NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT
AND DEFENSE INDUSTRY CONVERSION
FOR SATELLITE TOWNS:
USING AND BUILDING AN ELECTRONIC DISTANCE
EDUCATION SYSTEM FOR RUSSIA WITH CONNECTIONS T0
THE WORLDWIDE INFORMATION SOCIETY
A. V. Galitsky
Chairman and CE0
ELVIS+
Moscow 103460, Russia
Tel: (7-095) 531-3633; Fax 531-2403
Email: sasha@elvis.msk.su
P. T. Knight
Chief
National Economic Management Division
Economic Development Institute
The World Bank
Washington, DC. 20433, USA
Tel: (1-202) 473-6313; Fax: 676-9879
Email: pknight@worldbank.org
M. E. Tichonov
Vice Prefect
Zelenograd
Moscow 1034??, Russia
Tel: (7-095) XXX-XXXX; Fax: YYY-YYYY
Email: ZZZZZ@ZZZZZ.ZZZ.ZZ
J.A. Chapljgin
Vice-Rector
Moscow Microelectronics Technical University
Moscow 103498, Russia
Tel: (7-095) 531-2279; Fax: 530-2233
Email: mietnet@glas.apc.org
A.V. Vopilov
Chief Softward Manager
ELVIS+
Moscow 103460, Russia
Tel: (7-095) 531-536-9551; Fax: 531-2403
Email: alx@elvis.msk.su
The authors thank Takeshi Utsumi, Gary Hyde, and Carolyn
Turbyfill and Greg Kearsley for helpful comments on an earlier draft.
The views presented in this paper are those of the authors and should
not be attributed to the World Bank.
ABSTRACT
Significant developments over the past few years in
communications and computer technology have encouraged many
new applications. The Internet allows Russia's newly privatized
enterprises, especially those in satellite towns of the former
military-industrial-scientific complex, new ways to access
worldwide scientific and technical research; to market their
products; and to make contact with potential investors, partners,
and suppliers as well as customers. Remote learning over Wide
Area Networks offers a cost-effective way for these Russian
enterprises to realize their considerable potential in a market-
oriented economy. And some of these firms can profitably
produce the equipment and services necessary to build a Russia-
wide electronic distance education system. Such a system can
produce educational services for the domestic market, import
education services where appropriate, and participate in a growing
export market.
THE INTERNET AS A TOOL FOR GATHERING INFORMATION
AND ORGANIZING A REMOTE EDUCATION PROGRAM
The most powerful technologies, intended for gathering
information worldwide over the Internet are: E-mail, Mosaic, and
videoconferencing. Through E-mail one can reach any recipient
having an E-mail address -- on the order of 20 million people in
over 146 countries and growing at about 8 percent a month --
delivered within several minutes by sending him or her a text
message, which can be returned. Computers with full TCP/IP
(Transmission Control Protocol/Internetworking Protocol) Internet
connections allowing direct access to other computers and the
information they contain (a growing proportion of the world's
knowledge base) totaled an estimated 2.2 million at the end of
1993, linked together in some 35,000 networks in 78 countries as
of May 1994. The number of networks increased by 160 percent
in 1993. The rate of growth outside the United States was even
faster, 183 percent (Internet Society, 1994).
Mosaic is intended for allowing any recipient having a
publicly available free software, called Mosaic Client, to connect
with any computer on the Internet having installed software, called
Mosaic Server. These connections provide client access to
Hypertext documents, rendered by the Server. HyperText
documents can also include multimedia data (text, graphics,
sounds, etc.) in a single Hypertext page. Also Mosaic HyperText
can have information cross-references, with the possibility linking
to other Mosaic Servers worldwide through the Internet. This
technology allows building scalable information databases and
very closely fits remote education needs. Now, even full-color,
full-motion video can be retrieved with Mosaic. This makes
asynchronous, "just-in-time" individualized education which can
be retrieved around the globe a real possibility.
Mosaic is a state-of-the-art Internet-based hypermedia
information system that has recently taken the computer world by
storm. In the year since its release, it has acquired a global user
base of about 2 million people and has been widely hailed as the
"killer application" of the Internet and of data networks in general.
Mosaic was developed at NCSA by the core staff of Mosaic
Communications Corporation and has until now only been
available in unsupported, non-commercial-grade form.
The next Internet technology supporting distance learning is
the organization of audio and video conferences. Special
(commercial and publicly available) software allows establishing
multi-point connections with possibility of translation audio and
video data through the Internet. Such technology may be closely
compared with interactive TV, where the recipient may intervene
in a TV discussion, but be located many thousands of miles away.
And note that costs of organizing Internet conferences can be
much less than transmission of broadcast TV learning programs.
A demonstration of three such videoconferencing systems -- CU-
See-Me, MBONE, and ShowMe -- via the Internet will be
organized by Takeshi Utsumi on July 7, 1994, during his Global
Lecture Hall demonstration, which will be received at the
International Conference on Distance Education (ICDED94) in
Russia.
RUSSIAN SATELLITE TOWNS AS LEADERS IN DEVELOPMENT
AND USE OF ELECTRONIC DISTANCE EDUCATION
Satellite-towns (near industrial cities) are a prominent
feature of the former USSR and today's Russian Federation.
Numerous examples of these towns are satellites near Moscow
(Kaliningrad, Jokovsky, Krasnogorsk, Troisk, Zelenograd),
Novosibirsk (Academgorodok), Saint-Petersburg (Sosnovyi Bohr,
Petergouph) and many others. These towns were very important
elements of former USSR planed-economy society. A typical
satellite town has:
- industrial networks (former USSR military-industrial
complex concerns and plants)
- research and scientific institutes attached to technical
universities (or branches of the universities).
These elements provide the basis for a high-tech market-oriented
complexes similar to Route 128 and Silicon Valley, with the
potential to exploit Russia's potential comparative advantage in
high-technology products and services.
But what problem is the most important for these all
elements today? As they are privatized and lose state orders for
military production, both old and new spin-off companies in these
satellite towns must change their management style, accounting
systems, sources of finance, and markets. Well-educated,
experienced Russian scientists and engineers need to learn
Western-style management techniques if they are to successfully
develop commercial applications of their ideas, technologies,
products, and services.
It is too expensive to invite large numbers of western
business teachers to Russia, or send large numbers of Russian
managers abroad for training. Moving electrons rather than
people through a modern distance education system -- using
communications satellites, fiber optics, the Internet, and computers
to facilitate remote learning -- offers a cost-effective solution.
Using such a system Russia can both uplink its existing centers of
excellence in managerial, financial, and accounting education, and
import needed skills from abroad -- electronically.
But satellite towns (like many other Russian cities and
towns) lack modern telecommunication infrastructure, since in the
past they were developed as the top-secret closed societies.
Zelenograd is an example of the typical Russian
satellite-town. It is located near Moscow (41 km outside the
capital). It has a powerful microelectronic industry (the former
USSR's Silicon Valley) and the Moscow Microelectronics
Technical University (the basic technical university for former
USSR's and modern Russia's microelectronic industry). It has a
several scientific/technological organizations (microelectronics,
applied physics, microdevices and equipment design).
Zelenograd now has some 4,000 new small private
industrial, banking, trade, technological, and research companies.
But only one in fifty workplaces has a telephone line and these
lines can't be the base for new communication infrastructure,
including for remote education.
ELVIS+ PROPOSAL -- AN EXAMPLE OF DEFENSE INDUSTRY
CONVERSION IN ELECTRONIC DISTANCE EDUCATION
DEVELOPMENT
Elvis+, a private company in Zelenograd, proposes creating
a powerful and reliable communication infrastructure creation
which can link Zelenograd with a new modern distance education
system and promote the town's integration into world markets.
This proposal draws on a combination of radio and
computer/computer networks expertise developed in military and
intelligence applications, which offers considerable commercial
promise in a world increasingly interested in nomadic computing in
environments where traditional telecommunications facilities are
rudimentary or non-existent. As such, it is an excellent example
of conversion from military to civilian applications of high-tech
industry. In the case of Zelenograd (the potential application to
other satellite cities is a straightforward extension), Elvis+
proposes:
1. Wired bridge creation to connect Zelenograd with
Moscow-placed WAN (Internet) gate (fiber optic,
leased line or radio channel with data rate from 128
Kbps (kilobytes per second) for teleconferences
realization);
2. Wireless networks development inside Zelenograd
(because wired phone lines aren't reliable and their
deployment is expensive -- up to $1000 per
installed line).
ELVIS+ has 2-years experience in providing Internet
services in RUSSIA -- including fax service, E-mail, World Wide
Web (WWW), Wide Area Information Server (WAIS). Since 1992
ELVIS+ has been developing the key technologies for wireless
computer networks, including radios, radio modems, and radio
antennas (in accordance with a Joint Development Agreement
(JDA) with Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation) since 1992.
The original radio frequency targeted is 2.45 to 2.54 gigahertz
(microwave), which can be used without license in the United
States and Western Europe if spread spectrum technology is used
and the power is kept below one watt. Both these technologies
were demonstrated successfully in COMTEK'94 (Moscow, April,
1994). ELVIS+ radioadapters are based on forward Spread
Spectrum radio-technology -- Direct Sequences Spread
Spectrum (DSSS). DSSS radios with Binary Phase Shift Keying
(BPSK) modulation work very well in the presence of interference.
Other advantages of the proposed technology include
international license-free 2400-2483,5 MHz band-controlled
power (flexibility) - range up to 10 km with omnidirectional
antennas. The basic radio-technologies (antennas &
transceivers) are being patented in the USA.
Desktop applications include:
- wireless access to wired LAN on the base of 802.11
access protocol, which gives possibility to support
TCP/IP (Internet) connection;
- wireless access to wired WAN nodes (Gateway)
radio LAN technology, offering wireless access from
remote computers to networks in places where it is
impossible or too expensive to provide wired
solutions.
Of course, any kind of communication infrastructure needs
investment for its development. We suppose that various
interested organizations (prefectures and Moscow government,
universities, private Russian banks, the Committee on Higher
Education, and the proposed Russian Training Foundation, to be
financed by a World Bank loan to the Russian Federation) could
cooperate in this project.
But how could investors earn a return on funds they invest?
In our opinion, Internet commercialization offers a promising
approach today.
MAKING MONEY FROM THE INTERNET
There are many examples of commercial usage of Internet.
Internet provides information highway worldwide at reasonable
cost. This highway may be used by companies which lack the
resources to use television or radio for advertising and supporting
their products or services. Powerful Internet tools for gathering
information (Mosaic, Gopher, WAIS) allow organizing new forms of
information business such as publication of electronic magazines,
providing remote Fax Service, various commercial database
services, and supporting new kinds of banking and other financial
services.
Zelenograd, for example, has several electronic plants with
research centers, and the Microelectronic Engineering University.
Many of these Zelenograd organizations have great scientific
and/or production potential, but lack the ability to exchange
information exchanging with other sources. So, developing
network infrastructure will help to organize information exchange,
and promote employment of highly-experienced scientists and
engineers who are currently unemployed or have reduced salaries.
Also information exchange will allow small companies to cooperate
in carrying out large projects in area of companies specialization,
common efforts coordination, accurate materials and components
for output final production.
Another approach for attracting and making money through
the Internet is to develop a banking system which will allow
electronic funds transfer between companies and/or individuals.
Elvis+ has its own approaches in Internet service provision,
related to developing a global network of commercial databases,
remote FAX service, to place at the disposal to banks the
supporting of remote client bills checking, supporting a hotline for
software products customers and so on. Elvis+ plans to show
some business features of Internet and Elvis+'s own information
model at the ICDED94.
Other examples of how Russian high-tech companies could
make money using the Internet include the following:
- user is billed electronically to account of his choice:
VISA or another credit card;
- royalties from licensing search engine to traditional
vendors;
- provision of multimedia-based advertisements for
customers' products and services;
- selling other ISV's software electronically;
- selling magazine subscriptions
BUILDING A RUSSIAN ELECTRONIC DISTANCE EDUCATION
SYSTEM: CONVERSION TO CIVILIAN PRODUCTION IN
PRACTICE
The above examples are only indicative of what can be
achieved by the Russia's high-tech satellite towns by taking
advantage of the Internet and helping build a Russian distance
education system. First of all, such towns can be among the
leading users of a distance education system to help remedy the
lack of managerial, financial, and accounting skills which prevent
them from taking full advantage of their otherwise very strong
human resource base.
But building this system and extending it throughout Russia
and then to other countries, starting with those making up the
former Soviet Union, can provide excellent opportunities for civilian
production. The production of computers, radio modems,
multimedia equipment, satellite dishes, two-way satellite earth
stations for centers of excellence in market-oriented management
and financial education, and adaptation of Russia's underused
military satellites for instructional use will find a broad market. A
modern system can be built, reaching directly higher education
establishments, industrial training centers, and large businesses
by narrowcast satellite television and Internet. In this way, a
limited number of foreign experts and Russians who have already
acquired the needed skills can reach out across Russia's eleven
time zones and spread these skills rapidly, facilitating Russia's
industrial rebirth. The demand for these skills is enormous.
In the United States and Europe, such electronic distance
education is developing rapidly, and going global. For example,
National Technological University (NTU) now uplinks 45 universities
in North America, which are then downlinked to over 550 academic,
industrial, and governmental sites. NTU seeks to be fully global
by the year 2000. In the United States, computer networks are
spreading beyond the scientific-technical community through the
development of "community computing" in which regions and cities
create a wired community that links up all citizens and services.
CapAccess in Washington, DC is an interesting model, which integrates
well into the development what United States Vice President Al
Gore calls the National Information Infrastructure, which can then
link into a growing International Information Infrastructure
(A. Gore, 1994).
Building a distance education system to meet Russia's own
needs can also provide the economic basis for Russia's taking a
leading role in the emerging worldwide market for quality distance
education. And it is likely that the first areas in which Russia will
be able to successfully export educational services electronically
will be precisely those areas of science and technology which
have their centers of excellence within the former military-
industrial-scientific complex centered in the satellite cities.
REFERENCES
Gore, Albert (1994). Remarks Prepared for Delivery, Vice President Al
Gore, International Telecommunications Union, Buenos Aires, March 21, 1994.
Internet Society (1994). State of the Internet, May 1994.