The role and strategy of an ARNet in a developing country

Information technology is changing the way we live and work. The extent and speed of change is tremendous. Society needs a guide and an aide in the introduction of changes. This is the role of academic and research community. However, they too need help, integration and infrastructure, which should be the assignment for an ARNet: Academic and research Network. It should provide infrastructure for academic community, research testbed, and be pilot for other nation-wide networks, organizer and motivator of the community. To accomplish this, ARNet's strategy should be to ensure connectivity by the mean of connecting all, public access and broadband connections. It should also provide content through reference information, referral information, common databases, centralized databases and information services. By offering services like specialized helpdesks, national services (DNS, IP addresses), public host and resource sharing and by organizing and providing education for end users, teachers, technicians and administrators ARNet would enable and empower academic users. Through pilot projects and consulting services for non-academic communities and activities ARNet would guide academic community in fulfilling it's mission. Approach, described in this paper as theory on role and strategy of an ARNet, has been approved by nine years of practical experience and results of CARNet, Croatian Academic and Research Network.