News

Internet2 names new CEO: H. David Lambert

Internet2 has announced the appointment of H. David (Dave) Lambert as its new president and CEO. Lambert brings over 30 years of distinguished experience in the advanced research and education networking and information technology fields. Lambert began his new role on July 13, 2010.

In a letter to the community, Jeff Lehman, chair of the Internet2 Board of Trustees said, “I know that in Dave we have found a worthy successor to Doug, someone with the broad range of skills that will be required to lead Internet2 through an exciting next chapter of its development. Dave's many years of service in higher education, coupled with his sustained record of engagement with Internet2, provide him with deep insight into the changing landscape that confronts our members every day. He understands the opportunities and challenges that await our community, and over the course of his career he has built a broad and deep level of respect and trust that will serve our community extremely well.”

Lambert previously served as the VP for Information Services and CIO at Georgetown University, where he successfully moved the university forward in the strategic application of information technology across a wide range of university programs and services. Lambert is a founding board member of the Mid-Atlantic Crossroads (MAX). Lambert has also had active involvement in other national higher ed technology initiatives such as the Common Solutions Group. For more, read the full announcement or full bio. Please email Dave with any questions or comments: ceo@internet2.edu.

U.S. UCAN proposal wins stimulus funding

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) has awarded $62.5+ million in stimulus funding to Internet2, National LambdaRail, Indiana University, and the Northern Tier Network Consortium. Together with vendor partners Ciena, Cisco, Infinera and Juniper Networks, the collaborators propose the construction of the United States Unified Community Anchor Network (U.S. UCAN), an advanced network that will link regional networks across the nation, including other projects funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). U.S. UCAN’s advanced infrastructure will—in partnership with regional and state research and education networks—connect America's community anchor institutions. For more informations, see www.usucan.org.

Randy Brogle joins Internet2

Randy Brogle has joined Internet2 as the Senior Director of Network Services and Business Operations. In this role, Randy will be the focal point within Internet2 for the management and growth of the network services portfolio and relationships with Internet2's network connectors and business partners. Randy will be responsible for working with the Network Services team to review and oversee its engagement and planning efforts with network members and connectors. He will also lead the development and offering of services and solutions that assist our members and advance the R&E community's mission.

Randy joins Internet2 from Level 3 Communications, where he served most recently as a Senior Director for Enterprise Markets. From 2006 to 2008, Randy served as the primary strategic and executive engagement lead from Level 3 to Internet2, NLR and the R&E community. In that role, he coordinated strategy and business functions of the Internet2 Network rollout. Earlier in his career, Randy had experience in network construction, operations and product management roles at MFS and Level 3. Randy holds a BSEE from Washington University in St. Louis and a Master's of Science in Management and Organization from the University of Colorado at Denver. Randy will be based in Boulder, Colorado.

Grouper release features Kuali Rice integration

Grouper version 1.6.0 is now available for download. The Grouper Groups Management Toolkit enables project managers, departments, institutions and end-users to create and manage institutional and personal groups. Among the important new features in this release is integration with the Kuali Rice software.

Internet2 Board of Trustees election results

On behalf of the Chair of the Board of Trustees, Internet2 is pleased to announce the results of the election to fill the open CIO seat on the Internet2 Board of Trustees. James Bottom, Vice Provost and Chief Information Office at Clemson University, was re-elected to serve for another three-year term. "Jim has been an extremely valuable member of the Board and I am very pleased that he will continue to serve in this capacity," Jeff Lehman said. The election to fill the President/Chancellor open seats will commence in early August.

Events

Call for participation, 2010 Fall Member Meeting,
closes July 30

The Internet2 community will be treated to a dose of southern hospitality when the annual Fall Member Meeting heads down south to Atlanta, Georgia from November 1–4, 2010. Hosted by Georgia Tech, Georgia State and Florida LambdaRail, LLC/Southern Crossroads (FLR/SoX), this meeting will focus on the significant progress the research and education community has made toward assembling the complex puzzle pieces that support and enable advanced networking across a wide range of disciplines. Each meeting track explores one of these critical puzzle pieces: cyberinfrastructure, federations, middleware, network engineering, security, teaching and learning, and the emerging technologies that continue to expand the bounds of research and education.

Specific topics of interest for track sessions at the Fall meeting will include:

• Cloud computing developments, designs and successful applications
• The FCC National Broadband Plan
• Implementations of the NTIA Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP)
• Collaboration and virtual initiatives and tools
• Federations and identity management policies and practices
• System and Network security

Member representatives are encouraged to propose track sessions that share developments, designs, implementations and experiences in the identified focus areas. Case studies across disciplines and topic areas are encouraged.

The deadline for submitting proposals is July 30, 2010. Additional details on focus areas and tracks as well as submission guidelines and submission form are available online.

Shibboleth Workshop Series – July 28, 29

InCommon, with support from Internet2 and Northwestern University, will hold two Shibboleth Workshop Series sessions July 28 and 29 at Northwestern. The sessions focus on installation of the Shibboleth identity provider (July 28) and the Shibboleth service provider (July 29). Those interested can register for one or both of the sessions. Get the details at www.incommon.org/educate/shibboleth.

Summer Joint Techs presents packed agenda

Plenary sessions at the Summer 2010 ESCC/Internet2 Joint Techs, hosted by OARnet, were netcast, as was the BGP Tutorial on Sunday. The event was attended by 238 participants from around the world. The packed agenda included 44 plenary talks—including network infrastructure updates from 3 continents—11 side sessions, 4 tutorials, 2 hands-on workshops and lightning talks. Also, attendees were introduced to the new Internet2 CEO, Dave Lambert, on Wednesday morning, his second official day at Internet2. See http://events.internet2.edu/2010/jt-oarnet/ for all the details.

CAMP and Advance CAMP resounding successes

The first InCommon-sponsored CAMP (Campus Architecture and Middleware Planning) sold out, with about 150 attendees at the late June event. CAMPers chose between the exploring track (for those interested in, or new to, InCommon), the technical track, and the management track. Slides, notes and other resources are available at CAMP Resources.

Advance CAMP: The Second Identity Services Summit was held in Raleigh NC in June with a sold-out attendance of 90 attendees. An "unconference" format was used to create a dynamic and participatory meeting. This format proved successful, and numerous action items aimed at furthering Identity Management efforts emerged from the event. These items will be worked on and tracked in the coming months.

Governance Updates

AMSAC

The The Applications, Middleware and Services Advisory Council (AMSAC) will hold a session to welcome Dave Lambert, and to share AMSAC insights into community priorities with him. AMSAC has been discussing the presentations and direction it received from community presenters at the open portion of the Spring Member Meeting, and how AMSAC can advance these promising initiatives coming from within the community. Related to this, AMSAC has been discussing a proposal to enhance the IDEA award and make it a showcase for innovation within the community. In addition, AMSAC has reviewed and weighed in on the Framework for Updating the Internet2 Strategic Plan and has been keeping up to date on the U.S. UCAN BTOP proposal. Finally, AMSAC continues to monitor and seek ways to support InCommon and is encouraged at the success of InCommon Federation outreach activities, including the "sold out" attendance numbers for the InCommon CAMP and Advance CAMP.

AOAC

The Architecture and Operations Advisory Council (AOAC) met on June 9 and 23. During the calls, Internet2 CTO Randy Frank provided an update on cloud computing activities. A group of CIOs had requested that Internet2 provide a forum for investigating cloud environments including examination of Open Cloud standards and interoperability issues. The effort is focused on investigating cloud models for universities or groups of universities rather than on specifically creating a cloud environment.

The AOAC also discussed the strategic plan update created by Internet2 Council Officers (ICO) at the Spring Member Meeting in late April. A draft was provided to the community and an open call was held to allow community discussion. The document will be presented to the new Internet2 CEO to inform current Internet2 direction. The AOAC will also lead the six-month review process of the TransitRail-Commercial Peering Service (TR-CPS) consolidation project. In preparation for determining 2011 AOAC priorities, the council asked Internet2 staff to summarize their priorities during the two July AOAC meetings.

The Utah Education Network (UEN) asked that the SLC-Boise wave, received a year ago under the available wave program, be renewed for another year. The AOAC supported this, indicating that this is the final year the wave will be made available under the program.