by Undrahbuyan Baasanjav
Wild horses galloping across an endless steppe, nomads sipping kumis in a ger, the exploits of Genghis Khan--these are among the images Mongolia might typically bring to mind. But going online and "surfing the web" are not necessarily what one would imagine as part of the usual Mongolian experience. On 10 December 1996 in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar, the doors to Mongolia's first Public Internet Center were opened. Through the support of the Open Society Institute-New York, the National Science Foundation, and the DataCom company, the people of Ulaanbaatar are now able to access the World Wide Web.
New information technologies like the Internet offer solutions to Mongolia's traditional isolation. The Public Internet Center was created to provide public access to Internet facilities and services and to show new users how to use the Internet's resources to access a global, online audience. "The future of Mongolia is tied to being open to the world, taking advantage of the differences among cultures. In order for individuals to develop themselves in terms of human and social change, they must have options," explained Mr. Enkhbat, the head of DataCom and a board member of the Open Society Institute-Mongolia. "The biggest problem is that Mongolians don't know what their options are for the next steps. Mongolia cannot solve the task of creating open society without creating mechanisms for the free flow of information."
The Center's services have been especially popular among younger Mongolians, who are eager to access the information and resources available online. Over 90% of the graduates from the Center's Internet Club have been secondary-school or university students. "The younger generation has been very eager to get onto the web and to use it as a tool that allows them to exchange information with professors, scientists, artists, and other Internet users," said Jonathan Peizer, director of the Open Society Institute's Regional Internet Program.
The Public Internet Center is staffed by three instructors who teach everything from how to design a homepage to setting up a sophisticated Internet facility. Since most Internet instruction materials are written only in English or in Russian, course materials and textbooks prepared in Mongolian are especially popular.
The Center offers instruction through its Internet Club and intensive Internet Training Courses. The Center also provides various subject-oriented courses on computer networks and on specific issues related to the Internet which are hosted by Internet professionals from outside the Center.
The Public Internet Center has a fully equipped training room, with PCs, scanners, CD players, sound blasters, laser printers, overhead projectors, and copy machines. The PCs are connected to a local area network with a server, where they are linked by a radio modem to an Internet service provider that allows direct access to the World Wide Web.
DataCom, in cooperation with NIC (the leading petroleum import company in Mongolia), currently plans to establish smaller Public Internet Centers at youth centers in the provinces. They will be establishing satellite connections throughout the country starting this spring. Now it seems that in Mongolia you might one day get off your horse, turn on the PC in your yurt, and follow the adventures of Genghis Khan via the Internet.
Undrahbuyan Baasanjav is a program coordinator at the Open Society Institute-Mongolia, which opened in 1996 with a focus on the Internet, development of an independent media, English language training, and human rights.