1   CAMPAIGN FOR IRAN

Since March 1999 the Science and Arts Foundation has been successful in establishing computer labs with Internet connectivity at over one hundred model state schools, universities, orphanages and cultural institutions in deprived areas of Iran. This has been done with the following goals in mind:

• Dissemination of the "culture" of using computers and the Internet as a data communication medium, as well as a research and educational aid for teachers and students

• Use of the Internet for collaborative projects and joint technical and cultural programs with other schools in the world and Iran - an example is joint projects with Lifelink, Sweden, and the Good Hopes Project with iEARN - an international body which organizes and coordinates projects between schools in 90 countries.

At present, 106 schools and educational centers in the greater Tehran metropolitan area (Shahr-e Rey, Varamin, Eslamshahr), Esfahan, Guilan, Mazandaran, Khuzestan, Qom, Yazd, Lorestan, Kashan, and Sistan and Baluchistan have been provided with labs consisting of 5-15 computers each, almost all with full Internet connectivity.

Each school now has its own web page, designed by its students. The students are being taught about basic computer and Internet skills by SAF volunteer staff. Competitions on web design are also being held twice yearly to encourage students to become proficient at such skills.

Apart from the success in establishing Internet based collaborative projects with schools abroad, and as further indication of the success of SAF's programs, one should note that there has been a growing tendency for teachers in each school to procure a personal computer and Internet account for themselves for home use.

1.1   City School Information Centers

SAF has established five School Information Centers in Tehran (September 1999, at Sharif University of Technology), Kashan (April 2001, at Kashan University), Rasht (April 2001, at Guilan University), Babol, and Ahvaz.

These centers aim to coordinate all SAF activities in Tehran, Esfahan, Guilan, Mazandaran, and Khuzestan, and provide uniform Internet services to schools in each city's respective region via dedicated leased lines, or dialup connections. These services have included

• Providing the necessary hardware and software infrastructure for connecting schools to the Internet, provision of Internet access, and technical support for their computer labs.

• Setting up a Center homepage, and numerous email mailing lists for students and teachers, in the fields of science and education, culture, and sports.

• Conducting training workshops for school teachers and site administrators of connected schools.

Due to the outstanding results and positive effects of SAF's activities at the high school and middle school levels in Tehran, and relying on three years of experience, SAF is now setting out to expand its activities throughout Iran. Currently SAF is actively engaged in either establishing or expanding School Information Centers and school Internet sites at over 10 cities across Iran.

Click on city names for details on ongoing or completed projects in each city.

2   FARSIWEB PROJECT

SAF is currently supporting the Farsiweb project at Sharif University of Technology, a project with the primary aim of pushing the Iranian and Persian language community to use the Unicode standard, the widely accepted 16-bit character set standard. Development and promotion of the Persian Unicode standard is a critical first step towards preservation and continued vitality of the Persian language in all electronic media, as the common cultural heritage of Persian speakers worldwide. The project is also supported by the Iranian High Council of Informatics.

Farsiweb's home on the Internet is at http://www.farsiweb.info. A status report on the project can be read here (use Opera 6.0 or Microsoft Internet Explorer 5, or above; the encoding, if you need to set it, is UTF-8).

Questions and comments can be addressed to Roozbeh Pournader or the Farsiweb team. If you are thinking of helping, you may also wish to join the Persian Computing mailing list at persiancomputing@sharif.ac.ir.

3   ROBOCUP SUPPORT

SAF has lent active support to Iranian Robocup teams -- with spectacular success -- starting with the 2001 Seattle competitions. Visit the Robocup project page for a full report and more.

4   iEARN ACTIVITIES: GOOD HOPES PROJECT

Ever since Aug. 15, 2000, when the first Iranian school (Hedayat) joined the International Education and Resource Network (iEARN), SAF has been actively participating in iEARN activities. The two organizations have recently launched a joint project, "Good Hopes", that aims to promote dialogue, collaboration and partnership in cultural and scientific spheres among students and teachers in countries not officially engaged in constructive relations. To start, students and teachers from Iran and the United States will develop online projects to promote dialogue, collaboration, partnership and friendship as they share historical, cultural, and personal perspectives.

For more information on the Good Hopes project, visit the iEARN information page on it, as well as the project homepage. You can also read a detailed report on the historic participation of Iranian teachers in the 8th Annual iEARN International Teachers' Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, July 8-13, 2001.

5   BOOK DONATIONS

SAF has also supported various educational libraries:

1. It has given hundreds of second-hand textbooks to school libraries.
2. It has purchased some key academic journals worth $3000 for the Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics (IPM).
3. It has donated books worth $600 to the Mathematics Club in Isfahan and a similar amount to the newly formed library in the village of Domab near Golpayegan.
4. It has provided 4,450 textbooks to students at Rasoul-e Akram School, an informal Afghan School with nearly 800 undocumented Afghan students, in Afsarieh, south of Tehran.
5. It has donated over $3,000 worth of books to Iranian robocup teams from Sharif and Amirkabir universities, during the course of the 2001 Seattle competitions.

6   IRAN INTERNET SURVEY

In cooperation with the Open Research Network, SAF has supported the 1999 survey of the state of the Internet in Iran.

7   PERSIAN DIGITAL LIBRARY

The Persian Digital Library, residing at Sharif University of Technology, is a project funded by SAF to provide the invaluable collection of Persian literature to the public.

8   ARMENIA PILOT PROGRAM

As one of its first projects, and with the support of the UK charity Free Computers for Education and Armenian expatriates, SAF has provided four schools in Armenia (school no. 114, the Yerevan Physics & Mathematical School and school no. 53 in Yerevan, and the Lord Byron School in Giumry ) with computer sites.