Last update at http://inet.nttam.com : Thu May  4 12:36:19 1995

Potential Users and Virtual Communities in the Academic World

Jose Silvio <j.silvio@unesco.org>





Abstract

Physical connectivity problems in networks are 

being solved at a relatively rapid rate, and the 

focus of attention has gradually shifted from the 

infrastructure and technology to the  users, 

resources and information contents. However, a 

large population of potential users, from very 

diverse education and research communities, still 

remain outside of the virtual world. Alongside the 

development of virtual communities of users, we are 

witnessing a proliferation of many kinds of non-

electronic cooperative academic networks and 

associations, which have, to a large extent, been 

furthered by various international organizations. 

The "non-virtual" communities which have emerged 

from all these initiatives, are of particular 

importance to the INTERNET, since they are 

sources of potential users, starting points for the 

development of virtual communities, and sources of 

information resources and contents. Very valuable 

efforts are also being made by several 

organizations to support the users and their 

communities in a systematic fashion. Furthermore, 

organized efforts have also been made for the 

purpose of monitoring the evolution of the structure 

of networks' connectivity, users, services and 

resources of  the "Matrix" worldwide. All these 

efforts, virtual and non-virtual, user-oriented and 

network-oriented, should be coordinated in order to 

facilitate the incorporation, training and 

development of new users and new virtual 

communities, thereby adding value to networks and 

to the academic work at the same time. The social 

dimension of telematics is becoming more evident 

now, with the discovery of the fact that Cyberspace 

can be enhanced by the human beings and the new 

forms of sociability arising from the formation of 

virtual communities and their information and 

knowledge resources

1	On the concept of virtual community

From the sociological point of view, a 

community is a particular type of social group, the 

members of which share a series of common 

interests related to one or several aspects of life. The 

communities generally include several social groups 

of different sizes, with various interests and distinct 

degrees of formality and closeness of the relations 

between their members, and are based on a territory 

well defined geographically, for example, a village 

and a city are examples of such communities. The 

term community is also used to describe the sharing 

of interests in a particular group, for example, the 

members of a professional or scientific association.

In Cyberspace, the term virtual community 

describes the groups stemming from the computer 

mediated communication process among people 

sharing a common interest in a scientific, 

professional, cultural, social, recreative or any other 

type of subject. In this case, we can also distinguish 

between general purpose communities and the more 

specific special interest groups (or SIGs), which are 

organized around a particular subject. The essential 

difference between the "real" and the virtual 

communities lies in the fact that the latter do not 

have a territorial base. The virtual space in which 

they evolve transcends the frontiers of geographical 

space. Certainly, the telematic networks have a 

territorial base consisting of the geographical 

location of the computers which constitute their 

nodes, but the human communities which are 

created and which inhabit them do not have a 

territorial base. Their members come from many 

different places but are communicating with others 

in a specific virtual place. They possess another 

reality shared by all their members and based on a 

different infrastructure and process of information 

and knowledge communication and management.

The virtual communities are a basic element of 

the development of the INTERNET and of the 

"Matrix" in general and, to a large extent, they have 

been responsible for its highly cooperative, 

decentralized, pluralistic and diversified 

development. They were formed by individuals, 

informatics specialists and amateurs, who wished to 

take advantage of computer mediated 

communication to obtain a more efficient and 

interactive means of exchanging ideas, experiences, 

knowledge and feelings. The development of those 

communities is a good example of the interaction 

between man and technology. As new 

communication needs arose, new technologies were 

created, leading to the creation of USENET, 

FidoNet, the BBS, the BITNET network, the IRC 

servers, the MUDS, the Free-Nets and many other 

telematic services, which currently serve as 

platforms for communication between persons and 

as receptacles of the information exchanged 

between them. Above and beyond the scientific, 

military, material and economic motives underlying 

the development of INTERNET, one finds in the 

background an eminently social history: The 

"Matrix", or the more general Cyberspace, is above 

all a social rather than a purely physical fact. The 

virtual communities are an expression of various 

forms of sociability and solidarity which have been 

transferred from "real" reality to the virtual world, 

and as such, are manifestations and representations 

of the social networks in which we are all immersed 

throughout our lives 1. 

2	Types of virtual communities

The virtual communities developed in 

Cyberspace differ as regards their origin, evolution 

and purposes. They range from very cohesive 

communities focusing on a specific subject (like the 

SIGs), with a very active participation of their 

members, to communities with very tenuous and 

diffuse links, as well as others with multiple 

purposes and various degrees of participation of 

their members.

We can attempt to classify virtual communities 

in accordance with the type of interactivity, 

sociability and information management among 

their members, thereby distinguishinq, in a first 

approximation, the following types:

1) Communities with deferred interactivity, free 

or limited association, depending on the conditions 

of membership, with automatic reception of 

information, not controlled by the user, focusing on 

one subject, variable degrees of cohesion and 

participation (LISTSERV and similar types of 

electronic lists).

2) Communities with deferred interactivity, free 

association, voluntary search for and receipt of 

information by the user, focusing on one subject, 

variable degrees of cohesion and participation 

(Newsgroups).

3) Communities with free or limited association, 

frequently point to point communication, with 

deferred or real time interactivity, focusing on one 

subject (BBS).

4) Communities with free association, real time 

interactivity, management of information partly 

controlled by the user, focusing on one subject 

(Internet Relay Chat or IRC).

5) Communities aimed at the creation of 

imaginary virtual environments and the 

performance of roles among their members, with 

real time interactivity and free or limited 

association, depending on the case, may focus on 

one or several subjects (MUDS and its variants).

6) Multipurpose communities, encompassing 

sub-communities with specific purposes, based on 

simulation, but which also perform the function of 

normal communication, with deferred or real time 

interactivity (ICONS Program of the University of 

Maryland, USA).

7) Multipurpose communities with an 

integrating vocation, comprising several sub-

communities which may present variable types of 

association interactivity, cohesion and participation 

(The WELL type of community, for example).

8) Multipurpose integral communities, 

encompassing several sub-communities with free 

association, deferred or real time interactivity, 

which tend to emulate the characteristics of the real 

life of the communities possessing a territorial base 

(Free-Nets type of community).

9) Communities promoted by associations 

encompassing several sub-communities, with all the 

telematic services, and connected to the 

INTERNET. (For example, the communities 

administered by the Association for the Progress of 

Communications or APC).

This classification needs to be refined, with a 

better specification of its criteria, and completed 

with more and better information. We offer it here 

as a first approach to the study of this important 

phenomenon of the Cyberspace .

Although the main aim of these types of 

communities is the communication among people, 

they also contain important information resources. 

The communication contents of a mailing list or a 

newsgroup can be a very important resource for 

research or action purposes.

3	Responses of the Cyberspace to the 

needs of virtual communities

The creation and development of the types of 

virtual communities described were specific 

responses to the needs of its members. More 

recently, Cyberspace has generated more integral 

responses which imply not only the development of 

a software or a specific service, but also combined 

efforts including pedagogical and organizational 

actions aimed at ensuring the induction, training 

and development of the users, the support to the 

functioning of the communities created by them and 

their respective information resources.

Those responses can be classified in accordance 

with several criteria, but to simplify, I will mention 

only two: the training of users and the degree of 

promotion and support of sociability among them. 

The approaches adopted are as follows:

1) Simple training of users without permanent 

support of their development, or promotion of 

sociability among them. This includes the induction 

activities of a network which receives new users 

who are simply given a training course, but without 

subsequent permanent systematic support (Simple 

instrumental approach).

2) Training of users, with support, without 

promotion of sociability (Compound instrumental 

approach).

3) Promotion of sociability, without training of 

users or support to a virtual community (Simple 

sociability approach).

4) Training of users with promotion of 

sociability and support both to individual users and 

to the communities resulting from their association 

(Instrumental-sociability approach).

Hence there is a continuum ranging from the 

simplest actions and responses to the most complex 

ones. The actions destined to promote and provide 

permanent support to the development of virtual 

communities are usually accompanied by 

organizational arrangements to include virtual 

communities in various servers of the network or 

institution providing the service, in the form of 

electronic lists, newsgroups and also services for the 

development of the information resources of those 

communities in FTP, Gopher, Wais and Web 

servers.

As far as I know, the experience of the TERENA 

network's User Support and Information Services 

(USIS) Working Group is the best example of the 

most instrumental-sociability approach. The 

Program operates under the coordination of the 

University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and its 

NISP/MAILBASE program. This program offers 

support to various european academic communities 

for the organization of their activities and their 

information resources providing instructors and 

coordinators of mailing lists, other communication 

services, and information resources based in 

different servers of the TERENA network2. Thus 

the needs of both real and potential users are met, 

with a systematic induction and developmental 

approach. Apart from this initiative, in the INET'93 

and 94 conferences, others with more specific 

objectives and more limited scope were discussed, 

such as UNINET (Norway), EDUCATE (Sweden 

and other European countries), ELSA ( Europe), 

CICNET's Rural Datafication Project (USA) and the 

University of Hawaii (USA)3

Another integral response, but with different 

objectives, is that of the Matrix Information and 

Directory Services (MIDS). The MIDS program is 

not geared to the users or the virtual communities. 

Rather, it is a response to the need for self-

knowledge of the "Matrix", for research, monitoring 

of its most important components (physical 

connectivity, nodes, users, telematic services, 

resources, geographical distribution, etc.) and 

information for the community involved in 

networking activities. Apparently the work done by 

MIDS has nothing to do with either the virtual 

communities or the users. Nevertheless, I feel that it 

is important as an example of an integral approach 

to the monitoring of the development of the 

networks and their components, for prospective and 

proactive purposes4.

4	The development of the non-virtual 

academic sociability.

Alongside the development of the virtual 

communities of users and the initiatives destined to 

provide them with pedagogical and organizational 

support, there has also been a notable proliferation 

of academic associations and cooperative networks. 

We are referring here not to computer networks, but 

to "human" or "social" networks. The only 

difference between the human networks, which have 

been in existence since man's appearance on the 

earth, and the telematic networks is  that the latter 

are human networks mediated by an informatic and 

telematic infrastructure for information and 

knowledge management and its communication. 

But generically, they are both social.

This development has been so impressive that 

now the network concept is even serving as an 

analytical paradigm for the Social Sciences. An 

evidence of this tendency is the appearance in 1978 

of the International Network for Social Network 

Analysis (INSNA). This is a social network for the 

analysis of social networks which, as far as I know, 

has no virtual support. It publishes two reviews 

(Connections and Social Networks) and comprises a 

qualified group of social scientists interested in the 

study of social networks as an expression of new 

forms of sociability5. In mathematics, graph theory 

has also been applied to the analysis of networks, of 

their structures and of the communication between 

their members6 and a philosophical study of all 

kinds of networks (physical, natural, biological, 

social and telematic networks) was recently 

published7.

At the same time, the word network, in the 

scientific world, has become a synonym of 

cooperation, integration, solidarity, and of a new 

form of management of the international transfer of 

knowledge. Today, everybody considers the 

possibility of constituting a cooperative network for 

the implementation of a research or development 

project .

In response to that need for cooperative 

sociability, international organizations such as 

UNESCO and the Commission of the European 

Union have worked systematically in the promotion 

of networks, which are academic communities 

created to deal with a particular subject .

A vast cooperative program named UNITWIN 

(University Twinning) was launched by UNESCO 

in 1991, as an international plan of action aimed at 

academic solidarity, to reinforce inter-university 

cooperation, with particular emphasis on developing 

countries.  Three closely related types of modalities 

have arisen for the implementation of the program: 

1) twinning association between two institutions; 

academic chairs, which are teaching and research 

programs related to a specific subject and inter-

university networks, which can cover several 

subjects.  A particular characteristic of the program 

is that, regardless of the point of departure 

(Twinning, Chair or Network), the final result is 

almost always the creation and development of a 

network .

Up to now, UNITWIN has supported or 

promoted a total of 200 projects (158 chairs and 42 

networks) at world level, of which 95 chairs and 22 

networks have been established and 63 chairs and 

20 networks are under consideration, in all regions 

of the world and almost all fields of knowledge. 

Although there are many projects based  in 

developed countries, these have been established as 

focal points, but their operational action is geared to 

the developing countries, in order to promote both 

North-South and South-South cooperation8.

Other important development, also related to 

UNESCO's activities, is the growth of non-

governmental organizations (NGO), which are 

associated with this Organization to work in various 

domains within their areas of competence. At 

present, about 600 NGOs (international and 

regional) are associated with UNESCO, they 

encompass almost all the areas of knowledge and 

cover all the regions of the world.

The Commission of the European Union 

initiated the ALFA Program as of 1994, the aim of 

which is the creation and development of 

cooperative networks between universities and 

scientific centres of European and Latin American 

countries, with scientific and academic objectives.  

It is too early to convey an idea of the magnitude of 

the ALFA Program, since it was created very 

recently and is just beginning to organize projects. 

But its priority areas are as follows: 1) Cooperation 

for institutional management (which includes 

academic and administrative management, 

recognition of titles and diplomas, curriculum 

development, cooperation between universities and 

the productive sector, educational innovation and 

institutional evaluation); and 2) Cooperation for 

scientific and technological training (which 

comprises advanced training and specialized 

complementary training)9.

The Union of International Associations (UIA) 

is engaged in the monitoring of the development of 

both academic, scientific and community sociability, 

and publishes the Yearbook of International 

Organizations, which is updated annually and 

contains a large and rapidly increasing number of 

scientific, professional and academic associations10.

Here we are in a non-virtual world, consisting of 

communities most of which are unaware of the 

existence of the Cyberspace and the benefits which 

it can offer for information and knowledge 

management, or have a very vague idea of it.  There 

has been no systematic connection between said 

communities and the development of the virtual 

communities.  It is curious to note that in both the 

virtual and the non-virtual world, the network 

occupies an important place as an infrastructure and 

instrument of information and knowledge 

management, and the community as a basic form of 

association within said network. These non-virtual 

communities are sources of potential users and a 

wealth of potential information resources, which 

would undoubtedly enhance the value of the 

telematic networks considerably.

5	Some experiences in the development 

of virtual communities

Among the experiences under way in UNESCO, 

for example, the Network of Innovation in Distance 

Education in Latin America and the Caribbean 

(called RIESAD) is worthy of note. This is, to date, 

the first experience of the UNITWIN Program in 

the creation of virtual communities with a proactive 

orientation. The coordinating center of RIESAD is 

located in the National Open University of 

Venezuela and comprises distance universities of 

Mexico, Costa Rica, Cuba, Colombia, Ecuador, 

Brazil and Bolivia. Its action is also related to the 

UNESCO Program "Learning without Frontiers".

The aim of RIESAD is to evaluate the 

introduction and facilitate the utilization of the new 

information and communication technologies in 

distance education. The members of the network 

will communicate through a server center, attached 

to the REACCIUN Network, the national academic 

network of Venezuela, in which a Gopher server is 

being set up and several electronic lists and a user-

training program will enter into operation. Training 

courses in various disciplines will also be provided 

through the INTERNET, and the first one will 

shortly be disseminated, for the training of 

specialists in distance education in the new 

technologies, through the HISPASAT satellite, with 

teaching support through the INTERNET by means 

of electronic mail, electronic lists and several 

information resources located in an FTP and a 

Gopher server, in support of research, learning and 

development activities. RIESAD's approach to the 

management of the virtual community which has 

been created within it will be that which we have 

identified as "instrumental-sociability", but enriched 

with pedagogical activities, since in addition to 

envisaging a user-training program, the association 

of researchers and educators interested in distance 

education will be promoted, and the network will be 

used as a pedagogical instrument11.

RIESAD is an example of the voluntary 

incorporation of an academic non-virtual network 

into the virtual world, using a telematic platform 

which is already in existence, but creating its own 

community, its own system of incorporation and 

support of users and its own information resources, 

within the framework of a multifunctional virtual 

space.

Other important developments are the initiative 

of the Global University, with headquarters in the 

United States, the purpose of which is the creation 

of a virtual university community for teaching, 

research and the developmental activities normally 

carried out by a University, with chapters in various 

regions of the world12. The University of the 

World, which also has its headquarters in the 

United States, is another initiative worthy of note.  

Likewise, the International Telecommunications 

Union (ITU) which is the United Nations 

organization for telecommunications at world level, 

has taken the initiative of creating a Global 

Telecommunications University (GTU) which 

would be an "electronic" university destined to the 

training of telecommunications technicians, 

administrators and other related actors worldwide, 

and with which several United Nations agencies, 

non-governmental and governmental organizations 

and commercial enterprises would be associated13.

Another project worthy of note is the 

Telesynergics Project, coordinated by the Network 

and Development Foundation (FUNREDES) of 

Latin America and the Caribbean, the first NGO of 

its kind in this region. As of October 1995, this 

Project, with which UNESCO and a series of non-

governmental and governmental, academic and 

commercial organizations are associated, will begin 

to build a virtual space of extensive cooperation for 

the development of information and communication 

products and services, which can significantly 

enhance the telematic networks14.

6	The interest in studying and 

monitoring non-virtual academic 

sociability

The interest in monitoring the development of 

academic sociability lies in its potential as virtual 

communities and the value which they can add to 

the telematic networks with their users and their 

information resources. Each member of those 

potential virtual communities is of intrinsic value as 

a source of intellectual energy, of intelligence, and 

as an information resource. Each information 

resource, each library and each information center 

of those associations and networks has extremely 

valuable contents, the incorporation of which into 

the virtual world would contribute to a better 

globalization and distribution of the collective 

memory and intelligence in the world.

We already have the necessary conceptual, 

methodological and operational elements to 

systematize a proactive monitoring of those 

communities which are still outside Cyberspace, 

and each one of them offers ideas and instruments 

for concerted action.  The work carried out by 

MIDS offers a good source of inspiration for the 

development of a frame of reference for a system of 

proactive monitoring of academic sociability. The 

action of TERENA's USIS Working Group could 

provide the framework for the application of what 

we have called the "instrumental-sociability 

approach", for the incorporation and induction of 

potential users and their academic communities, 

and support to their development. The UIA, is an 

important source of information on the development 

and characteristics of academic and community 

associations. The UNITWIN (UNESCO) and ALFA 

(European Commission) programs are important 

resources for the mobilization and 

operationalization of academic networks and 

associations in relation to research and action 

projects, for which the telematic networks can serve 

as a platform for information and knowledge 

management. Initiatives such as those of RIESAD, 

the Global University, the University of the World, 

the Global Telecommunications University and 

other similar ones, are also important factors in the 

mobilization and utilization of telematics for 

learning and research without frontiers. The work 

carried out by INSNA can be a valuable instrument 

of scientific analysis of the "social" networks, 

enabling a better knowledge of the characteristics of 

the structure and functioning of the potential virtual 

communities which could emerge from them, and 

providing significant elements to design and apply 

strategies for the improvement of their functioning 

in Cyberspace. Lastly, proactive monitoring implies 

a state of permanent watch, in order to act at the 

right time, in the appropriate place to solve a 

problem or take advantage of an opportunity for 

development in any field of social life.  In the 

University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) a 

Network for Technological Watch of Information 

(Reseau de Veille Technologique de l'Information) 

was recently created, with the participation of an 

international group of specialists around an 

electronic server with headquarters in the UQAM15. 

Although its objectives are the identification and 

monitoring of the evolution of the new information 

and communication technologies, the concept, 

methodology and practice of technological watch 

could be applied with adaptations to the watch over 

the evolution of the virtual potential of the academic 

communities. Virtual spaces such as 

TELESYNERGICS are also important sources of 

ideas and experiences, as frameworks for 

cooperation and development in the field of virtual 

sociability.

However, there is as yet no systematic 

organizational effort to monitor and coordinate 

these initiatives, and the leading ideas behind them, 

geared to a common objective. Each one of these 

organizations has its particular objectives and 

characteristics, its distinctive area of responsibility 

and its competitive advantage in its particular field 

of action. It is difficult to achieve an efficient 

coordination among them, but it is possible to start 

a project at the highest level international level for 

this purpose.

7	In conclusion: bases for a strategy of 

monitoring academic sociability and 

the development of virtual 

communities

The strategy for the monitoring of academic 

sociability, with a view to its productive and 

creative incorporation into the virtual world, can be 

summarized as follows:

1) Creation of an international working group 

dedicated to the proactive monitoring of the 

academic associations and networks, comprising 

specialists from various organizations of the virtual 

and non-virtual world.

2) Preparation of a conceptual and 

methodological framework for the study of those 

communities, in order to facilitate their 

incorporation into Cyberspace.  Said conceptual 

framework must be based on the premise according 

to which the networks are integrated systems of 

users, physical infrastructures, technologies, 

computer mediated communication services and 

information resources, and a particular approach is 

needed in the case of developing countries16. 

But there is also an important sociocultural-

dimension in the perception and conception of 

networks, which influences the behavior of the 

principal actors involved therein. Let us take the 

example of three of these actors.  For a researcher 

and his scientific community, who would be the 

final users of telematic services, a network is an 

association of homologous persons and institutions 

who channel their activities through the institutions 

which give them their support: a network of 

researchers. For a librarian, as a provider and 

manager of information, the network would be a 

network of information and centers possessing 

information sources to supply said information to 

the researcher networks. They are intermediate 

users.  For the administrator of a telematic network, 

a network would be a network of computers which, 

by means of various-infrastructures, technologies 

and computer mediated communication services, 

enables the researchers to communicate with each 

other and to find the information they are seeking 

for their work in the information sources 

administered by the librarians. The existence of an 

interaction and natural compenetration between 

these actors would appear to be evident, but 

unfortunately, in practice, this is not so. Each one of 

them has his particular culture stemming from his 

professional background and from the peculiarities 

of his work and his own needs and expectations 

within the network.

The integration of networks is not simply a 

matter of solving a pragmatic problem of 

coordination of users, technologies, services and 

resources, it is also a problem of the cultural 

integration of their actors, in a pluralistic sense, and 

an interaction and natural understanding between 

the latter, even if each of them keeps his particular 

identity. Telematic networks are above all human, 

and hence sociocultural products, not merely 

technical objects outside a social context.

4) Identification of the characteristics, structure, 

organization, operational modalities, needs and 

expectations of the academic associations, which 

may have a significant impact on the society by 

virtue of the place they occupy in the latter, in 

relation to the world and regional development 

priorities. Also the identification of the specific 

requirements of associations which approach the 

telematic networks of their own free will in search 

of help, and the characteristics of such associations.

5) Determination of the type of virtual 

community which could be created for each 

association, in accordance with the types mentioned 

previously.

6) Preparation of a strategy of incorporation of 

those associations into the virtual world and a 

systematic program for the incorporation and 

training of their users and support to the 

development of the information resources of said 

associations. When preparing and applying 

programs for user-training, one must bear in mind 

the fact that the users are not a socially 

homogeneous category. They can be divided into 

segments according to their characteristics, needs, 

expectations and other variables, and the training 

and support program must be adapted to each 

segment in a flexible and dynamic fashion17. The 

same can be said of the information resources of an 

academic community. They present a variability 

which must be taken into account when 

"virtualizing" them.

7) Preparation of a program of incorporation of 

academic communities and response to the 

spontaneous requests of the associations seeking 

support.  Here there are two different groups: 1) the 

associations which are aware of the existence of 

telematic networks, wish to take advantage of them 

and apply to the network administrator for help; and 

2) associations which are unaware of the existence 

of  networks, or only have a vague idea of what they 

are, and have not yet realized how valuable it can be 

for the improvement of the quality of their work. A 

different strategy must be applied to each group. 

The program of incorporation must have been 

prepared with the necessary coordination of the 

infrastructure, technologies and telematic services 

required to guarantee the support to be provided.

8) The users and their communities should be 

approached to offer them the necessary support 

through the program which has been prepared, 

either in response to a voluntary request from a 

particular association, or to an association which 

has not requested support, but the "virtualization" of 

which is significant in the opinion of those offering 

the program. At this time, a process of negotiation 

is entered into between the organization which is 

offering the program and the receiver of its services.  

This process must be accompanied by the 

constitution of the necessary organizational and 

technical mechanisms to guarantee its 

implementation, monitoring and control.

10) Promotion of multiplying and synergic 

effects. At this stage, based on the capacity of 

virtual management of information and knowledge 

already existing in the academic community which 

is already virtualized, it is a question of encouraging 

and promoting its propagation in other academic 

communities also possessing a potential for 

integration into the virtual world.  Thus, horizontal 

cooperation is stimulated between communities and 

a synergic and multiplying effect is produced, 

possibly of great magnitude, which stems from the 

population of final users themselves and not in a 

hierarchical "top-down" fashion. Thus the users 

support and incorporate other users, without 

centralizing the process. One must not overlook the 

fact that this operational, spontaneous and 

pluralistic system was the one applied in the 

development of INTERNET and the Matrix in 

general. Everybody has said that it is an anarchical 

and disorderly development. Nevertheless that 

apparent disorder has resulted in a virtual world 

characterized by a vital order, not a geometrical 

order, or at most, one with a highly variable 

geometry.

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8	See more details in UNESCO. UNITWIN 

Newsletter. Issue No. 1. Paris, February, 1995.

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Programme. European Commission. Brussels, 

1994.

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of International Organizations. K.G. Staur. 

Munich, 1991-92, and The Commonwealth of 

Learning. The World of Learning. Europa 

Publications Ltd. London, 1992-93.

11	Universidad Nacional Abierta. Proyecto de Red 

de Innovacion en la Educacion Superior a 

Distancia (Project document). Caracas, 

Venezuela, 1995.

12	T. Utsumi and A. Villarroel. "Hacia una 

Universidad Global Latinoamericana", and M. 

Casas "Proyecciones de la Universidad del 

Mundo en America Latina", in J. Silvio (editor). 

Calidad, tecnologia y globalizacion en la 

educacion superior. CRESALC/UNESCO 

Publications. Caracas, 1992.

13	International Telecommunications Union. 

Global Telecommunications University (Draft 

document). Geneva, 1994.

14	Fundacion Redes y Desarrollo (FUNREDES). 

Proyecto TELESINERGIA (Project document). 

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 1994.

15	M. Cartier. Reseau de veille technologique de 

l'Information (RVTI) (Project document). 

Montreal, 1994.

16	D. Pimienta. Research networks in developing 

countries: not exactly the same story!. 

Proceedings of INET'93 Conference. San 

Francisco, USA, 1993.

17	P. Liendo. "Integrando usuarios y servicios de 

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Information about the author

Jose Silvio is a Sociologist, graduated from the 

Central University of Venezuela. He has a Doctor's 

Degree in Educational Sciences from the University 

of Paris and Post-Doctoral studies in Informatics 

and Statistics Applied to Social Sciences, and 

Mediatics and Telematics, in France and Canada, 

respectively. He is the Senior Specialist of the 

Regional Center of UNESCO for Higher Education 

in Latin America and the Caribbean (CRESALC). 

He also worked in UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, 

in the International Institute for Educational 

Planning (IIEP) and the Division of Educational 

Policy and Planning. He coordinates the CRESALC 

program for the development of academic networks, 

among others, and has worked in several research 

and training projects in the field of electronic 

networks. He is the author of several articles about 

the social and educational impact of new 

information and communication technologies, and 

the editor of two books recently published by 

CRESALC/UNESCO: "Calidad, tecnologia y 

globalizacion en la educacion superior" (Quality, 

technology and globalization in higher education) 

(1992) and "Una nueva manera de comunicar el 

conocimiento" (A new way to communicate 

knowledge) (1993). Postal address: 

UNESCO/CRESALC. Apartado 68394. Caracas, 

1062-A, Venezuela. Tel: 2860721, 2860516. Fax: 

2862039. E-mail addresses: 1) j.silvio@unesco.org, 

2) 76517.2007@compuserve.com

Potential users and virtual communities...	Proc. INET '95	J. Silvio