The Mconf, multiconferencing web platform funded by the Brazilian National Research and Educational Network (RNP), has been recommended as a communications solution for African academic networks, during the annual conference UbuntuNet-Connect 2015, held on November 19 and 20 in Mozambique.

During the event, the networks engineer of the academic network of South Africa (SANReN), Kasandra Isaac, shared the user experience of the platform, which has been adopted by SANReN since July 2015.

In her presentation, Isaac stressed on the advantages that African NRENs stand to experience from using the research collaboration tool which she said can be used, among others, for distance education, remote meetings and broadcasting of events.

The presenter said Mconf has been specifically developed for NRENs to virtually collaborate and called on African NRENs to join Mconf’s Global Academic Network which has a range of collaboration tools that include but not limited to Real-time communication with audio and video, Web conferencing rooms, Federated Identity integration and document repositories.

Another advantage of Mconf, says Isaac, is that institutions participating in the web conference application do not have to worry about connectivity failure since servers from other institutions are able to support an institution that has lost connectivity while on the platform.

Taking advantage of the presence of important African networks at UbuntuNet-Connect 2015, the Ministry of Science and Technology, Higher, Technical and Professional Education of Mozambique (MCTESTP) promoted the Seminar of the Mozambican Higher Education and Research Seminar – MoRENet, on November 18.  RNP was represented by its Network and Operations director, Eduardo Grizendi. He highlighted the Bella (Building Europe Link to Latin America) project, the Angolan cable and the possible intensification of research between Latin America and Africa, when direct connection is available.

RNP articles presented in Ubuntu Net-Connect 2015

• Identity Management in SciFi
• Magic: A collaboration project to globally connect researchers and academic
• Multi-conference rooms: architectural and technological view
• National Research and Education Networks to support Healthcare: The Brazilian Telemedicine, University Network Rute
• Structuring and implementing the Brazilian Academic Cloud: strategy, modeling, challenges and services