TICAL is almost here. In a few days, hundreds of ICT directors of the Latin American universities will meet in Viña del Mar, Chile, to share knowledge and hear about the experiences of the international guest speakers. Andrés Holguín Coral, from Colombia, is one of them. In this interview, the last with the speakers of the fifth edition of the event, he says what motivated him to participate in TICAL2015 and highlights the peculiarities of the Conference.

What are your expectations for the Conference and of your participation in it?

My expectation is to be able to share with the other institutions the security process in which we are working at the University of Los Andes during the recent years, in order to receive feedback about our initiative and encourage other universities to start its awareness process on this issue.

What motivated you to accept the invitation to attend the conference?

The possibility of sharing experiences in ICT management at university level. We have some similar events around the world, but TICAL allows different advances because it gives us contact with people who have the same problems, since they are part of the same continent.

Talking about the issues that will be addressed by you in the Conference, what is the most important thing you would like to highlight?

The information security is a challenge that every organization is now facing. In this context, the challenge of education is to achieve balance between security and freedom. That's part of what I want to share at the event, learning how this process has been done at other universities.

Viña del Mar is known for its many beauties. What do you think of the choice of this city as TICAL2015 venue?

TICAL is characterized by lead its participants not only to a high quality event, but also to the best cities in Latin America. I imagine that the winter weather and the time we’ll dedicate to the Conference will not allow us to enjoy the beaches of Viña, but I want to know the historical places of the city, and, of course, to enjoy its cuisin

Both activities are free of charge and open to all the TICAL2015 Conference participants and to the members of the RedCLARA partner NRENs. Vacancies are limited, so to ensure your participation you must register in each one of the activities.

These two training activities will be carried out within the TICAL2015 Conference and thanks to the MAGIC project - Middleware for Collaborative Applications and Virtual Global Communities (which, co-financed by the European Commission's Horizon 2020 program, started last May 1) - will be developed after TICAL closing on Wednesday, July 8, 2015, in the Hotel, Casino & Event Center Enjoy, in the city of Viña del Mar, Chile. Engineers, developers, teachers, researchers and ICT leaders from academic institutions and national networks gathered around the TICAL Conference are invited to participate.

The first activity, the Panel of Federations and eduroam services, will take place between 14:00 and 16:00. In it, the academic networks that currently offer eduroam and have federations will share their experiences in the area.

Between 16:00 and 18:00 will be held the training in NRENum.NET, a service that allows the use of the existing DNS infrastructure for the global marking of multimedia services. As part of the MAGIC project, RedCLARA promotes the release of NRENum globally and, in this activity, the guidelines to carry out its implementation will be given.

Registrations for the two activities are independent. Ensure your participation now by registering through the following links.

Panel of Federations and eduroam Services: https://eventos.redclara.net/indico/event/509/
Training in NRENum.NET: https://eventos.redclara.net/indico/event/508/

The event, that is reaching its fifth edition, will count on the participation of international experts to discuss the challenges of the technologies of Information and Communication in Latin America. Registrations are still open.

The problems and challenges in the field of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) will be debated in the coming days 6, 7 and 8 of July, 2015, in the city of Viña del Mar, Chile, on the occasion of the 5th Conference of Directors of Information and Communications Technologies of the Latin American Universities, TICAL2015.

More than 400 professionals, including researchers, ICT directors and academics, are expected for the meeting, which will discuss the role of ICT in the support of areas such as Education, Management, Research, Extension and Information Security within the higher education institutions of the region. Therefore, TICAL will also count on the participation of international experts who will conduct the main sessions of the Conference.

From Europe will come Eloy Rodrigues (Director of the University of Minho Documentation Services, Portugal) and Hans Pongratz (Senior Vice President of Systems and IT Services and CEO of the Technical University of Munich, Germany); from Latin America, Andres Holguin (Coordinator for Technological Research and Innovation and Information Security at the University of Los Andes, Colombia) and the MSc. Manuel Moreno Castañeda (Rector of the Virtual University System of the University of Guadalajara, Mexico.); and from North America, Susan Grajek (EDUCAUSE Vice President for Data, Research and Analysis at, United States).

One of the main innovations of the 2015 edition of TICAL is the presentation of interinstitutional collaboration projects, which will show to the public some of the initiatives developed jointly by the universities of the region. The traditional call for papers, in turn, received again a lot of nominations: 171, of which 46 were selected for presentation at the Conference, representing countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru and the United Kingdom.

The 5th TICAL Conference is organized by the Latin American Cooperation of Advanced Networks (RedCLARA), the National University Network of Chile (REUNA) and Edutic. The event will be held at the Hotel Enjoy, in Viña del Mar, Chile, between July 6 and 8 of 2015 and the registrations are still open. For more information, please visit the website of the event: http://tical2015.redclara.net/

Rector of the System of Virtual University of the University of Guadalajara, the MSc. Manuel Moreno Castañeda is the most experienced of the international speakers of TICAL2015, to be held between July 6 and 8, in Viña del Mar, Chile. Throughout his 50-year professional career, Castañeda worked in various organizations and projects and is coming to TICAL to share his knowledge with the participants. In this interview, he evaluates the importance of the Conference for the ICT development in the region and reveals his motivations for attending the event.

What are your expectations for the Conference and your participation in it?

First, I expect that all may learn in a collaborative environment and collective learning that will give continuity to the dynamics and the quality that characterizes TICAL. Second, I hope that the results of this conference can have great impact for the technology development and education in Latin America. With this purpose and in this environment, I hope and I will give my all to meet the expectations of TICAL participants.

What motivated you to accept the invitation to attend the conference?

Among other reasons, I could quote two very important. First, the prestige and the recognition of TICAL’s work for the development of technologies and the socialization of knowledge. Also, the invitation of Carmen Gloria Labbé, in whom I trust and admire for her personal qualities, professionalism and dedication.

How do you evaluate the importance of events like TICAL for the development of the ICT and the professionals of the area?

TICAL has vital importance in this context for many reasons: the relevance of its theme, the diversity of the origin of its assistants, the wide variety of applications, the transcendence of situations dealt there and, above all, the establishment of relationships and the possibilities of collaborative projects.

Talking about the issues that will be addressed by you in the Conference, what is the most important thing you would like to highlight?

The importance of the personal qualities and professional skills of teachers before and beyond technology, especially for the better use of it.

Viña del Mar is known by being a city of many beauties. What did you think about the election of Viña to be the event venue?

It was an excellent choice. I have been in Viña just one time, after a meeting in Santiago and I always had the desire to come back. TICAL will be the opportunity.