Pan African Information Development System (PADIS) is a co-operative regional development information system created in January 1980 under the aegis of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in Addis, Ababa, Ethiopia.
The Pan African Documentation Centre Network (PADISNET) is a project to link 34 countries into a network of participating development planning centres which exchange databases and information.
In the last two years, PADIS has been coordinating the CABECA- Capacity Building For Electronic Communications in Africa - training programme.
Most recently, PADIS, through the auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission For Africa (UNECA) sponsored the African Symposium on Telematics.
PADIS connects to PadisNet points in Accra, London, Nairobi, Johannesburg and Washington to exchange international email traffic.
It supports French and English languages. International mail takes maximum about 8-12 hrs. to reach destination.
It provides access to The Hornet BBS - (on Africa Horn issues) and the following APC conferences:
This network provides on-line access to bibliographic and referral databases which we hope will soon be accessible via email query and World Wide Web pages.
Sample of (bibliographic and referral) databases available through PADISNET:
Charges: Registration : US$ 50 Monthly Subscription : US$ 5 Charges to send / receive international messages: US$ 0.11 per Kbytes
Key NGOs sectors using this network include:
Their recommendation on modem purchase include: - buy from US. - if possible get 220 volts rated - do not buy small modems. (The smaller the modem the difficult it is).
Though network responds to all types of modem they suggest to purchase some standard modems such as Zyxel, Hayes, US Robotics, Practical Peripherals, Zoom, GVC, Boca etc..
Training costs US$150 which includes half day hands on and half day orientation.
Number of registered users: 200-300 <June '94> Number of active users: information not available
Quoted from "User's Guide to Networks in Africa", AAAS publication. (p. 23)
Revision 8 June 1995
Copyright GreenNet, Ltd., 1995
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