This Entity We Call ``The Ethiopia Page'' ...

There was a night two years ago when I decided to see how this this web stuff worked...

I think quite a few of us have had a fateful night like that one where we unwittingly became casualties of The Web and learned its true meaning. Some say The Web is a network of documents. But what then is the spider? And what then is her trap? Oh how innocently we are snared by those fibers... ;-)

In these two years I have come across links calling this Ethiopia page ``The Ethiopia Home Page''. This is really quite flattering but also a very imposing responsibility that I don't wish to assume. In my mind this page is just ``The ACG Ethiopia Page'' and nothing more.

I write this now from Addis Abeba where I can no longer surf the net to seek out new links to add to the Ethiopia page. In spite of this, seven months have passed and the Ethiopia page continues to grow. This momentum behind the page demonstrates to me the community support it has and the value of a resource it offers. This is very meaningful to me I am really very grateful. The community has truly built these pages now and I am happily the volunteer typist.

So, lets keep it going! We all rely on one another now to keep the page growing and in top shape. Do you find any of these links to be out dated? Do you have errors to report? Have you found new links that we should add here? Whatever it be please send your feedback, revisions, and updates to me at:

acg_request@hotmail.com


So how is Addis and the Internet future here? If I had to write an Ethiopia FAQ, this question would be first on the list :-) Very briefly: The ETA (Ethiopian Telecommunications Authority) has had a deal with Sprint to provide Internet service starting originally in June, now they say October (read ``we don't know when -they don't know when''). The ETA has made it clear they will be the sole providers of Internet services in Ethiopia. What services will be made available is unknown. There is really a lot to say about all this, but most anything can change over night. There is potential for really great things to happen or absolute catastrophe. But we are not sitting helplessly at the side waiting to find out which.

Ethiopia On Line

EtOnLine is Web service offered at The Hornet BBS of The Pan African Development of Information Systems (PADIS) in Addis Abeba. It is infantile but 100% real (see current snapshot). You can tour web page at EtOnLine through lynx using any modem software. Or graphical web through Netscape and Winsock (Call 51-45-34 with PPP settings, Name Server and Host IP Address is 157.150.128.102, Username: ppp Password: haile). Since we do not, and can not have a true Internet connection, we provide our visitors with only what we have on our hard drive. Here is where you can help.

Send us your web pages! We will gladly mirror most any materials sent to us. In doing so you are setting the example here for people to learn how to write good quality HTML. You are also providing cyber recreation for your countrymen. Also you are promoting your interest, organization, and companies to a wider audience -and at no cost to the audience. Use the un.org address above to submit materials directly, or in archives such as tar, arj, pkzip, gzipped or compressed tars. Please uuencode your archives!!

The most important aspect of EtOnLine is that it gives companies and NGOs in Ethiopia a place to put their web materials and an incentive to develop them. EtOnLine will in the very near future be mirrored by an Internet provider outside of Ethiopia -thus giving the local companies and organizations world wide exposure.