Enabling Communities

As in previous years, I’m enjoying my time at the TERENA Networking Conference tremendeously. I’m hearing inspiring talks, I’m learning about new technology developments, I’m experiencing new ways people are making progress in our area – and I’m seeing cool applications, made posible by the imagination and creativity of smart users and the technology we are building. There’s all that, and more, the content if you will, that make us come back to conferences like the TNC.

And yet, we all know that’s not really why we come. Impressive and rewarding as the conference program is, it’s the intangibles that make the TNC a fixed item on my calendar. It’s the people here, the chance for coffee conversations, having that quick meeting, progressing that item on the endless todo list that’s just too complicated to get done by email. And – even more intangible – it’s all the unplanned interactions. It’s coming across that inspiring conversation, making a crucial connection of ideas or people that you didn’t see before. Chad Kainz in this morning’s plenary called it “the bar problem” – happening to be in the right bar at the right time to be inspired or come across the solution to a problem. Venues like the TNC are great enablers for solving the bar problem.

But this is not something that just happens. It’s a delicate process. You want the right mix of people in the audience, you want the right buzz of ideas in the halls, you want the shared experiences and the provokinb points, you want an audience that feel engaged and want to participate – not just listen to the talks. And you want the opportunities to socialize and have productive meetings and conversations. We want our conference to enable possibilities, just like our networks enable possibilities for our users.

Over the years the TNC (and the TERENA staff, program committies, etc) has done a great job getting the mix right – a mix that makes the conference a great community enabler, both for the networking community at large and for the many small communities that make this field thrive and make it so interesting. The planning for TNC2011 is already starting, and as I will be part of the team this time, enabling communities will be a big concern for me. I hope we can engage communities large and small, and I hope to hear from you how the conference can best serve your communities.

Green networks

I had a sense of deja vu this morning, listening to Victor Reijs presentation on “green IT” at the TERENA Technical Advisory Council meeting in Vilnius. It was an excellent presentation, making a strong case that the European R&E networks need a forum for focused collaboration, sharing, and new initiatives in sustainability and green IT.

Two years ago – at the TERENA Networking Conference in Bruges – I gave a brief presentation on Green IT and its relevance to the research & education networking community. I suggested then that this is a topic that warrant far more attention from the community, a topic with interesting and important work to be done – and a topic where we in Europe need to do much more to match the excellent work done in North America.

Since then, sustainability has been included in the GN3 project, as a study in Environmental Impact of research network. There is fine and important work being done in this task; the CHG study in a major contribution. In addition, a number of European R&E Networks have made contributions, notably a CHG study in Netherlands by SURFnet and HEAnet joining the GreenStar Network project. However, much remains to be done, and compared to the North America we’re still not doing much.

Victor presented well today on the achievements in the past two years. He also made a strong case for doing more, and doing it together. More than anything, I think the presentation made it clear that we have succeeded in creating a European R&E community, albeit a fledgling one. We have something to build on that allows us to formulate more expansive goals, and to do something concrete and involving together. I think the time for a TERENA taskforce is ripe, if not overdue.

Paper, paper, paper….

I’m getting ready to go to TNC2010 – this years edition of the TERENA Networking Conference. By tradition, the conference, held annually, roams Europe, from north to south, from east to west. This year we go to Lithuania. As always I’m looking forward to meeting my colleagues from around Europe, to catch up with people, projects, and ideas in the community, to get inspired, and hopefully provoked.

As always when I go to these event – and, actually, whenever I travel – the last step in my preparations have been printing. Hotel reservations, airline reservations, google maps, addresses for restaurants, agendas and locations for meetings, etc. I might live the digital life, I might be heading to a conference about advanced technology and community for the digital life, but for my travel essentials I’m still strictly analog. OK, I do also copy all this stuff to dropbox, as PDF’s, for easy access from laptop and iPhone, and I do copy stuff to my kindle. But I’m not relying on that. I’m a seasoned traveller, I’ve had both flight and hotel reservations disappear mysteriously, and when that happens in a far away place, a place I don’t know much about and where I do not speak the local language, I want my papers. I want paper to show at check-in counters and hotels, and I want paper to show to the taxi driver when I arrive four hours laten, and say “take me to my hotel”. And I don’t want to have a flat battery get in my way.

It’s a hassle with all that paper, and environmentally wasteful. Hopefully some day I will trust the digital version. But not yet.

Federating networks – first steps

I had my first travel for more than a month today. I can’t remember when I last went this long between trips abroad, but the volcanic ash situation has cancelled several meetings; I’m particularly sad to have missed the e-IRG meeting in Barcelona (even though it will be done in June i Madrid, so I’m looking forward to that), and the NORDUnet 2011 program committee meeting in Reykjavik. On the positive side, most of the work has been done anyway; the volcano is doing a great job driving the further adoption of video-conferencing.

My trip today was to Stockholm – and into the warm, sunny weather they’ve been having in eastern Scandinavia. That was a welcome change from the rain and cold we’ve been having. Even better, my meeting with CTO’s of the Nordic research & education networks was positive, energized, and productive. We’re getting down to business, finding ways to federate networks & services, extending collaboration to new areas, and sharing experiences. We’re also seeing results of initiatives started in the past year; I’ve been very pleased to see a federated networking proposal evolve quickly and being accepted for implementation. Inter-organization sharing of network ressources to reduce cost for all is a great way to apply the optical network technologies we have been implementing in recent years.

We’re creating change, and we’re having fun doing so. This was one trip definitely worth doing.

Andy, we feel your pain

Andy Schleck (pro biker) blogged about the joys of modern airline travel – in particular in these days of volcanic ash. The rest of us might not have the glamour of being top athletes, but anyone who travels professionally will sympathize. We’ve all been there with delayed and cancelled flights and endless waiting in airports, and I think we have all probably spent time sharing tales of travel madness with fellow victimstravelers. In the current situation I’ve had to cancel several trips; just this week a trip Iceland (yes) had to go.

Andy is looking forward to the Tour de France. So am I, but only as a spectator. But let’s not forget that we have big events of our own to prepare for; demos, conferences, publications, etc. In the research and education networking world, a major event on the calendar is the TERENA Networking Conference, this year to be held in Vilnius during the first week of June. I have a paper to present, so there’s preparation to do. And as always at TNC, lots of friends to (re)connect with, side-meeting to hold and talks to listen to. It’s bound to be an exciting week. What’s more, I’ve agreed to be “official blogger” for the conference this year. Not quite sure what that will amount to yet, but it sounds like fun; watch this space.