Internet Conference in Central/Eastern Europe

Dear Friends,

"Friends & Partners" has been invited by the Alliance of Universities for
Democracy (AUDEM) to sponsor a conference this week in Prague, Czech
Republic on telecommunications and information infrastructure in Central
and Eastern Europe.  This is an exciting opportunity for us to demonstrate
how the Internet can be used for global communication and information
sharing with participants from Albania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary,
Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovak Republic, Ukraine, and the
United States.=20

We will be giving short sessions on Monday and Tuesday (November 7th and=20
November 8th) and a full day's session on Thursday (November 10th) (this=20
session will include approximately 50 higher education officials from=20
throughout Central and Eastern Europe).  Your moderator, Greg, will be=20
participating from Prague and Natasha, from Pushchino.  We will also have=
=20
presenters from the University of Tennessee and from Gdansk Technical=20
University, Poland and from Czech Tech University, Czech Republic.

Among other things, we will be demonstrating "Friends & Partners" and
talking about how such efforts can be used to build global community.  For
this reason, we would so appreciate help from members of this list in
several ways:=20

1.  We would very much welcome any general or specific information=20
    that you feel would be helpful to share with the members of this=20
    conference.

2.  We invite your own stories of how you have used the Internet in=20
    your personal and professional life -- and, in particular, about your=
=20
    own use of the F&P service.  We are putting together a document of=20
    =D2quotes=D3 to share with the conference participants. =20

3.  On Thursday, November 10th we will be demonstrating the use of a=20
    facility called Internet Relay Chat which permits online, interactive=
=20
    "conferencing" and in which we can have people from all over the world=
=20
    carrying on a discussion.  We would like to demonstrate this as an=20
    illustration of the immediate and global nature of Internet-based=20
    communication. =20

We would so appreciate people from many different countries help us by=20
participating in one of two short sessions.

One will occur at 3:30 pm GMT (10:30 am, Eastern Standard Time) on=20
Tuesday, November 8.  This will be a brief 5-10 minute session. =20

One will occur at 7:30 am GMT (2:30 am, Eastern Standard Time) on=20
Thursday, November 10.  This will be an approximately 15 minute session.

Participation is very simple.  Participants can telnet to=20
solar.rtd.utk.edu and enter "irc" (without quotes and in all lowercase=20
letters) at the login prompt.  You will then be automatically placed=20
into an =D2Internet Relay Chat=D3 session where you can talk in real time=
=20
with other participants.  (our thanks to John Gerber for making this=20
possible)

At the point in our presentation where I switch to the IRC session,=20
Natasha and I will log in, say a few words of general greetings and ask=20
each participant to introduce themselves (name, location, occupation,=20
etc.). =20

We will conduct a trial session of this on Monday at 6:00 pm GMT (12:00=20
pm EST (noon)) to ensure that everything is working technically.  (but plea=
se=20
feel free to login and use the irc session at any time)

As we would like to create a world map showing the location of all=20
participants in these sessions, we would greatly appreciate if you could=20
send an email message to natasha@ibpm.serpukhov.su  or=20
gcole@solar.rtd.utk.edu giving your name and location=20
(city/state/country) -- as well as an indication of which of the two=20
sessions you would like to participate.   We will send more instructions=20
to everyone who writes us. =20

The time required for participating in these online conferences will be=20
very short (perhaps 10 or 15 minutes) -- really, just long enough to=20
demonstrate to the higher education folks the global nature of the=20
Internet. =20

We will greatly appreciate any ideas, comments, suggestions and your=20
active participation in this event.  Through this conference, we believe=20
we will be able to show the importance and the relevance of global=20
information infrastructure to decision makers from throughout Central=20
and Eastern Europe. =20

Thanks for your help!=20

Greg