Tag Archives: events

Don’t miss VMware breakfast at Winter Member Meeting

If you are attending the The Quilt 2017 Winter Member Meeting in La Jolla, there will be a VMware-sponsored breakfast on Wednesday, Feb. 8 (7 to 8:15 a.m.) in the La Jolla Room at the La Jolla Shores Hotel.

Tim Boltz and Martin Gavin from Carahsoft will be there to answer any questions you may have regarding VMware or Carahsoft. We also will be discussing The Quilt’s exciting new VMware Convenice Pricing Program and the Carahsoft team will be doing an overview of:

  • Contract successes
  • Member savings and value
  • How can your members can gain access to this contract and all of its benefits
  • FAQs

Limited space is available. Please contact Jennifer Griffin to reserve a spot. This will be an excellent opportunity to meet the Carahsoft team so please consider participating!

Follow all conversations on social media during the Winter Member Meeting using #WMM17.

Quilt offers ESnet Science Engagement Workshop at #WMM17

The Quilt will be returning to the La Jolla Shores Hotel and La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club in California on Feb. 7-9 for its Winter Member meeting. Among the many exciting conversations and topics of interest that week will be the ESnet Science Engagement Workshop for Regional Networks on Thursday, Feb. 9 (9 a.m. to 3 p.m.) inside the La Jolla Room at the La Jolla Shores Hotel (separate registration required).

The Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) provides network connectivity and services for DoE/SC Labs to communicate with science collaborators around the world. To support this mission, ESnet conducts regular reviews of network requirements to determine the current and future science communication and collaboration needs for numerous communities. The purpose of these reviews is to accurately characterize the near-term, medium-term and long-term network requirements of the science being performed. This approach brings about a network-centric understanding of the science process used by the researchers and scientists, without asking technical questions directly, and derives network requirements from that understanding.

The goal of this interactive workshop outlines a process that can be adopted by members of the R&E networking community to advance the mission of science engagement and fully realize the investments made in networking and personnel by agencies such as the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science and the National Science Foundation.

Presenting Team

  • Jason Zurawski, Science Engagement Engineer, ESnet (lead)
  • Kevin Thompson, Program Director, National Science Foundation
  • Steve Diggs, Data Curation/Cyberinfrastructure, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
  • Jennifer Schopf, Director of International Networking, Indiana University

Topics

The topics of this workshop focus on the intersection of research and technology, in particular the use of high-speed networks. Specifically, the purpose of science engagement; overview of an outline for a case study approach to gather scientific requirements (documentation, meeting preparation); and a live example of how to conduct an in-person review to characterize needs with a visiting scientific group. View the Draft Agenda.

Who Should Attend?

Regular participants in The Quilt and the cyberinfrastructure engineering community are encouraged to attend, participate, and help define a strategy to encourage growth of scientific understanding and support.

Limited space is available. Please contact Jennifer Griffin if you have any additional questions!

Follow all conversations on social media during the Winter Member Meeting using #WMM17.

The Quilt converges in SoCal to kick off 2017

The Quilt will be returning to the La Jolla Shores Hotel and La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club in California on Feb. 7-9 for its 2017 Winter Member Meeting.

Registration & Overview

If you have not yet registered, online registration is available. Click here.

Two hotel choices are offered – The La Jolla Shores Hotel and The La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club. These properties are adjoining properties and are a short walk between one another. The main Quilt Member Program will be held in the La Sala room at the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club.

We are looking forward to the many exciting conversations and topics of interest this year. View the agenda. We also have provided time between sessions for working lunch meetings and other networking opportunities.

Highlights & Opportunities

  • Networking CEO Round Table – closed meeting (Tuesday, Feb. 7 – 8 a.m.)
  • Member Beach Event by Quilt CIS Program Authorized Providers (Tuesday, Feb. 7 – 5:30 p.m.)
  • VMware Hosted Informational Breakfast (Wednesday, Feb. 8 – 7 a.m.)
  • CENIC/Scripps Institute program at Calit2/UCSD (Wednesday, Feb. 8 – 2:30 p.m.)
  • Member Reception at Birch Aquarium hosted by CENIC (Wednesday, Feb. 8 – 5:30 p.m.)
  • NOAA N-Wave and RON Partner Breakfast (Thursday, Feb. 9 – 7 a.m.)
  • Trifecta – Combined Working Group Meeting (Thursday, Feb. 9 – 8 a.m.)
  • ESnet Science Engagement Workshop (Thursday, Feb. 9 – 9 a.m.) – *registration required

The Trifecta – Combined Working Group Meeting

During the Quilt Fall Member Meeting a couple of independent conversations happened around getting a few working groups in the same room since we all have a stake in each other’s best practices. We have scheduled that opportunity on Thursday, Feb. 9 from 8 a.m. to noon.

Three of The Quilt’s working groups: Financial Focus Group, Communications and Outreach, and Services, will be coming together to discuss areas of common and interdependent interest and tap into the wider group experience and expertise. This is an opportunity for members of these working groups and other Quilt member staff to exchange experiences and ideas on process, strategies, financial exercises, and key decision making approaches that can ultimately be developed and replicated within The Quilt R&E networking community.

Participants are encouraged to participate and help define a strategy that can be used to leverage programs and services across our community. Joe Sawasky, President and CEO of Merit Network, also will be presenting on the Merit Digital Collaboration Tool: Merit Commons.

Questions?

Please contact Jennifer Griffin if you have any questions at this year’s Winter Member Meeting.

Social Media

Follow all conversations on social media using #WMM17.

 

Security, risk and privacy take center stage at 2015 Fall Member Meeting

Our 2015 Fall Member Meeting is next week.

At the invitation of Quilt member LEARN (Lonestar Education and Research Network), The Quilt will be holding its Fall Member Meeting on Sept. 28 through Oct. 1 at the JW Marriott in downtown Austin, Texas.

This year’s Fall Member Meeting also coincides with the National Science Foundation Campus Cyberinfrastructure PI Workshop and the ESnet Site Coordinators Committee (ESCC).

Over the last couple of weeks we have previewed some items on the agenda.  Please see previous posts including features on Pacific Research Platform and the Science DMZ and Campus Cyberinfrastructure in Texas as well as Regional Networks & Support for Research, OneOklahoma Cyberinfrastructure and new Broadband Opportunity Council Report.

Today’s post highlights discussions on cybersecurity and risks.

Quilt Member Collaborations for Security Tools and Services will be presented by Steve Wallace of Indiana University.

wallaceWallace leads IU’s Software-Defined Network (SDN) education and international collaboration initiatives. He has more than 25 years of experience in network design, research, and deployment – including 10 years leading IU’s engineering support for Abilene (Internet2’s first high-speed backbone) and directing the university’s Advanced Network Management Lab.

Heidi Wachs of Jenner & Block LLP also will present on Regional Network Security – Privacy, Data Security, and Risk.

Wachs_Heidi_COLORWachs is a member of the firm’s Privacy and Information Governance Practice. A nationally recognized leader in privacy, breach response and data security compliance, her wealth of experience includes serving as a privacy researcher and as chief privacy officer of a major university. Clients seek her counsel in data breach handling and recovery, information classification, information security and identity governance and administration.

Wachs also will moderate a panel discussion on Regional Network Risk Levels where Quilt members will share their plans and processes to assess privacy and data security, assess organizational risk, and strategies to mitigate organizational risk. Elwood Downing of Merit Network, Mike Hrybyk of BCNET, and Tim Lance from NYSERNet also will participate on the panel.

Finally, our meeting this fall will close with two briefings.

Dave Pokorney of Florida LambdaRail will provide an update on the Quilt Facilities Futures Working Group, and Mark Johnson from MCNC will give us the latest on Quilt InCommon Pilots and Business Model.

Thanks again to LEARN for hosting this year’s meeting.

You can follow the conversation throughout the meeting using #FMM15 or @TweettheQuilt.

Those interested in the NSF PI Workshop also can follow on Twitter with #CCPI2015.

We look forward to seeing you Austin!

Spotlight: Examine new Broadband Opportunity Council Report at FMM15

We’re getting excited for our 2015 Fall Member Meeting is next week.

At the invitation of Quilt member LEARN (Lonestar Education and Research Network), The Quilt will be holding its Fall Member Meeting on Sept. 28 through Oct. 1 at the JW Marriott in downtown Austin, Texas. This year’s Fall Member Meeting also coincides with the National Science Foundation Campus Cyberinfrastructure PI Workshop and the ESnet Site Coordinators Committee (ESCC).

This will be one Texas-sized meeting with the best networking minds in the country gathered all in one place for some exciting discussions on how R&E networks are uniquely positioned to meet today’s infrastructure challenges.

Over the last couple of weeks we have previewed some items on the agenda.  Please see previous posts including features on Pacific Research Platform and the Science DMZ and Campus Cyberinfrastructure in Texas as well as Regional Networks & Support for Research, OneOklahoma Cyberinfrastructure.

Today’s post highlights two engaging discussion on Thursday.

LauraSpiningLaura Spining of the NTIA will present Thursday morning on the new Broadband Opportunity Council Report, which describes steps that 25 federal agencies will take over the next 18 months to eliminate barriers and promote broadband investment and adoption.

Over the past six years, the United States has expanded broadband access, bringing millions of people online and creating significant new economic, educational and social opportunities. Investments from the federal government have helped deploy or upgrade more than 110,000 miles of network infrastructure, and more than 45 million additional Americans have adopted broadband Internet. And as a country we’ve made high-speed wireless coverage available to 98 percent of Americans.

The council made four broad recommendations in the report:

  1. Modernize Federal programs to expand program support for broadband investments.
  2. Empower communities with tools and resources to attract broadband investment and promote meaningful use.
  3. Promote increased broadband deployment and competition through expanded access to Federal assets.
  4. Improve data collection, analysis and research on broadband.

Laura Spining also will moderate a Quilt Member Panel Discussion on Regional Networks and Community Broadband – What is the Next Frontier? This panel will focus on the regional networks’ roles in working with communities and municipalities to increase the availability of broadband; strategies for convening and connecting community area networks; and the role of regional networking organizations in local and state economic development efforts.

The panel includes Jean Davis of MCNC, John Gillispie of MOREnet, Scott Taylor of CEN and Jack Smith of WVNET.

Thanks again to LEARN for hosting this year’s meeting.

You can follow the conversation throughout the meeting using #FMM15 or @TweettheQuilt.

We look forward to seeing you Austin!

2015 Fall Member Meeting features discussions on Pacific Research Platform, Science DMZ

For the last three years, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has made a series of competitive grants to more than 100 universities to upgrade their campus network capacity for greatly enhanced science data access.

NSF is now building on that distributed investment by funding a $5 million, five-year award to UC San Diego and UC Berkeley to establish a Pacific Research Platform (PRP), a science-driven high-capacity data-centric “freeway system” on a large regional scale.

Within a few years, the PRP will give participating universities and other research institutions the ability to move data 1,000 times faster compared to speeds on today’s inter-campus shared Internet.

At our 2015 Fall Member Meeting joint program day with the National Science Foundation Campus Cyberinfrastructure PI Workshop and the ESnet Site Coordinators Committee on Wednesday, Sept. 30, we are excited to welcome Larry Smarr, UC San Diego computer science and engineering professor, principal investigator of the PRP, and director of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2), to share his insight on the project.

“To accelerate the rate of scientific discovery, researchers must get the data they need, where they need it, and when they need it,” said Smarr. “This requires a high-performance data freeway system in which we use optical lightpaths to connect data generators and users of that data.”

Separately, NSF has awarded funds to hold a PRP design workshop at UC San Diego, now scheduled for October, entitled: ‘Building an Interoperable Regional Science DMZ.” This workshop will bring together the PRP application driver researchers with the distributed computer architects, the network engineers, and the multi-institutional IT/Telecom administrators to further refine the PRP implementation.

Also on our joint program day in Austin, we will discuss some of the future directions of Science DMZ. The discussion features Eli Dart, Network Engineer at ESnet, and the security in a Science DMZ with Robin Sommer, senior researcher in the Networking and Security Group at the International Computer Science Institute and Berkeley National Lab.

At the invitation of Quilt member LEARN (Lonestar Education and Research Network), The Quilt will be holding its Fall Member Meeting on Sept. 28 through Oct. 1 at the JW Marriott in downtown Austin, Texas. This year’s Fall Member Meeting also coincides with the National Science Foundation Campus Cyberinfrastructure PI Workshop and the ESnet Site Coordinators Committee (ESCC).

This will be one Texas-sized meeting with the best networking minds in the country gathered all in one place for some exciting discussions on how R&E networks are uniquely positioned to meet today’s infrastructure challenges.

Thanks again to LEARN for hosting this year’s meeting. If you have not registered, online registration is still available.

You can follow the conversation now and throughout the meeting using #FMM15 or @TweettheQuilt.

We look forward to seeing you Austin!

Explore Campus Cyberinfrastructure in Texas at 2015 Fall Member Meeting

Our 2015 Fall Member Meeting is coming up at the end of the month, and we have an extraordinary line-up of keynote speakers and guests scheduled to participate.

At the invitation of Quilt member LEARN (Lonestar Education and Research Network), The Quilt will be holding its Fall Member Meeting on Sept. 28 through Oct. 1 at the JW Marriott in downtown Austin, Texas. This year’s Fall Member Meeting also coincides with the National Science Foundation Campus Cyberinfrastructure PI Workshop and the ESnet Site Coordinators Committee (ESCC).

This will be one Texas-sized meeting with the best networking minds in the country gathered all in one place for some exciting discussions on how R&E networks are uniquely positioned to meet today’s infrastructure challenges.

Over the next couple of weeks we will preview several items on the agenda and spotlight some of our special guests and speakers participating at this year’s meeting. One example is the discussion on cyberinfrastructure in Texas.

LEARN President and CEO Mike Phillips and current chairman of The Quilt will be hosting an engaging panel on Campus Cyberinfrastructure in Texas. Additional panel participants include Deniz Gurkan, of the University of Houston, and Kaushik De, of Stephen F. Austin State University.

The NSF Campus Cyberinfrastructure program provides new capabilities that advance current and future research efforts.   A number of awards were made under this program to Texas institutions and this panel will showcase the impact of campus infrastructure investments for two universities and with LEARN providing a statewide view of the impact of the program across the region.

Thanks again to LEARN for hosting this year’s meeting. If you have not registered, online registration is still available.

You can follow the conversation now and throughout the meeting using #FMM15 or @TweettheQuilt.

We look forward to seeing you Austin!

Spring has sprung for Quilt member events

Several of our Quilt members will be hosting networking events for their member communities across the country this spring, and we’ve highlighted a few that may be of interest. If you know of others or have an upcoming spring event that you want to share, please contact us.

2015 KINBER Annual Conference | April 15-16 (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania)

KINBER2015-web

Hundreds of Pennsylvania’s leaders in education, health care, economic development, libraries, public media and technology will share ideas and success stories about using next generation networks at the 2015 KINBER Annual Conference on April 15-16 at the Hilton Harrisburg. The event will host dozens of panels and speaker-led workshops as well as keynote speakers and professional development opportunities.

View the conference schedule here. Registration is now open.

BCNET Annual Conference | April 27-29 (Vancouver, British Columbia)

BCNET2015-web

The BCNET Annual Conference on April 27-29 in Vancouver is the leading opportunity to network with more than 600 higher education IT, network, enterprise systems, and education technology professionals. Learn and share ideas on insights, experiences, strategies, real-life solutions and more. The program is derived from their higher education IT member community and is hosted by Quilt Member BCNET, a not-for-profit shared information technology services organization serving British Columbia’s higher education and research institutions.

View the agenda and/or register to attend.

WiscNet Future Technologies Conference | May 11-12 (Madison, Wisconsin)

WiscNet2015-web

The WiscNet Future Technologies Conference on May 11-12 is an annual gathering of the WiscNet membership held at the Monona Terrace in Madison, Wisconsin. Each year, several thought-provoking keynote speakers participate in addition to several breakout sessions featuring the great things going on across the membership.

WiscNet has 24 great sessions lined up for 2015. Registration currently is open.

2015 Merit Member Conference (MMC) | May 13-14 (Ann Arbor, Michigan)

MERIT2015-web

The 2015 Merit Member Conference (MMC) is set for May 13-14 at the Ann Arbor Marriott Ypsilanti at Eagle Crest in Michigan. 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. Registration for the Merit Member Conference is open only to Merit Members, potential Members from higher education, K-12, libraries, government, health care and non-profits, and event sponsors. Merit Members who register for the full conference have the limited-time opportunity to register a colleague to attend the conference at no extra charge.

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

3rd Annual CEN Member Conference | May 15 (Hartford, Connecticut)

CEN2015-web

2015 marks the 3rd Annual Member Conference hosted by the Connecticut Education Network (CEN). More than 350 participants came out last year to network with their peers and to learn about the future of CEN and technology trends. CEN anticipates a wide range of participants drawn from educators (K-12 and higher ed), municipalities, libraries, local businesses and State of Connecticut agencies. This conference will draw together key stakeholders in the high-speed, fiber optical network from both hardware and end user perspectives.

Online registration is now open.

I-Light / Indiana GigaPOP Members Meeting | June 11-12 (Bloomington, Indiana)

ILight2015-web

I-Light continues to make an impact in communities across Indiana every day with many great stories to be heard from throughout their community. That is what the I-Light and Indiana GigaPOP Members Meeting is for on June 11-12 inside Wrubel Commons, Cyberinfrastructure Building at IU Bloomington,

Registration and other details coming soon. In the meantime, check out last year’s archive.

2015 OSHEAN Member Forum | June 12 (New England Institute of Technology)

oshean2015-web

OSHEAN’s Annual Member Forum is scheduled for Friday, June 12, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the New England Institute of Technology, East Greenwich campus. The program agenda for this year’s event is still being finalized … more details to come. To register, click here.

Quilt 2015 Winter Member Meeting: Support for research and more

Nearly 100 representatives from our Quilt member organizations have registered for our 2015 Winter Member Meeting in La Jolla next month. This year’s event will be at the Shores Hotel and La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club in California on Feb. 10-12. And, in addition to some California sunshine, we also have a high-energy agenda to warm you up during these chilly February days.

Before the formal event gets underway, we will have our CEO Roundtable discussion on Tuesday afternoon, which continues to be our semiannual tradition where executive leaders from R&E networks meet with peers for a roundtable exchange of views, concerns and opportunities. This session is open to all with primary participation by CEOs of R&E networking organizations.

We officially get going on Wednesday, and we have some great topics of conversations lined up.

We start with an informative briefing/overview of CC*IIE Regional Collaboration Awards featuring KINBER, OARnet, GPN, FRGP, and Clemson University. Also joining us for our member meeting to provide invited addresses are: Kevin Thompson, Program Director at the NSF to update us from the National Science Foundation Division of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure; Jason Zurawski of ESnet to speak on Big Data Trends and the Key Role of the Regionals in Bridging Needs and Solutions; and representatives from the FCC to provide an overview of FCC Broadband Programs and Opportunities for R&E Networks.

Of course there will be plenty of time to network and catch up with colleagues as well as attend a number of member briefings and breakout sessions throughout the meeting on topics such as, advanced networking, network security, R&E networking community building and much more.

Click here to view the full agenda.

Finally, after receiving positive feedback from our original leadership workshop attendees and requests from other members, we will host a second Leadership Workshop at the conclusion of the 2015 Winter Member Meeting facilitated by Don Welch, President and CEO of Quilt member Merit Network. This will be another opportunity for Quilt member staff to further develop its leadership skills.

If you have not registered, please be sure to do so by Jan. 23. Online registration is available and space is limited.

You can follow the conversation now and throughout the meeting using #WMM15 or @TweettheQuilt.

We look forward to seeing you in February!