Leveraging International Connections In Support of National ICT Goals

Abstract

The ever increasing demand for advanced telecommunications services and Internet access has prompted many countries to initiate comprehensive information and communications technology [ICT] planning efforts in support of strategic national goals; particularly in the areas of educational, research, health care, and economic development. Advances in optical communications technologies and the scheduled completion of additional undersea optical fiber cables within the region, with the corresponding availability of bandwidth and the anticipated reduction in cost, have accelerated these planning efforts to determine how best to utilize these resources to support of identified strategic national objectives.

This presentation will examine some of these planning efforts and several recently conducted studies in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates that focused on the development of plans to support the deployment of an affordable broadband infrastructure for research and educational purposes. Assessments of critical telecommunication infrastructure components, distance learning applications and online tools that are required to support these distributed distance learning models will be discussed, as well as the increasing importance of private sector partnerships will be examined

Additionally, this presentation will discuss recent activities within the North American educational community to expand international research networking programs by developing collaborative agreements with other institutions in support of research and distributed learning activities. In particular the recent University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development [UCAID/Internet2] efforts in the Middle East and Asia will be discussed, and finally, cooperative models to expand these agreements to the Indian sub-continent to facilitate research and distance-learning programs will be explored.

Biography

Hudnall R. Croasdale
Director of Information Technology Strategic Partnerships,
Virginia Tech, 11 South 12th Street (Suite 202),
Richmond, VA 23219
Phone: +1-804-786-8130
Email: croasdale@vt.edu

Mr. Croasdale is currently the Director of Information Technology Strategic Partnerships at Virginia Tech and has responsibility for developing and managing Virginia Tech's strategic partnerships with private sector organizations, research universities, government agencies, and economic development groups; in areas relating to the University's advanced telecommunications networks, Internet 2, and related information systems partnerships.

Prior to joining Virginia Tech, Mr. Croasdale was the Director of the Old Dominion University Northern Virginia Higher Education Center. In 1994 he was appointed by Virginia's Governor George Allen to serve as the Director of the Council on Information Management; as the Chief Information Officer of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Mr. Croasdale also has over 18 years of information technology experience in the private sector serving in senior management positions with C&P Telephone Company, AT&T, and the Lockheed
Martin Corporation.

Mr. Croasdale's primary area of research is in the field of critical telecommunications infrastructure protection and in the area of advanced broadband network development for educational, research, and economic development activities, and related areas. He has recently conducted research for the Commonwealth of Virginia on the development and deployment of rural broadband networks, a technology assessment in the United Arab Emirates for Zayed University, and several US-AID funded research projects in the Arab Republic of Egypt in the assessment and development of technology platforms for research and education.

Mr. Croasdale has a Bachelor of Science degree in education from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia and a Master of Science degree in systems management from the University of Southern California in Los Angles California.

© 2003-2006 CIMAP| Last modified: 08/28/2006