Executive leadership changes in our Quilt community

There have been a couple of important changes to executive leadership in our R&E networking community that The Quilt wants you to know about…

Lonnie joins LONI

A few months ago, the LONI Management Council established a search committee to identify and recommend to the Louisiana State University Board of Regents an appointment of an Executive Director upon Donnie Vandal’s retirement effective July 1.

LonnieLeger After considerable deliberation, the search committee unanimously recommended Lonnie Leger to be Executive Director of the Louisiana Optical Network Initiative (LONI). He assumed the role on July 1 after approval by the LSU Board of Supervisors.

Louisiana is fast becoming a leader in the knowledge economy. Through LONI, researchers have access to one of the most advanced optical networks in the country along with the most powerful supercomputing resources available to any academic community.

MCNC names its CFO as interim chief executive officer

In other executive moves this month, a familiar face remains in charge at MCNC as the organization undergoes a change in leadership.

Pat Moody MCNC, best known as operator of the North Carolina Research and Education network (NCREN), continues a search for a permanent replacement to succeed Joe Freddoso, who stepped down on June 30 after seven years on the job.

Chief Financial Officer Pat Moody now has taken over on an interim basis.

“Joe Freddoso had many successful accomplishments for MCNC during his tenure, and we thank him for his years of service and all of his efforts,” said Moody. “I’m looking forward to ensuring MCNC continues to operate in this same fashion while our experienced and dedicated team provides the level of connectivity and service our constituents have come to expect from us.”

As the CFO of MCNC since 1999, she has the institutional knowledge and enjoys the utmost respect from the board of directors, staff, customers and partners. Moody is a graduate of Purdue University with a degree in business administration. She has more than 38 years of management experience, and is also a director and treasurer of the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina.

A search for a permanent replacement goes on.

Have news?

If you have a company announcement or member news that our networking community might be interested in, please share it with us. If you are interested in more information about The Quilt and its members, we encourage you to explore our website and our Twitter stream @TweetTheQuilt.

Networking leaders kick-off summer in Kansas City

Twenty-seven participants representing 22 R&E organizations across the country gathered for the Networking CEO Roundtable held on June 25-26 in Kansas City, Mo.

This summertime tradition provides a forum for executive leadership from R&E networking organizations to gather with peers to share insights, hear other executive perspectives, and have a top-to-top exchange on topics focused on supporting member institutions. While each member of The Quilt is unique, the meeting discussions reinforced our common missions and similarities within our R&E community. These types of member to member collaborations highlight The Quilt’s role as a trusted convener of its members and allows us to collectively advance networking in support of research and education.

Thank you to Quilt member, MOREnet, for hosting our event, and thank you everyone who participated in the rich discussions.

Our next gathering for The Quilt will be our Fall Member Meeting, which will be held Sept. 9-11 at the Monona Terrace on the shores of Lake Monona in Madison, Wisc.

The Quilt expands membership to include Networkmaine

We are pleased to welcome Networkmaine as new member of The Quilt this past month.

Networkmaine was established in 2009 within the University of Maine System to help shape the future of Maine’s research and education network, MaineREN. The organization operates through a coordinating council which is comprised of the University of Maine System, the Maine Department of Education, the Maine State Library, and the Maine Office of Information Technology.

The primary focus of Networkmaine is the design and operation of MaineREN and services developed to support education, research, public service, government and economic development. In addition to serving higher-education and research, Networkmaine also provides schools and libraries in the state with Internet connectivity at little or no cost through the Maine School and Library Network project, or MSLN project. More than 98 percent of Maine’s K-12 schools and libraries participate in MSLN. Last year, Networkmaine also began operating Wi-Fi networks at 240 middle schools and high schools as part of the Maine Department of Education’s 1:1 computing initiative.

MaineREN is more than 1,500 miles of optical fiber extending from Fort Kent, Maine to Cambridge and from Calais to Bethel. The network serves nearly 200,000 students and more than 1,000 schools and libraries throughout the entire state on a daily basis. While the primary service over MaineREN is a common Layer-3 network, Networkmaine also provides Layer 1 and Layer 2 transport services, videoconferencing services, basic e-mail and web hosting services, and managed Wi-Fi services.

“We have participated in Quilt meetings for the past few years as members of the Northern Crossroads and have found the information/knowledge sharing invaluable,” said Networkmaine Executive Director Jeff Letourneau. “We feel it is time that Networkmaine become more actively involved in supporting and participating in this community by becoming a Quilt member.”

Looking forward, Networkmaine is currently working on interconnecting three northern New England states with each other and with Internet2 in Albany, N.Y. This initiative is being done in collaboration with UNH, Dartmouth College, and UVM. They also are working to establish a pair of 10G paths for CANARIE down the coast of Maine to Cambridge which they can leverage as redundant path for the Maritime Provinces and perhaps an additional peering between CANARIE and Internet2.

We continue to see great excitement in R&E networking in New England, and we’re happy to have Networkmaine join our Quilt community.

Quilt member communities find opportunity at awesome June events

As we officially head into summer later this month, Quilt members UEN, OSHEAN, and I-Light/Indiana GigaPoP have some great events lined up for their member communities in June.

UEN 2014 Tech Summit (Draper, Utah)

uen The Utah Education Network (UEN) will host UEN 2014 Tech Summit on June 11-12 at The Loveland Living Planet Aquarium. This new facility in Draper is nearly 140,000 square feet and features marine, freshwater, and rain forest exhibit galleries, a banquet hall and an education center with classrooms.

UEN is pleased to welcome keynotes Steve Eldredge and Robert Sears for this year’s event. Steve is a senior manager at Adobe Systems and currently serves on BYU’s Marriott School Undergraduate Advisory Board mentoring young entrepreneurs and business students. Robert works with N-Wave, NOAA’s science network. During his talk, he will discuss how this infrastructure supports NOAA science. The agenda also has many more great topics for participants.

This looks to be another awesome event planned for this year and showcased on a fantastic event landing page.

2014 OSHEAN Member Forum (East Greenwich, Rhode Island)

oshean The Ocean State Higher Education Economic Development and Administrative Network will host the 2014 OSHEAN Member Forum on June 13 from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the New England Institute of Technology in Rhode Island.

During this year’s forum, OSHEAN and participants will explore a variety of technical topics with presentations from members and experts on Web Filtering, Desktop as a Service (DaaS), Data Storage, Cloud Computing Solutions, VoIP Services and more. Click here to review the agenda, or to review the detailed agenda, click here.

Registration is open until the day of the event. More than 100 people already are planning to attend. Register now.

I-Light and Indiana GigaPOP Members Meeting (Notre Dame, Indiana)

ilight I-Light and the Indiana GigaPoP will host a Members Meeting on June 19 -20 in South Bend at the Morris Inn on the campus of the University of Notre Dame.

Topics this year include cloud “infrastructure as a Service” 101 and tour of Amazon Web Services, the I-Light and Internet2 Net+ partnership on delivering cloud services, infrastructure support models and cyber infrastructure for research, identity management, campus WiFi pilots, and a great panel discussion on NSF CC*IIE.

Click here to register for the conference. You also can view the conference agenda and see who is attending this year by clicking here.

G’day mates, Australia’s VERNet joins The Quilt

The Quilt is pleased to introduce new affiliate member VERNet as we expand our membership beyond North America.

VERNet designs, builds, operates and manages a network in Victoria, Australia that enables educators, researchers and students to exchange ideas and communicate faster. The network is the Victorian Education and Research Network (VERN) and is the preferred supplier of high-bandwidth connectivity to the research and education sector in Victoria providing customers with leading-edge technology and services at affordable rates.

Established vernet in 2004, VERNet provides Layer 1, 2 and 3 services to nine universities and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) This network is fiber-based and spans more than 2,000 kilometers providing more than 231 services to universities, CSIRO and other research organisations including 26 hospitals from 1Gbps to 100Gbps.

The company is a licensed telecommunications carrier with all members also serviced by the national carrier AARNet. Members procure Layer 1, 2 or 3 from VERNet and then a range of higher-layer services from the national carrier such as commodity internet, videoconferencing, NET+ cloud services, and Eduroam. The company also has a unique, dedicated high-speed research network up to 10Gbps, connecting six Victorian research precincts.

VERNet CEO Roger Tanton explained that VERNet pursued affiliation with The Quilt because of its vibrant involvement and volunteer contributions of its members, and because researchers in Victoria would like to collaborate more with researchers in North America and share data across a wide range of disciplines.

“I was fortunate enough to attend the Quilt Fall 2013 Conference and would be very pleased if VERNet staff could serve on technical, administrative and financial committees or as resources for The Quilt,” he noted. “We have found that RNOs across the world tend to use the same vendors, similar business and even corporate governance models, and the company would like to be a part of this collegiate community and assist where possible.”

The research and education sector in Australia is serviced by the national carrier (AARNet) and two incorporated regional carriers, VERNet in the state of Victoria, and SABRENet in South Australia.

“We are thrilled to have our first affiliate member on another continent,” said Quilt President and CEO Jen Leasure. “This is great way for us to grow our R&E network collaborations and for VERNet to benchmark its network operations with other regional networks located in North America.”

Quilt members to host amazing May events

There are some awesome networking events by Quilt members happening all over the country this month. We’ve highlighted three upcoming events in May that may be of interest.

MCRCon 2014 and 2014 Merit Member Conference (Ann Arbor, Michigan)

MeritMemberMeeting2014 The 2014 Merit Member Conference (MMC) on May 21-22 will be at the Ann Arbor Marriott Ypsilanti at Eagle Crest.

The MMC is a community gathering on the state of the art in IT for organizations, with a focus both on technology and on the many related policy, financial and social considerations of providing information services. Featured speakers include John C. Dvorak, Technology Author, Columnist and Broadcaster; Johannes M. Bauer, Professor, Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media, Michigan State University; and J. Alex Halderman, Assistant Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan.

View the agenda and/or register to attend.

Prior to the Merit Member Conference, MCRCon 2014 will be on May 20. MCRCon is a cybersecurity conference hosted by the Michigan Cyber Range, which also will be held at the Ann Arbor Marriott Ypsilanti at Eagle Crest.

2014 CEN Annual Member Conference (Hartford, Connecticut)

CEN2014

Last year CEN delivered its first annual conference for its members. Almost 300 participants came out to network with their peers, learn about the future of CEN, and technology trends in schools and libraries. The 2014 CEN Annual Member Conference is expected to be bigger and better on Thursday, May 22, at the Connecticut Convention Center.

Susannah Spellman, Executive Director of U.S. & Canada, Internet 2, will be this year’s keynote speaker.

Registration for this year’s event is open.

Great Plains Network 2014 Annual Meeting (Kansas City, Missouri)

GPN2014

The Annual Meeting of the Great Plains Network and Greater Western Library Alliance brings together knowledge and IT professionals including advanced network and cyberinfrastructure users, faculty members, researchers, librarians, information technology staff, and graduate students from leading universities and higher education networks.

This year’s theme is Surviving the Data Deluge: Computation, Storage, Networks and People with highlights including a new venue at The InterContinental Hotel in Kansas City Plaza; Big Data Summit II – Data: The Heart of Scholarship; the Opening Exhibitor Preview; Gala Poolside Reception; and the expansion of “no-conflict time” with exhibitors.

The full schedule is now available. Click here for more information and to register.

MCNC’s Joe Freddoso steps down as CEO

MCNC President and CEO Joe Freddoso and the team at MCNC have created one of the best public broadband infrastructure networks in the country over the last seven years. Effective June 30, he will step down as leader of MCNC as the organization continues to thrive and move forward for North Carolina. Watch the video announcement below.

Jen Leasure, president and CEO of The Quilt, said Joe Freddoso has been a tremendous asset to our research and education community.

“Since joining MCNC, Joe’s leadership, engagement, and tireless work on behalf of educational technology and research infrastructure has been integral to the collective advancement of our national advanced networking community. As a member of The Quilt’s Board of Directors, Joe has actively supported and promoted our organization and it has been a true pleasure to have worked with him. Anyone who has been fortunate enough to work with Joe appreciates his leadership, commitment, compassion and humor that he so willingly shares.”

Joe will be sorely missed, and The Quilt wishes him all the best in what is sure to be the next successful chapter of his professional life.

Hot broadband topics highlight SHLB Coalition’s conference

The Schools Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition’s (SHLB) fourth annual conference the first week in May has plenty to offer on issues affecting broadband connectivity and adoption throughout the country, and we are excited that several Quilt members will be representing the R&E community on the agenda.

The annual conference will be held on May 7-9 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in downtown Washington, D.C. The program features several Quilt members and includes updates on E-Rate reform, ConnectED, the Healthcare Connect Fund, Connect America Fund, and several panels around digital inclusion, white spaces, and municipal broadband.

Quilt President and CEO Jen Leasure will be moderating a panel on E-Rate with the discussion focused on the benefits of capital investment in broadband connections for schools and libraries. Learn more about the presentation. Jamie Huber from Cheboygan-Otsego-Presque Isle Education School District (COPESD) in Indian Hills, Mich. (a member of the Quilt member Merit Network) is on the panel.

Other Quilt members participating include CENIC President and CEO Louis Fox, who is listed as a plenary speaker. John Gillispie from MOREnet will serve on a rural broadband panel along with Jon Chambers of the FCC and others. MOREnet was one of 11 R&E networking organizations that submitted an expression of interest for the FCC’s rural broadband experiments under the Connect America Fund. Finally, MCNC Chief Technology Officer Mark Johnson, Jim Stewart from Utah Education Network, and Ken Barber from KINBER will serve as panelists for a Gigabit Cities panel planned for the second day of the conference.

Several other FCC staffers, representatives of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and Obama Administration officials (Tom Power and Richard Culatta) also are scheduled to present.

This annual conference is a great place to network with Quilt members, representatives from community anchor institutions, industry, and policymakers all in one place. Visit this website to view the entire agenda and register.

The day before the SHLB conference begins, the FCC will be holding an E-Rate Modernization Workshop on May 6 in the Commission Meeting Room (TW-C305).

The E-Rate Modernization Workshop will provide an opportunity for the FCC and E-Rate stakeholders to discuss the challenge of delivering high-speed connectivity to and within schools and libraries and highlight successful strategies. Additional details concerning the workshop agenda and panelists will be forthcoming.

The workshop will be free and open to the public, and also will be streamed live here.

Early May is shaping up to be a key time to address some of the hot broadband issues that are front and center on the national networking agenda.

Quilt Commodity Internet RFPs, Internet2 Global Summit highlight exciting week in Denver

The Quilt will be in Denver this week along with many of the world’s top advanced technology leaders from universities, industry and research organizations.

First on our plate, we will be meeting with providers selected for our second round of Commodity Internet RFP Semi-Finalist Presentations on April 3 and April 4. We are grateful to the technical review team comprised of Quilt member volunteers who contribute their expertise and time to this effort. Now in its eighth RFP cycle under the program, Quilt members and their Authorized Quilt Buyers have made cumulative purchases of 335 Gbps of internet access through our program’s Authorized Quilt Providers as of December 2013. Since its inception, we estimate the program has saved its Authorized Quilt Buyers $78 million. Our current Authorized Quilt Buyers list includes more than 250 member institutions along with our 34 member organizations. Out of this current RFP effort, The Quilt will select Authorized Quilt Providers for its CIS program

Then, starting on Sunday, we are excited to participate in Internet2’s Global Summit.

Quilt President and CEO Jen Leasure will join James Deaton of OneNet, George Laskaris of NJEDge.Net, and Gil Gonzales of the University of New Mexico and Albuquerque GigaPoP in a lively discussion on Regional Research and Education Networks – Partners in Innovation. This session is Tuesday, April 8 from 1:15 to 2:30 p.m.

Our country’s regional networking organizations are at the forefront delivering advanced network capabilities and a broad set of shared services offerings and applications that leverage an innovative network infrastructure to a diverse set of member communities. Hosted by The Quilt, this panel of regional network leaders will share key insights and experiences in deploying network capabilities such as those within the Innovation Platform Program and progress in providing a wide-range of value-add shared services and applications to member institutions.

Panelists also will share progress on partnering with InCommon to develop a secure trust framework through which the advantages of shared services can be realized by the K-12 schools and community colleges. Panelist presentations will be followed by a facilitated discussion, including Q&A.

We look forward to seeing many of our members this week in Denver.

CoSN highlights mobile in spring EdTechNext Report

The Consortium for School Networking’s (CoSN) latest EdTechNext Report shifts the focus for districts and schools toward building mobile into their content and application strategies – from school-wide apps to curriculum.

With ever-increasing “anytime, anywhere” uses of mobile devices, CoSN’s spring 2014 EdTechNext Report titled Small Screens, Big Plans explains that the mobile shift in U.S. communities should require school districts to move their focus from just adopting mobile technology programs to the impact mobile has on delivering information and services.

For districts or school systems to build a mobile content strategy, the report outlines six steps that comprise both information and application content:

Evaluate where your district is and with whom it works – compile an inventory of existing systems, people, skills sets, and content as well as evaluate their mobile readiness.
Prioritize what is most important – what information should be made mobile and on which devices / app platforms.
Act on tactical solutions for the short-term and plan for long-term mobility needs.
Communicate the designed strategy to key stakeholders and actively promote the application.
Monitor, measure, and guide your mobile strategy using analytics, surveys, audience profiles and usability testing.
Support, maintain, and adjust to changing needs, trends and technologies, including the frequency that content will require updates.

According to the report, these steps explain how district and school mobile apps are becoming essential communication drivers with parents and students for activities and events, news and announcements, school calendars and directories, among other useful information. In addition, “Small Screens, Big Plans” shares how districts and schools have successfully become mobile-based, including tailoring curriculum with mobile web and app development courses.

CoSN’s EdTechNext Reports are made possible by Amplify, Blackboard, CDW-G, Google, HP, iBoss Network Security, Identity Automation, Lenovo, Lightspeed Systems, Microsoft, Pearson, Pearson Foundation, Qualcomm, SchoolDude and Sprint.

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