News for and about the Internet2 community

[Dan Downing <>]

Eighth Annual Megaconference Travels The World on Nov.
2.
 
Emerging Communications Technology Will Connect Thousands Simultaneously
Via High Quality Internet Videoconference Technology For All Day Global
Learning Seminar
 
COLUMBUS, Ohio. Nov. 2, 2006. – The Megaconference makes it 8th
annual return to cyberspace Thursday Nov.2, uniting thousands of people
in 28 countries on five continents for a day-long global learning
seminar. This year’s Megaconference theme “Breaking Down Barriers to
Global Connections,” reflects the international spirit of the
Megaconference. The event, which runs from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. (EST),
focuses on increasing world understanding and cultural exchange through
tours of national landmarks, native music and dance performances,
historical recreations, and much more.
 
Originally intended as a technology forum to test, promote, and literally
push the limits of new networking technologies, the Megaconference has
grown in both size and scope, and has spun off similar events including
Megaconference Jr., now in its fourth year, and the Gigaconference, in
its second year.
 
The Megaconference demonstrates new and novel applications of
videoconferencing and other emerging technologies, and viewers will see
many interesting presentations and interactions including a live piano
session between players in Canada and Finland, a Swiss castle tour via
cell phone camera, a zoology museum tour in China, a Lewis and Clark
expedition, an American Cowgirl experience, a SCUBA dive along
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, a Wright Brothers re-enactment, and an
Antarctica excursion.
 
Dr. Karen A. Holbrook, president of The Ohio State University, is
scheduled to address the Megaconference during a welcome ceremony at 9:30
a.m. (EST). This will be Holbrook’s last participation in the
Megaconference as Ohio State’s president. She last addressed participants
during Megaconference V in 2003. Holbrook plans to retire from Ohio
StateJune 30, 2007.
 
The Megaconference is sponsored by Internet2, and operated by The Ohio
State University and the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC). Both Ohio State
and OSC currently manage the Internet2 Commons, a remote collaboration
service for large-scale deployment of Internet videoconferencing tools
that are available to members of the Internet2 community and their
collaborators. 
 
"No single videoconference event involves more people or spans more
continents than Megaconference. In 2005, we had over 7500 participants
from 425 sites and the conference continues to grow each year," said
Jonathan Tyman, Program Manager for the Internet2 Commons. "The
Internet2 Commons was developed to serve as a platform for broad
collaboration and innovation. Megaconference is a leading example of how
the research and education community is pioneering the use of
videoconference technology to provide unprecedented opportunities for
cross-cultural sharing and learning."
 
For more information on the Internet2 Commons go to
http://commons.internet2.edu/
.
 
Pankaj Shah, director of OARnet, the networking division of OSC, said the
Megaconference is much more than the worldwide educational event and
cultural exchange that viewers see. Shah said the event also helps drive
research and development of new and better networking infrastructure
components by providing manufacturers with the world’s largest test
environment.
 
“These networks are based on different technologies, such as ATM, ISDN,
and IP, and there are so many components involved that must work in order
to make this technology seamless,” Shah said. “As we do the
Megaconference most of these components break at some point, and as a
community we learn where and how these breaks occur. Companies learn more
about their products by seeing them work or fail in conjunction with
every other product and component on these interconnected networks around
the world.”  
 
Dr. Robert Dixon, a systems engineer for the OSU Office of the CIO and
for OSC, said videoconferencing will become commonplace throughout the
world as Internet speeds increase, broadband and wireless access expands,
better network equipment is manufactured, and more sophisticated products
become available to consumers, especially handheld devices.
 
“It brings people together from all over the world in a way that can’t be
duplicated by any other technology. Creativity is unleashed in
wonderful ways that allow everyone to express themselves and describe
their work and experiences to an enthusiastic global audience,” Dixon
said, “The world becomes a smaller and friendlier place when we can
see and talk to one another openly and freely, without political or
cultural boundaries.”
 
Dixon leads a team of OSU engineers who operate the technology that runs
the Megaconference. He said that although the technology behind the
Megaconference, called H.323, is not as widely used as telephones and
computers, it is increasingly being used by schools for distance
education, by cultural institutions for tours and field trips, and by
large corporations for videoconference meetings. 
 
“It’s not hard to learn how to use this technology. Most grade school
teachers can learn this in one day,” Dixon said. “There are training
classes and materials written specifically for K-12 teachers, and many
are already using it to share resources, to take field trips, to share
classrooms with kids on the other side of the country, or the other side
of the world.”
 
OARnet video engineer Arif Khan, who leads the OSC engineering team
behind the Megaconference, said the event is challenging not only for its
size and scope, but for the variety of equipment that is used by
engineers in different countries around the world, as well as the level
and quality of bandwidth available in these countries.
 
Khan said many presenters and participants in developing countries must
deal with older equipment, unstable networks, lower bandwidth rates, and
limited technical expertise that often requires many extra hours of
troubleshooting for the U.S. engineers coordinating the event.
 
“But that’s a big part of what this event is all about,” Khan said. “It’s
about bringing this technology to all the peoples and cultures and
countries on the planet, which helps deploy better technology, create
better ways to provide education and healthcare, and so many other things
that are beneficial.”
 
One of this year’s most unique Megaconference attractions is the “Shark
Snack Attack” from the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida. Kasey
Gaylord, a Mote Marine distance learning specialist, said participants
will “dive” into Mote’s 135,000-gallon shark exhibit to watch sharks
feeding, from the safety of two underwater cameras. Gaylord said sharks
are the main attraction in this experience for Megaconference
participants, but viewers will also see goliath grouper, triggerfish,
southern stingrays, and other species native to the Gulf of Mexico.
 
“We thought sharks would be something different to do for the event this
year. In the past when we’ve delivered to Megaconference we’ve done the
Sea Trek showcase, which is a demonstration of all the programs we
offer,” Gaylord said. “Because Megaconference has such a huge variety of
people participating from all over the world­students, teachers,
technologists, and even people at home­we thought we’ve give them a look
into the big shark tank and a live narrated shark feed.”
 
Even small states like North Dakota play a significant role in producing
the Megaconference. Sandy Sprafka, a classroom technologies manager at
North Dakota State University, and has worked on all eight
Megaconferences. Sprafka said this year event organizers were looking for
presentations that were interactive, and that were distributed between
two or more locations.
 
“Even up here in North Dakota we have schools participating in the
Megaconference, and they get to see so much of the world just sitting
here in their classrooms. It’s great when students can interact with
participants in other countries. It’s much different than watching TV,”
Sprafka said. “Students can be watching a presentation and at the end be
able to talk to someone in Pakistan, or India, or China, or Finland, or
any of the 27 countries that are participating this year. Or they can
talk to someone next door in Minnesota, it really doesn’t matter where
you are anymore in this world.”
 
For more information about the Megaconference go to

www.megaconference.org. The complete program list can be found at

http://digitalunion.osu.edu/megaconference/program.html.
 
About OSC
OSC is Ohio's high performance computing and networking center.
Established in 1987 by the Ohio Board of Regents, the Center provides
scientific computing, networking, educational outreach, and information
technology resources to state and national high performance computing and
networking groups. OSC empowers its academic, industrial, and government
partners to make Ohio the education and technology state of the
future.
 
About The Ohio State University
The Ohio State University (OSU) is a coeducational public research
university in Ohio. The university was founded in 1870 as a land-grant
university and is currently the largest university in the United States.
Although Ohio operates a decentralized system of higher education, Ohio
State is widely considered both within Ohio and outside of its borders to
be the flagship institution of the state's public system of higher
education.
 
About Internet2
Internet2 is the foremost U.S. advanced networking consortium. Led by
the research and education community since 1996, Internet2 promotes the
missions of its members by providing both leading-edge network
capabilities and unique partnership opportunities that together
facilitate the development, deployment and use of revolutionary Internet
technologies.

Dan Downing
Public Information Officer
Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC)
Ohio Academic Resources Network (OARnet)
1224 Kinnear Road
Columbus, Ohio, 43212
phone (614) 688-3949
fax (614) 292-7168

www.osc.edu