Re: 2011/11/24 - 20th Anniversary of Internet in South Africa
Anriette Esterhuysen <[email protected]>
| Newsgroups | gmane.org.operators.ioz |
|---|---|
| Organization | Association for Progressive Communications |
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
Hi all I would have loved to participate in the event.. apologies. Hope it went very well. WorkNet (now called SANGONeT) was part of the early history of the internet in South Africa. We first connected 'indirectly' from around 1987 via the UK (through PoptelGeoNet) and later through a UUCP link to GreenNet in London) as well as Fidonet. and for quite a while we were the main link to the internet for universities and other networks in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi. We also connected with Mozambique via Fidonet. University of Eduardo Mondlane was the first to get their direct link via Rhodes but we carried on partnering with then on their national Fidonet network and continued to provide Fidonet or UUCP links to the global internet (email and newsgroups) for networks in Southern Africa until the early 2000s. What I do want to do here is recognise the incredible support we got as an NGO network from Mike Lawrie. Mike arranged for us to get a leased line via the university network fairly early on (early to mid 90s) - somewhat 'unofficially'. Jacot was very supportive. We also got great support from TICSA later on... not to mention from many individuals on this list, Lucio de Re, Alan Barrett, Kezia Crawford Cousins and many, many more.. too many to name. I copy our sysadmin at the time (Fatima Bhyat) and our other two long term techies at the time: Mike Jensen and Steve Song.. just in case they have anything to add. As a small under-resourced but pretty innovative not-for-profit ISP we would not have survived without all this informal support. Anriette (at SANGONeT/WorkNet from around 1987 to 2000) ------------------------------------------------------ anriette esterhuysen [email protected] executive director, association for progressive communications www.apc.org po box 29755, melville 2109 south africa tel/fax +27 11 726 1692 _______________________________________________ IOZ mailing list [email protected] http://lists.internet.org.za/mailman/listinfo/ioz