Other contracts were also signed during the summer period: one with Bruxelles-Formation (in the scope of the EC ADAPT programme), one with the IDC (Implant Data Communication) company and one with ETIC, the European Telecommunications Industrial Consortium. And still during the same period, the BRUNETTE project has become a reality, connecting the first schools in Belgium permanently to the Internet.

To top it all, as you will read opposite, some new forces have joined Service Télématique et Communication, while a few older members of the group have left for new carriers.

Undoubtedly, there is more action than ever on the New Paths of Knowledge...

Paul VAN BINST

Three Faculties of ULB joigned their expertise and competences to present an analysis of the phenomenon, the state of the question and the opportunities for the future through a legal, technological, organizational and social approach.

Various high level experts coming from different sectors of activity contributed to this seminar, providing a state-of-the-art source of information as well as their own view of the present dynamic situation.

This event was very successful and drew close to 200 participants.

General consultancy contract with the BBL bank

AED

Further, it could also be possible to interconnect video equipments belonging to other administrations in order to share monitoring information, e.g. to control the traffic at crossroads, etc... The backbone of the network will be based on the ATM technology and many applications will be supported by TCP/IP protocols. ATM switches will be interconnected by means of optical fibers installed in tunnels.

EuroDemo

At the end of July the last signatures were put on the EuroDemo contract. EuroDemo is a project in the Telematics Applications Programme of the European Commission. The two partners in the project are ULB/STC and VUB/ELEM. EuroDemo aims at providing a demonstration facility on the campus of ULB-VUB for the applications developed or used in the telematics projects. EuroDemo will be built on the comprehensive networking infrastructure provided by ULB-VUB and on the group's high level of expertise in telematics applications and services.

A complete demonstration room will be made available with multimedia workstations and PCs, as well as open connectivity for installing specific project equipment. Meeting facilities will include video capture and projection equipment and a seminar area. Networks that can be used for data communication range from the telephone network to X.25, ISDN and ATM on the public side and ISDN, ethernet, FDDI and ATM on the local side.

Demonstration room booking will be handled through an on-line reservation system. All demonstrations will be installed and coordinated by EuroDemo's permanent allocated team. Performance and evaluation tools will be available. Demonstrations will be recorded and made available to the relevant parties.

GINA

Administrative and logistic support is also provided by GINA through the reviewing of documents issued from the contributors and through the use of a collaborative working facilities. The collaborative working environment selected (BSCW developed by GMD under European funding) offers facilities for sharing documents and makes use of a repository server managing document retrieval and versioning. This server is accessed by means of standard World Wide Web browsers. At the present time, the GINA/BSCW server is already installed at STC premises, storing the first GINA documents.

The server can be reached from the following URL:

http://gina.iihe.ac.be

The GINA kick-off meeting took place on July 19 in Brussels where primary objectives in a short/medium term timescale were defined. Among others, actions cover the participation to the NI meeting in September 1996 and the organization of a GINA workshop in March 1997.

The GINA consortium is composed of Alcatel SEL, Baltzer Science Publishers, Brussels University, Gent University, IntraSOFT, Italtel, Martel and Telscom.

BRUNETTE HAS TAKEN OFF

From now on, all the schools involved in the pilot phase are able to make use of an access to the Internet via the BELGACOM BiLAN service and INTERPAC connectivity.

Moreover, since the beginning of July, BRUNETTE provides its own World Wide Web service. The Electronic Mail is fully operational as well as the naming service (DNS) drawn up in collaboration with INTERPAC.

All these services offer a whole worldwide connectivity to BRUNETTE users, a first in Belgian schools.

The BRUNETTE WWW site is reachable at the following address:

http:://www. brunette.brucity.be

Each pilot site has a dedicated domain in the "Cyberspace" and, in a near future, the BRUNETTE server will be enhanced with appropriate information provided by Schools staff.

Thanks to Electronic Mail, professors as well as students have, since the beginning of the school year, the opportunity of establishing contacts with other schools or institutions all over the world.

Training is also carefully taken into account. From October 96 onwards, Service Télématique et Communication is going to carry out a group of modular seminars meant to provide BRUNETTE users with an adequate training in order to fit their needs and requirements. A set of meetings, composed of Schools staff and STC BRUNETTE members, have allowed to determine the basis of the various trainings contents.

In the realization of the BRUNETTE project, Service Télématique et Communication is working hand in hand with Philippe LANGENAKEN, professor at Haute Ecole Francisco Ferrer, and Alain NYS, analyst at the City of Brussels' Education Department.

Consultancy Contract with ETIC

Bruxelles Formation

The first planning of activities is as follows:

• mail: general support, software upgrades, debugging
• networking: general support, developing a backup system
• WWW/FTP: site set-up, design of pages, support
• videoconferencing: set-up, support
• additional training of ETIC staff

In the scope of the ADAPT programme of the European Co mmission, Bruxelles-Formation has a project to develop and implement an i nformation server on the Internet, concerning their many training activities and expert assistance offered to the Brussels enterprises, developing an integrated service approach particularly suited for SME's.

Service Télématique et Communication has been contracted to provide an adequate computing and networking environment to Bruxelles-Formation and to train their staff in the use of the Internet infrastructure and applications, as well as of other modern information and communication technologies.

For the moment, there is no infrastructure that enables manufacturers, suppliers or surgeons to ensure the follow-up of the implant along its way from the manuf acturing to the actual implant into a patient body. This is a problem when corr ective actions such as a product recall have to be taken. The set-up of a centra l registery controlled and supported by the medical profession is essential.

IDC contracted Service Télématique et Communication to help them in analyzing and implementing their concept.

ULB-STC is maintaining its 34 Mbps ATM c onnection with BELGACOM, which has been used between January and March under a c ollaboration agreement with the European Commission ACTS Programme, and will now become active in the scope of the EuroDemo, MERCI and JAMES projects.