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Monthly Reports
"Voronezh Civic Networking "
March, 2000
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In March within a framework of the project the preliminary meetings were
organized and the arrangements for granting information were worked out
with a number of educational and social institutions, such as the State
Institution of Culture, magazine "Podiyom", the Voronezh Regional Educational
Advising Center, the Union of the Composers, the Voronezh Regional Branch
of the All-Russian Childhood Fund, etc. The meetings with the chiefs of
juveniles associations, Voronezh students of local lore and writers were
also held. At these meetings, the purposes and the tasks of the project
were reported and the WWW-server of the Voronezh Civil Network was demonstrated.
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The meeting was arranged of the Voronezh Regional Center of New Information
Technologies executives, responsible for the project, with the representatives
of the Educational Department of the Voronezh Regional Administration.
The chiefs of the Educational Department took a keen interest in the project
giving an opportunity for publishing the information about the regional
educational programs, useful both for the experts in education and for
the public at large, on the server pages. During this meeting the talks
between Yurasov V., the coordinator of the project, and Chaplugin A., the
�hief of the Information-Methodical Center of the Educational Department,
were conducted where the contours of the future joint activities were drawn.
Thus, the preliminary agreement on the participation of the Educational
Department in the project was reached and a positive decision on creating
the databases "Applicant" and "The Rating of the Voronezh Comprehensive
Schools" on the server "Voronezh Civil Network" was made as well. The database
"Applicant" is supposed to include the data on the higher educational institutions
in Voronezh and in the Centralno-Chernozemny region - their faculties,
the specialities they train in, the application rules, the examinations
taken upon admission and during the course, etc.The database "The Rating
of the Voronezh Comprehensive schools" is supposed to give statistics of
the school graduates admitted to the higher educational institutions. The
participants of the meeting expressed satisfaction about the results of
the meeting and the prospects of the joint work.
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The conference "The 100 Days of the Voronezh Civil Network: Results and
Prospects " was convened on the 28-th of March at the Central Public Access
Center. The conference aroused a serious public concern. Regular users
of the Civil Network, and all those interested in joining the project,
took part in the conference. The participants of the conference noted that
the first results of the project "Voronezh �ivil Network" fully correspond
with the purposes and the tasks of the project.Among the most significant
achievements within a framework of the project were named:
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The presentation of the project in the regional mass media
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The questionnaires circulated among the users of the Voronezh Civil Network
with the purpose of revealing their information preferences
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The training activities (the participants of the conference expressed genuine
gratitude to the tutors for their patient and understanding treatment of
the trainees)
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The Central Public Access Center opened in the Regional Centre of the New
Information Technologies at the Voronezh State Technical University
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The project web-workshop and the web-server "Voronezh Civil Network" created.
There was reported also about the public access center at the Voronezh
Regional Juveniles Library, the first of the four centers to put into operation
according to the project.
During the conference, the Web-server was presented, with a discussion
of the contents of its sections and the presentation of the personal pages
of the users involved in the project. The participants of the conference
appreciated a high quality of information resources on the server and their
attractive design. The personal Web pages stirred up the strongest interest.
The close attention was paid to the problem of training users. The
experimental course showed teaching to be rather a complicated task as
skills in using a computer vary greatly from one student to another. So
it was decided that in future while forming new training groups a clear
differentiation should be made between the students according to their
individual levels of the "computer skills". It was also recommended that
the theoretical course for the beginners be extended and that during the
practical course the users' individual information preferences be considered
too. In accordance with the users' wishes a terminological dictionary,
an instruction manual on how to work with browsers, and methodical recommendations
on information search in Internet, its storage, processing and using will
be compiled.
The participants of the conference approved of the idea to launch an
interactive page on the server "Voronezh �ivil Network" containing debatable
information materials on different urgent problems of the region.
It was mentioned that the local Russian Civil Networks start to interact.
Thus, the participants of the Voronezh project had received the invitation
from Kazan to the seminar on civil rights.
Concerning the future prospects of the Voronezh Civil Network, the participants
of the conference presented a number of useful proposals:
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To continue developing the project advertising campaign as there is a great
amount of both individuals and organizations potentially interested in
joining a civil network
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To ensure collecting and distributing of the information about how frequently
the Web-server "Voronezh Civil Network" is visited
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To increase a number and variety of subjects discussed on the Web-server.
Many participants of the conference expressed desires to open their personal
mailboxes and to issue their personal Web pages.
A pleasant fact about the work of the conference was that even the
pupils from the Voronezh comprehensive schools participated in it.
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All March both technical and administrative support of the Central Public
Access Center was provided.
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The information support of the server "Voronezh Civil Network" (vrn.vorstu.ac.ru)
was provided too. The following sections were created: "Civil Sector",
"Regional News", "Historical Notes", "Regional Press", "Cultural Life",
"Personal Pages". The "Notice-board" is regularly renewed. The section
"Regional News" is daily updated. The server has been registered with three
search systems.
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The training courses for two groups (26 enrolled) were conducted in March.
After them, there were the seminars where the new possibilities presented
to the community within the framework of the project were being discussed.
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The project Web-workshop and a full-time advisory services consulting on
different aspects of work in Internet were active all March at the Public
Access Center.
Vladislav Yurasov,
PI of VCN
[English]
[Russian
KOI8 |
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