Appendix B
List of Acronyms and Abbreviations
AAS
African Academy of Sciences, Nairobi, Kenya
AAAS
American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, D.C.
AHILA
Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa
AIM
African Index Medicus
APC
Association for Progressive Communications, United Kingdom
ARCT
African Regional Centre for Technology, Dakar, Senegal
BBS
Bulletin Board System
BITE
Bringing Internet To Ethiopia
BOSTID
Board on Science and Technology for International Development, National Research Council, Washington, D.C.
CABECA
Capacity Building for Electronic Communication in Africa
DTP
Desktop Publishing
EAIA
East Africa Internet Association
ELCI
Environmental Liaison Centre International, Nairobi, Kenya
ENDA
Environment and Development Action in the Third World
ESANET
Eastern and Southern Africa Networking Project
ESAP
Economic Structural Adjustment Program
FRD
Foundation for Research and Development, South Africa
FTP
File Transfer Protocol
GII
Global Information Infrastructure
GnFido
GreenNet/Fidonet hub
ICT
Information and Communication Technology
IDRC
International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada
IFS
International Foundation for Science, Sweden
IGC
Institute for Global Communications, United States
IIP
Intergovernmental Informatics Programme (UNESCO)
ILL
Inter-library Loan
ISDN
Integrated Services Digital Network
LAN
Local Area Network
LEO
Low-earth Orbiting Satellite
MG
Megabyte
MHz
Megahertz
MIS
Management Information System
OCR
Optical Character Recognition
OIA
Office of International Affairs, National Research Council, Washington, D.C.
NGO
Non-Governmental Organization
NMR
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
NRC
National Research Council, Washington, D.C.
PABX
Private Area Branch Exchange (switchboard)
PADIS
Pan African Development Information System, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
PGI
General Information Programme (UNESCO)
PPP
Point-to-Point Protocol Connection
PVO
Private-Voluntary Organization
RAM
Random-access Memory
SANGONET
Southern Africa Non-Governmental Network
SAREC
Swedish Agency for Research Co-operation with Developing Countries
SDI
Selective Dissemination of Information
SLIP
Serial Line Internet Protocol
STI
Scientific and Technological Information
TCP/IP
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
TDR
Tropical Disease Research
THF
The Health Foundation
TIFF
Tagged Image File Format; also .TIF
TWAS
Third World Academy of Science, Trieste, Italy
UNECA
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
USIA
United States Information Agency
VSAT
Very Small Aperture Terminal
WAIS
Wide Area Information Server
WHO
World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
WWW
Worldwide Web
