Presentation during the 14th Association of African Universities (AAU) Conference and African Open Science Platform (AOSP)/Research Data Alliance (RDA) Workshop in Accra, Ghana, 7-8 June 2017.
The Case for African NRENs: Access to Open Science Platform/Meoli Kashorda
1. Transforming education with ICT
The Case for African NRENs
Access to Open Science Platform
Presentation at the Open Science Platform Forum
Accra, Kenya
June 7, 2017
Meoli Kashorda, B.Sc (Eng.), PhD, MIEEE
Executive Director and CEO, KENET and
Non-executive board member, UbuntuNet Aliance
mkashorda@kenet.or.ke
African Open Science Platform 1Meoli Kashorda
2. What is Our Agenda
• African NRENs and Open Data Platforms
• State of research infrastructures in Kenya
– KENET identity provider and Certification Authority
– Open research data repository
• Discovery of Researchers and Emerging KENET
Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
– SIG on Data Science (Bio-informatics, computational
biology, IoT and Internet measurements
• Conclusions
African Open Science
Platform
2Meoli Kashorda
3. State of African NRENs
Meoli Kashorda African Open Science Platform 3
4. Transforming education using ICT
What Do NRENs like KENET do?
• Provides affordable broadband Internet and
community cloud services for members and
researchers
• Regularly Conducts E-readiness Survey of
Connected Universities
– 2006, 2008, 2013 and 2015 (seee-readiness results
http://ereadiness.kenet.or.ke)
– Data-driven advocacy and influencing ICT strategies to
increase use of ICT in education and research
• Aims to build and/or host Open data portals for
researchers and members
– Current Request a marine biology for a research
institution that has been hosting it in Belgium
Meoli Kashorda African Open Science Platform 4
5. Google Confidential and Proprietary
KENET build access fiber networks to universities in different
parts of Kenya
i. Last Mile Fiber Development in Nyahururu town for Laikipia University
6. Google Confidential and Proprietary
• .
Somalia
INDIAN OCEAN
LTK fiber-underground (Primary)
Jamii fiber -overhead(Backup)
KENET POP
POP No. of
Campuses
Connected
No of Schools
connected
Nairobi POP 100 48
Kisumu POP 20 1
Mombasa POP 16 0
Eldoret POP 22 0
Nakuru POP 17 0
Meru POP 15 1
Total Campuses
connected
230+ 50
Italian Space Agency -Luigi
Broglio Space Centre- Malindi
KENET National Broadband Network Coverage
• Leased NOFBI Dark Fiber - 1262KM
• KENET Owned Last Mile Fiber Spurs – 246KM
• Leased Dark Fiber Rings – 510KM
• Total KENET dark fiber distance – 2018KM
• Connected Schools classified as follows;
KENET/Wananchi Partnership schools – 150 (all
in Nairobi)
KENET Schools – 4 (Alliance schools, Kisii and
Marsabit Girls)
Uganda
Tanzania
EthiopiaLokichoggio
Lodwar
Kitale
Weybuye__
Kakameg
a
Eldoret
Kisumu
Kisii
Kericho
Bomet
Narok
Rong
o
Isebania
Nairobi
Kaljiado
Namanga
Tal
a
Kitui
Mwingi
Garissa
Garsen
Thika
Muranga
Nyeri
Emb
u
Meru
NanyukiNyahururu
Nakuru
Isielo
Wajiir
Marsabi
t
Moyale
Mandera
15
9
Mombasa
Malindi
KilifiMombasa
POP
Meru
POP
USIU
DC
Kisumu
POP
Nakuru
POP
UoN
POP
Eldoret
POP
500KM
400KM
500KM
400KM
350KM
350KM150KM
Marsabit
Girls
Garissa University
College
SEACOM International capacity (3150Mb/s)
KTCIP TEAMS International capacity (1200Mb/s)
SEACOM
(3150Mb/s)
WIOCC International capacity (1000Mb/s)
KTCIP TEAMS/SEAMEWE4 (1200Mb/s)
WIOCC (1000Mb/s)
TEAMS Landing
station
SEACOM Landing
station
GOK TEAMS to Fujairah (600Mb/s)
GOK TEAMS International capacity (600Mb/s)
Wananchi IPT (1000Mb/s)
Wananchi IPT (1000Mb/s)
7. What is the state of African NRENs –
source: World Bank report 2016
Meoli Kashorda African Open Science Platform 7
10. KENET Digital Certification Authority
and Identity Provider
● KENET operates a fully functional Certification Authority capable of
issuing one year Personal and Robot public key certificates (compliant
with the X.509 standard).
● Users can request for personal certificates, host certificates, renew and check
certificate revocation lists.
● Fully accredited by EUGRIDPMA – example grids accessible
– The Africa Grid Science Gateway – https://www.africa-grid.org
– EGI – European Grid Infrastructure
– SURFSara (Dutch National Grid)
• KENET is the Identity Provider of Kenyan researchers (single sign-on)
– KENET Open Data repository integrated with iDP
– Eduroam operational
• Essential for Open Science Data Platform or for collaboration
Meoli Kashorda African Open Science Platform 10
11. Transforming education using ICT
Open Data Repository
• Demand from SIG on engineering members for an Open Data
repository
– Started with mini-grant for Raspberry Pi educational / research projects
for 4 university teams (see http://raspberry.kenet.or.ke )
– Two university teams using the Raspberry Pi as part of IoT to collect data
on birds and horticulture
– They needed a data repository – data collected growing at exponential
rate
• KENET engineers decided to build an open data repository that is now
integrated to KENET iDP (identity provider)
– Will be used by researchers publishing in Open Access Journals that
demand research is published
– Researchers without adequate storage facilities at their universities
• Problem: Institutions have Open Access Policies but NOT research
data policies – urgent solution needed.
• New initiative for the FY 2017-2018 – Build a fully-fledged Open
Research Data repositoryMeoli Kashorda African Open Science Platform 11
12. Transforming education through ICT
First CODATA Task Group in Kenya
• TG on Agriculture Data, Knowledge for
learning and innovation
• Participating organizations
– Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization
(KALRO) – Boniface Akuku as Team leader
– JKUAT (Prof Wafula)
– University of Nairobi (Prof Waema)
– KENET
• First Meeting on March 1, 2017
Meoli Kashorda African Open Science Platform 12
13. Transforming education through ICT
Increasing Interest in Data Science
• Pilot project in Kenya for use of Big Data for price regulation
– ITU / Communications Authority Initiative
• Two of the large mobile operators in Kenya announcing plans to use
BIG data for market analysis
– Hiring Data Science
• IBM Cloud Lab courses on Big Data in business / organizations
– Cloud Lab hosted by KENET and FREE courses for faculty and
students
• IBM Africa lab in Nairobi also promoting BIG data studies in Kenya
• Universities starting to offer Masters Degrees in Data Science
• Africa Data Science Initiative
• Doctoral students with a focus on BIG data and data science
– E.g., collecting netflow data from KENET for use in traffic engineering
Meoli Kashorda African Open Science Platform 13
14. Transforming education through ICT
Conclusions?
• NRENs facilitate building national research
infrastructures
• African NRENs are not strong on the whole
– Providing basic Internet bandwidth
– Are in many cases not recognized by governments
• Institutional Research Data policies missing in
Kenyan institutions
– Except the CGIAR International research
institutions
• How shall we strengthen African NRENs in
area of Open Research Data?
Meoli Kashorda African Open Science Platform 14