The Pacific Northwest Gigapop Circular is an occasional update of activities by participants, new technologies, meetings, services upgrades and enhancements. This is the first electronic mail version of the Circular. To subscribe or unsubscribe send email to gigapop-info@pnw-gigapop.net.

In this Circular 002

PACIFIC WAVE PEERING SERVICES
PNWGP FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE QUILT
K20 SPARK LIGHTS INTERNET2
CISCO TECHNICAL EVENT OCTOBER 8 IN SEATTLE
OCTOBER PNWGP MEETING POSTPONED
PARTICIPANT CONTRIBUTIONS: WHAT DO YOU DO WITH I2?
UPDATING YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION
PNWGP CONTACT LIST

PACIFIC WAVE PEERING SERVICES

  The peering service formerly known as Seattle-Network-to-Network Access Point (SNNAP) has a new name and expanded services. The new Pacific Wave peering services will not only continue to serve the needs of organizations throughout the Pacific Northwest, but will now also offer its state of the art services to research, development, and education networks throughout the U.S. and abroad. While the Canadian research network CANet*3 has been a peering participant for sometime, AARNet (Australian Academic & Research Network) was welcomed as the first Pacific Rim connector in July.
  Two more Pacific Rim connections are expected to be completed in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!
  For more information on Pacific Wave, see www.pacificwave.net.

PNWGP FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE QUILT
  In the Internet2 spirit of cooperation, and as a natural consequence of the growth and evolution of Internet2, large regional aggregating gigapops from around the country have formed a new UCAID Project called The Quilt. The Pacific Northwest Gigapop is a founding member of The Quilt.
  The Quilt will focus on finding inter-aggregator synergies in 1) delivery of Internet2 and commodity Internet services; 2) technologies associated with building and delivery of services; and 3) representing the group's common interests to vendors, industry and government.
  We believe that participation in The Quilt will allow the Pacific Northwest Gigapop to address issues of concern to our partners such as cost of services, expansion of bandwidth, and opportunities to participate in broad-scale programs, including in the K20 educational and outreach arena.
  For more information on The Quilt, see http://www.thequilt.net, or contact Jan Eveleth at the PNWGP, eveleth@cac.washington.edu or 206-221- 2300.

K20 SPARK LIGHTS INTERNET2
  Washington State K20 network has begun the new school year as a full member of Internet2. Why do we care?
  Nine years ago, the number of dotcoms world wide was well under a thousand; there was no graphical interface to the World Wide Web; and the word "Internet" passed the lips only of academics and researchers.
  So what was the big deal in hooking up all of our public schools? What could sixth graders possibly learn on the Internet?
  The early K12 adopters in our region were avid in their desire to bring this technology into the schools and shape it into a tool that would help our children to learn. Some of those early adopters in our region include the Seattle, Bellevue, and Clackamas County School Districts; Catlin Gable, Lakeshore, and The Bush Schools; the award-winning University of Washington DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities and Information Technologies) program that provides enabling technologies to disabled high school students to help them successfully find their way into high caliber University academic programs.
   The energy, interest, and fervor of these Internet activists were palpable. And what do they have to show for it?
   Most of all and best of all, a half generation of students have shadowed researchers in the Antarctic, the North Pole, outer space, and under the ocean. They posed their questions directly to the researchers and got real time answers. They learned about space by viewing a multitude of Voyager satellite images online.
   They learned about other cultures by corresponding with electronic 'pen pals' and 'sister schools' across the world, exchanging music, pictures of their families, pets, friends, and artwork.
   They participated in and coalesced community environmental projects such as watershed monitoring for salmon habitat.
   They became a socially redeeming jewel in what was to become an electronic world of commerce and hype. The Internet is a better place because of what K12 has contributed.
   From the beginning, the Washington State legislature saw the enormous opportunities in networking and funded a statewide K20 network engineered to be Internet2-enabled from the start. This network has been operational for over four years. And this summer, they were included in the ranks of Abilene connectees.
   As we continue to shape and define Internet2, the Washington K20 voices, energy, and vision will be crucial to making the next generation of the Internet an even more compelling, enriching, and more human place in which to engage.
   Please join us in welcoming Washington K20 to Internet2!

CISCO TECHNICAL EVENT OCTOBER 8 IN SEATTLE
   The place is set (the Westin in Seattle), the panel of speakers are coming (Cisco technical experts), and you are welcome to attend this full day session compliments of Cisco. We encourage you to send your technical representatives to engage in a lively conversation with distinguished Cisco staff as well as with other technical representatives from participating PNWGP organizations. Haven't you just been eager to find out about the newest release? Upcoming developments? How they plan to fix that annoying 'feature' that you deal with every day? Well, this is your chance.
   To register, go to http://www.regweb.com/cisco/I2EduRoadshow. If you have questions, contact Michael Rich at 408-527-3617 or mrich@cisco.com.

OCTOBER PNWGP MEETING POSTPONED
   To those of you who marked your calendars for a mid-October meeting, thank you! Now please get out your eraser. I was not able to get a venue for the meeting (at least nothing that would support reasonable Internet connectivity). Will try again for the spring and let you know.

PARTICIPANT CONTRIBUTIONS: WHAT DO YOU DO WITH I2?
   The PNWGP Circular would like to circulate your success stories. This is an excellent opportunity to share research efforts, technical developments, programs, cultural initiatives, and "How Internet2 Changed My Life" stories. Please send an outline or overview of the topic you'd like to cover to gigapop-info@pnw-gigapop.net.

UPDATING YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION
   If you have changes in personnel and/or contact info for administration, billing, technical, tech backup, or outages notifications, please email gigapop-info@pnw-gigapop.net or call 206-934-5588.

PNWGP Contact List

General Information

206-934-5588

888-934-5588

gigapop-info@pnw-gigapop.net

www.pnw-gigapop.net

Network Operations Center (24x7)

206-934-5580

888-934-5580

noc@pnw-gigapop.net

Web Site Contact

webmaster@pnw-gigapop.net

PNWGP Services Manager

Jan Eveleth

206-221-2300

Network Engineering Manager

David Richardson

206-934-5580

Mailing Address

4545 15th Ave N.E.

Seattle, WA 98105-4527

Fax

206-934-5589

888-934-5589

More information about Internet2 can be found at http://www.internet2.edu/

Circular 002 October 2001
Copyright (c) 2001 Pacific Northwest Gigapop

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: June 4, 2001
 

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Internet2 Network and Participants

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Bringing the Opportunities of Next Generation Technology to the Region

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - June 4, 2001 - The University of Washington and the Pacific Northwest-Gigapop are pleased to announce that Washington's statewide K-20 network is now fully connected to Internet2 (I2), the national next-generation research and education network. (Click here to see diagram.) The K-20 network, which was designed and is operated by the UW, connects all of Washington's K-12 school districts, community colleges, and public baccalaureate institutions. With the new connection to I2 all teachers, faculty, and students -- in all parts of the state, and across all of public education -- will now have the opportunity to use and participate in developing the next generation of Internet resources, applications, and tools, opportunities that were previously only available at major university and corporate research labs.

"Connecting the K-20 Network to Internet2 will keep Washington at the cutting edge in our efforts to bring students the highest quality, most diverse curriculum and learning tools that can be made available over the Internet," said Governor Gary Locke.

This "will literally open whole new worlds to Washington's school children," says Susannah Malarkey, executive director, the Technology Alliance. "We are incredibly lucky to be able to participate in this cutting edge technology. All of Washington's students can now be part of designing the future." Now when students and teachers use the K-20 network for their work they will be learning and using tomorrows, rather than yesterdays, technologies. "Not only will this development put the teachers, students and schools of Washington State at the forefront in using the educational tools that are currently available, it will put them in the position of understanding and helping to build the next generation of content and tools," says Louis Fox, UW vice provost for Educational Partnerships and Learning Technologies, and recently named co-leader of the national Internet2-K20 Initiative.

Even more important than ground floor connectivity to the next generation Internet, now Washington's innovators can participate in I2 initiatives. Typical of the first wave of the tools, materials, content and program opportunities included in the Washington I2-K20 initiative are:

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K20 Designed by UW as "I2 Ready"

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Connecting All Public K12, Community Colleges, and Bacalaureates

• Special Interest Groups (SIGs) across Washington K-20 and trainings around specific technologies and content interests, workshops for K20 in Internet2 tools and content, an annual Washington conference for innovators from Washington's schools and colleges
• Linking Washington groups to national conversations, special interest and workgroups, and international collaboration efforts, particularly among Pacific Rim and southern African countries
• Connecting Washington educators to rich, often multimedia content repositories (this is the theme of some special interest and and working groups), coupled with advanced middleware intellectual property management mechanisms, enabling broad use and shared licensing; K20 versions of Catalyst, the national award-winning teaching and learning toolkit; mySchool, a sophisticated Web-based, middleware-enabled portal, creating the capacity for true "mass customization" and personalization of the Web, with complete control over content and transactions for every teacher, class, and student
• Projects to enhance and extend learning through advanced information and network technologies and content
• Educational opportunities and collaborations like Virtual UW in the High School, which offers UW college-level credit classes to schools and communities with little or no access to such opportunities, including new, cutting edge, national model classes and materials like the UW Department of Computer Science's and the UW Information School's Fluency in Information Technology (FIT)
• Network access to scientific apparatus and live data from weather radar, seismic sensors, telescopes, satellites, and ocean probes
• Participation in testbeds for the next generation of broadband and narrowband digital video, multicast, and interactive video

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Just as the UW brought the original Internet to the Northwest, and along with the Pacific Northwest Gigapop more recently played a major role in creating I2, they are committed to help bring the resources and benefits of I2 to all of Washington's schools and colleges.

Marty Smith, chair, Technology Alliance Education Task Force; partner, Preston Gates & Ellis; member K-20 Network Board: "This development is a tribute to the partnership created a decade ago involving the Technology Alliance, higher education, government and industry."

Joseph Olchefske, Superintendent of Seattle Public Schools: "Expanding access to this cutting edge technology will go a long way toward bridging the digital divide and preparing our students for the extraordinary opportunities that await them."

Earl Hale, executive director of the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges: "Access to this high-performance network will allow the community and technical colleges to enrich our educational opportunities for students across the state. The colleges have been using the K-20 network to deliver Internet-based courses, but this means we can expand training in technical fields, enhance collaboration among faculty working at different colleges, and customize courses to better meet the diverse needs of the students we serve."

Terry Bergeson, Superintendent of Public Instruction: "The K-12 community in Washington will make great use of the advanced educational and collaborative tools enabled by our partnership with the University of Washington. Washington's K-20 network provides each of our schools the opportunity to be involved in the evolving Internet2 environment. Taking advantage of the I2 offerings immediately, as well as preparing our schools and their infrastructures for the advanced programs to follow, means a bright future for teaching & learning across our state."

For more information or to get involved please contact:

Louis Fox, UW Vice Provost
206 685-4745, 543-6616
lfox@u.washington.edu
Ron Johnson, UW Vice President
206 543-8252
ronj@cac.washington.edu

About the Pacific Northwest Gigapop

The Pacific Northwest Gigapop is a partnership of the leading public and private sector R&D forces throughout the northwest that provides innovators in education, industry, content publication and government with early and direct access to the full range of current and next generation, and super high performance internet capabilities, and to a robust testbed with over a million people with broadband internet access and I2 functionality.

About Internet2

Internet2 is a consortium of research institutions working in partnership to develop and deploy advanced network applications and technologies, accelerating the creation of tomorrow's Internet. Internet2 is recreating the partnership among academia, industry and government that created today's Internet.

Pacific NorthWest Gigapop: http://www.pnw-gigapop.net
The K-20 Network: http://www.washington.edu/k20/
Internet2: http://www.internet2.edu
Catalyst: http://www.catalyst.washington.edu
UWired: http://www.washington.edu/uwired/
mySchool-myUW demo: http://www.myuw.washington.edu
Fluency in Information Technology: http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/cse100/
Smart Tools Academy: http://depts.washington.edu/academy/

http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/local/internet14.shtml

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FROM: Bob Roseth, (206) 543-2580, roseth@u.washington.edu
DATE: March 13, 2001
 

Washington is one of five states selected to be a pioneer in developing and bringing the next generation of Internet materials, applications, and tools to K-12 schools and colleges.

The Washington K-20 Education Network will have direct access to the Internet2, the high-performance, next generation Internet (called "Abilene"), and more importantly, faculty and teachers in Washington's schools will have opportunities to develop the next generation of Internet resources, applications, and tools - opportunities that were previously only available to faculty at major research institutions like the University of Washington.

In addition, schools and classroom teachers will have access to the latest tools for developing, organizing, and bringing into the classroom customized Web-based learning materials, computer-based learning tools, and multimedia content from learning centers, national museums and organizations such as the Smithsonian Institution and NASA, as well as the ability to cost-effectively employ high quality interactive and streamed video among teachers, across the state's classrooms, and to classrooms around the nation and the world.

As a result, "Connecting the K-20 Network to Abilene will keep Washington at the cutting edge in our efforts to bring students the highest quality, most diverse curriculum and learning tools that can be made available over the Internet," said Governor Gary Locke.

The University of Washington has been the region's lead institution in bringing Internet2 capabilities to the region, and also has been a key partner in the development of the K-20 network. The UW designed, is the network operations center for, and serves as the Internet Service Provider and Internet engineering group for Washington's K20 network.

Among the many tools that K-12 and community college teachers will be able to use as part of this partnership is Catalyst, a national award-winning teaching and learning toolkit developed at the UW. Using a Web browser, with Catalyst teachers can quickly and easily place complex content on the Web and create online learning activities to fit specific teaching needs - without hiring a programmer or undergoing extensive training. Students can easily be given quizzes and surveys, participate in discussions, submit homework, and review each other's work.

myUW is sophisticated Web-based middleware that enables the "mass customization" of Web materials, allowing each teacher, class, and even every student to have fingertip access to a highly personalized workspace with private information and the necessary tools for easily accessing, sharing and publishing materials, collaborating, teaching, and learning more effectively.

Together, Catalyst and myUW provide a powerful combination: access to a wealth of information and tools, and the ability to easily assemble and tailor this information to the needs of individual students, teachers, and classes.

"Connecting the K-20 Network to Internet2 will literally open whole new worlds to Washington's school children," says Susannah Malarkey, executive director, the Technology Alliance. "For example, they will have the opportunity to observe and interpret scientific data and participate in science experiments in real time. This allows our middle school, high school and undergraduate students to really be scientific investigators. We are incredibly lucky to be able to participate in this cutting edge technology. All of Washington's students can now be part of designing the future."

Participation in the next generation Internet fabric also enables broad K-12 access to the new Virtual UW in the High School program, which provides UW college-level credit classes, including the new Fluency in Information Technology (or FIT) program, to students in high schools throughout the state.

"Not only will this development put the teachers, students and schools of Washington State at the forefront in using the educational tools that are currently available, it will put them in the position of helping to build the next generation of Internet content and tools," says Louis Fox, UW vice provost for Educational Partnerships and Learning Technologies.

According to Doug Van Houweling, president and CEO of the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development, which leads the Internet2 effort, "With UW leadership, the state of Washington continues to be a national pacesetter in successful K-20 networking; in working together across K-12 and higher education to help use technology and networks to improve teaching and learning; and in developing award winning state of the art programs for helping teachers and administrators understand and make the best uses of new technologies."

Some useful Web sites:

• Catalyst (A UW campus-wide initiative to help teachers teach and learners learn using technology): http://www.catalyst.washington.edu
• Gigapop (the Pacific Northwest's access point to Internet 2): http://www.pnw-gigapop.org/
• The K-20 Network: http://www.washington.edu/k20/
• myUW (an educational portal): http://www.myuw.washington.edu
• Fluency in Information Technology (FIT): http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/cse100/
• Smart Tools Academy (classes for school leaders to learn about the Internet in education): http://depts.washington.edu/academy/
• UWired (a UW project that works to promote and support access to technology, fluency in information technology and resources, and innovation in teaching and learning through technology): http://www.washington.edu/uwired/

Selected comments on the expanded access to Internet2

Marty Smith, chair of the Education Task Force of the Technology Alliance, partner, Preston Gates & Ellis, and citizen board members if the K-20 Network Board: "This development is a tribute to the partnership created a decade ago involving the Technology Alliance, higher education, government and industry. Now, we are able to leverage the expertise gathered in the creation of the K-20 network to develop a richer context and applications that can be distributed throughout our schools."

Joseph Olchefske, Superintendent of Seattle Public Schools: "We've found Internet2 to be an invaluable tool as we work to ensure that all students in our district meet the high academic standards we have set for them. Expanding access to this cutting edge technology will go a long way toward bridging the digital divide and preparing our students for the extraordinary opportunities that await them."

Earl Hale, executive director of the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges: "Access to this high-performance network will allow the community and technical colleges to enrich our educational opportunities for students across the state. The colleges have been using the K-20 network to deliver Internet-based courses, but this means we can expand training in technical fields, enhance collaboration among faculty working at different colleges, and customize courses to better meet the diverse needs of the students we serve."

Terry Bergeson, Superintendent of Public Instruction: "We're very pleased that access to the opportunities of Internet2 has been approved. The K-12 community in Washington will make great use of the advanced educational and collaborative tools enabled by our partnership with the University of Washington. Washington's K-20 network provides each of our schools the opportunity to be involved in the evolving Internet2 environment. Taking advantage of the I2 offerings immediately, as well as preparing our schools and their infrastructures for the advanced programs to follow, means a bright future for teaching and learning across our state."

Steve Kolodney, director of the state of Washington Department of Information Services and Chair of the K-20 Network Board: "This is one more example of the UW's continuing national leadership in advanced networking and information technologies, and it complements K-20 initiatives for improving education."

For more information

Ronald Johnson
Vice President
Computing & Communications
240 Gerberding Hall
UW Mailbox: 351208
Phone: 543-8252 FAX: 543-4641
Email: ronj@cac.washington.edu

Louis Fox
Vice Provost
Office of Educational Partnerships & Learning Technologies
340-D Gerberding Hall
UW Mailbox: 352820
Phone: 685-4745, 543-6616 FAX: 221-2658
Email: lfox@u.washington.edu