SCIENCE

California's visionaries are once again leading the way to tomorrow's Internet through the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California's One Gigabit or Bust Initiative. For a glimpse of life in a gigabit-enabled world, CENIC and the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Cal-(IT)2) co-sponsor the annual On the Road to a Gigabit awards. The On the Road to a Gigabit awards showcase the pioneering ideas of today's visionaries and the promise of tomorrow's Internet, as well as highlight the technologies paving the road to a gigabit world. The experts judging the nominations included Kathie Hackler, Research Vice President, Gartner Consulting; Molly Petrick, Contra Costa Water District; John Silvester, Vice Provost for Scholarly Technology, University of Southern California; Larry Smarr, Cal-(IT)2 Director; and Bill St. Arnaud, Senior Director of Advanced Networks, CANARIE. The On the Road to a Gigabit categories for the best uses of high performance networking include: - Biggest, Fastest in the West: This award honors the fastest and most scalable high-performance networking application/technology. Winner: On Demand Infrastructure: San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), Patricia Kovatch; IBM, Roger Haskin Grid computing is potentially the biggest change on the horizon for high-performance computing. With SDSC's "on demand" infrastructure, scientists can share data efficiently and effectively between site, they will have the ability to run jobs anywhere without shipping data to the selected site, and have the ability to use data from anywhere and at high speeds. - Community: The Community Award honors innovative uses of high-performance networking to overcome network disadvantages (economic and/or location based). Winner: Behind the Redwood Curtain: Redwood Technology Consortium, Tina Nerat Humboldt County on the North Coast of California was a poignant example of the digital divide, where the only link to move data was an at-capacity microwave link. The RTC, via broadband advocacy, illustrated the power of what a community can accomplish when it unites behind a common goal. By galvanizing local government, businesses, and individuals, RTC helped Humboldt County complete a 21-mile fiber gap and bring advanced telecommunications services to this rural area. - Education: The Education Award honors innovative uses of high-performance networking in K-12 and higher education. Winner: Education Telecommunications Network (ETN): Los Angeles County Office of Education, Richard Qui-ones Educational Telecommunications Network's (ETN) track record of local and national telecasts is now being directed toward moving content over the CalREN-DC network, thus providing more tools for educators, the general public and other consumers of education. ETN supplies educators with the means to reach learners through a combination of traditional broadcast media production, digital technology enhancements and the ongoing exploration of new digital technologies. Honorable Mention: Teaching and Learning Interchange (TLI): Pamela Redmond, University of San Francisco; Glen Thomas, California County Superintendents Education Services Association; J. Chuck Taylor, Kings County Office of Education; Grace Ko, San Diego County Office of Education; Bill Engelhardt, San Joaquin County Office of Education; and Judy Shulman, WestEd - Gigabit or Bust: This award honors the high-performance networking application/technology that best exemplifies what life would be like in a gigabit-connected world. Winner: Desert Sands Gigabit Ethernet: Desert Sands Unified School District (DSUSD), George Araya Supporting a student population of more than 26,000 at 28 school sites, DSUSD partnered with providers of service, equipment, and infrastructure to enable early adoption of Gigabit technology by a mid-size K-12 environment. This group implemented a gigabit-capable network within the boundaries of its territory to provide gigabit-to-the-desktop for every teacher and student. Honorable Mention: Education Applications for a Gigabit Network: El Monte Union High School District, Garrett McKay - Innovation: The Innovation Award recognizes innovative contributions to high-performance networking that best exemplify the creative spirit and the bottoms-up philosophy that created the Internet. Winner: Fontana ACES-Advanced Community and Educational Services Network: City of Fontana, Janice McClintock The City of Fontana has embarked on a process to build out an advanced communications services network to leave no part of the city behind, regardless of economic level or zoning. The network will link all businesses, schools, hospitals, and homes with a fiber-optic infrastructure owned by the City, in the same manner it owns sewers and roads. - Partnership: This award honors the best use of high-performance networking developed by a private/public partnership. Winner: Ultralight Partnership: California Institute of Technology, Sylvain Ravot; Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), R. Les Cottrell; CERN, Olivier Martin; Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Wu-chun Feng. Teams of physicists, computer scientists, and network engineers at Caltech, CERN, SLAC, LANL, Fermilab, Florida International University, University of Florida, University of Michigan, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the MIT Haystack Observatory have started to develop and deploy UltraLight, the first of a new class of integrated information systems to support the decades-long research program at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. The project has profound implications for integrating information sharing and on-demand audiovisual collaboration in our daily lives, at a scale and quality previously unimaginable. Honorable Mention: George Wright Society's Virtual Trip to Fish Creek: California State Parks, Alan Friedman; HPWREN, Hans-Werner Braun; San Diego County Office of Education, Harry Bloome On March 15, CENIC will recognize the winners of the On the Road to a Gigabit Awards at an awards luncheon to be held at 11:30 a.m. at the Ritz-Carlton Marina del Rey, California. The ceremony will be held in conjunction with the CENIC 2004 annual conference at the Ritz-Carlton, March 15-17. The 2nd One Gigabit or Bust Roundtable will immediately follow CENIC's annual conference March 17-18. This Roundtable is organized around topical task forces that are identifying the opportunities and obstacles to achieving one gigabit throughout California by 2010 and establishing an action plan to achieve this goal. For more information about the Roundtable, please see http://www.cenic.org/GB/meetings/31704/index.htm