Academic ISP supporting NGOs in your experiance ?

[anna balint]

Dear Zeljko Blace,

back in the mid-ninineties in Hungary there was an application submitted to
the Budapest Soros Foundation written much based on the example of the Dutch internet provider xs4all.
I found out later that the Soros offices in New York were ready to support with 100.000 USD,
but during the field research the project was so badly presented at the Hungarian Inetrmedia Department, 
that the local officers could not promote it. 
In Budapest first the academies had access to internet, and they offered free dial-up services to students and 
researchers. I also had an email account from two universities already from 1994.
The Technical University in Budapest offered leased lines for ateliers, ngo's - not for free, it was a bit expensive, but a 
small budget institution like artpool could afford it already in 1996 - and the technical university also provided email 
addresses for freelance researchers. 
C3 - the center for culture and communication - also part of the soros network - had a big role in promoting the net 
culture by offering webspace and acces to the net for magazines and ngo's from the late nineties. Nowadays they still 
host hundreds of institutions. They also launched the freemail - a free dial-up email service in 1998 if i remember well.
Now there is a dozen of freemail service, and there is one free internet dial-up service too in Budapest.
ADSL is also available for quite a reasonable price, and many providers offer broader bandwidth too for a higher price.
Many providers support portals, information sites, there was in 2000 also a net.art competition launched by an internet 
company. Cable tv network is coming too.
The role of academies became irrelevant both in respect of access to internet and content.
But still, there is not yet streaming culture...

ps.
I got now the farewall email from a resaercher friend in Moscow. He is at the Russian Academy of Science,
where he earns about 40 USD/month.  The budget of the Academy is so tight, that they cut down the internet lines 
and they shut down the email accounts too.

greetings,
anna balint