IBM has signed on as an Annual Meeting Silver Sponsor.  IBM is the fifteenth committed sponsor for 2013 and the eighth returning sponsor.  Thanks to IBM!  

GPN2013 is co-organized by the Greater Western Library Alliance.  The theme of the years annual meeting is Big Data:  From Bits and Bytes to Knowledge and Insights.

• You can learn more about the meeting, here:  http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/great-plains-network/
• You can learn about sponsorship, here:  http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/great-plains-network/sponsors
• Learn about the Big Data Summit and Network Measurement workshop, here:  http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/great-plains-network/workshops
• You can register for the meeting and for the Big Data Summit, here:  http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/great-plains-network/registration

Ciena, a GPN Affiliate Member, has signed on as an Annual Meeting Bronze Sponsor.  Ciena is a long time sponsor for GPN meetings.  Ciena is the fourteenth committed sponsor for 2013 and the seventh returning sponsor.  Thanks to Ciena!  

GPN2013 is co-organized by the Greater Western Library Alliance.  The theme of the years annual meeting is Big Data:  From Bits and Bytes to Knowledge and Insights.

• You can learn more about the meeting, here:  http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/great-plains-network/
• You can learn about sponsorship, here:  http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/great-plains-network/sponsors
• Learn about the Big Data Summit and Network Measurement workshop, here:  http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/great-plains-network/workshops
• You can register for the meeting and for the Big Data Summit, here:  http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/great-plains-network/registration

We are finalizing our program for GPN2013.  You can access it online at 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AtRBtxud9RbBdEdZSnZnS0xhY2JLUDlNSUZlNUREN3c&single=true&gid=1&output=html

We are anticipating at least 100 attendees at the Big Data Summit on Wednesday, May 29, and well over 100 attendees at the meeting on Thursday and Friday, the 30th and 31st.

Highlights

• Keynote presentations by Shannon Jackson & Carl Lundstedt
• Updates on HPC centers, Internet2 & GPN
• HPC, Network and Library tracks
• Track presentations on HPC, ScienceDMZ best practices, Globus Online, the Advanced Smart Grid and much more
• Birds of a Feather Sessions on Disaster Mitigation, SC13 Planning, Joining the GPN/GWLA testbed project
• Big Data Summit and Network Performance Workshop

Meeting Notes 

• The posters will be judged on Wednesday evening, May 29th
• The meeting will start at 8AM on Thursday and Friday.

Thanks to

Our co-organizer

• The Greater Western Library Alliance

Our Sponsors

Platinum

• ADVA (Welcome Reception sponsor)
• Fujitsu (Student Award sponsor)
• Brocade, 
• Ex Libris, 
• Cambridge Computing

Gold

• Teliasonera

Bronze

• ACT/Panasas, 
• Level3, 
• Open Technologies/SGI, 
• ScaleMP, 
• Spectra Logic, 
• Optelian

Academic

• Globus Online (Student Scholarship sponsor)

Open Technologies has teamed up with SGI as an Annual Meeting Bronze Sponsor.  Open Technologies is a long time sponsor for GPN meetings and has teamed up SGI on prior occasions, as well.  Open Technologies/SGI is the thirteenth committed sponsor for 2013.  Thanks to Open Technologies/SGI and Mark Griffin!  

GPN2013 is co-organized by the Greater Western Library Alliance.  The theme of the years annual meeting is Big Data:  From Bits and Bytes to Knowledge and Insights.

• You can learn more about the meeting, here:  http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/great-plains-network/
• You can learn about sponsorship, here:  http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/great-plains-network/sponsors
• Learn about the Big Data Summit and Network Measurement workshop, here:  http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/great-plains-network/workshops
• You can register for the meeting and for the Big Data Summit, here:  http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/great-plains-network/registration

Recently the topic of data storage came up on a mailing list.  As this is a general concern for many, I thought I'd share some of the discussion.

https://dmp.cdlib.org/ is Data Management Plan Tool.  This page lets you create an account and use some templates for the type of grant you are applying for.  I looks very useful.  If someone who has more of the information it needs has any comments and would like to share, that would be great.

http://www.dataone.org/best-practices has a primer on best practices, but no storage space.

XSEDE has some storage resources.  https://www.xsede.org/web/guest/storage

SDSC has cloud storage options.  I don't know if this is for public storage, but it gives others an idea about pricing and policies. https://cloud.sdsc.edu/hp/index.php

The tentative Annual Meeting Schedule is up at the 2013 Annual Meeting page.  It is available to download as a pdf.  The numbers in parentheses are the minutes allotted.  The times on the left are start times to help us write the schedule.  If you have any questions about the schedule, please let Kate or Greg know.

This is also the page where pictures and copies of presentations will go.

Ex Libris has signed on as a GPN Annual Meeting Platinum Sponsor.  Ex Libris is a first time sponsor of the GPN Annual Meeting and we welcome them!  Ex Libris is the eleventh committed sponsor for 2013.  Thanks, Ex Libris!  

The theme of the years annual meeting is Big Data:  From Bits and Bytes to Knowledge and Insights.

• You can learn more about the meeting, here:  http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/great-plains-network/
• You can learn about sponsorship, here:  http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/great-plains-network/sponsors
• Learn about the Big Data Summit and Network Measurement workshop, here:  http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/great-plains-network/workshops
• You can register for the meeting and for the Big Data Summit, here:  http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/great-plains-network/registration

Cambridge Computer has signed on as a GPN Annual Meeting Platinum Sponsor.  Cambridge Computer is a first time sponsor of the GPN Annual Meeting and we welcome them!  Cambridge is the twelfth committed sponsor for 2013.  Thanks, Cambridge!  

The theme of the years annual meeting is Big Data:  From Bits and Bytes to Knowledge and Insights.

• You can learn more about the meeting, here:  http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/great-plains-network/
• You can learn about sponsorship, here:  http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/great-plains-network/sponsors
• Learn about the Big Data Summit and Network Measurement workshop, here:  http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/great-plains-network/workshops
• You can register for the meeting and for the Big Data Summit, here:  http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/great-plains-network/registration

OPTELIAN has signed on as a GPN Annual Meeting Bronze Sponsor.  Optelian is a first time sponsor of the GPN Annual Meeting and we welcome them!  Optelian is the tenth committed sponsor for 2013.  Thanks, Optelian!  

The theme of the years annual meeting is Big Data:  From Bits and Bytes to Knowledge and Insights.

• You can learn more about the meeting, here:  http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/great-plains-network/
• You can learn about sponsorship, here:  http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/great-plains-network/sponsors
• You can submit a presentation proposal, here:  http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/great-plains-network/presentations
• Learn about the Big Data Summit and Network Measurement workshop, here:  http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/great-plains-network/workshops
• You can register for the meeting and for the Big Data Summit, here:  http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/great-plains-network/registration

ScaleMP has signed on as a GPN Annual Meeting Bronze Sponsor.  ScaleMP is a first time sponsor of the GPN Annual Meeting and we welcome them!  ScaleMP is the ninth committed sponsor for 2013.  Thanks, ScaleMP!  

The theme of the years annual meeting is Big Data:  From Bits and Bytes to Knowledge and Insights.

• You can learn more about the meeting, here:  http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/great-plains-network/
• You can learn about sponsorship, here:  http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/great-plains-network/sponsors
• You can submit a presentation proposal, here:  http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/great-plains-network/presentations
• Learn about the Big Data Summit and Network Measurement workshop, here:  http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/great-plains-network/workshops
• You can register for the meeting and for the Big Data Summit, here:  http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/great-plains-network/registration

One of the steps in becoming an InCommon member is updating your institution's metadata.  Here are some notes that I hope will be helpful when the time comes for our members to do the same.  Please send me (kate@greatplains.net) any comments about them!  

There are a number of folks at this BoF who are interested in the issue of RSA, multifactor authentication, InCommon Silver Assurance Level, and other things that I am just learning about.

Multi-factor authentication (also Two-factor authentication, TFA, T-FA or 2FA) is an approach to authentication which requires the presentation of two or more of the three authentication factors: a knowledge factor ("something the user knows"), a possession factor ("something the user has"), and an inherence factor ("something the user is").  From Wikipedia.

Use cases seems to be of interest and there are some web pages that provide the top use case scenarios for MFA:  https://spaces.internet2.edu/display/scalepriv/Top+Ten+Applications+for+MFA+in+Higher+Education

Also, check out the parent pages on MFA for higher ed:  

• https://spaces.internet2.edu/display/scalepriv/Multi-factor+Authentication+in+Higher+Education+--+MFA+Cohortium+and+Pilots
• https://spaces.internet2.edu/display/scalepriv/Scalable+Privacy

The adoption of an MFA option by Google, Twitter and Microsoft may drive adoption on campuses.

Several additional use cases were discussed:  The faculty member who does not want to be spoofed by others who may set up accounts that purport to be her or him (and post embarrassing statements); using MFA to reset passwords; for lengthy sessions, requesting the token periodically to assure the user logged on is who s/he claims to be.  

This is the final general session of the meeting.  The focus is on Earth System Research challenges.  Perhaps because it's Earth Day week, this meeting has had a large earth science slant to it.  We learn at the start of the session that this is the largest registration for any Internet2 event.

The next annual meeting will be April 6 to 10, 2014, in Denver, CO.  The first large-scale technical conference will be in Indianapolis, IN, in the Fall.  The plan is to hold a technical conference like this every Fall.

The first speaker is Alexander "Sandy" MacDonald, Chief Science Advisor for NOAA.  Sandy is the inventor of Science On a Sphere that I wrote about, yesterday.

Transformational Research and Education by Alexander MacDonald

The ability to talk about the future, whether a weather event like Sandy or climate change, has drastically improved over the last 30 years.  There have to be ways to show what's happening.  It was known in the 80's that fluorocarbons would affect the atmosphere, but it took showing the hole over the antarctic to really galvanize interest and concern.  

Over a hundred museums, world-wide, are using the Science On a Sphere reaching millions of viewers per year.

Going back in the fossil record, there were periods when there were large releases of methane that wreaked havoc with the climate, raising surface temperatures by 10 or more degrees and raising the ocean's temperature to 140 degrees.

We're at a time in history when the pressure on the planet can be potentially offset by the technology that we have.  Proper use of technology can improve our situation.  Getting the weather and climate predictions right depends on accurately modeling the cloud cover, cumulus layers, ocean currents, atmopheric chemistry and more.  In addition to computation, this requires rendering the data visually so that researchers can study it.

We see time lapsed satellite images for several years that rapidly show the changes in foliage and ocean desertification across seasons.  The researcher can look at this and speculate what will happen as the chemistry of the oceans changes in a particular way.

Sandy presents a case study that illustrates that as models get more complex, the compute power required to render the models in a timely fashion increases dramatically.  

We see an interesting rendering of all the junk, screws, bolts, asteroids, that are orbiting the earth.  

Science On a Sphere (SOS) is a 68 inch carbon fiber sphere and it runs on one linux computer.  They use a collaborative approach and anyone can come up with new renderings.  A lot of what SOS is most valuable for is to connect the public with what is really happening to the world.  

Closing words:  Our job is a big job.  The earth system is so complicated that if you do something in one place, it has consequences elsewhere.  If we deploy the technology right, we can make it much better for the future of the people who liver here.

Q:  I heard that the European weather folks were able to predict a hurricane a day further out than NOAA.  Can you shed some light on that?

A:  For the last 20 years, the European model does better than the US model in predicting mid-latitude storms.  We are working hard to improve that.  We are doing a new experimental model that predicted the hurricane that disrupted the Republican National Convention a day and a half earlier than the European model.  Since we collaborate we work well together.

Q:  I heard that the majority of the CO2 is being absorbed and that we don't understand how that works.

A:  For the last 50 years we've put a lot of CO2 into the air and we know the ocean is taking most of it.  55% is going into the ocean and 45% into the atmosphere.  So, we wonder whether the ocean will always do that?  Another is what will happen as the earth warms?  Warm water holds less CO2 and cold water holds more.  So, as the planet comes out of the ice age, atmosperhic carbon goes up and as we go back into atmosperic carbon is absorbed by the ocean.

Q:  What are some of the other questions you'd like to answer with big data?

A:  How does the earth respond when you drive the earth as hard as we do?  Are we going to get melting of the permafrost as the earth warms or is there a stronger water vapor effect that could mean accelerated warming?

Q:  There seems to be a shift away from basic research, what can we do?

A:  In almost every instance, what didn't seem so important in basic research at the time, turned out to be important later.  From Japan across the world, much that has been done has been due to the generosity of the US in funding basic research and that needs to continue.

Network Update by Rob Vietzke & Wendy Huntoon

• There are 29 campus innovation pilot sites and 9 regional networks.
• There will be Internet2 Innovative Application awards for user applications.
• There is an XSEDE and Internet2 collaboration to rapidly exchange data between sites.
• The Northern Tier portion of the network is now deeply integrated into the Internet2 backbone.
• Ciena Research on Demand Network between Canarie, StarLight and Ciena Headquarters.
• North American and European network collaboration-involves I2, NORDUnet, SURFNET, ESnet, DANTE, Canarie-taking the transatlantic link from 10G to 100G, creating the same capacity between continents as across continents.  This will happen over the next 90 days and will meet scientific collaborative demands.

I'm at the ADVA RETAG (Research Technical Advisory Group) meeting and listening to a presentation on Google's distributed map database design.  The discussant spoke about Google's breaking the model of database design.  It has stimulated some thoughts on that matter.  

In traditional database design, there is one copy of each record.  But suppose the database was designed so that all versions of a record were maintained, that only the most recent version is the active version and what makes a version unique is, not only the record ID, but also the time stamp?  That way there would be an archive of all versions of a record.  The database would contain all the changes.  The user could go back and make an older version the active record.

With virtually unlimited storage space, this is an interesting twist for a variety of applications.

Family Reunification Project:  National Library of Medicine

George Thoma, NLM

NLM has a project to bring families back together in the event of a natural or man-made disaster.  The reason that this is done by NLM is that hospitals are a universal center point for information about injured individuals.

Steps are to

• acquire photos of victims and associated metadata (e.g., name, email address)
• allow direct search by bpublic
• notify by email and wall displays in hospitals

This has actually been used in Haiti for earthquake, 2010, for Japan and for recent Boston Marathon disaster.

There are drills that happen annually to test and improve the software, methodology, and so forth.

ReUnite is an iPhone/Android app that can be used.  PeopleLocator is for community wide events.  They exchange data with Google's PersonFinder.  This way, as a user, you do not have to go to multiple locations.

You can also go to pl.nlm.nih.gov.
George points out several problems: 

1. Curating the records:  some people put in deliberately false data, e.g., Mickey Mouse.  This is an R&E group that developed this and they don't have lots of staff.
2. There is a need for language experts since these disasters happen all over the globe.

Collaborating with Education and Research Community in United Arab Emirates

Ahmed Dabbagh

Ahmed described collaboration in the UAE:

• Library Consortium
  • Able to save about 40 Million Dirhams by collaborating
  • Reduced prices on ebooks
• Services Roadmap for their R&E network:
  • Get to know who the individuals are
  • Federated Identity
  • EduRoam
  • Video Conferencing
  • Hosting and Co-Location
• International Collaboration
  • They are sharing their expertise with surrounding countries
  • Creating a hub for the surrounding countries and international connections like I2

Remaining questions are how to do this more thoroughly.

UltraGrid Platform Update

This is an affordable platform for high-quality interactive image transmissions.  Uses commodity hardware (PC and Mac).  It's as low-latency as possible (using commodity hardware), open-source software, BSD license.  It also provides a platform for validating research results on compression, image processing, FEC, scheduling, congestion control.

It's been used for generic scientific visualization and medicine (X-ray imagery, cardiology, pathology), education (remote), cinematography, arts (distributed performances in music and theater).

UG supports a variety of formats (HD 2K, , 4K tiled or native, 8K, Multichannel video) uncompressed and compressed, and both uncompressed and Opus codec audio.

Learn more at http://www.internet2.edu/presentations/spring13/20130423-Holub-UltraGrid.pdf.