News for and about the Internet2 community

[Greg Wood <>]

Contact:
Greg Wood
Internet2
+1-202-331-5360


$12 Million Middleware Initiative Will Aid Scientific Discovery and 
Education

NSF awards go to EDUCAUSE, Internet2, NCSA, SURA, UCSD, University of 
Chicago, USC/ ISI, and University of Wisconsin

September 24, 2001--A group of university-led organizations and research 
centers across the U.S. will work together on a $12 million project to 
develop middleware--software that allows scientists and educators to 
share applications, scientific instruments and data, and collaborate 
with their colleagues across the Internet.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) today announced the program called 
the NSF Middleware Initiative (NMI). NMI will create and deploy advanced 
network services that will make it easier for Internet users to access a 
wide range of resources available through high-performance networks. 
For example, they will be able to share scientific tools, such as 
telescopes or modeling software, access supercomputing systems and 
databases, and run simulations in real-time with colleagues across the 
country and around the world.

The effort will build on the successes of the Globus* project and the 
MACE** initiative in developing middleware tools, and will integrate 
emerging middleware components into a well-tested, comprehensive, 
commercial-quality, middleware distribution package that runs on 
multiple platforms. These middleware distributions will be disseminated 
to research labs and universities worldwide.

Two groups will receive the awards. A team formed by Internet2 will 
include EDUCAUSE and the Southeastern Universities Research Association 
(SURA). A second team that includes the University of Southern 
California School of Engineering's Information Sciences Institute (ISI), 
the University of Chicago, the National Center for Supercomputing 
Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 
the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) and the University of 
Wisconsin at Madison, will establish the GRIDS (Grids Research 
Integration Deployment and Support) Center.

"We believe that middleware and a comprehensive middleware 
infrastructure will be the key to creating a network infrastructure that 
can be used by the worldwide research community to share ideas, conduct 
research, and make new discoveries," said ISI's Carl Kesselman, "There 
is a world of resources and information out there, and we intend to 
bring it to the scientific community in a seamless manner, so that they 
can focus specifically on their research."

"Much as the academic community was the proving ground for the Internet, 
so may this pioneering work foster a marketplace for middleware," said 
Ken Klingenstein, director of the Internet2 middleware initiative. 
"While the focus of the NMI is to support research and education, the 
consequences of this work could be far broader."

NCSA's Randy Butler compared the NMI and its expected impact to the 
original NSFnet, the high-performance network that first connected the 
NSF supercomputer centers in the 1980s. "NSFnet allowed researchers 
around the country to begin to build and strengthen collaborations 
because they could easily share information," said Butler. "NMI will 
allow researchers to go beyond simple information sharing and enable 
true virtual teaming."

The GRIDS Center will have two main functions: developing and 
integrating an NMI architecture and packaging, testing, and supporting 
NMI software distributions.

The Internet2 team will develop an NMI architecture that focuses on 
inter-realm directories, security, and naming and will integrate these 
services into a variety of key applications, including desktop video. 
The team will also promote widespread, consistent, and rapid deployment 
of these technologies to the higher education and research communities.

About EDUCAUSE
EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher 
education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. 
Membership is open to institutions of higher education, corporations 
serving the higher education information technology market, and other
related associations and organizations. EDUCAUSE programs include 
professional development activities, print and electronic publications, 
strategic policy initiatives, research, awards for leadership and 
exemplary practices, and a wealth of online information services. The 
current membership comprises more than 1,800 colleges, universities, and 
education organizations, including over 180 corporations. EDUCAUSE has 
offices in Boulder, CO, and Washington, D.C. Detailed information about 
membership and association programs and services is available through 
the EDUCAUSE Web site at http://www.educause.edu/.

About ISI
Founded in 1972, the USC School of Engineering Information Sciences 
Institute is a leading world center for computer science research. One 
of the birthplaces of the Internet, it now provides top-level 
infrastructure and research services, and its hardware and software
prototypes have been incorporated into thousands of commercial and 
public systems. For more information, please visit www.isi.edu.

About Internet2(R)
Led by over 180 US universities, working with industry and government, 
Internet2 is developing and deploying advanced network applications and 
technologies for research and higher education, accelerating the 
creation of tomorrow's Internet. Internet2 recreates the partnerships of 
academia, industry and government that helped foster today's Internet in 
its infancy.  For more information about Internet2, see: 
http://www.internet2.edu/

About NCSA
The National Center for Supercomputing Applications is the leading-edge 
site for the National Computational Science Alliance (Alliance). NCSA is 
a leader in the development and deployment of cutting-edge 
high-performance computing, networking, and information technologies. 
The National Science Foundation, the state of Illinois, the University 
of Illinois, industrial partners, and other federal agencies fund NCSA. 
The Alliance is a partnership to prototype an advanced computational 
infrastructure for the 21st century and includes more than 50 academic, 
government and industry research partners from across the United States.

About SURA
The Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA) is a 
consortium of 59 universities in the Southern U.S. SURA serves as an 
entity through which colleges, universities, and other organizations may 
cooperate with one another and with government and other organizations 
in acquiring, developing, and using laboratories, machines, and other 
research facilities and in furthering knowledge in the physical, 
biological, and other natural sciences and engineering. SURA's regional 
leadership role in information technology includes the SURA Crossroads 
Initiative, a project to develop an optical networking infrastructure 
throughout the SURA region.  More information about SURA is available at 
http://www.sura.org/

*Globus (http://www.globus.org) is a project of Argonne National 
Laboratory and ISI

**MACE (http://middleware.internet2.edu/MACE/) is a group of leading 
information technology architects that provides technical advice and 
direction, and fosters interoperability in areas such as security and 
directories within the higher education community

Additional Contacts:

EDUCAUSE
Peter DeBlois

+1-303-544-5665

NCSA
Karen Green
+1-217-265-0748


SURA
Elizabeth Lawson

+1-202-408-7872

University of Chicago
Steve Koppes

+1-773-702-8356

USC/ISI
Eric Mankin

+1- 310 448 9112

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CENIC Today
September 2001
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IN THIS ISSUE

Quote of the Month:  Tom West

CENIC News
*  ONI Initiative “Network Architecture and Design” Document Released
*  UCAID Stitches Regional Network Aggregators Together into "The Quilt"
*  DCP Director of Applications Honored by ISTE
*  Dates for CENIC 2002 Annual Conference Announced

National Networking News
*  PACI.org Website Launched
*  Wireless Networks: Widely Available and Wide Open

Factoid:  Internet Usage in the Workplace
About CENIC
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Quote of the Month
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“CENIC is excited to be an integral part of ‘The Quilt’ ­ we think that 
this coalition of network aggregators has the potential to improve how 
advanced network services are developed and delivered to U.S. research and 
education institutions.”

--Tom West, President/Executive Director,CENIC

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CENIC News
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ONI Initiative “Network Architecture and Design” Document Released
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In preparation for the implementation of its third major project, the 
Optical Network Infrastructure Initiative (ONI), CENIC has released a 
“Network Architecture and Design” document that provides some of the 
technical specifics surrounding the development of the ONI.

CENIC’s Optical Network Infrastructure Initiative (ONI) is creating a 
powerful optical network backbone that will serve the future networking 
needs of all of California’s universities, research institutions, community 
colleges, and K-12 schools.  CENIC’s ONI was designed to develop a shared 
optical infrastructure that would immediately augment and eventually 
replace the various SONET advanced-services networks being used by various 
sectors of the CENIC community today.

The “Network Architecture and Design” document can be downloaded from the 
CENIC website:  http://www.cenic.org/NAD_July16.pdf.

More information about the ONI can be obtained on the CENIC website 
at:  http://www.cenic.org/ONI.html.

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UCAID Stitches Regional Network Aggregators Together into "The Quilt"
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The Quilt is a UCAID Project whose participants are non-profit network 
aggregators -- like CENIC -- dedicated to advancing research and education 
in the United States by both providing a broad range of advanced networking 
services to their constituents, and facilitating innovative and successful 
projects and productive working relationships.

CENIC President/Executive Director Tom West sits on The Quilt's Steering 
Committee.  CENIC was one of the initial participants in this project.

Other initial project participants included representatives from the 
following organizations: EDUCAUSE, Front Rage Gigapop (FRGP), Great Plains 
Network (GPN), Mid-Atlantic Crossroads (MAX), Merit Network, Inc.(Merit), 
Metropolitan Research and Education Network (MREN), North Carolina Gigapop, 
Net.Work.Virginia, Northern Crossroads (NoX), NYSERNet, OARnet, 
Pacific/Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP), Pittsburgh GigaPop, Southern Crossroads 
(SoX), Southeastern Research Universities Association (SURA), Texas GigaPop.

Participation in The Quilt is open: to non-profit network aggregators 
dedicated to advancing research and education in the United States that 
support advanced network services and
to other organizations invited by The Quilt Steering Committee which 
demonstrate on-going interest in and support for the goals and activities 
of The Quilt and leadership in advanced networking at the regional level.

Acknowlegement:  The Quilt, http://www.thequilt.net/

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DCP Director of Applications Honored by ISTE
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The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) named DCP 
Director of Applications John Vaille one of two recipients of its 2001 
“Learning and Leading with Technology Award”.

ISTE is a nonprofit professional organization dedicated to promoting the 
appropriate use of information technology to support and improve learning, 
teaching, and administration in the K-12 schools.  The “Learning and 
Leading with Technology Award” is given each year to those individuals who 
have made significant progress in promoting the successful use of 
technology in the K-12 environment.

Dr. John Vaille, a former classroom teacher, elementary school principal, 
and assistant superintendent, has held a number of prestigious positions in 
the national educational technology community.  Before joining CENIC, Dr. 
Vaille served simultaneously as CEO of the International Society for 
Technology in Education (ISTE) and as the Executive Director of the 
National Education Computing Association (NECA), two influential Eugene, 
Oregon-based institutions.  He was previously the Executive Director of 
California Instructional Technology Clearinghouse (1996-1999), and 
Executive Director of Computer Using Educators, Inc. (1993-1996).

Acknowledgement:  Jessica Cole, ISTE, http://www.iste.org

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Dates for CENIC 2002 Annual Conference Announced
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The CENIC 2002 Annual Conference will be held from May 4 to May 8, 2002 at 
the beautiful Paradise Point Resort located on Mission Bay in San Diego, 
California.  This is always an exciting, informative, and ­ most 
importantly ­ fun event that attracts participants from industry, state and 
local government, and networking organizations.  We hope to see you there!

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National Networking News
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PACI.org Website Launched
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Scientists who use, or would like to use, the computational resources 
provided through the National Science Foundation's Partnerships for 
Advanced Computational Infrastructure (PACI)
program can now find all the information they need at http://www.paci.org.

The new website combines information about the two PACI partnerships—the 
National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (NPACI) and 
the National Computational Science Alliance (Alliance)--and the Terascale 
Computing System at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) on a site 
that is easy to use and focused exclusively on the needs of researchers who 
use high-performance computing systems. Each year more than 5,000 
scientists from across the U.S. use PACI resources for simulation, data 
analysis, and scientific visualization.

The new site features a specialized grid computing portal, the PACI HotPage 
(https://hotpage.paci.org), which allows users to view the status of PACI 
resources and supports secure, interactive access to the resources. Based 
on the NPACI GridPort Toolkit, the PACI HotPage gives users direct access 
to their HPC accounts, job management tools, file systems, and system-wide 
information.

Source:  David Hart, SDSC

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Wireless Networks: Widely Available and Wide Open
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The folks over at ExtremeTech did a little experiment in detecting wireless 
networks based on widely available and inexpensive 802.11b hardware. They 
picked up a couple of sensitive antennas, a laptop with a wireless network 
card, and some recently released network-sniffing software, then drove 
around in a car seeing how many networks they could casually detect.

The results are shocking. After sampling some random areas in New York 
andSilicon Valley, they determined that at least 40% of all easily publicly 
detectable wireless networks are insecure and wide-open to hacking. The 
story is a bit technical but should be read by anybody who contemplates 
running a wireless 802.11b network at work or at home. Tips on securing your
set-up are included.

More info: 
http://www.extremetech.com/article/0,3396,s%253D1024%2526a%253D13880,00.asp

Source:  Netsurfer Digest

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Factoid:  Internet Usage in the Workplace
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Sixty-six percent of the US workforce now has Internet access at work, 
according to a new survey from Xylo.  Last year, only 44 percent of US 
workers could go online in the office.

Men and women use the Internet at work in more or less equal numbers, 
although younger women are far more likely to use the Net at work. Young 
men, however, are more likely to use the Internet at work for personal 
reasons and more likely to say that it enhances their productivity.

Source:  http://www.xylo.com

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About CENIC
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CENIC is a not-for-profit corporation formed by the California Institute of 
Technology, the California State University, Stanford University, the 
University of California, and the University of Southern California to 
facilitate and coordinate the deployment, development, and operation of a 
set of seamless and robust advanced network services. The CENIC Associates 
program offers qualified companies the opportunity to collaborate with 
CENIC in pursuit of the goal of providing the most advanced network 
services for research and education. Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks, 
Pacific Bell, and the University and Community College System of Nevada are 
CENIC's Partner Associates.

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