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From: Albania Networking Forum <albnet@info.irex.org> To: sghuter@psg.com Date: Mon, 14 Aug 1995 12:34:17 -0400 Albnet-L is finishing up its first year of following Albanian Internet developments, and it's time for a review of where we've come since last August. Practically speaking, little has changed. Except for UNDP and their in-house VSAT link, everyone in Tirana who uses the Internet still has to make a phone call to a computer in another country. But there are now two serious networking efforts underway: 1) With Soros and USIA grants and collaboration from UNDP a non-profit node is being set up at the Harry Fultz School in Tirana. 2) With support from various EU-funded programs, INIMA (the Institute of Informatics and Applied Mathematics) is laying the groundwork for its own network (for more information see http://goole.octacon.co.uk/proj/etcetera/index.htm). There is also some BBS activity in Tirana. There is an excellent Albanian home page maintained by Besnik Pula at: http://www.ios.com/~ulpiana/Albanian/index.html And INIMA has their own home page at: http://goole.octacon.co.uk/proj/etcetera/inima/inima.htm There is an Albanian Usenet group (soc.culture.albanian) and an Albanian affairs mailing list (send the message "subscribe albanian <your name>" to listserv@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu). None of the above existed a year ago. As for this list, the number of subscribers is now USA 78 U.K. 10 Albania 4 Canada 4 Italy 4 Australia 3 Germany 2 Netherl. 3 plus one subscriber each from Belgium, Macedonia, France, Croatia, Austria, Luxembourg, and New Zealand for a total of 115. This list exists to spread news about *all* Albanian networking efforts, including those supported by INIMA, the various EU-sponsored programs, Soros, UNDP, the Internet Interest Group, companies, and private individuals. Albnet-L is only a mailing list: there is no Albnet computer node or Albnet networking effort. I emphasize this because Neki Frasheri seemed to be confusing Albnet-L and Diane Hambley's group in his most recent comment. I hope that the next step in Albanian networking development will be thinking about the needs of end-users. It is one thing to set up a working site in Albania, and another to get diverse people using it. That requires both market forces and active e-mail evangelization - both of which will hopefully become possible in the next year. - Ian Watson Albnet-L moderator
