CENIC Today: Volume 10, Issue 9

Welcome to CENIC Today, the monthly newsletter of the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California. In this issue:

CENIC News:

President's Message: Disaster Response and CalREN

We often get so absorbed into the technology of our networks, their upgrades and operation that we lose sight of their uses. This month, so many members of the CENIC community have been affected by the recent California wildfires that I wanted to take the time not only to extend my sincerest condolences to the people and institutions who have been affected by them, but also to highlight the many ways in which the California K-20 research and education community came together in the truest spirit of community to help not only one another but the state and its people and infrastructure as well. CENIC is often humbled by the achievements of its Associates, and we continue to be so when we see so many members of our community dedicating their time and expertise to supporting emergency efforts in times of trouble.

As the collaboration mentioned below between Calit2, SDSU’s Visualization Center, and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center demonstrates, broadband networking is a vital part of any community’s emergency response. As with many natural disasters and other emergencies, wildfires are fast-moving and often unpredictable, and require not only the sharing of large amounts of data between widely separated locations, but that this sharing be accomplished in real time to improve the effectiveness of first-responders. To that end, Calit2 and SDSU’s Visualization Center were able to use a high-bandwidth CENIC fiber connection between both sites, put to use as part of the OptIPuter effort. Thanks to this collaboration between CENIC Associates, first-responders and other professionals were able to make the most of the information being accumulated and use it to hone their response, saving structures and lives in the process.

Congratulations are in order for all team members at these sites, including Calit2 Director Larry Smarr, SDSU Center for Information Technology and Infrastructure co-Director Eric Frost, and SDSU Visualization Center Chief Scientist John Graham, as well as the many dedicated researchers who devoted their time and effort to improving California’s humanitarian and emergency response to these tragic events.

It’s also important to note that, through such high-performance networking as that provided by CENIC for the California K-20 community, tangible benefits reach beyond that community to the population at large. Used by over 9 million students, faculty, and staff every day, CalREN nonetheless improves the lives of all 34 million people living in the state. I'm both proud and excited to be part of something that was created to serve one of the most illustrious research and education communities in the world, and to see the high-performance networking we provide helping so many others.

-- Jim Dolgonas, CENIC

CalREN Update: Network Projects and Activities

This past month has been a month of significant achievement for California’s Community College System as two more campuses have received Gigabit connections to CalREN. Coast Community College District’s Gigabit connectivity to CalREN was announced in the last issue of CENIC Today, and they’re joined this month by Los Rios Community College District and Miramar College, the hub site for the San Diego Community College District.

Providing administrative services and governance for community colleges in the Sacramento area, the Los Rios CCD serves approximately 71,000 students plus faculty and staff at American River College, Cosumnes River College, Folsom Lake College, and Sacramento City College. Serving San Diego City College and San Diego Mesa College as well as Miramar College, the San Diego Community College District serves over 100,000 students and is the second largest community college district in California and one of the largest nationwide. CENIC is delighted that these new Gigabit connections will be put to use by so many members of California’s education community!

As mentioned in last month's issue, since SC 07 will be held in Reno, NV, CENIC and the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) have taken the lead on providing WAN connectivity for the Reno-Sparks Convention Center (RSCC) from November 10-16, 2007 during the conference. CENIC and the NSHE will continue to put forth the highest effort to make sure that SC07 lives up to the Supercomputing reputation.

You can also find the entire conference program, exhibit information, and travel and tourism information about the Reno, NV area at the SC07 website at http://sc07.supercomputing.org/.

-- Ed Smith, CENIC

CENIC and K12HSN at Indian Wells, CA for CETPA Annual Conference

Education technology professionals from California’s K-12 community came together for four days during October in the Coachella Valley to share knowledge and expertise and learn the latest about the technology that helps makes California a global leader in education.

The 47th Annual California Educational Technology Professionals Association (CETPA) Conference took place from October 9-12 at the Renaissance Esmeralda Resort & Spa in Indian Wells, CA, and CENIC and the K12 High-Speed Network (K12HSN) were both represented at a shared booth staffed by personnel from both organizations. The conference featured keynote addresses by William M. Habermehl, County Superintendent of Schools at the Orange County Department of Education and Mary J. Cullinane, Director of Microsoft Corporation's US Partners in Learning. Also featured were Breakout and Tech Talk sessions, a hands-on lab where attendees can learn more about technology of educational interest including podcasting and the newest offerings from Microsoft and Apple, general events, and various user and advisory group meetings, making the conference a top event for educational technology professionals from all parts of the K-12 community.

CETPA is the California Educational Technology Professionals Association whose membership is made up largely of technology professionals in the K-12 educational segment including Directors of Technology, Chief Technology Officers, Network Managers and Network Administrators, and related positions. The booth was staffed by personnel from both CENIC and K12HSN.

Attendance at the event gave both organizations an opportunity to interact with both existing and prospective users of the CalREN-DC network. This was considered a very productive effort and both organizations will consider participation in next year's annual CETPA conference. We look forward to contributing to that event in 2008!

-- Ed Smith, CENIC

On the Horizon: The K-20 California Education Technology Collaborative

The summer of 2007 has seen the formation of a collaborative organization with the purpose of leveraging the individual education technology innovations and experience of California's K-20 education communities for the benefit of all members of these communities. That new organization is the K-20 California Education Technology Collaborative (K20 CETC), sponsored by CENIC and headed by Catherine McKenzie, Technology Unit Director at the CCC Chancellor's Office in Sacramento and CENIC Board member. The K20 CETC consists of K-20 education leaders from across the state (including the K-12 community, higher education, and informal education partners such as libraries and community-based organizations). The K20 CETCs stated mission is to support highly effective, innovative, network-enabled teaching and learning opportunities.

The K20 CETC's long-term objectives include maximizing the effectiveness and improving upon the stewardship of the limited money and time resources of California's K-20 communities and achieving a critical mass for the sustainability of education technology initiatives over time. Pursuing benefits from economies of scale is also among the K20 CETC's long-term objectives, whereby a given practice in a smaller arena can become even more effective -- and cost-effective, including increased access to and knowledge of funding opportunities -- when applied in a larger one, often through reducing duplication of effort. Leveraging economies of scale among the segments' own assets is also a key objective, where the K20 CETC hopes to enhance access to content, applications, and other offerings already in use or development among individual institutions.

The K20 CETC also numbers among its long-term objectives several which face "outward" as well as "inward," including supporting informed decision making among technology leaders and providing a unified voice on online teaching/learning policy and funding issues.

Of course the most fundamental long-term objectives of the K20 CETC focus directly on the education community itself: the improvement of teaching, learning and student outcomes, and the preparation of students for the future by ensuring that they have the opportunity to obtain technology skills and to become knowledgeable about technology resources and tools.

The Collaborative’s short-term goals are defined with greater precision and immediacy, and include facilitating partnerships that create efficiencies, enhance effectiveness, or hold great promise for creating new discoveries that demonstrate effective, innovative, network enabled approaches to teaching and learning. The immediate area of focus will be the delivery of CAHSEE preparation and Advanced Placement courses across the state. Other short-term goals include identifying effective online teaching and learning methods, promoting best practices, and advocating in support of policies and programs that advance online teaching/learning through use of collaborative approaches.

And of course the K20 CETC looks forward to facilitating the ongoing exchange of information and resources within K-20 communities of practice to support the professional growth of faculty and staff and the successful matriculation of students from K-12 through higher education.

With a 10-year track record of effectively stewarding the education segments investments in telecommunications infrastructure, CENIC looks forwarding to helping the K20 CETC achieve these goals, which dovetail with its own stated mission of supporting the individual missions of the California K-20 research and education communities and helping them answer the needs of their faculty, staff, and students.

Stay tuned for more information in the months ahead on developments with the new K20 CETC and how you can get involved!

-- Catherine McKenzie, CCC Chancellor's Office

CENIC 08: Lightpath to the Stars All the Latest News

If you've been hoping to learn more about “Lightpath to the Stars,” 2008’s premiere networking event, we've got lots to report this month. A keynote speaker, the opening of conference registration, and online hotel reservations are all among the things you'll learn about in this issue of CENIC Today.

First, CENIC is delighted to announce as Keynote speaker California Public Utilities Commissioner Rachelle Chong. Appointed to the Commission on January 11, 2006, Chong participated in my first Commission meeting on January 12, 2006 with a historic vote on the California Solar Initiative.

Since 1984, she has been a communications regulatory lawyer practicing before both the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the California PUC. In 1993, Commissioner Chong was appointed by President Clinton to the FCC where she served as an FCC Commissioner for over three years. During that time, she voted on rules for the first auctions of wireless PCS spectrum, approved rules to create many new wireless and satellite services, finalized digital television rules, and implemented the historic Telecommunications Act of 1996. Commissioner Chong also represented the FCC at international communications conferences, including the World Radio Conference and the Asian Pacific Economic Council.

Commissioner Chong then became a General Counsel and Vice President of Governmental Affairs for a start up CLEC/broadband/applications service provider venture and has also recently been a mediator/arbitrator, owned a small business, and operated an E-commerce store on the Internet. As a result, she brings to the CPUC a unique perspective as a federal regulator, long time communications lawyer, small business owner, Web entrepreneur, and mediator.

CENIC is thrilled to announce that Commissioner Chong will play such an important part in our annual conference next year. Given the success of our last conference, “Making Waves,” held in La Jolla, CA, exceeding the standard set by that event will be a challenge, but Commissioner Chong’s participation will play a crucial role in that.

If this sounds like something that you'd like to take part in, then why not register today? Online registration for the conference has officially opened as of November 1, and payment options for our attendees have expanded for increased convenience. Your options now include payment by check before the conference as well as three options for payment by major credit card:

• You can register and pay online at the same time.
• You can also register now and pay later. If you choose this option, you will receive a Payment ID via e-mail and link that you can use at any time before the conference to pay at your convenience.
• You can also register and pay by major credit card at the conference, using your Payment ID.

Even more exciting announcements are in store in the weeks and months ahead, so to make sure that you can take part in “Lightpath to the Stars,” be sure to register today!

As readers of CENIC Today know, next year’s conference will be held in the scenic and historic city of Oakland, CA at the Oakland Marriott City Center. This will be our second year at this venue, as our 2006 conference “Your Connection to the World” was also held there. Attendees were pleased at the venue, particularly its convenient location near some of California’s best shopping and dining as well as public transportation such as BART and Amtrak. We’re happy to announce that you can now reserve your hotel rooms at the Oakland Marriott City Center online; be sure to do so soon to get the discounted conference room rate!

Lastly, the Call for Presentations for Lightpath to the Stars is still open, and our Program Committee, headed by the San Bernardino Community College District's Glen Kuck and USC's Celeste Anderson, is looking for presentations, demonstrations, and panel discussions focused on network-enabled applications and research related to the 2008 conference theme, "Lightpath to the Stars."

Presentations should fit into one of the following categories:

• Technology and infrastructure
• Teaching and learning
• Application development, and
• Use, trends, and/or future developments in network technology and related applications

CENIC 08's Program Committee is especially interested in presentations focused on research, teaching and learning activities involving multiple segments of the K-20 community, and/or international collaborations. Projects or studies to be featured may be works-in-progress. The conference venue will be connected to CalREN, NLR and Internet2 to enable live demonstrations of content or capability.

The deadline for proposals is November 9, 2007, and more information about the proper format for submissions and where and how to submit a proposal for presentation can be found at http://cenic08.cenic.org/cfp.html. Our past conference program for Making Waves can be found at http://cenic07.cenic.org/program.html if you're curious about the types of presentations accepted for last year's conference in La Jolla.

CENIC's Annual Conference features more than presentations, however; our annual Innovations in Networking awards are also presented during our conference, and as such we are also searching for Award Nominations for the 2008 Innovations in Networking Awards. These awards highlight network applications and projects by identifying exemplary innovations that leverage the network and have the potential to improve the way instruction and research is conducted, even when the impact of the innovation may not be felt immediately. We are especially interested in collaborative efforts developed in 2006-07 which engage multiple segments of the K-20 community and/or international partners. A committee selected by the CENIC Board of Directors will determine the award winners on the basis of submitted materials, and additional interviews if necessary.

The deadline for submissions is December 7, 2007, and more information about the Call for Award Nominations can be found at http://cenic08.cenic.org/cfa.html, including the proper format and categories for submissions and where and how to submit a nomination. Summaries for past award winners can also be found at the Call for Award Nominations, if you would like to see the types of projects and applications that have been honored in previous years.

The conference will be held this year at the Oakland Marriott City Center, located in the heart of downtown Oakland and convenient to fabulous shopping and dining as well as historical sites such as Jack London Square and Oakland's Chinatown. The conference hotel is also extremely conveniently located within easy walking distance to BART and Amtrak stations (click links for walking maps), and through them may be reached from all major Bay Area airports. The conference website, shown above, features Hotel & Travel information as well as links to local points of interest when visiting Oakland.

We look forward to seeing you in Oakland in March 2008!

-- Janis Cortese, CENIC

National Networking News:

National Telecommunications & Information Administration Publishes 2008 Budget Request

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is responsible for the development of domestic and international telecommunications and information policy for the US government's executive branch, in order to ensure the efficient and effective use of the Federal radio spectrum, and for performing state-of-the-art telecommunications research, engineering, and planning.

The NTIA operates within the structure and context of the following goals: NTIAs policy, spectrum management, and research programs will support emerging technologies and uses of spectrum resources for affordable, alternative communications services. Promising technologies and services have the potential to drive the new economy, if given the opportunity to succeed. The Administration and NTIA support the advancement of information technologies and has moved aggressively to create an economic and regulatory environment in which innovations in information and communications technologies can flourish. The NTIA proposed budget totals $589 million.

The budget request can be found here in PDF format. Further information can also be found at the NTIA's website.

Announcing A Celebration of the NSFNET: The Partnership That Changed the World

A significant building block in Internet history will be celebrated with a symposium and celebratory event on November 29-30 in Arlington, Virginia. Scientists, scholars, technologists, business leaders and educators will gather to celebrate the NSFNET, a program of networking projects funded by the National Science Foundation beginning in 1985.

The NSFNET comprised a set of projects that encouraged the adoption of internetworking in education and research. At the start of the program, networking was neither strongly standardized nor ubiquitous on campuses. The NSFNET program vastly expanded network availability, advanced technological development, and helped prove the value of the set of services that ultimately became today's commercial Internet.

For more information, please visit the event website.

Scattered, Sectioned, and Supersized: Sysadmin Challenges and Grids

The discipline of system administration covers all aspects of running a computing installation­from technical issues such as operating system configuration and security through to administrative tasks such as account management and software licensing.

Covering this many bases is always a challenge, but when the system you’re administrating is scattered, sectioned and super-sized, a whole new family of challenges arises.

Grid applications tend to rely on large numbers of machines, and managing these appropriately requires some skilled systems administration.

However, it is often not the sheer scale of grid infrastructure that presents the real challenge, but rather the distributed and federated nature of its management.

Source: International Science Grid This Week

Internet2 and Rede Nacional de Ensino e Pesquisa Form Health Sciences Partnership

On October 11, Internet2 announced a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Rede Nacional de Ensino e Pesquisa (RNP), the national research and education networking organization of Brazil, to facilitate international telehealth and telemedicine collaborations. The MOU builds on the organizations’ existing long-term networking partnership that was established in 2000. The new MOU was made official today at a ceremony held in conjunction with the annual Internet2 Fall Member Meeting in San Diego, California.

The new MOU provides a pathway for the Internet2 and RNP communities to jointly lead and collaborate on the development of next-generation telemedicine and telehealth technologies and applications. In doing so, the organizations hope to accelerate the adoption of these important technologies both within the United States and Brazil as well as to promote and encourage the continued interconnection of advanced networks around the world in support of telemedicine and telehealth.

Source: I2 News

SC07 Lights Up Reno with Super-Powered Network

For seven days, the Reno-Sparks Convention Center will be home to one of the most powerful and connected networks in the world -- SCinet.

Built each year for the annual SC conference, SCinet brings to life a highly sophisticated and extreme networking infrastructure that can support the revolutionary applications and network experiments that have become the trademark of the annual SC07 conference held in Reno, Nev., Nov. 12-16, 2007.

Sponsored by ACM and the IEEE Computer Society, SC07 showcases the latest advances in high performance computing, networking, storage and analysis. SCinet serves as the platform for SC07 exhibitors to demonstrate advanced computing resources from their home institutions and elsewhere by supporting supercomputing and grid computing applications.

Designed and built entirely by volunteers from universities, government and industry, SCinet connects multiple 10-gigabit per second (Gbps) circuits to the showfloor, which links the conference center to research and commercial networks around the world like the Internet2 Network, National LambdaRail, and Level 3 Communications. SCinet is powerful enough to transfer over 200 Gb of data in just one second. And without a doubt, SC exhibitors and attendees will push SCinet's capacity and capabilities to the max.

Source: HPC Wire

Calit2, San Diego State Univ. and NASA Create Imagery to Support Wildfire Response

Researchers from the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2), the Visualization Center at San Diego State University (SDSU) and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center worked together to develop near real-time value-added, satellite-based imagery of last week's massive and multiple wildfires in San Diego. This information was crucial to officials leading the fire response and the firefighters in the trenches, as well as the hundreds of thousands of people directly impacted by the fires.

Source: Calit2 Newsroom

Tech Keeps Parents Abreast of Wildfires

Schools across Southern California have turned to mass-notification systems and other forms of technology to send updates to thousands of parents and students during the devastating wildfires that have caused what officials believe is at least $1 billion in damage in San Diego County alone.

Don Phillips, superintendent of the 33,000-student Poway Unified School District in northern San Diego County, said his district's use of Connect-ED, a mass-notification system from the NTI Group Inc., has been instrumental in sending messages to students and parents about fire-related school decisions.

He said the district learned from past fires that regular and timely updates to staff, students, and families are critical during such emergencies. The district has been able to use its Connect-ED system to send out numerous messages each day as additional information has become available.

The district's system features a standard contact-information list for parents' e-mail addresses and telephone numbers, but it also provides an emergency list for extenuating circumstances.

Source: eSchool News

Low-Cost School Computing Set to Take Off

Get ready for the $40 school computer.

One way or another, the idea of ubiquitous, low-cost computer access for schoolchildren, both in the United States and abroad, is fast approaching the point where goals turn into realities. Major technology players, including several large companies and a nonprofit group that is focusing on developing countries, have been working in different ways to advance the cause.

Things are moving along so quickly, in fact, that Stephen Dukker, chairman and CEO of the small, California-based company NComputing, predicts that by 2009 many schools will be able to provide their students with portable, online capabilities for as little as $100 each--and perhaps as little as $30 or $40 per user for non-mobile devices. Wireless capacity, says Dukker, should be a relatively inexpensive bonus by then.

Source: eSchool News

Web Site Launched to Help California Wildfire Victims

A Calit2-affiliated UC Irvine professor and team of students have created a free Web site to help residents displaced by the Southern California wildfires find temporary housing by electronically matching them with others who would like to offer assistance.

“All of us have been affected by the fires, and many of us have friends who have had to evacuate,” said UCI informatics professor Bill Tomlinson, who led the development of the site. “In class, we were discussing what we could do to contribute, and decided we had the skills and resources to make a Web site to help evacuees find places to stay.”

Source: Calit2 Newsroom

About CENIC:

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.

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