[ CENIC News ] CENIC Today -- February/March 2007

[General CENIC news and event announcements]

[]


Volume 10, Issue 2
March 29, 2007

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

IN THIS ISSUE:

CENIC News:
    * President's Message: Google and the Advertising Model
    * CalREN Update: Network Projects and Activities
    * CENIC `07: Making Waves Conference Report -- A success in sunny La 
Jolla, CA
    * CENIC 2006/2007 Is Online -- help us to improve!
    * The CalREN Video Services Roadshow is coming to a campus near you!
    * TransitRail National Peering Program Announces New Node in Ashburn, VA
    * International Orthopedic Conference Held at Calit2
National Networking News:
    * Internet2 and National LambdaRail to Merge
    * Canada's CANARIE Receives CAN$120 million in Gov't Budget to Maintain 
CA*net4, Develop CA*net5
    * South Carolina Universities Seek State Money to Build High-Tech 
Fiber-Optic Line
    * City College of San Francisco Featured in February 2007 
Communications News
    * eSchool News Guides to Differentiated Learning
    * Cal State Universities Strive for Web Accessibility
    * SC07 Tech Program Now Accepting Submissions -- submit before April 9
    * National LambdaRail Call for Participation in NLRview
    * San Diego Supercomputer Experts Help Navajos build "An Internet to 
the Hogan"
About CENIC:
    * About CENIC
    * Subscription Information
[]

CENIC News:

President's Message: Google and the Advertising Model
This month I'd like to share some thoughts about one of the major factors 
driving the future of the Internet.  My thinking is based on my reading one 
of Robert Cringely’s 
<http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070119_001510.html>recent
tech columns and the most recent change in business models adopted by the 
Ruckus music download service.

Cringely’s January 19 article quotes Topix.net founder 
<http://www.skrenta.com/2007/01/winnertakeall_google_and_the_t.html>Rich 
Skrenta’s<http://www.skrenta.com/2007/01/winnertakeall_google_and_the_t.html> 
position that Google represents to most users the face of the 
Internet.  While it is hard to argue with that
proposition, what is even more significant is how Google has developed a 
business model that is wildly successful, dependent on the Internet, but 
really based on advertising.
Cringely suggests that Google controls more of the fiber-optic 
infrastructure on which networks are built than any other 
organization.  This suggests to me that Google knows it
needs to control at least the cost of the Internet in order to continue to 
grow its advertising revenue base.  Simply put, if it is too expensive for 
a household to buy “Internet
services” to access Google’s advertising, Google’s revenues will not be 
able to grow.  So, Google will make sure the Internet service impediment 
isn't too high as that would
interfere with its advertising-based revenue.

Another case of adopting an advertising-based model is the Ruckus music 
download service. When Ruckus was formed, its business model was based on 
college and University
site licenses. This was based, I think, on the mistaken premise that 
college and Universities would be motivated to buy legal music services for 
their students.  When that
business model didn't really take off, Ruckus changed to a second one, 
where there was some free music available for download but mostly there was 
a monthly subscription-
based service.  Recently that model too has been discarded, replaced with 
one where all music is free.  How does Ruckus do this?  Just as with 
Google, they are using
advertising as their source of revenue.

Where does this all lead -- to a model where the commercial Internet is 
heavily based on advertising to set its direction and fund its growth.  In 
a sense yes, that seems to where
we’re headed, but more generally I think what we’re seeing is a trend to 
focus more on end uses, whether they be shopping, entertainment, social 
networking or what have you.
And in the end, that’s probably fine and appropriate.  Where does this 
leave education? Well, for now in California, owning much of our own fiber 
infrastructure we, like Google, are
well positioned to control the costs of networking for our members.  But, 
as we are not profit motivated, you won't see advertising as a major part 
of our strategy — at least not
unless we’re overtaken by Google. Check back in ten years to see if my 
prediction is right.
-- Jim Dolgonas, CENIC


CalREN Update: Network Projects and Activities
<http://www.csus.edu/>Sacramento State University received two 
CENIC-managed fiber connections and now enjoys dual, diverse connectivity 
to the CalREN backbone.  Sacramento State is
therefore the latest CSU campus to benefit from the Campus Access 
Infrastructure Initiative, a project through which CENIC seeks to provide 
all Cal State University campuses
with diverse Gigabit connectivity to the CalREN backbone.  The Campus 
Access Infrastructure Initiative (CAI) is a crucial part of providing the 
CSU with robust, high-performance
networking. As a result of this initiative, CSU campuses with diverse, dual 
connections to the CalREN backbone do not typically experience outages when 
a connection goes
down for reasons external to the campus.

California's Community Colleges are also the focus of activity 
lately.  Foremost is the <http://www.losrios.edu/>Los 
Rios<http://www.losrios.edu/> Community College District (encompassing 
<http://www.arc.losrios.edu/>American River College, 
<http://www.crc.losrios.edu/>Cosumnes
<http://www.crc.losrios.edu/>River College, 
<http://www.flc.losrios.edu/>Folsom<http://www.flc.losrios.edu/> Lake 
College, and <http://www.scc.losrios.edu/>Sacramento City College), which 
is slated to become the first CA Community College site with redundant 
Gigabit connectivity to the
CalREN backbone.

The <http://www.sbccd.cc.ca.us/>San Bernardino Community College District 
can also look forward to Gigabit connectivity via CalREN's Riverside node 
to support their award-winning 
<http://www.edustream.org/>EduStream<http://www.edustream.org/>.org project,
an educational rich-media application that empowers colleges to offer video 
content to enhance course offerings while addressing producers’ 
authentication and copyright
concerns.  You can read more about EduStream.org in the article below.

Further south, the <http://www.cccd.edu/>Coast Community College District 
(encompassing <http://www.coastline.edu/>Coastline Community College, 
<http://www.gwc.info/>Golden West College, and 
<http://www.orangecoastcollege.edu/>Orange Coast College) and 
<http://www.compton.edu/>Compton Community
College/El Camino<http://www.compton.edu/> College Compton Center are 
slated to receive Gigabit connections in the near future, as well as 
<http://www.miramarcollege.net/>Miramar College, which functions as the 
district hub for the
<http://www.sdccd.edu/>San Diego Community College District and serves the 
district office, <http://www.sdcity.edu/>San Diego City College, Miramar 
College, and <http://www.sdmesa.sdccd.cc.ca.us/>Mesa College.

Read future issues of CENIC Today for updates on these and other projects!
-- Ed Smith, CENIC


CENIC `07: Making Waves Conference Report: A success in sunny La Jolla, CA
 From March 12-14, 2007, California's star educators and researchers were 
joined by many of their colleagues from around the world in La Jolla, the 
jewel of the California
coast, to showcase the uses to which they were putting their connectivity 
to CalREN.  Cutting-edge research was on display side-by-side with 
innovations in K-20 education
and hands-on demonstrations of instructional and networking technology from 
the @One Project and Stanford University.  The conference program included 
tracks devoted
to topics on both Teaching & Learning and Technology & Research, and 
featured a visit to Calit2 at UCSD, the California Institute for 
Telecommunications and Information
Technology at the UC San Diego campus, which included talks and 
demonstrations of bleeding-edge technology made possible by 
high-performance networking.

A high point of the conference was the awarding of the CENIC Innovations in 
Networking Awards for 2007, which takes place every year during CENIC's 
annual conference.
This year's winners include:

         Gigabit/Broadband Applications: The Kings County Last Mile Project
         Kings County is a rural county situated in the southern Central 
Valley and, as a rural county faced with unique networking challenges, it 
required
         an innovative and visionary solution to bring the benefits of 
broadband to its K-12 students, faculty, and staff.  Thanks to Jerry 
Waymire of the Kings
         County Office of Education, the county is now covered with 
high-capacity wireless microwave connections for all 54 schools and 11 
wireless cells
         utilizing Motorola’s Canopy product that provide for 
educational-use-only connectivity for students and faculty at home.  Learn 
more at
         http://www.kings.k12.ca.us/.

         Gigabit/Broadband Applications: Connecting Coachella Valley to the 
World
         Robert Webb’s and the Webb Foundation’s dream was to bridge the 
“digital divide” in their local community.  The Foundation began an annual
         “Heads Up” technology seminar with local network administrators 
where they discussed advances in computers, networking, and local 
infrastructure
         needs.  Subsequently, the Webb Foundation provided a planning 
grant to CENIC to identify opportunities for improving networking in the 
region.   As
         a result of this work, and with the help of The H.N. and Frances 
C. Berger Foundation, CENIC, and its grantees, a 400-mile, $3.4 million 
fiber path
         now extends the CalREN backbone through the Coachella Valley.  The 
area now enjoys state-of-the-art broadband Internet connectivity which
         promises to educate as well as benefit the community at large for 
many years to come.  Already, the University of California Riverside and the
         California State University San Bernardino’s Palm Desert campuses, 
as well as the College of the Desert, currently enjoy world-class connectivity
         to their colleagues in California and around the world.  Learn 
more at http://www.cenic.org/PalmDesert/.

         Educational Applications: EduStream.org
         Like districts everywhere, the San Bernardino Community College 
District (SBCCD) enhances its educational offering with rich media, including
         telecourses.  Such courses can sometimes confront limitations 
where face-to-face class time is often dedicated to testing instead of quality
         interactions between students and faculty and students 
themselves.  Solving this problem with video-on-demand can be costly.  The 
solution
         developed by the SBCCD is EduStream.org, an educational rich media 
application that empowers colleges to offer video content to enhance
         course offerings while addressing producers’ authentication and 
copyright concerns.  Learn more at http://www.edustream.org/.

         High-Performance Research Applications: iAnatomy
         Using the Gigabit connectivity between CalREN and the Canadian 
research and education network CA*net4, via Pacific Wave, a joint project of
         Pacific NorthWest Gigapop and CENIC, Stanford University has 
collaborated with the Northern Ontario School of Medicine to create iAnatomy,
         a project by which faculty and students can interact live with 
Stanford’s Bassett Collection of high-resolution medical images, including 3-D
         images, during classroom presentations.  As an illustration of the 
benefits of broadband connectivity for distributed medical learning, the 
iAnatomy
         project is particularly valuable.  Not only does it offer an 
example of how to make expert resources available to the research and education
         community worldwide, but it functions quickly and seamlessly, 
without a prohibitively steep learning curve.  Learn more at 
http://ianatomy.stanford.edu/.

CENIC also recognized Jack McCredie with its Outstanding Individual 
Achievement Award for 2007 for the outstanding leadership he provided to 
CENIC during its first 5
years of existence. McCredie served on the CENIC Board of Directors until 
June 2002. During his tenure, his outstanding contributions and visionary 
leadership helped shape
the success of CENIC.

This year's conference also featured an exceptional group of keynote 
speakers, including Sunne Wright McPeak, President and CEO of the 
<http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/static/telco/cetf.htm>California Emerging Technology
Fund (CETF), John Delaney, director of the 
<http://www.neptune.washington.edu/>NEPTUNE 
<http://www.neptune.washington.edu/>project and professor at the University 
of Washington's School of Oceanography, and 
<http://eecs.oregonstate.edu/research/members/pancake/index.html>Cherri 
Pancake, professor at
Oregon State University's School of Electrical Engineering and Computer 
Science.  Sunne McPeak's address discussed the CETF and its relevance to 
CalREN, while John
Delaney wowed his audience with brilliant high-definition images from the 
ocean floor.  On Wednesday, Cherri Pancake discussed the science of tsunami 
research,
encompassing everything from wave propagation to tectonics and earthquake 
research to psychology and city planning.  All keynote addresses were 
webcast live, and archived
copies will be made available on the conference website at 
http://cenic07.cenic.org/.

Conference surveys are also available online and can be accessed at the 
<http://cenic07.cenic.org/>conference website, so please be sure to stop by 
and share your feedback and suggestions!  We
understand that choosing which conferences to attend during the academic 
year is often challenging since so many are worthwhile, and we look forward 
to keeping the CENIC
Annual Conference at the top of your list of choices.  Your feedback will 
help us to craft next year's conference.

Next year, CENIC returns to the bay area and the Oakland Marriott City 
Center Hotel in March of 2008.  Join us in the historic city of Oakland, 
with quick and convenient
access to air and ground transportation as well as the shopping and fine 
dining to be had in nearby Chinatown and Jack London Square.  Looking 
forward to seeing you
in 2008!
-- Janis Cortese, CENIC


CENIC 2006/2007 Survey is Online -- help us to improve!
CENIC is keenly aware of the importance of what we provide to our 
community: cost-effective, high-bandwidth networking to support the needs 
of faculty, researchers, staff, and
students.  This requires not only expertise and commitment, but a constant 
desire to improve -- and to do that, we need your help.

We would like you to complete a survey to help us continue to improve. In 
our <http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB226B7B3GSW2>CENIC 2006/2007 
Survey, you'll find questions covering the technical performance both of our
people and the CalREN networks, our promotional and informational 
materials, CENIC project management, CalREN Video Services, and how much 
your participation in CalREN
benefits you and your institution.  The entire 
<http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB226B7B3GSW2>survey will take 
between 5 and 10 minutes to complete.

The <http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB226B7B3GSW2>CENIC 2006/2007 
Survey will be open until June 30, 2007.


The CalREN Video Services (CVS) Roadshow is coming to a campus near you!
The CVS Roadshow is an opportunity for Video Administrators around 
California to get together and learn more about 
<http://cvs.cenic.org/>CalREN Video Services.  Be sure to sign up early for 
this
free event.  Online registration is available now at 
<http://cvs.cenic.org/roadshow/index.html>http://cvs.cenic.org/roadshow/index.html. 


Join us from 9:30AM to 2:00PM at one of the following locations and dates:
    *        Wednesday, April 11, 2007, California Community College 
Chancellors Office, Sacramento, CA
    *        Wednesday, April 18, 2007, Cerritos College, Cerritos, CA
    *        Friday, April 20, 2007, Palomar College, San Marcos, CA
    *        Tuesday, April 24, 2007, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA

Highlights will include:

    *         Presentations demonstrating how video administrators are 
using videoconferencing to the fullest.
    *         Presentations on advanced features of the CVS online scheduler.
    *         Continental breakfast and a light lunch will be served.
Information regarding parking and exact building location will be sent to 
registered participants via email one week prior to the date of each 
Roadshow session. Any questions
may be directed to Cassandra Patrizio, CVS Coordinator, by phone at (714) 
220-3471 or by email to cpatrizio at cenic.org.

Thank you for supporting <http://cvs.cenic.org/>CalREN Video Services, and 
we look forward to seeing you at the <http://cvs.cenic.org/roadshow/>CVS 
<http://cvs.cenic.org/roadshow/>Roadshow!
-- Cassandra Patrizio, CENIC


TransitRail National Peering Program Announces New Node in Ashburn, VA
On March 26, the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in 
California (CENIC) and <http://www.pnw-gigapop.net/>Pacific Northwest 
<http://www.pnw-gigapop.net/>Gigapop (PNWGP) announced the expansion of the 
<http://www.transitrail.net/>TransitRail national
commodity peering program with the activation of a connection point in 
Ashburn, VA.  The first TransitRail node to be activated east of the 
Mississippi, the Ashburn node has been
put into service ahead of schedule and will soon be joined by a fifth node 
in Chicago, IL.

Together with the current nodes in Seattle, Sunnyvale, and Los Angeles, 
these two new connection points will give the TransitRail peering program a 
national footprint and enable
research and education institutions to take advantage of low-cost network 
peering on a national scale. Already, the addition of the Ashburn node has 
enhanced the significant
benefits available through participation in TransitRail.

The <http://www.utah.edu/>University of Utah and the 
<http://www.utahsbr.edu/>Utah System of Higher Education are two of many 
participants that have seen significant benefits from TransitRail.  “We are 
pleased that TransitRail
now carries up to 50 percent of the commodity Internet traffic for Utah 
education. It is cost-effective and provides excellent performance. A 
high-demand connection that required
25 hops can now be made in just six. This collaboration with the 
<http://www.uen.org/>Utah Education Network, Front Range GigaPop and other 
higher education partners provides economy and a
high level of service to our stakeholders,” said Steve Hess, CIO for the 
University of Utah and the Utah System of Higher Education.

To an institution concerned about the costs of their Internet connectivity, 
participating in TransitRail can spell significant savings over the 
higher-cost commodity Internet.
Oklahoma’s <http://www.onenet.net/>OneNet, a high-performance network 
dedicated to education and government, has been a participant in the 
TransitRail program since December 2006 and has seen
cost savings and usage far beyond what they anticipated.  They and other 
networks participate in TransitRail via their National LambdaRail (NLR) 
connection, leveraging NLR’s
cutting-edge national infrastructure.

TransitRail's U.S. footprint is connected by 10Gbps waves provided by 
<http://www.nlr.net/>National LambdaRail (NLR). Each TransitRail node will 
be connected to, and accessible at, NLR points of
presence throughout the United States.

TransitRail peers with major ISPs, and its current participant base 
represents a substantial segment of the research and education community 
within the United States.
TransitRail is available to any interested R&E network groups.

Both peers and participants are expected to grow significantly as 
TransitRail continues to expand its operations.

For more information about TransitRail, please contact 
<mailto:info at transitrail.net>info at transitrail.net or visit 
http://www.transitrail.net/.
-- Darrell Newcomb, CENIC


International Orthopedic Conference Held at Calit2
As the provider of broadband networking to California’s research and 
education community, CENIC is often privileged to see that community put 
the California Research &
Education Network to use to benefit students, researchers, faculty members, 
and the population at large.  On February 13, 2007 at the Calit2 main 
auditorium, an event took
place that simultaneously illustrated benefit to all of these communities.

At 2pm Pacific Time, researchers and representatives from all over the 
world, as well as a panel of distinguished experts in California, took part 
in the first International Orthopedic
Conference to discuss the ways in which access to broadband networking 
could benefit their discipline, including students and faculty, clinical 
researchers, and of course patient
care.  Participating institutions included:
    * Australian National University in Canberra - http://www.anu.edu.au/
    * Calit2 - http://www.calit2.net/
    * National Institute of Rehabilitation in Mexico City - 
http://www.cnr.gob.mx/
    * Rede Nacional del Ensino a Pesquia (RNP) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - 
http://www.rnp.br/
    * Red Universitaria Nacional (REUNA) in Santiago, Chile - 
http://www.reuna.cl/
    * Seoul National University - http://www.useoul.edu/
    * SUMMIT at Stanford University - http://summit.stanford.edu/
    * Universiti Putra Malaysia - http://www.upm.edu.my/
    * with the Ohio Supercomputer Center managing the videoconference - 
http://www.osc.edu/
Areas which were mentioned as benefiting from high-quality 
videoconferencing spanned methodology and awareness to education, greater 
breadth of research studies, and
better patient care.  Interactive online courses and live tele-surgery were 
specifically mentioned as having value to participants from Korea and 
Australia, who spoke of gaining
and giving access to resources and experts many time zones away; such 
access could be used not only for training but also for patient care in 
difficult-to-reach locations.

Dr. Nancy Lane, Director of the Aging Center at the UC David Medical Center 
and President of the <http://www.bjdonline.org/>Bone & Joint Decade, was 
quick to note the usefulness of high-quality
videoconferencing for outreach to schools and its potential in empowering 
researchers to “ask new questions” due to the new research opportunities 
offered with high-bandwidth
networking.  As an example of a simple, easily defined research question 
requiring a large, diverse population for study, she posited rare genetic 
conditions as an arena of study
that would benefit from the international collaboration made possible by 
videoconferencing.

South American researchers had special interest in matters of direct 
patient care, with participants from Brazil’s RNP concerned with the 
technology’s usefulness in addressing
elder care and injuries stemming from road accidents and child abuse.

Of course, patient privacy and data security were recognized as vitally 
important by all participants.

A further possibility raised by Dr. Wayne H. Akeson, Professor of 
Orthopedic Surgery at UCSD and Chairman of the 
<http://www.sicot.org/>SICOT/<http://www.sicot.org/>SIROT Research 
Commission was that of a
California Virtual Orthopedic Committee.

The event was webcast live, and an archived copy can be found online at 
<http://sg60.oar.net/eHealth/>http://sg60.oar.net/eHealth/.  Scroll down to 
the “Int. Orthopedic Conference” which took place on Feb
13, 2007 3pm PST - 6pm PST to torrent the Windows Media or Quicktime version.
-- Janis Cortese, CENIC

[]

National Networking News:

Internet2 and National LambdaRail to Merge
Almost a year ago two consortia that run high-speed computer networks for 
researchers scotched plans to merge, announcing that they were unable to 
find common ground on a
host of organizational issues. But now the two groups -- Internet2 and 
National LambdaRail -- say the merger is back on.

The governing boards of both groups agreed earlier this month to a complete 
a "definitive agreement to merge" by April 20, according to a statement 
signed by Jeffrey S. Lehman,
the chair of Internet2, and Tracy Futhey, the chair of LambdaRail. Mr. 
Lehman is a former president of Cornell University. Ms. Futhey is Duke 
University's Vice President for
Information Technology.

To read the statement by Futhey and Lehman regarding the merger plan, visit 
http://www.nlr.net/newsroom/letters/20070310-Merger-Statement.pdf.
Source: http://chronicle.com/daily/2007/03/2007031901t.htm (subscription 
required)


Canada's CANARIE Receives CAN$120 million in Gov't Budget to Maintain 
CA*net4, Develop CA*net5
In the modern global economy, the most successful nations are those that 
best combine people, skills, new ideas and advanced technologies to create 
a competitive edge.
Canada must be well positioned to succeed in this new environment. That’s 
why we’re making investments to create the best-educated, most-skilled and 
most flexible labor
force in the world. Budget 2007 takes action on creating a Knowledge 
Advantage in Canada by [...] providing $120 million in 2006–07 to CANARIE 
Inc., a not-for-profit corporation
that manages CA*net, a sophisticated research broadband network that links 
Canadian universities, research hospitals as well as other science 
facilities in other countries.

This money will allow CANARIE to maintain the CA*net network for the next 
five years and to develop the next generation CA*net5.
Source: http://www.budget.gc.ca/2007/bp/bpc5de.html


South Carolina Universities Seek State Money to Build High-Tech Fiber-Optic 
Line
South Carolina's three research universities are hoping to create a joint 
venture that will allow them to access a national fiber optic grid and put 
them in the running for millions of
research dollars that they can't even apply for now.

Clemson University, the University of South Carolina and the Medical 
University of South Carolina are trying to create a "South Carolina Light 
Rail," said Jim Bottum, Clemson's
chief information officer.

The rail would let the universities and other research organizations, such 
as hospitals, tap into the National Lambda Rail that runs between 
Charlotte, N.C., and Atlanta. That
national line is capable of carrying high volumes of data at high speed so 
researchers in different locations can collaborate in real time, said Chris 
Przirembel, Clemson's vice
president for research and economic development.
Source: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/16833703.htm


City College of San Francisco Featured in February 2007 Communications News
In 2001, San Francisco voters approved $195 million in general obligation 
bonds to support facility expansion and infrastructure improvements at City 
College of San Francisco
(CCSF), which provided more than 4,700 courses per semester to more than 
106,000 students last year. In 2005, an additional $246.3 million in bonds 
were approved for further
CCSF expansion and improvements.

With funding in hand, CCSF Chancellor Philip R. Day Jr. then outlined a 
strategic vision for the college: Prioritize improvements in the college’s 
communications technology
infrastructure as strategic assets in order to advance the institution’s 
abilities to efficiently deliver educational value to the community. At the 
time, however, the college was
experiencing reductions in educational funding, resulting in pressure to 
reduce operating costs.

Day recognized while some basic infrastructure upgrades were significant 
and necessary to move forward, other initiatives were needed in order to 
complete the long-term vision
of fully preparing the college for a converged communications environment, 
while also reducing operational costs.

[...]

As CCSF continued to build out and refine its network to operate more 
efficiently and at lower costs, it found opportunities to increase 
bandwidth at no additional cost. Campus
Internet connectivity is provided by the Corporation for Educational 
Network Initiatives in California (CENIC), a nonprofit organization that 
operates a network serving all K-20
schools in California with Internet connectivity and advanced network 
services. CCSF now connects to CENIC in the data center with a simple 
Gigabit Ethernet cross-connect.

The California Community College System agreed to increase the Internet 
bandwidth it provides to City College to 90 Mbps, based on college size and 
anticipated need, and the
reduction in monthly recurring costs for the previous Internet access 
circuits. The balance of the Gigabit circuit to CENIC is available for 
connectivity to Internet2 ...
Source: http://www.comnews.com/


eSchool News Online Guide to Differentiated Learning
New realities in standardized testing, coupled with a better understanding 
of student needs, have underscored the importance of differentiated 
instruction. Given all of the progress
being made in understanding the various learning styles, abilities, and 
preferences of students, tailoring exercises and instruction to the unique 
needs of each student is the next
logical step in education--and, fortunately, advances in technology now 
make differentiated instruction possible like never before.

New software, hardware, and Internet trends allow educators and 
stakeholders to determine the optimal learning style for a given student, 
and then use this information to engage
the student accordingly. This is fantastic news for everyone involved in 
education today--but the practice of differentiated instruction is not 
without its difficulties. Teachers need to
learn the basics of these new technologies, then apply them expertly. 
Parents and administrators need to acclimate themselves to the idea that a 
"one-size fits all" approach to
education is quickly becoming irrelevant and outdated. The promise of 
differentiated learning is as intimidating as it is exciting. That's why, 
with the generous help of educational
search-engine company netTrekker, eSchool News has assembled this one-stop 
guide to differentiated learning. We hope you can use it to familiarize 
yourself with the concepts,
difficulties, and execution surrounding one of the most important 
educational trends of today.

What you'll learn inside:
    * How 
<http://www.eschoolnews.com/resources/reports/Differentiated_Learning/index.cfm>technology 
helps teach complex reading skills
    * Why educators are taking a serious look at 
<http://www.eschoolnews.com/resources/reports/Differentiated_Learning/index.cfm>video 
games
    * 
<http://www.eschoolnews.com/resources/reports/Differentiated_Learning/index.cfm>Discover 
why technology strikes a cord in music education
Find out how to apply differentiated learning into your schools and districts.
Source: 
http://www.eschoolnews.com/resources/reports/Differentiated_Learning/index.cfm


Cal State Universities Strive for Web Accessibility
As part of its Accessible Technology Initiative, the California State 
University (CSU) system will implement software from Nashua, NH-based 
HiSoftware to monitor the
accessibility of its websites, Web content and Web applications for people 
with disabilities.

With 23 campuses and more than 440,000 students, the CSU system is the 
nation's largest public, four-year, higher-learning institution. It 
launched its initiative in January
2006 to ensure disabled students and staff could use CSU's information 
technology resources and to ensure all its campuses adhered to state and 
federal mandates.
Source: http://campustechnology.com/articles/46297/


SC07 Tech Program Now Accepting Submissions -- submit before April 9
RENO, Nevada, March 7 -- SC07, the premier international conference on high 
performance computing, networking and storage, will begin accepting 
submissions for the
Technical Program on Monday, March 12, 2007.  Sponsored by ACM and IEEE, 
SC07 will be held November 10-16, 2007, in Reno, Nevada.

Areas in the 2007 Technical Program include:
    * Technical Papers
    * Gordon Bell Prize Papers
    * Panels
    * Tutorials
    * Workshops
    * Analytics Challenge
    * Bandwidth Challenge
    * Cluster Challenge
    * Storage Challenge
Submission forms and instructions are available at 
http://www.sc-submissions.org/. Panels, Tutorial, and Workshop submissions 
are due Monday April 9, 2007, 11PM. Eastern
Time.
Source: http://www.sc-submissions.org/


National LambdaRail Call for Participation in NLRview
National LambdaRail announced today the provisioning and availability of 
new research architecture for novel network performance monitoring and 
measurement called NLRview.
Beginning in early 2007, researchers will be able to instrument NLR’s 
nationwide infrastructure to study network performance and help devise new 
solutions for intrusions,
bottlenecks and fault isolation. Utilizing NLR collected data as well as 
new shared research platforms strategically located in NLR’s backbone, 
researchers can gain access to
actual critical performance data on the operational and experimental 
infrastructure.

“Currently, network science is severely stunted by a data acquisition 
crisis,” said Tom West, NLR’s President and CEO. “NLRview provides a start 
in gaining new knowledge
about the complex networks on which the well-being of the US has come to 
depend. Network science needs new opportunities for sound measurement and 
analysis to drive
policies that serve the public good.”

To learn more about NLRview, please visit 
http://noc.nlr.net/nlr/maps_documentation/measurement-technical-guide.html.

You can also visit http://www.nlr.net/ to download a copy of NLR's 2006 
Annual Report online.
Source: http://www.nlr.net/newsroom/release.php?id=31


San Diego Supercomputer Experts Help Navajos build "An Internet to the Hogan"
Navajos in the American Southwest, many of whom have never had access to a 
personal telephone, will soon make a significant leap into the Internet 
Age, thanks in part to
resources and expertise provided by the San Diego Supercomputer Center at 
the University of California, San Diego.

The Navajos, who refer to themselves as the “Dine” (dee-nay), celebrated 
“An Internet to the Hogan and Dine Grid Event” on Monday, January 29, at 
Navajo Technical College in
Crownpoint, New Mexico. Highlights of the event include their official 
acceptance of a “Little Fe” mini-supercomputer from the TeraGrid—the 
world’s largest supercomputing
network—and a demonstration of advanced radio technology.

Little Fe (in contrast to “big iron,” slang for supercomputers) is a small 
cluster of parallel processors that work together as a single small 
supercomputer. Developed by a team of
computer scientists and professors for their students, it provides both a 
research-level parallel cluster and an opportunity for students to learn 
parallel processing.

According to Tom Davis, dean of instruction at the Navajo college, the 
project is “designed to end the digital divide in the eastern agency of the 
Navajo Nation”—a vast, stark,
high-desert landscape poorly served by commercial utility companies, where 
traveling 10 miles to make a phone call is not uncommon.
Source: http://www.isgtw.org/?pid=1000271

[]

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.


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