Internet2 Member Community to Gather at Fall 2009 Internet2 Member Meeting

The Fall 2009 Internet2 Member Meeting is less than a week away! The program features many highlights, thanks to the outstanding job done by the Program Committee. The committee selected over 70 track sessions, many that address the themes for this meeting: “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.” Together as a community we will focus on the elements of network-based collaboration, including--but not limited to--virtual organizations, social networking, and software collaboration tools.

Late Breaking Topics/Lightning Round: The Program Committee is introducing a new track at this meeting, dedicated to late-breaking topics or information. This new track will include one “Lightning Round” session where presenters provide short talks on interesting or timely topics. Submissions for these talks will be accepted through Wednesday; please submit topics and speakers to: mm-lightning-talks@internet2.edu. Each submission will be reviewed by the Program Committee for appropriateness. Submitters will be notified within 24 hours if their topic has been accepted. Each slide-free Lightning Round topic will last 5 minutes; handouts are permitted.

General Sessions

First General Session, Tuesday, 6 October, 10:30-11:45 AM: Internet2 welcomes speaker Gary Forsee, President of the University of Missouri System and former chairman and CEO of Sprint Nextel. The need for information technology to be viewed and leveraged as one of higher education's most valuable strategic assets has never been greater. Forsee will talk about opportunities afforded by more strategic linkages of IT to academic and research missions--from new sources of revenue and potential economic development to more cost-effective and efficient uses of faculty, staff and students' time.

Second General Session, Thursday, 8 October, 10:30-11:45 AM:Internet2 welcomes speaker Gwen Jacobs, Professor and Assistant CIO at Montana State University and chair of the iPlant Collaborative Board of Directors. The ability to work collaboratively across space and time has created it's own set of new challenges for scientists who now need an infrastructure that supports access to distributed data, resources and colleagues. These new challenges include developing new methods for access to and integration of massive distributed data sources, robust suites of analysis tools and sophisticated collaboration environments. Large scale science also requires new methods to enable the requisite social interactions between collaborators that will insure their success working as a distributed team. The iPlant Collaborative is an effort to develop a seamless cybeinfrastructure for the plant biology community. This talk will provide an overview of some of this effort and highlight the challenges we face in this new era of cyberinfrastructure-enabled science.

Telehealth Demonstration: As part of the second general session, attendees will witness firsthand how leading-edge high-definition videoconferencing and electronic medical records can be harnessed to advance healthcare. The demonstration, developed by Internet2, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Federal Health Architecture, will use the LEARN, Internet2, Iowa Health System, and HealthBridge networks to connect a physician specialist in San Antonio with a nurse practitioner in a rural clinic to assist in patient care. The demo will showcase how high-definition videoconferencing combined with the exchange of electronic medical records using the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) can significantly improve the delivery of healthcare to patients in rural settings. A brief Q & A period will follow the demonstration.

Open Governance Meetings

Internet2's Advisory Councils and Governance & Nominations Committee meetings are open to all attendees. Attendees will again have the opportunity to see the councils in action. AOAC, AMSAC, ERAC, RAC, and GNC welcome your interest and participation. These open meetings take place on Monday, 5 October beginning with the GNC meeting from 10:30-11:30 AM, followed by the Advisory Council meetings from 1:30-3:00 PM. If you are unable to attend an open meeting, please join the chairs of the four councils and the GNC who will provide a recap of their sessions at 4:15 PM. For additional detail and meeting locations, please see the meeting program.

New Internet2 Member Structure

Internet2 is introducing a new member structure for 2010 to maximize members’ value for participation and to encourage broader direct engagement. Letters have been distributed to all members organizations explaining the upcoming changes. If you have questions or would like to discuss the changes, please sign up at the registration desk for a one on one in person consultation at the meeting.

Introducing Internet2 ION

Internet2 is introducing a production dynamic circuit network service called Internet2 ION which allows users to provision circuits on demand or in advance to meet their applications’ specific time and bandwidth requirements. Several sessions will highlight ION and its development collaborators. At a special demo kiosk located near the registration desk, attendees can also test drive ION: set up a live circuit, monitor traffic and review ION's various features

Internet2 Corporate Members Sponsor Events and Activities

Internet2 gratefully acknowledges the sponsors of the Fall 2009 Internet2 Member Meeting. Internet2 would like to thank ADVA Optical Network, Brocade Communications Systems, Ciena, Fujitsu Network Communications, Level3 Communications, LifeSize and Qwest for their generous sponsorship of this meeting, and Cisco Systems and Ekinops for providing supporting equipment. The generous support of these sponsors has helped to make this Member Meeting possible!

New to Internet2 or Attending Your First Member Meeting?

If your organization has just joined Internet2, or this is your first Internet2 Member Meeting, there are a number of sessions and activities that you may find helpful in getting to know our community, and learning about Internet2. The Internet2 Overview: Engagement, Network and Services session provides a basic overview of Internet2, covering the concepts and terminology in advanced network services, middleware and applications. It will also provide information to help attendees understand how to engage with the Internet2 community, with a focus on current projects, initiatives and working groups. The session will also include information about a variety of services that are available to the Internet2 membership and community. Other sessions to consider include the Internet2 Network Services and Operations Update and the R&D Update.

Corporate Membership Activities

Corporate members are invited to the Member Meeting Corporate Member Forum. This event, a tradition at Internet2 Member Meetings, is an excellent opportunity to connect with industry leaders and to interact with Internet2 staff. The Corporate Member Forum takes place on Tuesday, 6 October at 7:30 am and breakfast will be served. For more information, please contact Ellen Vaughan. Corporate members are critical participants in Member Meeting Poster Sessions, in addition to presenting and serving on panels in a wide variety of track sessions.

International Community Activities

There are several sessions of international interest for Member Meeting attendees. The complete listing, is available online. The Special Interest Group (SIG) on Emerging National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) focuses on issues relevant to the development of a high-performance, leading-edge network infrastructure, advanced technologies, and applications for research and education, specifically in areas with new or developing networks. Leading up to the Emerging NREN SIG meeting, regional interest groups from South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific Islands will report on NREN developments in their areas. All Fall Member Meeting attendees are welcome to participate in these meetings to share challenges, ideas, and opportunities for collaboration. Following the Emerging NREN SIG session, more established NRENs will report on their activities during the International Task Force (ITF) Roundtable.

Please note that the Overseas Campuses Forum is taking place on the afternoon of Thursday, 8 October. This forum will explore the challenges faced by US institutions establishing programs or campuses overseas, how some organizations have met those challenges, and how your membership in Internet2 might help. A separate registration is required, and registration is open through Thursday morning.

Call for Program Committee Participation

The Internet2 Member Meeting provides many opportunities for the exchange of information about new and on-going work in the member community. These opportunities are created by the work of the Internet2 Member Meeting Program Committee, which has responsibility for creating the main program at each meeting. The Program Committee is charged with developing the Call for Session Proposals and the subsequent evaluation and selection of member meeting track sessions. In an effort to have the Program Committee composition mirror the Internet2 Advisory Councils, we are recruiting new members to join continuing members. More information about the Call for Participation and the roles of the Program Committee is available online.