Visit by the Minister of Communications and Information Technology
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Alexandria, 3 March 2005—H.E. Dr. Tarek Kamel, Egyptian Minister of Communication and Information Technology, visited the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA), on 3 March 2005, to follow-up on its latest project of upgrading the BA’s Internet connection bandwidth from 10 Mbps to 155 Mbps (STM1). This project, performed in collaboration with Telecom Egypt and the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT), comes within BA’s pursuit of becoming a world-wide leading institution of the digital age.
During the visit, Dr. Ismail Serageldin, Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, presented the different projects undertaken by the ICT sector, as well as future projects. He also accompanied Dr. Tarek Kamel on a tour of BA and introduced him to the “My Book: Digital and Printed”, “Hole in the Wall” projects, as well as the Internet Archive, and the Digital Lab.
The Minister affirmed his keenness on augmenting cooperation with BA, in several projects such as in data mining, which is the process of analyzing large amounts of data in order to extract new kinds of useful information. In addition, he expressed his hope that the Library of Alexandria would one day operate via a wireless system.
During the visit, Dr. Kamel visited the Manuscripts and Antiquities Museums, as well as the Shadi Abdel Salam and Mohamed Awad Exhibitions, and finally attended a scientific film in the planetarium.
This upgrade places BA among the first few organizations in Egypt with STM1 connection, and the only cultural non-profit organization. The new bandwidth will allow for high-speed access to the wealth of information offered through BA, serving both local as well as international communities. Synchronization with the Internet Archive in San Francisco will be enhanced. Electronic resources and digitized collections will be accessed quickly and efficiently from within BA or through the Internet. Services such as web browsing, video conferencing and video streaming will become significantly faster. In addition, it will better support the hosting of websites developed in-house.
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| The official launch |
Presentation by
Dr. Ismail Serageldin |
H.E. Dr. Tarek Kamel and
Dr. Ismail Serageldin |