Fall 2010 Internet2 Member Meeting

["H. David Lambert" <>]

Dear Colleagues,

 

As we kick off our 2010 Fall Member Meeting and as new president and CEO of Internet2, I wanted to take the opportunity to personally welcome you to this event and to thank our hosts, Georgia Tech, Georgia State and the Southern Crossroads (SoX) for their support. Our staff and our meeting program committee have been hard at work putting together a solid conference to showcase the many ways our community is progressing in developing cyberinfrastructure as well as putting it to good use in our institutions and increasingly into new communities.

 

During the first general session, I am looking forward to providing a broad overview of a renewed vision for the Internet2 organization with particular emphasis in several key areas. These focus areas will help to guide where we strategically align our resources to help solve the pressing challenges facing the R&E community.

 

One very critical component of this vision is our recently funded BTOP project called United States Unified Community Anchor Network or U.S. UCAN. Funded with nearly $63 million in funds from the Department of Commerce’s Broadband Technologies Opportunities Program (BTOP), U.S. UCAN provides our community an unprecedented opportunity to enhance our national network capabilities with near infinite capacity to support the research, education and service missions of our members well into the future. Just as important, U.S. UCAN will provide the necessary infrastructure to support the over 200,000 U.S. community anchors institutions and their advanced application needs.

 

Since the award was announced in early July, we have worked hard to craft an implementation plan that fully complies with a stringent set of federal guidelines.  We have been able to do so, thanks to the stable commitment of our R&E partners Indiana University and the Northern Tier Network Consortium (NTNC), and thanks to significantly increased support from industry partners Ciena, Cisco, Infinera and Juniper.  The result is that we are safely on track to fulfill our commitment to build a robust, very high speed national footprint network infrastructure.  

 

Let me assure you that we are moving full speed ahead on execution of the U.S. UCAN project to meet both the expectations and obligations of the NTIA and those of our community.  If you have questions about our project in general, I greatly encourage you to email me or seek me in person at the meeting. Internet2 executive staff members will also be available to answer any questions you might have. In addition, we will hold a session on Wednesday, November 3 at 4:30 PM (Chancellor I/II) for an update on our progress with respect to U.S. UCAN and to discuss any concerns you might have. For more information, visit: http://bit.ly/aYMMhb

 

To further underscore the importance of BTOP in our community, I am also pleased to announce that our second general session on Thursday, November 4, will feature Lawrence E. Strickling.  As the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, and Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), Strickling will provide brief remarks on BTOP, its goal to jumpstart the expansion of broadband capabilities across the U.S and our community’s important role in this endeavor. Lev Gonick, CIO and vice president at Case Western Reserve University will also provide a keynote presentation at the second general session spotlighting the university’s visionary “Case Connection Zone” project, which is bringing gigabit fiber connections directly to homes in underserved and impoverished Cleveland neighborhoods.

 

I am truly excited about the events planned for the meeting and look forward to sharing time with you in Atlanta as we head into this new path towards the future. We have much success to celebrate and many new milestones to look forward to together.  

 

Safe travels and see you in Atlanta!

-Dave

-- 
H. David Lambert
President & CEO
Internet2
1150 18th Street, NW, Suite 900
Washington, DC 20036
202-331-5357 (voice)
202-872-6648 (fax)


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