usucansponsor

[Tim Lance <>]

Dear James,

 

Like Louis, I think the new name elegantly captures the intent of the whole of the enterprise with this broader community, and I agree with all of Louis’s original comments.  The new name also de-politicizes and gives a home to many closely related efforts.

 

Your use of the word “foundering” was a typo, but perhaps not so far off the mark.  When all this started it wasn’t clear what the long term outcome would be, and someone who wasn’t willing to fail in pursuit of a greater good wouldn’t have tried at all.  So thank you Louis for being both the founding leader and for your willingness to possibly be the foundering leader.

 

Regards,

Tim

 

From: [mailto:] On Behalf Of James Werle
Sent: Monday, April 9, 2018 12:48 AM
To: ;
Subject: Re: Renaming US UCAN the "Internet2 Community Anchor Program"

 

Oh my.  I meant our “founding” leader!  Thanks for point that out, Louis.  ;)

 

From: <> on behalf of James Werle <>
Date: Sunday, April 8, 2018 at 9:13 PM
To: "" <>, "" <>
Subject: FW: Renaming US UCAN the "Internet2 Community Anchor Program"

 

Forwarding a few thoughts from Louis Fox, the foundering leader of this effort. 

 

Others?

 

Best,

James

 

 

From: Louis Fox <>
Date: Friday, April 6, 2018 at 9:32 AM
To: James Werle <>
Subject: Re: Renaming US UCAN the "Internet2 Community Anchor Program"

 

James,

 

Internet2 Community Anchor Program:  a succinct, inclusive, and elegant name for this project.  When we began exploring this effort, in late 1999, the idea was to create a structure within Internet2 that would allow the broadest education community — formal as well as informal eduction — to convene and interact with the core membership of Internet2, the research community.  The animating notion was that the networking and services advances of the latter would redound to the benefit of the former, that communities of interest could form across these diverse segments, and that the best ideas and practices across all regions could be shared (along with failures!). 

 

With the advent of the BTOP program the notion of “community anchor” has gained currency and is understood outside of the education community as well as within.  Many of us who run networks use this notion of “community anchors” to describe who we serve, particularly when we are advocating for un- and underserved communities to prospective partners and funders.  So I think it is important and compelling that you have adopted this new project name.

 

“K20” has always been a bit problematic, as it leaves out important parts of the community like libraries, cultural and scientific organizations.  “SEGP” sounded like something that would be the subject of a visit to a urologist.  And “US UCAN” like any name describing the political origins of a project was potentially fraught and, ultimately, ephemeral.

 

Congratulations on coining at great name for a great project.

 

Louis

 

 

From: James Werle <>
Date: Thursday, April 5, 2018 at 6:23 AM
To: "" <>, "" <>, "" <>, "" <>
Subject: Renaming US UCAN the "Internet2 Community Anchor Program"

 

{Apologies for cross-posting}

 

All,

 

In taking stock of the current state of our US UCAN program and listening to the feedback many of you have so generously provided since I have taken on this new role, we would like to implement a few changes in an effort to simplify our identity and further focus our mission to better leverage the existing strengths of our community.

 

As a first step, in response to input from many of you, we would like to propose that we rename the US UCAN program to the "Internet2 Community Anchor Program."

 

Over the years, we have accumulated several names to describe our work together. Many of you will remember we began as the National Internet2 K20 Initiative in 2001. Simultaneously, the Sponsored Education Group Participant Program (SEGP) was used to describe the mechanism by which state/regional networks connected community anchor institutions to Internet2. In 2011 we shifted to our current moniker, the United States Unified Community Anchor Network (U.S. UCAN), in response to the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) grant Internet2 received from NTIA.

 

By respectfully retiring the terms "Internet2 K20 Initiative," "SEGP," and "US UCAN" in favor of the simple, all-inclusive title, the "Internet2 Community Anchor Program," we will make an important first step toward eliminating confusion in our community around who we are and what we do. 

 

Nothing will change in terms of how the program is administered. Working with our regional partners, we will continue to focus on advanced networking, trust and identity services, and robust applications and content for the .edu spectrum nationwide. 

 

Over the course of the next couple of months, working in partnership with all of you, we will update the Internet2 website to reflect the new title, simplify and strengthen the language we use to describe our collective work together, and create more effective and routinized opportunities for us all to connect and collaborate together. Once these changes have been put into effect, we will make a more formal announcement of the name change to the entire Internet2 community via a press release, social media channels, etc. 

 

As always, we invite your thoughts, ideas, questions, and feedback.

 

Best, 

James

 

James Werle

Executive Director, US UCAN (proposed Internet2 Community Anchor Program)

Internet2