This October George Soros, a well-known finansist and philantropist, visited Kaliningrad city in Russia and took part in inauguration of the Internet Center in Kaliningrad State University. This is the last of 33 University Internet Centers (UIC) established within the framework of Internet program of the Open Society Institute (Soros Fund) in Russia.

The joint program of the Open Society Institute (Soros Fund) and Government of the Russian Federation calls for establishing 33 Internet centers in leading Russian classic universities throughout the country. The program has been carried out since April 1996. The Open Society Institute has assigned US$ 100 mln. for this long-term program. The money are destined for hardware and software purchases, personnel training and financial support of the UIC. Russian party invests US$ 30 mln. in the project, including communication channels, uplinks to global Internet infrastructure, housing of the Centers.

Principal goals of the project include providing free access to world telecommunication network and Internet services for students and professors of the universities, as well as users from culture, health care, and education organizations. On the other hand, the project will make vast resources of Russian museums, libraries, and archives available online.

Stage one of the largest Russian project in the field of non-profit Internet resulted in building the infrastructure, which covers 33 cities and includes powerful telecommunication centers in universities, public Internet access classes with total number of workstations about 3,000, web laboratories with multimedia equipment, leased-line connections for more than 1,000 non-profit organizations. Now, joint projects of the Open Society Institute, regional governments and municipalities are launched in 13 Russian regions. These projects are aimed at providing information content for regional non-profit telecommunication networks, development of education, culture, health care and building the civil society.

Source: InfoArt News Agency

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