News

Internet2 CEO and U.S. UCAN Featured in Chronicle Podcast

Internet2 CEO Dave Lambert is featured this month in the Chronicle of Higher Education's Tech Therapy podcast, a series which explores the latest developments in technology and their impact on higher education. The interview and discussion centers on Lambert's vision for the future of Internet2 and U.S. UCAN, as well as the leadership role the higher education community has played—and continues to play—as pioneers in networking.

Spring 2011 Internet2 Member Meeting Call for Participation

The Call for Participation for the Spring 2011 Internet2 Member Meeting is open! This call invites submissions for Track Session Proposals, Side Meetings, Posters and Sponsors.

Track Sessions: The theme of the Spring 2011 Internet2 Member Meeting is "The Path Forward, Envisioning Opportunities," which is the message Dave Lambert, Internet2 CEO, shared with members of the community at the recent Fall 2010 Internet2 Member Meeting. Member representatives are encouraged to propose track sessions that share developments, designs, implementations and experiences in the focus areas, and that incorporate elements of the Path Forward. Case studies across disciplines and topic areas are encouraged. The deadline to submitting a proposal is January 31, 2011. Additional details on focus areas and tracks as well as submission guidelines are available online.

Side Meetings: Member Meetings provide the opportunity to hold small working meetings in conjunction with the formal meeting activities. In order to accommodate the requests for these side meetings, we will reserve incremental hotel space at times outside of the normal track sessions. To aid us in handling and filling your requests for these additional meetings, we are issuing a Call for Side Meetings with a deadline of January 31, 2011.

Posters: Poster sessions are an intentionally low-tech forum for the exchange of information and ideas about collaborations, projects and works-in-progress. The posters convey stories through the use of graphs, diagrams, pictures, data, and narrative text displayed on two foam core poster boards. The posters are on display near the meeting registration area continuously throughout the 3-day meeting. Submit a poster proposal.

Sponsors: Member Meeting Sponsors are critical to the success of these meetings. Sponsors are acknowledged via signage at the event site, recognized in the published meeting program and on the meeting website. If you are interested in sponsorship, please contact Ellen Vaughan.

Winter 2011 Joint Techs

Winter 2011 ESCC/Internet2 Joint Techs, hosted by Clemson University, will kick off on Sunday, January 30 with four hands-on, in-depth tutorials that are being taught by community experts. The agenda is packed from 8:30 am Monday to Noon on Wednesday with talks and side sessions on Advanced Infrastructures, Emerging Technologies, Convergence, Security, IPv6, and Performance. Registration is still open; plan to come early to get the most out of the meeting!

K20 Initiative recognizes Community Anchor Innovators

For nearly a decade, many in the Internet2 membership community have understood that big payoffs come from putting advanced networking capacity into the hands of as many innovators and educational sectors as quickly and as "connectedly" as possible through the SEGP program, the Internet2 K20 Initiative, and now U.S. UCAN.

The result has been the blossoming of a new generation of innovators from K-12 schools, hospitals, public libraries, museums, performing arts centers, community colleges, and a host of other community anchor institutions across the nation and around the world, connecting and collaborating with each other and with colleagues at Internet2 member institutions using new, advanced, and emerging technologies over the Internet2 backbone network.

In December, the Internet2 K20 Initiative launched a project designed to showcase the rich diversity of community anchor leaders and promote awareness of the leading edge work they each do. Individuals are recognized for their insight, experience, commitment and passion for expanding and enhancing the capabilities of community anchor institutions through the use of advanced networking technologies and applications. Our colleagues are identified as Anchor Innovators.

The initial group of K20 Anchor Innovators can be viewed in a new spotlight section of the K20 Initiative website, k20.internet2.edu/innovators. Additional individuals will be featured each month.

Please take a moment to learn more about these community leaders who work together to address common challenges and share successes that make the system of community anchor institutions across the nation stronger and more sustainable every day. If you have anchor innovators in your community you'd like to see profiled, please send suggestions to James Werle.

InCommon Finishes Year with 33 Percent Growth

InCommon started 2010 with 199 participants and finished the year with 264, a 33 percent increase. New participants in December included sponsored partners Blackboard and Oak Tree Systems. InCommon provides a secure and privacy-preserving trust fabric for research and higher education institutions, and their partners, in the United States.

Certificate Service Reaches 79 Subscribers

The InCommon Certificate Service, a community-driven offering rolled out during the summer of 2010, has reached 79 subscribers. The cert service provides unlimited SSL certificates for all of the domains a college or university owns or controls, and will soon provide client (personal) and extended validation (EV) certs as part of the annual fee. Internet2 members receive a 25 percent discount on the fixed annual fee. Campuses report significant cost savings and appreciate that there are no hidden fees or requirements.

Governance Updates

AMSAC

The Applications, Middleware, and Services Advisory Council (AMSAC) has been reviewing the seven broad priorities for Internet2 and discussing where it sees AMSAC intersecting with these priorities, and discussing next steps on services above the Cloud.

AOAC

The Architecture and Operations Advisory Council (AOAC) met on 12 January. The Council welcomed Cas D'Angelo, NTAC Chair, as a guest of the AOAC for the next year. Cas provided a brief update on the progress of the subgroups working on CAI policy, services and operations as well as an update on the group reviewing implementation of the layer 2 service proposed by the AOAC. Eric Boyd provided an update on the DYNES project, indicating that applications had been received and review will begin in January. Rob Vietzke provided an update on the BTOP project including information regarding the network upgrade and U.S. UCAN. Steve Wallace presented plans for a pilot to extend Internet2 connectivity to the Oregon RHCPP-connected entities. The AOAC will be working with Internet2 staff to review wave and connector fee proposals over the next few months.

RAC

The Research Advisory Council (RAC) met during the first week of January. The RAC discussed, with CTO Randy Frank, the major issues that a Research Wave program would need to address, looking at areas where the RAC could contribute substantially. The next step is for 2-3 RAC members to work with Randy Frank and Internet2 staff to flesh out an initial proposal based on understanding those issues over the next two months.