The region of Malaga in Andalusia has traditionally been regarded as one of the more backward regions in terms of basic information services. There is a wide range of information being generated by the different public and private institutions and bodies, yet it is unco-ordinated and not very accessible to interested parties. The Regional Council of Malaga has endeavoured to change all this by creating a viewdata system which will make information of a scientific, technological, economic and social nature more readily available to citizens, businesses and local corporations, all in an integrated form. The project, which started one and a half years ago, is the brain-child of Miguel Angel Compais, head of computer services for the Regional Council, who explained to Computerworld Espana that the idea is for a user to be able to connect to the viewdata system and consult information relating to Malaga, to a part of the region or to one particular town or village in particular. According to Compais, the Council was forced to change philosophy back in 1988, when it was decided that to have a centralised system to which dumb terminals were connected, with point-to-point network and telephonic systems, was both expensive and archaic. This was the Council’s first step towards a commitment to open systems. The Council now has a 10BaseT network, used by 144 users, based on Ethernet architecture, with Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol and Network File System for Unix connections, while it is managed by Novell 3.12 software.
Malaga at a stroke
A Unisys Corp 2200/400 is linked to the network and from here, data is transferred to ICL Plc’s Unix server centre, and then on to an Ingres Corp database, with the terminals offering viewdata service. Applications are developed to run under Windows. This was chosen, says Compais, because it is becoming the departmental tool within public administration in Spain; the aim of the project is to achieve total compatibility at local level with the regional councils and at national level with the central administration. Besides creating an interflow of information between the Council and the individual town councils, of which there are about 100 within the region, the ultimate aim of the project is to offer these councils an extension of the server centre, so that a citizen can gain access to information from any town council. The project also provides space for housing information from any institution, if it is believed that such information will contribute to the development of the region. Compais hopes that, with sufficient support, the project will be completed by mid-1995, and recognises that maintaining the service will not be easy. At the beginning of the project, 14 companies approached the Council with bids of hardware, but Compais was most concerned with the effectiveness of the software. In the end, ICL was selected as the main supplier, both of hardware, with the acquisition of the DRS 6000 server, and of software – AVICL was chosen. This viewdata software was seen as the most versatile, and Compais was also impressed by ICL with regard to training. Cost to the user will be about 75 cents – what you would have to pay just to catch the bus down to the tourist office.
