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Internet2 Applications Strategy Council Meeting
Monday, May 2, 2005
11:30 AM - 4:30 PM Eastern
Crystal Gateway Marriott Salon G
ASC Attendees: Vijay Kumar, George Thoma, Bill Decker, Cliff Lynch,
Alan Whitney, Mark Ellisman, Egon Verharen, David Lassner, Alan Blatecky,
Harvey Newman
Internet2 Staff: George Brett, Russ Hobby, Terri Saarinen – scribe,
Cheryl Munn-Fremon, Steve Corbato, Laurie Burns, Ann Doyle, Charles
Yun , Mike McGill, Doug Van Houweling
11:30 AM Lunch Buffet and Settling In
12:00 PM Welcome & Introductions (David Lassner)
- Recognition of those members leaving the ASC
- Welcome of those members joining the ASC
12:15 PM Informal Conversation with Doug Van Houweling
Doug thanked ASC and said he’s glad to have the opportunity
to chat. To kick off discussion, he shared briefly things that have
to do with Internet2 and the upcoming period of quite substantial
change. A number of things are coming to fruition simultaneously:
1. Looking at some applications to be active in the upcoming years
that are causing us to look at the backbone capacity. They require
6 gig streams, on a 10 gig backbone, thus we can’t do more than
one at a time. Do we set up dedicated facilities to handle large flows?
Internet2’s view would be to avoid turning each area of
science into its own network.
2. National Lambda Rail is coming into operation. And Internet2
invested 10 million dollars toward NLR. As result, we have new opportunities
for dealing with the current backbone capacity and possible confusion
regarding service offerings and where to go to get what. Serious
discussions are happening to bring Internet2 and NLR together to
yield more cost effective results and provide a more unified set
of capabilities.
3. We’ve had, over the last couple of years, a favorable trend
for securing support for specialized activities in the community through
special grants. NSF budget we’re confronting makes it
difficult to continue to grow. No upward trend in budget projections,
yet our community demands an increase in operational support
of network security efforts. A modest fee increase has been
proposed for the next two years and comes at a time when all
are experiencing tight budgets.
4. This community continues to generate activity and contribute
to the overall scientific research environment in the US. The Internet2
Spring 2005 Member Meeting is the largest meeting to date, and folks
are here to meet and to work with each other. We have an important
convening and enabling function to allow and keep our community
working together. DVH is here today to get ASC input? Are there
aspects for how Internet2 is organized that is important to you?
DVH wants your thoughts and takes very seriously the guidance he
gets from councils. ASC brings the scientific view from those who
use the capability Internet2 provides.
A wide ranging discussion followed about what Internet2's role should
be with applications. There is sentiment from some members that Interent2
should not do applications, but to refocus on core network capabilities
and assume the rest will happen. One function for Internet2 is to
assist with performance issues and tuning. Another very important
function of Internet2 is to assist the applications people in making
the proper contacts in the world-wide community.
Doug’s said that Internet2 approach to discipline research
is to support coalitions and to provide advice about what’s
possible and what’s not possible.
More comments followed:
Much of Internet2 work in Applications has focused on evangelizing
applications. Need to shift that focus to make real applications more
of a reality on campuses. We’ve talked about creating cookbooks
and guides for campuses to help get more ready to deploy these applications.
This could be one outcome of the CETF.
It was asserted that there is general belief that central IT organizations
have abandoned research for centralized application and instruction.
It’s been left to decentralized locations on campuses doing
their own thing. This may explain why we’re having trouble handling
E2E issues. There is confusion on campuses. CIOs not responsible,
research happens by a few cowboys.
Doug thanked the ASC for the opportunity for frank conversation and
left at 12:58 PM.
1:00 PM ASC Chair Election
- By acclamation, the ASC votes to
name David as chair.
1:15 PM Updates from Internet2 Discipline Area Program Managers
Program managers are here for presentations and Q&A.
Laurie, introduced the discipline program managers. Charles Yun and
Russ Hobby handle Science and Engineering, Ann Doyle has Arts and
Humanities, and Mike McGill Health Sciences. NPPAC discussions confirmed
that these areas are where resources get placed as a way to reach
out to end user communities and how that information flows back to
the organization. There is less reinvention of the wheel as communities
learn from each other. There are different community approaches and
the work varies. Each manager described their communities and the
work that they do.
2:45 Break
3:00 PM ASC Project Discussions
Campus Expectations Task Force
The task force is led by Bill Decker. One fundamental question for
the Task Force is what the end product should look like? Depending
on what the end product is, it will become more and more important
to generate buy-in for the end product in advance of the delivery
of that product instead of having to prepare something that needs
to be sold.
Who should have a voice in the discussion? The charter mentions CIOs,
Apps Officers, GigaPops? Are we missing key constituencies like Senior
Research Officers? One of the complexities is that it may be hard
to get all of these voices at the table. Some don’t know they
have a voice, and others may not want to share. What about federal
funding agencies – do they have a voice, how do we get them
to the table?
1. What should be the nature of the end products or products?
2. How do we gain buy in?
3. Who should have a voice?
A discussion of these questions followed.
One of the products should be something campuses can use to sort
out roles and responsibilities and help them sort out structural problems
that have been developing for a while.
It was suggested that one of
the products could include a white paper. CETF target should look
at application groups and those who make decisions about campus networks
and influence those decisions.
This task force should identify what
IT organizations need to do to make things functional for researchers
and others. Target audience here is not the CIOs, it is where the
campus investments are made – the
campus leaders.
Real Time Communication
The first meeting of the RTCAG (Real Time Communications Advisory
Group) is Tuesday at lunch. Tyler Johnson is chairing this via video.
ASC goal is to achieve some convergence or interoperability of tool
sets One hopeful outcome is a roadmap and not a prescription although
the charter has a number of goals.
Lecture Object ¬ Survey Update
Survey results were sent to the council. 100 responses received, lots
going on, interesting, not at all coherent. Session is Wed at 7:30
am – free breakfast – session set up to discuss results.
Cliff recommended this being an agenda topic in two months (July
call).
Teaching & Learning
Jennifer MacDougall and Marty Seigel kick off this group at this meeting.
IDEA Awards
Members will hear about this in 2nd general session, Ted Hanss and
Annnie Stunden co-chair.
<ASC went into a closed session at 3:50 PM and Internet2 staff
was dismissed>
Next ASC monthly call is scheduled for May 25 at 1:00 pm Eastern
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