CENIC News

I'd like to inform our readership about an important new digital literacy initiative in the State, the iCALIFORNIA Digital Literacy Campaign, the kickoff for which was held in Sacramento on September 20.  The Campaign's goal is to promote and foster digital literacy for all Californians, thus giving them the opportunity to fully participate in the educational, civic, cultural, and economic sectors of California society by providing accessibility to and appropriate skills for fully making use of government, education, workforce, healthcare, business, and other services.  The Campaign has the support of many public and private entities and is a collaborative effort of the Digital Literacy Pathways Advisory Committee, the California Technology Agency, the LINK AMERICAS Foundation, the California Emerging Technology Fund, and the private sector, including Google, Comcast, Intel and many others.  CENIC is proud to have joined the organization in support of this vital initiative.

iCalifornia defines digital literacy as "a lifelong learning process of capacity for using digital technology, communications tools, and/or networks in creating accessing, analyzing, managing, integrating, evaluating and communicating information in order to function in a knowledge-based economy." Its efforts are aimed at increasing California's competitiveness in the knowledge-based economy, helping workers compete successfully in a global information and knowledge economy, and closing and keeping closed the digital divide, all a special concern for the State as we move forward in an information-based economy in times of budgetary challenge.

This initiative follows on Executive Order S-06-09 issued by former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger establishing the ICT Digital Literacy Leadership Council and is the latest in a long and impressive history of efforts made by the State to ensure that California maintains its global leadership position in the 21st century.

We will all be hearing more about this important initiative over the coming months. As more information becomes available about how we can move this agenda forward, I hope our readers will consider contributions they can make to this important endeavor. Addresses from the kickoff event on September 20th can be watched online, including the following:

• Keynote Address by the CETF's Sunne Wright McPeak
• Remarks by Christine Gagnier, CEO of RealPolitech
• Remarks by Stacey Aldrich, California State Librarian
• Remarks by Gregg Descheemaeker of Intel, California Public Sector

September saw a great deal of activity on behalf of California's K-12 System. The Bishop Unified School District received a new, lower-cost DS-3 connection to the CalREN Los Angeles backbone node to the Bishop Elementary School. This is the district's second DS-3 for a combined 90 Mbps connection.

The latest county office of education to receive a high-capacity 10 Gb/s connection to CalREN is the Fresno County Office of Education, with a new high-bandwidth connection to the CalREN backbone node at Fresno. CENIC has also worked with the Orange County Department of Education and the Garden Grove Unified School District to complete a mutual backup path arrangement to ensure robust connectivity to CalREN.

CENIC also tested and accepted a new DS-3 connection for the Yuba Community College District's Clear Lake Campus to the CalREN backbone node at Oakland.

Balancing the budget and resourcing innovation for a campus in this era of the "new normal" requires radical reductions in cost structures for traditional IT services, services that no longer differentiate an institution. These cost reductions are only possible if we are willing to move from "process-tinkering" to fundamental or transformational changes that embrace IT-as-a-Service, a.k.a. the shared-services or utility service delivery models.

With the advent of new technological capabilities such as virtualization, cloud computing, cloud storage, advanced networks, and wireless/mobile computing devices, many traditional IT services can now be classified as utilities. As such, the economics of utilities leverage consolidation, standardization, and optimization of infrastructures and services to create huge synergies in terms of lower cost structures for delivery of services, thus freeing up scarce institutional resources (staff as well as funding) for reallocation to innovation initiatives that truly do differentiate an institution, as well as balancing budgets.

The transition to shared IT services and moving to the cloud requires changes in organization structure and culture. The transition also requires moving away from siloed solutions, architectures, processes, and balkanized governance models for the portfolio of traditional IT services that are good candidates for sharing.

As institutions complete their transitions to shared IT services at their respective campus levels, their executive leadership teams are shifting their attention to achieving even greater synergies via "above campus" shared-services. Recent successes of "above campus" shared-service pilots within CENIC-connected institutions have demonstrated the potential benefits of establishing a portfolio of "above campus" solution and service centers tightly aligned and integrated with on-campus IT support teams.

It is within this context that CENIC is striving to help facilitate the success of these "above campus" shared-services initiatives by brokering, or otherwise providing access to, key cloud-based infrastructures and services. CENIC Cloud-VoIP is the first of these services, and is scheduled for production rollout in January 2012. The CENIC Associate community and CENIC Today readers will be kept informed as to the progress of this and other initiatives to help the California research and education community maintain its worldwide leadership position in the "new normal."

The Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) will hold its 16th annual conference, Beyond the Network, March 12-14, 2012, at the Sheraton hotel in Palo Alto, CA.

The CENIC 2012 Program Committee is now accepting proposals for presentations, demonstrations, and panel discussions focused on network-enabled applications and research. Proposals may be submitted via e-mail to cenic2012proposals@cenic.org. Proposals should be no longer than three pages and should be submitted in RTF, PDF, or plain text format. The deadline for proposals is November 18, 2011.

Presentations typically fall into one of the following categories: technology/infrastructure, teaching and learning, application development and use, trends/future developments in network technology and related applications. Presentations focused on research, teaching and learning activities involving multiple segments of the K-20 community, and/or international collaborations are especially encouraged. Projects or studies to be featured may be works-in-progress. The conference venue will have broadband connection to CalREN, NLR and Internet2 to enable live demonstrations of content or capability.

We are especially interested in presentations about projects and initiatives that benefit from access to broadband networks and/or incorporate use of network technologies. The 2011 conference program provides examples of the types of presentations we are seeking and can be viewed at http://cenic2011.cenic.org/program.

Please include the following information in your proposal:

• Name, title and contact information of submitter (e-mail address and telephone number, please)
• The title of your presentation
• A brief abstract of the proposed presentation topic
• The presentation type (i.e. presentation, demonstration or panel discussion)
• A short (1-2 sentences) biography of all presenters
• An estimate of the time required for your presentation (keep in mind most slots are no more than 20 minutes)
• Any presentation requirements (i.e. special equipment required, particular network requirements)

The program committee will review proposals, and presenters will be notified of acceptance by December 16, 2011. Final presentation slides are due by March 9, 2012.

General conference registration will open on November 7, 2011. General questions about the program or proposals may be addressed to CENIC via e-mail cenic2012-info@cenic.org.

Each year CENIC seeks to discover and recognize exemplary innovations that leverage the California Research and Education Network (CalREN) and have the potential to improve the way instruction and research is conducted. We are requesting nominations from the community of applications and projects which represent innovative uses of the network. Awards will be presented in the following four categories:

• Education Applications
• High Performance Research Applications
• Experimental/Developmental Applications
• Gigabit/Broadband Applications

CENIC encourages applications and projects focused on research, teaching and learning activities involving collaboration across multiple segments of the K-20 community, and/or international collaborations that have been developed within 2010-2011. An Award committee will review the nominations and determine the award winners on the basis of submitted materials, and additional interviews as necessary.

CENIC will present these awards at the 16th annual CENIC conference, Beyond the Network, March 12-14, 2012, at the Sheraton Hotel in Palo Alto, CA.

Award winners will be notified in advance of the conference dates and should plan to be available to give presentations on their award-winning work during a special session at the conference.

The deadline for submission of nominations is November 18, 2011, by 5:00 pm. Nominations may be submitted via e-mail to cenic2012proposals@cenic.org, with the subject line "Award Nomination". Submissions may be made by the individual(s) who worked on the project, or by others, and should include:

• Name, title, and contact information of submitter
• Award Category
• Names of project/application leader(s) and team members
• A summary paragraph that highlights the significance of the project (100 words)
• A project description (not to exceed 5 pages), including the project URLs
• The technology/technologies utilized in the project
• The time frame of implementation
• Objective summary of benefits attributed to the project (not to exceed 2 pages)

General questions may be addressed to Doug Hartline, Conference Chair, at cenic2012-info@cenic.org.

The conference will be held at the Sheraton Palo Alto from March 12-14, 2012. Be sure to keep an eye out for future issues of CENIC Today for updates about registration, programming, travel, hotel rooms, and more!

In last month's CENIC Today, readers learned of the ways in which the advanced networking provided by CENIC played a role in the discovery of a nearby supernova, thanks to the connection between the Keck telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii and the mainland researchers of CENIC's Associate community. One of those researchers is Peter Nugent, a senior scientist at CalREN Associate the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who first spotted the supernova and adjunct professor of astronomy at UC Berkeley.

Mr. Nugent received his doctorate in Physics with a concentration in astronomy from the University of Oklahoma in 1997 after completing his Master's at the same institution. His research interests include the discovery and observation of supernovae of all types with the goal of understanding the physics of their explosions, their progenitor systems and nucleosynthesis products; spectrum synthesis of supernovae; the measurement of cosmological parameters using supernovae; and, in his words, "looking for better and faster ways to solve an interesting problem." CENIC is delighted to have played a role in helping Nugent and the researchers at LBNL and UCB do just that deep in the Big Dipper's Pinwheel galaxy.

To learn more about the other Star Performers that CENIC has featured, please visit our website at www.cenic.org.

US & World Networking News:

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), the principal trade association for the software and digital content industries, today joined U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan along with other government, education, and technology leaders at the White House for the launch of the Digital Promise initiative, a public-private research and development collaborative aimed at further advancing the learning technologies critical to students and educators.

Susan Metros has been with the University of Southern California since September 2007. Metros has 15 years of experience in IT leadership and governance, leading the academic community in emerging technologies into higher education.

Now that even the staid Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has loosened its tight rein on social media networks, it's time for more educators to use these tools to improve classroom instruction and home-school communications.

The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego, announced the launch of what is believed to be the largest academic-based cloud storage system in the U.S., specifically designed for researchers, students, academics, and industry users who require stable, secure, and cost-effective storage and sharing of digital information, including extremely large data sets.

The University of California is a key economic catalyst for the state, generating $46.3 billion in annual economic activity for California and contributing $32.8 billion toward California's gross state product through direct spending and multiplier effects, according to an independent economic impact report released Sep 14.

Federal officials on Monday announced the 32 community colleges and consortia that will receive grants totaling $500 million for job training and workforce development to help dislocated workers shift to new careers. A list of grantees by state can be found online.

About CENIC and How to Change Your Subscription:

California's education and research communities leverage their networking resources under CENIC, the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California, in order to obtain cost-effective, high-bandwidth networking to support their missions and answer the needs of their faculty, staff, and students. CENIC designs, implements, and operates CalREN, the California Research and Education Network, a high-bandwidth, high-capacity Internet network specially designed to meet the unique requirements of these communities, and to which the vast majority of the state's K-20 educational institutions are connected. In order to facilitate collaboration in education and research, CENIC also provides connectivity to non-California institutions and industry research organizations with which CENIC's Associate researchers and educators are engaged.

CENIC is governed by its member institutions. Representatives from these institutions also donate expertise through their participation in various committees designed to ensure that CENIC is managed effectively and efficiently, and to support the continued evolution of the network as technology advances.

For more information, visit www.cenic.org.

Subscription Information: You can subscribe and unsubscribe to CENIC Today at http://lists.cenic.org/mailman/listinfo/cenic-today.