News

Internet2 Budget Update

At the Internet2 Spring Member Meeting in late April, Internet2 provided an update on its current and projected financial position. If you were unable to attend the presentation, you are encouraged to review the results of fiscal year 2008 and the 2009 projections online. As was presented, Internet2 remains a financially sound and stable organization with continued strong member support. Due to the current economic environment, however, Internet2’s reserve funds have been reduced to minimum levels and minimal funds have been accumulated for the building of the next generation network. The Internet2 Board of Trustees, as well as the Advisory Councils are working diligently to examine strategic decisions that would address the funding of the future network. In addition, the new Internet2 Strategic Plan will play a critical role in helping to focus and prioritize financial resources in the organization’s forthcoming budgets with the goal of helping to resolve this issue. Internet2 also remains steadfast in its efforts to reduce operating costs and increase efficiencies where possible. Questions and comments from Internet2 members are welcome and should be directed to: info@internet2.edu.

Governance Updates

AMSAC

The Applications, Middleware, and Services Advisory Council (AMSAC) continues to track the progress of the InCommon Federation futures activity. It also has been discussing middleware activities underway within Internet2, including their efficacy, adoption, and impacts on both the Internet2 membership and the larger R&E community. Additional topics of discussion include proposed strategies and recommendations to Internet2 leadership and the Board to improve organizational support for middleware.

AOAC

The Architecture & Operations Advisory Council (AOAC) held a call on 27 May, using its new meeting format; the first meeting of the month will focus on strategic discussions and the second meeting of the month will focus on Internet2 staff updates. Internet2 staff provided an update on plans to upgrade the Commercial Peering Service (CPS) in anticipation of growing usage this fall in parallel with conversations regarding consolidation of CPS and TransitRail; an update on the solution for the router end-of-life situation involving swapping in three Juniper MXs and distributing the parts from the decommissioned T640's to other routers; and following up on Spring Member Meeting conversations, a plan for business continuity preparedness in emergency or epidemic situations will be presented in the coming months.

ERAC

The External Relations Advisory Council (ERAC) has held four conference call meetings since its last report. Major topics of discussion have included Internet2’s international program (including issues relating to the NSF’s International Research Network Connections solicitation and the formation of an Internet2 Standing Committee on International Strategy), discussion of the stimulus funding programs at NSF and NTIA, the proposed changes to the Internet2 membership model and its impact upon our connectors, and a discussion on United Nations issues. In addition, the ERAC met for an in-person meeting at the Spring Member Meeting, where it reviewed ERAC activities of the past year, discussed the IRNC, a review of MANLAN, cooperation and collaboration with EDUCAUSE, working with the cable industry, the Internet2 strategic plan, and outreach in general to both the science and corporate communities.

RAC

The Research Advisory Council (RAC) and its team of community advisors has been focused on several strategic questions over the past three months. The council is exploring what research tasks in network science and engineering Internet2 should help to advance over the next 18 months, as well as how Internet2 staff should focus their science outreach efforts to engage researchers and domains likely to benefit from Internet2 resources. The council plans to offer its recommendations for 2010 to Board and staff by late June 2009.

GNC

The Governance and Nominations Committee (GNC) is pleased to announce the new Board appointed members who joined the committee at the Spring Member Meeting, James Hilton, Gwen Jacobs, Stuart Kippleman, and Mike Roberts, as well as the new Chair, Pankaj Shah, and Vice Chair, Marilyn McMillan. They join existing members Rosio Alvarez, Mary Sue Coleman, Larry Landweber, and David Lassner; Jeff Lehman, Internet2 Board of Trustees chair; and Advisory Council Chairs Ray Ford, George Loftus, Tim Lance, and Peter Siegel.

At the 2 June meeting, the GNC discussed developing guidelines to create consistent outreach to all new council and GNC members. These guidelines would include general Internet2 information, but more importantly, will include an outline of expectations for council and GNC membership. They also discussed the working group model and how best to align the current working groups with existing councils. This will be an ongoing discussion and will be shared more broadly with the community at the Fall Member Meeting. Finally, the committee discussed the proposed membership model and how the revised model will impact all levels of membership.

Events

Fall 2009 Internet2 Member Meeting Call for Participation

The Call for Participation for the Fall 2009 Internet2 Member Meeting, scheduled for October 5-8 in San Antonio, Texas, is now available for your response. This Call for Participation includes a Call for Proposals, Call for Side Meetings and Call for Posters. Details for each of the calls as well as the individual submission forms are all linked from the Call for Participation page.

The overarching theme for this fall's meeting is: “Collaborations and Resource Sharing in Research and Education: How the economic crisis is fueling the expansion of networking technology, fostering global communities, and driving social change.” Presentations that focus on the elements of network-based collaboration, including--but not limited to--virtual organizations, social networking, and software collaboration tools are encouraged. Additional information about specific session content is provided in the track descriptions. The deadline to submit track session proposals is 26 June. See the Call for Participation page for complete details.

ESCC/Internet2 Joint Techs

The Summer 2009 ESCC/Internet2 Joint Techs conference will be held in Indianapolis, Indiana, 19-24 July. The Joint Techs room block closes on 24 June at 5:00pm EDT, so please reserve your room early! Additionally, registration fees will increase on Friday, July 3, 11:59pm EDT. Register now!

Performing Arts Production Workshop

The first TERENA and Internet2 hands-on Performing Arts Production Workshop will be held on 13-15 July 2009, hosted by GARR in cooperation with the Music Conservatory of Trieste, in Italy.

The workshop will emphasize the equipment and staffing requirements for interactive performing arts education, multi-site performance events and high quality netcasting. This workshop targets people in the research and education community who produce performing arts events and want to explore the possibilities and challenges of using advanced networking and related services in their teaching, rehearsals and performances. Workshop highlights will include the first presentation of a fully integrated, computerised audio and echo control system, and of LOLA – a low latency audio/video system experiment on high-bandwidth networks. Registration is now open!

Community News

Evolution of the Megaconference Events

The Megaconference event planning teams seek to partner with Internet2 members as they consider new formats for these extraordinarily popular events. Themes of past Megaconference events have ranged from Distance Learning and Far Away Places to Breaking Down Barriers: Global Connections. After 10 successful years of Megaconference, an Internet2 IDEA Award winning event reaching over 10,000 students in more than 40 countries around the world, the planning team is setting new goals for coming years and invites your participation in these discussions.

Although still in the early stages, the planning teams are considering breaking the one-day event into several shorter theme-based events, using live-streams with chat functions for those watching online, adding the VJ role to Megaconference, raising the bandwidth requirements, and using the events to showcase the range of high-end research and technology projects that involve research and educational institutions from across the K-20 spectrum.

If you would like more information on the Megaconference and Megaconference Jr., or are interested in helping shape the future of these events, planning please contact Kim Breuninger kimb@cciu.org or Kim Owen kim.owen@ndsu.edu.