Innovative projects using state of the art electronic infrastructures are bringing real benefits to the Mediterannean region and are vital to accelerate ICT development, agreed participants at the recent EU-Med Event 2 in Amman, Jordan, on 4 November.

Around a hundred high-ranking public officials and specialists from 20 countries in Europe, the Mediterranean region and Middle East attended the day-long event, which highlighted ongoing projects that have benefits for the health, environment and education of people living in the Mediterranean region. The day culminated in the launch of EUMEDCONNECT2 – the high-capacity data communications network that links the research and education communities of the Mediterranean region with those in Europe. The launch celebrated the confirmation of two further years of European Union funding for the network, which builds on the achievements of the EUMEDCONNECT project.

Promotion of services offered by National Research and Education Networking organisations (NRENs) was the topic of a two-hour brainstorming session at the meeting of the TERENA General Assembly in Sofia, Bulgaria on 24 October 2008. Joint work on GN3 services promotion is one of the new tasks in the GN3 (GÉANT3) project proposal that was submitted to the European Commission in September. The GN3 project, which is expected to start in April next year, was a recurrent theme throughout the agenda of the GA meeting, because GN3 will have a big impact on both the Activity Plan and the budget of TERENA in 2009.

In addition, GA members received an update on the activities in the TERENA Technical Programme, on the work of TF-PR (the task force on public relations and information dissemination) and TF-MSP (the task force on management of service portfolios), and on the preparations for the next TERENA Conference, which will be held in Malaga, Spain in June 2009. It was announced that the TERENA Networking Conference 2010 will be hosted in Vilnius by LITNET, the Lithuanian member organisation of TERENA.

The 2008 edition of the TERENA Compendium of National Research and Education Networks in Europe has revealed a surprise or two alongside the more expected trends. TERENA’s Business and Technology Strategist John Dyer gives an interpretation of the results:

There was a change of chairmen last week in both the 25th meeting of the TERENA Task Force on Collaboration of Security Incident Response Teams (TF-CSIRT) on 25-26 September, and of a closed meeting immediately beforehand.

The ‘anniversary’ TF-CSIRT meeting was the first to be chaired by Lionel Ferette (BELNET), who took over the chairmanship from Gorazd Božič (ARNES) in May 2008. Gorazd Božič had led the task force since its creation eight years ago.

During the preceding closed meeting of representatives of Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs) that are accredited by TERENA’s Trusted Introducer (TI) service, an exciting three-round election took place. This resulted in Przemek Jaroszewski (CERT Polska) being appointed a member of the TI Review Board, as Jacques Schuurman (SURFnet CERT) had completed his second three-year term of office on the board and could not be re-elected. Jimmy Arvidsson (Telia-Sonera CERT) succeeded Jacques Schuurman as chairman of the Board.

Two changes in emphasis were highlighted during last week’s NRENs and Grids Workshop in Dublin, Ireland, on 1-2 September.

The shifting relationship between Grids and virtualisation featured in day two, while the first day’s talks revealed a move from software development towards a greater focus on supporting end user access to infrastructure.

To the jangling chords of the soundtrack from ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’, participants filled the auditorium of a session by the same name, during the final morning of the 2008 TERENA Networking Conference. The showdown they had come to witness was a panel discussion about the “successes and shortcomings” of the GN2 project and the GEANT2 network.

In a series of short but thought-provoking presentations, the panellists fired off their thoughts on a range of relevant areas before audience members joined the fray, moderated by IT consultant Robin Arak. Although there were no casualties, many comments hit their mark.

Is computing going to be the next utility, available to everyone like electricity or gas? Is education becoming a consumer commodity? What would such developments mean for research networks? Reflections upon the future of research and education networking continued during the third day of the annual TERENA Networking Conference, with complementary plenary talks by Tim Robinson of Net North West (UK) and Richard Katz of EDUCAUSE (USA).

Both considered social, demographic, political and economic factors that could have an impact on education and, indirectly, research networking. Their audience included participants in Malawi, China, Spain, Italy, Indonesia and the Czech Republic, who were linked by live-stream videoconferencing via satellite, as part of the GLOBAL project's Virtual Conference Centre initiative.

The British science fiction writer Douglas Adams came up with ‘Four Ages of Sand’ in the history of tools with which to do scientific research, with sand forming the basic material for glass lenses, transistors and now optical fibres. A fifth Age was postulated today, 20 May, by Josh Howlett of JANET(UK) during his plenary presentation at the TERENA Networking Conference.

The ‘Age of the Looking Glass’ refers to another fictional classic, in which a mirror gives a girl access to a world unconstrained by the physical laws of the real world. This is the age we are in now, he said, with a growing number of people realising their “own little universes” in which to work and collaborate, thanks to network technology, services and applications.

There was a musical start to the opening plenary presentation at this year’s TERENA Networking Conference (TNC 2008), in joking reference to the headset microphone worn by Professor Paul Van Binst (Free University of Brussels, ULB) as he took to the stage. This set the scene for an amusing and personal talk that encompassed some of the history of research and education networking, as well as some consideration of present and future trends.

With a series of entertaining examples to make the point, Professor Van Binst observed that users of present-day technologies and services of all kinds are generally willing to accept poor quality if the final functionality is something they like: sms messaging can require pressing three times on button ‘a’ in order to get letter ‘c’, for example, and we are happy to watch poor definition video footage online even though a large, high-quality TV set may be in the next room.

The challenges confronting research networking and strategies to face them were the key topic areas at the annual meeting of the CCIRN (Co-ordinating Committee for Intercontinental Research Networking). It was held in Bruges (Brugge), Belgium, on 17-18 May before the start of the annual TERENA Networking Conference at the same location.

Almost 20 managers of research networking organisations in five continents gathered for lively and informal brainstorming on the future of research and education networking. Discussions revealed great similarities in the challenges that these organisations are facing today.