Concept Paper
on
the Creation of Global University System (GUS)
in Ghana and later in Countries of ECOWAS
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
<http://www.ecowas.int/>
May 24, 2006
Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D., P.E., Chairman
GLObal Systems Analysis and Simulation Association in the U.S.A. (GLOSAS/USA)
Founder and V.P. for Technology and Coordination of Global University System (GUS)
43-23 Colden Street, Flushing, NY 11355-5913, U.S.A.
Tel: 718-939-0928; Email: utsumi@columbia.edu
http://www.itu.int/wsis/goldenbook/search/display.asp?Quest=8032562&lang=en
http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/
The essence of new economy in Knowledge Society is the creativity and innovation in science and technology, which is more than the mere accumulation of knowledge for enhancing job skills. In accordance with rapid globalization thanks to the advancement of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), higher learning institutions of African countries need to prepare for globally collaborative creation of new knowledge. The keys to this transformation from industrial society to knowledge society are education and health, which are the very basis of the national wealth.
There is no economic theory for intangible commodity, such as creativity. Economically underdeveloped is NOT necessary synonymous to intellectually underdeveloped. Africa is a unexplored treasure trove of excellent brainpower, which is the only raw material of new knowledge economy. It is only a matter how to organize them as motivating and energizing youngsters for their creativity. Value of creation in digital age increases with relationship, links and connections, and more sharing in global collaboration. Borderless globalization forces us to have new vision of education with interaction, collaboration and participation among the youngsters around the world. Commingling of creation is to have new culture. This project will let African countries leapfrog with abundant supply of excellent brainpower.
The GUS (Item I-(4) of ANNEX I) aims to build a higher level of humanity with mutual understanding across national and cultural boundaries for global peace. The mission of GUS is to create a worldwide consortium of higher learning and healthcare institutions in remote/rural areas of developing countries with access to broadband Internet technologies. The aim is to achieve “education and healthcare for all,” anywhere, anytime and at any pace. Those institutions affiliated with GUS become members of the GUS/UNESCO/UNITWIN Networking Chair Program located at the University of Tampere in Finland. These institutions will also act as the knowledge center of their community for the eradication of poverty and isolation through the use of advanced ICTs.
The participating institutions will be interconnected through broadband Internet, i.e., a Western African Regional Knowledge Networks (WARKN). Each of the institutions would then be a hub of their Local Community Development Network (LCDN) which will connect the universities with secondary and elementary schools, libraries, hospitals, local government offices and NGOs, etc., by broadband wireless Internet at drastically discounted rates. The use of broadband wireless Internet for the LCDN will make their participation feasible, especially for the so-called "last-mile" connectivity.
We envision higher learning institutions act as the knowledge center of their community with the following three functions;
This WARKN is to promote the followings in rural/remote areas of the western African countries;
The consortium members will construct a guideline of their country for;
a. International Centers of Excellence for eHeatlh in Africa (ICEEHA)
The doctor shortage in African countries is compounded by other shortages in human and physical resources and the basic infrastructure that supports these services, thereby producing a situation of substantial unmet health needs.
It is proposed that the International Centers of Excellence for eHeatlh in Africa (ICEEHA) would be established as a part of the Graduate School of Abia State University Teaching Hospital (ABSUTH, http://www.absuth.edu.ng/) in Nigeria as a strategic asset for Nigeria/Africa’s development (Item II-(9)-(c) of ANNEX I). ICEEHA will enter into partnerships with educational and healthcare institutions, Information Technology Providers and Non-Governmental Organizations, particularly interested in serving isolated remote/rural communities and combating poverty and disease. The headquarters will be located in Nigeria.
This project will be implemented incrementally through workshops and conferences for the mobilization and promotion of National e-Healthcare/Telemedicine Policy in Nigeria and throughout Africa, in cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO), particularly benefiting those in isolated remote/rural areas for the prevention of Mother-to-Child HIV/AIDS Transmission, and the eradication of poverty and illiteracy.
The central objectives of ICEEHA are as follows.
b. Current Examples
We are currently working to initiate the followings at the ABSUTH in Nigeria, which may be emulated in the countries of ECOWAS;
c. Advantages of Working Together
The reasons why we have global e-heatlhcare/telemedicine program are;
We propose that western African countries will forge ahead on the creation of Globally Collaborative Innovation Network (GCIN) through broadband Internet, as making a significant paradigm shift of research and development in global scale, out of the so-called isolated, academic “Ivory Tower” approach. This project will foster friendship among youngsters around the world for the creation of new knowledge in the Knowledge Age of the 21st Century.
Now emerging GRID networking technology has great potential in education, offering a framework that opens new ways of teaching and learning that have not been possible before. E-mail and multimedia World Wide Web of Internet so far contributed significantly to the world society on the dissemination of information. The next phase of the Internet development with global GRID computer networks should be the globally collaborative experiential (the so-called “hands-on”) learning and constructive creation of knowledge (and wisdom) by interactive actions with counterpart scientists and researchers in developed countries, on virtual reality simulation models of joint global research and development projects on various subjects. The extraordinary resources with Beowulf mini supercomputers and GRID technology will provide a computing environment to enhance teaching, learning, and research at the higher learning institutions in African countries.
The combination of the above two may eventually become a forerunner of the Globally Collaborative Environmental Peace Gaming (GCEPG) project (Item I-(5) of ANNEX I). The extension of this would become the GCIN with various subjects as mentioned above. This project will then forge ahead to a new direction on the use of advanced ICTs, as effectively utilizing the broadband Internet connection between the US and Ghana, which is now being planned with the fund from the US National Science Foundation.
1. Selection of Secretariat of GUS Consortium
It is necessary to firstly locate high official (say, vice president or dean) of a federal university, and ask him/her to be the Principal Organizer of this project, and Dr. Takeshi Utsumi to be the Co-Principal Organizer. This is because our project later will ask the Japanese government’s Official Development Assistant (ODA) fund, which goes only through the government channels of each country.
This federal university is to act as a secretariat of the GUS of the country, which will be a consortium of higher learning and healthcare institutions. This university would also serve as teachers/medical personnel training centers and also provide the gateway to the outside world.
2. Visit of Potential Consortium Member Institutions
Fact-finding and assessment trip by Dr. Utsumi will formulate a specific agenda for joint activities to explore the following opportunities;
During Dr. Utsumi’s fact-finding and assessment trip, he will visit, at least, a half dozen higher learning and healthcare institutions, which would be willing to join in the consortium of GUS of each country, which visit may take one week or so.
Prior to the planning workshop, we will investigate the current status of e-learning in each country, and desired courses which may be imported from outside world. For the global e-learning, he will distribute the following questionnaires during the trip to find out what kind of courses the people of the country wish to have from North America and Europe (one or two courses per each institution as the initial step);
After we receive the replies to this questionnaires, we will locate appropriate course providers, who will be invited to the planning workshop where they will meet with facilitators of the receiving universities.
At the workshop, we will arrange meetings of the course instructors with facilitators of the receiving universities to discuss how to provide the courses to learners and setting up administrative structure, etc. Some of those courses may be provided through currently available narrowband Internet at their institutions prior to the deployment of broadband Internet.
At the initial workshop, we will form a consortium of higher learning and healthcare institutions in each of participating countries. This may join with the National Research and Education Network (NREN) of the Association of African Universities (AAU).
Planning workshop will form task force teams for producing national guidelines for organizing the WARKN and GCIN. In the subsequent six months, they will;
Each task force will produce proposals of each of participating countries with necessary steps to be taken during the following year with the precise action plan and budgets, which will be summarized into a proposal for the next design phase. This proposal will be used for further grant proposals. This comprehensive project proposals from each participating countries will also be submitted by the government of each country to the Japanese government’s Official Development Assistant (ODA) fund.
A group of experts will be formed to assess and evaluate our project every half year against to the stated goals and objectives. The expert from telecom field will oversee the deployment of broadband infrastructures from its design to maintenance, technical support, administration, revenue mechanism, and user satisfaction. The selection, quality assurance and accreditation of e-learning courses and their delivery will also be evaluated along with the administration and accounting mechanisms. The most important assessment on e-learning would be on the functioning of facilitators and learner support mechanism, including desired frequencies of the face-to-face gathering of instructors and learners. The experts on e-healthcare/telemedicine will assess the provision of CME courses to local practitioners in accordance to regulations and practices, including the operation of public health system management for local government. The experts on Beowulf mini supercomputer and GRID technology will evaluate the use of distributed simulation system, particularly for the training of youngsters on fostering rational analysis and critical thinking.
The results of this project will be disseminated throughout the communities of participating institutions to add to the general body of knowledge or methodology by the following procedures;
The success of the workshops mentioned above will also be publicized over Internet and with press release and presentations at various conferences to attract further support from other contributors.
GUS is prepared to support an innovative global e-learning and e-healthcare/telemedicine infrastructure in the countries of ECOWAS, based in the university system and extending out to community learning centers and to schools via LCDN. GUS will contribute to the social, economic and technical benefits of the country by providing interactive e-learning and e-healthcare/telemedicine services to the local people. The economic benefits will be realized through job creation and a broadband network infrastructure.
This project will also excel on fostering globally collaborative creation of new knowledge, create the right environment to stimulate high-level context-responsive ICT research and development, provide high-end consulting services to achieve global quality standards for clients, and hence attract business partnerships with social, economic and technical benefits as being in the forefront of ICT development. This project will also stimulate growth of the ICT sector and the use of ICT to accelerate development in the ECOWAS subregion.
We are very delighted to work on the establishment of GUS in the countries of ECOWAS. We look forward to implementing the productive relationships for the benefits and betterment of the people in the countries of ECOWAS and attaining global peace for the benefit of humankind. Our GUS is a service organization, and we would be very happy to serve the people of ECOWAS.
ANNEX I below is the list of papers about our projects for reference.
ANNEX I
(Written by Takeshi Utsumi)
I. Our Projects:
(1) We have been working on the following projects for the past three decades;
The GUS is a worldwide initiative to create advanced telecom infrastructure for accessing educational resources across national and cultural boundaries for global peace. The aim is to achieve "education and healthcare for all," anywhere, anytime and at any pace.
The GCEPG is to train would-be decision makers in crisis management, conflict resolution, and negotiation techniques with a globally distributed computer simulation system through a grid computer network.
The GCIN is an extension of GCEPG and will foster creativity of youngsters around the world.
(2) You may be interested in our recent book at;
(3) In its Part I, you can find greetings and encouragements from world-renowned dignitaries of international organizations.
(4) The opening chapter of the Part II is;
(5) In Part IV, you can find my following paper;
II. Historical Development and Our Aim for Global Peace:
(6) In the first half of this paper, you can find my saga of extending the predecessor of Internet to various Asian countries, particularly to Japan (*), and my effort of de-regulating the Japanese telecom policies for the use of email and the de-monopolization and privatization of Japanese telecom industries, which have been emulated in most of other countries since then. I made this effort more than a quarter century ago. By this effort, there are more than one billion people using email around the world nowadays.
I then had an honor to receive Lord Perry Award for Excellence in Distance Education from Lord Perry himself personally in November of 1994. Lord Perry established the U.K. Open University which has been emulated in more than 50 countries. One year senior of the award was Dr. Chavitz, former Minister of Education and UN Ambassador from Colombia, and two year senior was Arthur C. Clarke, the inventor of satellite.
(7) You may be interested in reading two episodes how important to foster friendship during young age, at the end of this my paper; the uncle of my schoolmate was the chief of resistance in Manila, the Philippines, during the Japanese occupation. His life was saved by the chief of the Japanese Army Police who happed to be his classmate at Yale University. You can also find my wife’s father’s episode whose life was also saved by his classmate during his high school, who was happened to be the Commanding General of the British Army, at the end of the last WWII.
(8) Our GUS and GCEPG projects are to create an environment for fostering friendship among youngsters across national, oceanic and continental boundaries with the use of “distributed experiential (or the so-called hands-on) learning” with the use of now emerging GRID networking technology and distributed computer simulation system (**) for the creation of new knowledge by them in the Knowledge Age of the 21st Century. The principle of packet-switching technology (the basis of Internet) is “SHARING” -- we are extending this principle for the sharing of knowledge and even wisdom with GUS project. The principle of GRID networking technology is “COLLABORATION.” Those two principles are the key ingredients for attaining global peace — Senator Fulbright once said “Learning together and working together are the first steps toward global peace.”
(9) Albeit rather technical, the following my paper is the direction how to achieve this dream;
III. Financing:
(10) During the Okinawa Summit in July of 2000, Japanese government pledged US$15 billion to close the digital divide in developing countries and for the eradication of poverty and isolation. During the G8 Summit in Canada in June of 2002, and at the Environment Summit in South Africa in September of 2002, they also pledged another US$2 billion to aid education and healthcare in developing countries, respectively. I initiated those pledges in late 1990s. They are now available through the Japan Social Development Fund at the! World Bank, Japan Special Fund at the Inter-American Development Bank, Japan Fund at the Asian Development Bank, etc. The Japanese government is now doubling their aid particularly to African countries, especially to help their education and healthcare.
GUS projects will combine (1) the Japanese government's Official Development Assistance (ODA) funds and (2) Japanese electronic equipment with (a) the Internet technology and (b) content development of North America and Europe, to help underserved people in rural and remote areas of developing countries by closing the digital divide.