Organized by the Internet Society, World IPv6 Day was held on June 8, 2011 and included nearly 400 participating organizations which enabled IPv6 on their main services for 24 hours. By providing a coordinated 24-hour “test flight”, the event helped demonstrate that major websites around the world are well-positioned for the move to a global IPv6-enabled Internet, enabling its continued exponential growth. Given the diversity of technology that powers the Internet, the global nature of the trial was crucial to identify unforeseen problems.
February 2011 marked the expiration of available IPv4 addresses necessitating the Internet industry to act quickly to accelerate full IPv6 adoption. World IPv6 Day participants came together to help motivate organizations across the industry—Internet service providers, hardware manufacturers, operating system vendors and other web companies-to prepare their services for the transition.
Among the participants in World IPv6 Day were Quilt members KanREN, the Kansas Research and Education Network, and the Great Plains Network.
Kansas Research and Education Network Celebrates World IPv6 Day With Free Services and Community Outreach.
April 28, 2011
The Kansas Research and Education Network, KanREN, Inc., announced free events and services in celebration of World IPv6 Day. The free events and services were offered to all businesses, state agencies, and community anchor institutions within the state of Kansas as part of a worldwide effort to encourage adoption of the next generation of Internet protocol. Full Article.
Great Plains Network Consortium Members Gearing up for World IPv6 Day on June 8
June 7, 2011
As Internet providers like Google prepare for a one-day test of the new Internet Protocol, version 6, on World IPv6 Day on June 8, members of the Great Plains Network, a consortium of leading universities in the Midwest, believe that the inevitable may finally happen. Their support for pervasive and advanced networking in all areas of research, education, health care and learning depends on the successful deployment of this new technology. Full Article.
The Global Network Development and Deployment Initiative Formed to Facilitate Research on New Platforms and Architectures Based on OpenFlow Technology.
By Chandler Harris InformationWeek April 25, 2011
The Internet2 networking consortium, Indiana University, and Stanford University’s Clean Slate Program have launched a research center that will create a new network platform for global scientific research.
The Network Development and Deployment Initiative (NDDI) will create multiple virtual networks that allow network researchers to test and experiment with new Internet protocols and architectures. It will also enable domain scientists to accelerate their active research with collaborators worldwide.
Full Article
http://www.informationweek.com/news/infrastructure/ipv6/229402172
Regional research and education (R&E) networks can be a source of affordable Internet access and value-added services for community anchor institutions, according to a report released earlier this year by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The report, “Connections, Capacity, Community: Exploring Potential Benefits of Research and Education Networks for Public Libraries,” focused in particular on the needs of public libraries to expand Internet and technology services to meet the growing needs of their communities.
“R&E networks have an important role in helping to achieve the goal in the National Broadband Plan that ‘Every American community should have affordable access to at least 1 gigabit per second broadband service to anchor institutions such as schools, hospitals and government buildings,’ ” according to the report. The report goes on to say that the expansion plans of many regional networks made possible by federal stimulus funding under the Broadband Technology Opportunity Program (BTOP) means that “thousands of additional community anchor institutions, including public libraries, will have new opportunities to benefit from increased bandwidth and additional services through R&E networks.”
Even after the announced BTOP projects have been completed, however, the Gates Foundation estimates that more than two-thirds of the approximately 17,000 public libraries in the country will still lack access to advanced fiber networks.
The report urges libraries to consider the benefits of working with a regional R&E network both on account of the “basic value” provided by regionals (network speed, quality and cost) and “added value,” such as new services and being part of a non-profit community connecting people and institutions with similar interests.
The value to libraries of working with regional R&E networks will grow and broaden as libraries’ capabilities, needs, and practices evolve, the report states, and as libraries seek to transform how they interact with and serve their patrons. For instance, by providing videoconferencing, library generated content, digitized content and by serving as enhanced channels in support of e-government and primary and continuing education.
When evaluating a potential partnership with a regional network, the Gates Foundation outlines seven dimensions to consider: the scope of the network‘s membership base, range of services, geographic reach, history and origin, governance, business model, and network typology.
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