased, confirming the usefulness of the Global Inventory Project, and the need for such an inventory. 3. Conclusions and Perspectives The Global Inventory has the potential to become an important global reference point for the Global Information Society. Relevant information can be exchanged world-wide. The end of the pilot phase is now the opportunity to define its definite operational structure.

A number of proposals concerning further development of the GIP as a service have been made. For instance, the content should be increased to achieve more added value, editing should be given more attention, and the multilingual functionality should be further promoted. However, only a strong international multilateral commitment to invest in the service would lead to success. ISAC, the Information Society Activity Centre of the European Commission, will run the main GIP server up to the end of 1999 with internal resources. The national inventories of the partners will be maintained in the same way.

The G 8 partners are establishing a plan for the continued ser-vice of the GIP, depending on the commitment and the willingness of the partners to its con-tina-ti on. This might include a clear definition of the mission of the GIP for the future, its opera-tonal structure, and the benefits to users, like citizens, government or industry. Part of the plan will be the further extension of the GIP to countries outside the G 8 environment. In late 1999, a workshop will be arranged to review the role, the achievements and the impact of the GIP, and to pave the way for its continuation. Further information: web BoesEuropean CommissionDGX local Interoperability for Broadband Networks (GIBN) G 8 Pilot Project Theme 2 Final Report 1. Purpose and Objectives of the Pilot Project Ministers at the G 7 Conference on the Information Society in 1995 agreed on the need to pro-mote the interconnection of national broadband networks and testbeds for research and education at the international and global levels.

The GIBN project was considered by many as essential to accelerate the deployment of enabling broadband infrastructures for leading-edge global research and education, as well as economic, social and cultural development - the focus of many of the 10 other pilot project themes launched at the same time. The fundamental objective of Global Interoperability for Broadband Networks was to improve the general level of inter connectivity and interoperability amongst existing and planned high speed networks and testbeds for research and education world-wide. This was to be acco m-polished by promoting the establishment of improved international broadband connections that would support flexibility of configuration and testing of protocols and applications, first among the three main geographic areas of the G 7 countries: North America, Europe and Japan. The goals for achieving this objective included: - the identification of shortfalls so that those responsible may take appropriate actions; - the provision of means for intercontinental testing of broadband applications while un-der development; and - the active promotion of stable interconnections amongst the various advanced net-works.

A GIBN Steering Committee was formed to oversee the implementation of the project. The Committee was represented by senior government officials of the G 7, and subsequently G 8, part-news, including the European Commission. Representative of other national, regional and interna-tonal organizations were often invited to participate in Steering Committee meetings and other activities that it organized. These include: - government entities funding national broadband infrastructures for research and educa-ti on, and also supporting advanced communications research; - representatives of national advanced networks for research and education, usually non-profit entities; - representatives of regional and international organizations concerned with the intercom- of advanced research networks and testbeds; and- telecommunications carriers who supply broadband connectivity on a commercial or coll a- basis. 2.

Accomplishments It was clear from the beginning that the development of broadband networks and applications was confronted with a "chicken and egg" kind of problem, between the demand of broadband services and availability of broadband international networks. The problem was tackled through two ap-p roaches. The first task was to demonstrate the potential and stimulate the demand. Initially, there were hardly in existence transcontinental networks to support broadband applications. With the support of a number of international carriers, several trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific submarine fibre-optic cable and satellite links were made available for fixed durations. This permitted a selected number of applications with high visibility and potential, involving two or more continents to be carried out.

The durations of the application trials and demonstrations varied from several months to a year. In total, 18 demonstrations, experiments and trials were carried out involving two or more countries across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. They concerned a wide range of applications, including: a) tell-medicine in treatment of cancer, neurology and coronary heart disease, collaborative microsurgery, and cardiovascular health network; b) tell-education, such as trans-oceanic virtual classroom and summer school; c) collaborative simulation and visualization in industrial design; d) remote collaboration in high-performance computational research, specifically in high energy and nuclear physics; e) distributed studio production in film making; f) remote high-definition video post-production; g) HDTV interoperability experiment; and) collaborative development of advanced research networks and global computing infrastructure. All of these applications were successfully carried out with a great deal gained in terms of technical and operational feasibility and in some cases economic viability of such advanced, next-generation applications and services. Several applications, e.g. the satellite-based high definition video post-production and collaborative simulation and visualization in aircraft design, broke new grounds in terms of scope and speed.

The other major task of GIBN was to facilitate the interconnection of existing or planned na-tonal broadband research networks and testbeds in the G 8 and other countries via inter conti- broadband links, with a view to creating a permanent global broadband infrastructure for research and education. As several national and regional broadband research networks and testbeds had already existed before the inception of GIBN, the challenge was to link these net-works across the oceans. It was envisaged that with the establishment of a global broadband infrastructure, new and innovative application trials and experiments could be carried out in much greater number, collaboratively internationally. The task, however, was much more complex, since in addition to practical and financial aspects of interconnection, policy issues involved in trans-oceanic inter connectivity and interoperability of national and regional networks, such as cost-sharing of intercontinental links, transit traffic, acceptable use or user policy etc., also had to be addressed. As a result of this work, directly or indirectly, a number of permanent or quasi-permanent operational broadband interconnections across the Atlantic and the Pacific have been established, involving non-G 8 as well as G 8 countries. The problem of interconnection and transit has been tackled in different ways in Europe, North America, and the Asia Pacific.

In Europe, the inter connectivity has been facilitated through shared, free-transit backbone infrastructure TEN-155, to which all the European NRN's are contributing and are connected. In the Asia Pacific Region, several initiatives to provide inter connectivity and interoperability among the research networks and tes beds have been promoted in cooperation with a group of networks, namely X, A PII testbeds, MAFF IN, R WCP, S INET, TRANSP AC, SingAREN, and WIDE, which formed a consortium of not-for-profit organization named Asia-Pacific Advanced Network (APAN). In North America, a transit access point, named STAR-TAP, was established in Chicago. It was widely connected to from various national and regional networks. In addition to the high-speed networks of the U.S. (e.g. vBN S, DREN, ES Net and NRN), other national research and educational networks connected, or soon to be connected, to STAR-TAP include those of Ca-nad a (Cnet-2), Singapore (SingaREN), Taiwan (Tenet), Russia (Mir NET), the Asian-Pacific Advanced Network consortium (APAN), the Nordic countries (NORDUnet), the Ne-ther lands (SURFnet), France (RENATE R), and Israel.

However, Germany, Italy and the UK NRN's have not yet connected to STAR-TAP, due to AUP and other problems, which are expected to be re-solved in the near future. It is expected that other transit access points will be established in other regions of the world, as well as in other parts of North America, in the future. Policy issues such as cost-sharing and acceptable use or user policy, which are essential to full global interoperability, have also been addressed. A comparative study of Acceptable Use (r) Po-lilies is currently underway under the leadership of Japan. However, it was found that international consensus on these issues will require more time to build than that available during the term of GIBN as a pilot project. It is expected that the resolution of such issues will be further pursued through existing international organizations.

In addition to the above, GIBN has organized a series of high profile demonstrations at major international conferences, as well as workshops. These events have contributed greatly to raising the general awareness of the potential of advanced information technologies and services. 3. Conclusions and Perspectives The GIBN Pilot Project has accomplished its goals and objectives as set forth by the G 7 Minis-term at their Brussels Conference in February 1995. Working cooperatively together, the G 8 partners have undertaken joint projects, trials, demonstrations, activities and other initiatives to facilitate and accelerate the development of interconnected and interoperable advanced global information infrastructure.

With the support and cooperation of the private sector and interna-tonal organizations, a series of trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific broadband applications were successfully carried out, raising the awareness of the potential of advanced information net-works and services. More importantly, as a result of the GIBN efforts, directly and indirectly, a solid foundation for an interconnected and interoperable global broadband infrastructure was laid, with an increasing number of national and regional advanced research and education networks and testbeds having been connected, and promising and innovative new services being carried out. By bringing together the key stakeholders from the G 8 partners and the interested regional and international organizations, GIBN identified and built consensus on critical policy, technical, or- and financial issues that impeded the development and rapid evolution of high speed, multi-protocol, multi-service global networks. Through broad international -ti on, GIBN enhanced knowledge base, increased awareness of the potential of advanced apply-cations, and stimulated the development and deployment of broadband networks and services. The accomplishments of GIBN were significant. However, all the worthwhile tasks initiated by GIBN have not been concluded.

It is expected that international organizations will take up the remaining and ongoing challenges to fully achieve the goals and objectives of GIBN. Further information: web StoryGIBN has accelerated the development of globally interconnected and interoperable high-speed and high-performance information infrastructure, thus laying the foundation for the global information society of the 21st century. Through GIBN, a series of advanced broadband applications were demonstrated or tested at a global level, thus raising the general awareness of the potential of the global information society. It has also contributed to the development and deployment of advanced technology, products, services, and networks essential to the realization of the promises of the global information society. Transcultural Education and Training for Language Learning (Tel Lingua) G 8 Pilot Project Theme 3 Final Report 1. Purpose and Objectives of the Pilot Project Acting globally in the information society of the immediate future demands cooperation amongst citizens on a global scale, over different cultures and languages, to an extent not necessary in the past.

Helping people with adequate and effective resources to learn better how to communicate while retaining their cultural and linguistic diversity gives the concept of a global information so-city real meaning to citizens, because this can concretize the vision of technology which supports the exploit-tat ion of cultural diversity and richness globally, rather than a uniform monolingual she-na rio which forces people to adapt to technology instead of technology adapting to people. This unique challenge of enabling more people to learn more (and more rapidly) about other cut-turns and languages than ever before cannot be met successfully without the help of exactly those same technologies which create this demand. As in the past, great educational changes can only be mas-tired when different players cooperate: public institutions and authorities, economics and the sci-en ces (as was necessary, for example, after Gutenberg's invention of the printing press). Network-based intensive cross-cultural education and training is a highly promising perspective for the near future, not yet a broad area of application in everyday practice. In most developed countries, large-scale implementation will trigger new alliances between actors from the trad i-tonal education and training field and technology and service providers of all types. Facilitating and speeding up that process was the central focus of the pilot project as well as its core outcome.

This overall goal has to be brought down to concrete actions, which should strictly follow the pr in- of subsidiarity: the means to identify actions and developments already underway or to be car-red out shortly under the responsibility of a single group of players (e.g. between publishers or within one school system or within a single language family). Only when it is evident that areas of strategic importance are not yet covered by others (or will not be in the near future) should Pilot Project Tel Lingua try to close those gaps. The aim of the project was to develop an international network for language education and tra i-nine including the cultural dimension required to communicate adequately in another language. First and foremost, it is a human network linking experts, based on a physical network of in for-mati on and ex- available on demand, represented on a virtual "global" server, i.e. an inter-national network of servers working directly together, offering online resources in the field, pre-setting experiments, products and a platform for an exchange of observations, connecting teach-ers, trainers and users. This ambitious goal should be prepared carefully by a feasibility study, which should analyse in depth the situation given, identify important actions and key players, start a dialogue between them and form a basic consensus on strategic priorities to be addressed in the subsequent work of the project. 2.

Accomplishments Tel Lingua was to identify some small, but strategical key actions not covered by other actors, which could help to facilitate and speed up a more coherent global development in its field. To do that successfully, some factors had been necessary: a certain degree of global credibility, to ensure the necessary basis for synchronizing the actions of other players with the guidelines and platforms to be developed under Tel Lingua, support of the initial G 8 image-boost for all pilot projects by the clear commitment of a sufi-cent number of those responsible for education and training and language policy within G 8 govern-ments, convincing mechanisms with a potential for implementing certain standards and guidelines glob-ally which will be accepted by the players. It was possible to obtain the necessary financial and organisational support of the European Union for a basic analysis and to set up the consensus process on priorities and promising strategies. This was done in the form of a feasibility study, where the respective ministries and / or expert or-gan isa-t ions nominated by them from Australia, Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, UK and the United States contributed substantially, thus include-ing to a substantial amount countries outside the G 8 group. This feasibility study had provided a better understanding of the difficulties to be overcome on a theoretical basis and at the time by observing network activities. On realistic grounds it success-fully created a specified operational plan adapted to the G 8 Transcultural Education and Training for Language Learning pilot project.

A functional prototype of the "Virtual Global Server" was set up and is operational under the common Internet address web consisting of inter-linked servers in several G 8 and non-G 8 countries (most of these servers at the moment are in stand-by position). This network is ready for operational service by expanding substantially the links to materials, Web sites and discussion groups in the whole field so as to approach step-wise a global comprehensive coverage of the respective meta-server. Sophisticated, user-friendly, state-of-the-art database background structures for facilitating targeted search and navigation (data warehousing) have been developed and need to be implemented on a large scale. In a "Consensus Conference", held in Torino in October 1996, with approximately 200 invited dele-gates from 15 countries, sophisticated recommendations for global actions of strategic imp or-trance were elaborated. The contingent view of almost all delegates about priorities, policies and actions needed was remarkable. One of the results of this Consensus Conference was a readjustment of the following plans: it was commonly agreed that a single large homogeneous and global project would be unlikely to be set up successfully.

It would take by far too long to reach the consensus needed over all countries inter-est ed in a totally synchronous way. Therefore, a flexible network structure of different, sufi- synchronized projects was blue printed based on the commonly-agreed Tel Lingua group of actions, different clusters of countries and / or supranational bodies can join their interest in ar-eas of overlap by operational projects under a light G 8 Tel Lingua umbrella, which on the one hand allows quick and independent progress and on the other hand can accumulate results using the common structural basis. To achieve this common management structure - 'Tel Lingua global management network' - was developed consisting of national management nodes (with a minimum of an assumed five of those nodes inside as well as outside G 8 states). Such a node should be regarded as sufficiently fun-tonal with a minimum permanent infrastructure of one-person staff, sufficiently powerful server network capacities and access to a budget allowing successful support to set up more than one content pro-jet a year for consortia of varying composition; afterwards to coordinate operation-ally those con-sort ia and to ensure the validation of outcomes, including a sustainable operation of the technical infrastructures of the virtual servers.

It was clear that these national nodes would need a small, but long-term national budget. The global "Language Industry", which has just begun to develop, is still fragmented in various as-pets. All G 8 member states and almost all other states world-wide have an interest in increase-ing the language capacity of their citizens. The degree of this "import demand" varies between, for example, the large English-speaking nations like the US and the UK and smaller countries / less frequently-used languages such as Danish, Greek or Korean.

Transcultural communication skills show varying de-green of importance for states compared with language skills. Differences can be seen in the field of promotion and export of one's own language. Therefore further work in this field should capitalist on the mechanism developed in Tel Lingua: problem- and interest-oriented project groups of various composition of participating countries, acting but within a common framework of overall goals. A second challenge originates from the institutions and persons covering specifically the language and trans cultural learning field. With the use of direct teaching in close personal contact, the class-room creates a very locally-bound structure where the perspective of globalization (with an ob vi-ou sly decreasing role for the physical location of institutions to play) creates more fear than hope. On the other hand successful network-based language and trans cultural learning can only be set up with the massive involvement of those teachers and trainers still using traditional methods.

This made progress of real network-based learning in that field less quickly up taking than pre-dict ed in 1995. While it seems a quick and easy matter to change our behaviour from buying books or airline tickets at book-shops or travel agencies to the Internet, the switch in our behave-i our when really learning to communicate in a new language will take more time. Successful work in this field needs new alliances and new forms of collaboration between the did-fer-ent players. All actors of importance have faced very substantial internal changes over the last three years. In some countries government policy in the field of education and qualification has changed substantially with the result of major structural rearrangements. Innovation plans for the different sectors of the public educational system were discussed in many countries during this time, enabling long-term strategy definitions which are needed for decisions.

Different sectors, e.g. publishers, media houses, telecom and network providers over the last years had been and are still under accelerating structural change. New fields of competition arose, actors merged na-tonally and globally. Education and training in all these developments plays a rather marginal role, but had been af-flirted over-proportionally by structural changes. The most obvious indicator is a rapid change in people responsible in industry, including an ongoing influx of decision makers not familiar with the field of language learning or learning in general, needing continuous and intensive awareness-raising and information delivery.

In such a framework of actors over longer periods completely occupied with internal processes and changes, longer-lasting actions are needed to inform and convince them con-tenuously. The solution seems to keep the Tel Lingua structures ready for broad uptake, when interchange in interesting sectors has developed sufficiently even after the finalization of the G 8 pilot project. With this in view former participants in the project should continue to raise awareness, especially amongst new actors entering the field and draw their attention to the potential of the Tel Lingua standby structures. 3.

Conclusions and Perspectives Measured against the overall goal of facilitating and speed up development, some reasonable ef-facts can be identified which were triggered by Tel Lingua. To a certain extent supported and guided in its development, a series of similar national developments took place which would not have been developed so far without the help of Tel Lingua. These activities are not synchronous in their time-frame. However, they are able to incrementally create the critical mass for a real mainstream uptake of global actions as addressed by Tel Lingua. To cite some examples: the British partner BECTa successfully set up a national structure "Lingu@ NET Virtual Language Centre" (web), which is based on techno-cal and structural Tel Lingua results; the German Goethe Institute - a Tel Lingua partner in Ger-many - set up a virtual language centre for German on the same basis (web); Cer-van tes in Spain set up the "Centro Virtual Cervantes" (web), in flu-ended by the Spanish Tel Lingua participants; in Germany a sectoral university project started at the end of 1998 utilizing Tel Lingua structures to a high extent, as well as parts of the trans na-tonal collaboration network Net. Lingu@ (web).

Tel Lingua partners are in close contact with those response-be for the emerging "European Schoolnet" (web) with a view towards basing the language parts of the European "Virtual Teacher Training College" on Tel Lingua results. Tel Lingua sees the mainstream uptake of network-based trans cultural and language learning as taking a few more years until a substantial part of school language learning, industry training and leisure-time language and trans cultural courses are really offered and carried out over the net-works (according to Tel Lingua findings a 5-10% share of those forms of language learning around the year 2005 is expected). It is assumed that one to two years before they occur, these important im-pending changes will activate a sufficient number of national governments to prepare themselves by setting up permanent structures, suitable for acting as national nodes of the Tel Lingua global man-agrement network already prepared. It is recommended to disseminate the results already achieved on a broader basis, so as to continue to raise awareness amongst existing and newly-entering actors. It could be useful for one or two G 8 member states to commit themselves to hosting the Tel Lingua activities for a certain period, based on concrete national actions with the clear goal of broadening the scope when development has matured.

To prepare this, in mid-1999 all national delegates for the theme Education and Training will be invited to discuss their position and their countries commitment in an adequate electronic forum with the goal to base all further work on ac-tu al needs and interests felt by the countries participating. Further information: web Libraries (Bibliotheca Universalis) G 8 Pilot Project Theme 4 Final Report 1. Purpose and Objectives of the Pilot Project The main objective of Bibliotheca Universalis was to make the major works of the world's sci en- and cultural heritage accessible to a vast public via multimedia technologies, hence foster-ing the exchange of knowledge and dialogue over national borders. The aim was to exploit existing digitization programmes in order to build up a large distributed virtual collection of knowledge and make it available via the global communication networks, enhancing the services to the end users. In this way, it was hoped to advance international coop-e ration towards the establishment of a global electronic library system. Bibliotheca Universalis should strengthen the function of libraries and improve international avail-ability of digitized resources, including not only bibliographic record but also the inform a-ti on con-tent (integrating text, graphics, still images, sound and video information).

It would promote large digitizing techniques and encourage the definition and adoption of global standards. A network architecture based on distributed digital servers and a common interface for retrieval and navigation tools would be implemented. Existing standards in the field of text, image and sound digitization and of communication protocols would be employed. Furthermore, it should demonstrate how integrated digitization techniques can support long term preservation as well as enabling immediate access to the information digitized.

All documents would belong to the public domain. Bibliotheca Universalis should provide a practical framework for international cooperation. While building on existing initiatives, it would address interoperability problems, so creating an open environment which could facilitate participation beyond initial G 8 countries. It should also stimulate the effective management of these cultural and knowledge resources and the development of functions for user friendly retrieval of relevant information. Thus, it will ad-dress the needs of the general public, researchers, scholars and students. 2.

Accomplishments Bibliotheca Universalis was intended to provide a framework for international cooperation in the cultural field. In order to illustrate the concept of access to the world's cultural heritage held in libraries and belonging to the public domain, a prototype built around the theme "Africa, Culture and Civil i-sati on" was demonstrated at the G 8 Midrand conference on the "Information Society and De-" (1996). The objectives of the prototype were to demonstrate the feasibility of in-ter-connecting digital libraries and to demonstrate how developing countries could benefit from the new information technologies. The audience observed the interactivity and ease of access to virtual and distributed digitized col-lection's held by national libraries and other cultural institutions and how this knowledge can be effectively acquired and used by the end-user. Access was given to samples of digitized texts, images and sounds on the theme of Africa.

This demo was very successful in terms of international visibility with strong expressions of inter-est from several international organizations. All stressed the importance of the role of li-br aries in the Global Information Society. Having shown the value of access to networked digitized collections, a very detailed survey on existing digitization programmes, both at the library and the national levels was conducted in or-der to start preparing the operational phase of the project. In addition to descriptions of the col-lection's and their contents, political, technological, and legal issues have been covered. The building blocks of Bibliotheca Universalis were identified: - "American Memory" for the Library of Congress, - "The Digital Library programme" for the British Library, - "A German Library": 1000 books, Digital Exile Journals, Online Dissertations, Information on Legal sources for the Deutsche Bibliothek, - National Library of Canada Digitization programme, - "National Diet Library Electronic Library Concept"- "Memoria Hispanic a" for the National Library of Spain, - "Memory of the world" project for the National Library of the Czech Republic, - "Policy Plan 1997-2000" for the Koninklijke Bibliothek, - Digital project of the Biblioth'e que nationale de France and "Gallic a". In order to facilitate exchange of information on partners digitization programmes and to in-crease visibility on Bibliotheca Universalis, Bibliotheca Universalis web pages were created on the GABRIEL site (the web server of national libraries in Europe, web), developed by CENL.

Thus, each library would keep the res-possibility over the information made available and GABRIEL, the existing information service developed by European national libra-rises, would be used as a linking device. It was nonetheless highly recommended to give access to precise information on the principles for constituting digital collections, budgets and funding, ac-cess methods, technical infrastructures, digitization techniques and standards etc. An in-depth analysis of the digitization programmes of Bibliotheca Universalis partners made it clear that several principles already applied to the creation of digital collections: encyclopedic, thematic or historic principles. For Bibliotheca Universalis, it appeared clearly that the select-ti on of a theme common to all partners would facilitate creation and access to a coherent dig i-talk col-lection. Such Bibliotheca Universalis collection could be part of an existing digital col-lection or be created specifically for Bibliotheca Universalis purposes. The theme selected by the partners is "Exchange between people".

This theme is estimated large enough to enable a significant con- by each partner (travel writings, explorations, immigration-emigration, scientific and technical exchanges etc. ). For instance, BnF has already planned to digitize do-cu ments on travels in France and in Africa, Die Deutsche Bibliothek can give access to documents on exile literature or National Library of Portugal on explorations and discoveries and so forth. The creation of a common digital collection for Bibliotheca Universalis is a pre-requisite before an operational phase could be launched. In parallel, further work should be done on technical aspects related to digitization standards, systems interoperability, access methods (full text or records access). It was agreed to rely on an existing structure such as the CoBRA+ working group (supported by the European Commission) which will carry on a study on technical as-pets with the National Library of Canada.

As each partner is already giving access to digitized collections, the creation of a central repository for identifying what is being digitized has been considered useless and time consuming. All efforts should rather concentrate on the network-king of collect-t ions. A draft formal cooperation agreement was validated in 1998 and will be signed by the national libraries involved in 1999. The participating organizations are committed: - to share their experiences (workshops, publications etc.) and make visible their actions on Bib- Universalis Web site, - to coordinate whole or part of their digitization policies at international level in order to de-ve lop Bibliotheca Universalis, - to contribute actively to the creation and development of Bibliotheca Universalis by digit iz-ing documents related to the theme selected for the first phase "Exchanges between per-pale". Each partner will decide to either digitize items specifically for the project or to pro-vide parts of the digitization project already managed by its institution, based on its own funding, - to participate in the networking of Bibliotheca Universalis digitized collections, - to promote partnerships between public and private sectors and with international organize-t ions (CENL, CENL, European Commission, UNESCO, IFLA, ISO).

This agreement is open to any national library, engaged in a digitization programme of its col-lection's. Upon decision of the steering committee, observers and other institutions can be in-voted to contribute. It will be signed for an initial period of 3 years: 1999-2001. The implementation of the terms of this agreement will be assisted by a steering committee com-posed of the directors of the participating organisations or their represent ants, with a chairman designated by the members for a 3-year period. The secretariat will be attached to the chairman. The key areas for cooperation will be addressed by ad-how working groups and by existing coop e-ration networks.

Procedures will be developed for the steering committee. External fun-ding can be sought by participating organisations for the development of Bibliotheca Univers a-lis. 3. Conclusions and Perspectives Bibliotheca Universalis reached its initial objective of building a platform to promote interna-tonal cooperation in the field of digital libraries. New institutions have expressed their interest and joined Bibliotheca Universalis: - Seven founding partners of the project: Biblioth'e que nationale de France and Minis t " ere de la Culture et de la Communication (France, pilot), National Diet Library (Japan, pilot), The Library of Congress (United States), The Na-tonal Library of Canada (Canada), Discoteca di Stato (Italy), Die Deutsche Bibliothek (Germany), The British Library (UK). - New partners: National Library of Switzerland, Biblioteca Nacional (Portugal), Biblioteca nacional (Spain), Biblioth'e que Royale Albert 1 er (Belgium), the National Library of the Czech Re-public.

- UNESCO and the European Commission as observers. The project began as an inter-governmental project involving ministries but from the start it was carried on by national libraries as they have the responsibility over the digitized collect-t ions. The success of the led the partners to draft an international agreement for the period 1999-2001. On the technical side, it is admitted that work should continue on standards and says-terms interoperability.

In addition to on current digitization policies both at national and library level, Bib- Universalis should constitute a critical collection of knowledge related to the theme "Exchanges between people" (texts, images and sounds) of cultural and scientific importance. It is clear that Bibliotheca Universalis has mobilized many key actors of the library sector and has helped pull together the global effort that is vital for the success of the information society. It also shows that increased international is necessary in the field of digital library-is. A working group should continue the work on the technical issues related to digitization stan-d ards and access methods (full text or records access) and provide recommendations to guarantee digital library interoperability.

The G 8 initiative on the Information Society has helped national libraries organize themselves at international level. The Bibliotheca Universalis international cooperation will raise public aware-ness about the vital role of information infrastructures in the 21st century in giving access to the libraries' cultural resources while preserving cultural and linguistic diversity. Further information: web ZILLHARDTBiblioth'e que nationale de France " el'elation aux relations internationales Quai Francois Mauriac 75706 Paris ceded 13 France-mail: Fax: 33 1 53 79 47 37 Hiroyuki TAYADirector Electronic Library Development Office Planning Division, Administrative Department National Diet Library 1-10-1, Nagata-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8924 Japan-mail: Fax: 81 3 3581 0768 Multimedia Access To World Cultural Heritage G 8 Pilot Project Theme 5 Final Report 1. Purpose and Objectives of the Pilot Project The pilot project "Multimedia Access to World Cultural Heritage", whose leadership has been as-signed to Italy, was based on a combined experience gained by each country in the field of in for-ma-ti on exchange on cultural heritage and information products, thus operating within a long-term stra-tepic cooperation.

The main objective of the pilot project was to encourage the development of new applications and the identification of themes in the multimedia sector, in particular considering both the fruition of the artistic heritage through the use of infrastructures of information networks and the standard i-sati on of the access ways by multimedia products. The key objectives of the project could be identified in the following themes: Interoperability among databases of the cultural heritage; Availability of the software products and services in telecommunications networks in view of the multimedia access to the world cultural heritage Intellectual property and copyright protection, information storage and security. As to the specific aims of the G 8 programme, priority has been given to the identification and en-han cement of the achievements made by the initiative. The lack of adequate funds to develop new projects pursuing the programmed objectives encouraged such a choice. Therefore, especially in the preliminary stages attention was devoted to coordination and identification of those activities and projects that started being completed nationally and internationally, according to the goals of the pi-lot project. This orientation brought about an immediate operating impetus involving institutions and comp a-niles responsible for such projects and allowed to encourage and further develop activities and projects on well identified aims and objectives, thus avoiding the risk of losing resources and fa- a single orientation so as to add value to the single contributions.

By doing so initiatives offering the opportunity of establishing and creating multimedia databases have been identified and fostered, the aim being a greater dissemination of information on the cut-t ural heritage. Particularly four operating areas have been identified and given top priority for the pilot project: 1. Presentation of the cultural heritage and dissemination of information - qualitative standards for the utilization of the cultural heritage, standard for the cataloguing and sy-stems as well as for multi-language communication (dictionaries, thesauri). 2. Legal aspects relating to the correct use - intellectual and property rights, information storage and security. 3.

Research and technological developments - standards for systems interoperability, multimedia technological applications, telecommunications networks, user interfaces, networked research and surfing engines. 4. Testing and application - application in the field of storage and management of the cultural here-take, including the priority based identification of data entry, applications in education and train-ing within the cultural tourism and entertainment, requirements induced by a number of users. 2. Accomplishments For the objectives to be achieved, the project has been in close contact both with initiatives aimed at comparing standards to ease the interoperability among networks and initiatives connected to the ac-cess and use of information and images by specific users groups.

The first group includes the following projects: Cultural Heritage Information on-line by CIMI (Consortium for the Interchange of Museum Information), Common Index of Museum Objects by TAO (Telecommunications Advancement Organisation of Japan), Aquarelle and VISUM by EC (DG X ). The second group includes the Museum Educational Site Licensing project in the Uni-ted States and the Hyper museum and Imprimatur projects in Europe. During the duration of the pilot project, cooperation initiatives have been launched with interna-tonal projects tailored to the creation of a multi-language heritage (International Terminology Working Group). Various multimedia products have been executed, for instance various CDs among which the Multilingual Thesaurus of Religious Objects of the Roman Catholic Church, whereas at a Euro-pean level it is worth remembering that under the auspices of the European Commission a Memo-rand um of Understanding for the Multimedia Access to the European Cult-ral Heritage was con-clouded. Here follows a brief description of the achieved results related to the main objectives of the pro-jet: Interoperability among databases of the multimedia cultural heritage The dissemination via the Internet made possible an extensive use of Data Base Management Systems at world level, to be present in web interfaces guaranteeing the network access to in-for-mati on contained in the Databases. However it is insufficient to guarantee the full access to and use of information.

What is needed is a definition of a set of intermediate tools, both from a se-mantic and multi-language level, able to provide for the search for data originally acquired in did-fe rent semantic languages and structures. It was also found out, how within American and European institutions consensus grew on some interoperability standards (Z 3950, SGML), that have been successfully tested by various projects supported by Organisations and Institutions (Cultural Heritage Information Online by CIMI, AKA by Getty Information Institute, Common Index of Museum Objects by TAO, Aquarelle by EC DG-X ). Availability of software products and services in telecommunications networks for the multi-media access to world cultural heritage From the technology and market standpoint, the pilot project followed the evolution of the offer of products and services aimed at the access and use of networked information also through the monitoring of some international projects and in line with the above mentioned MOU. Working groups have identified the projects that remarkably face these themes in the various na-tonal and international frameworks (The Digital Arc.