European Future Networking Initiatives Workshop
Summary
TERENA is organising a European Workshop on Future Networking Initiatives on Thursday, 22 February 2007. This one-day event will be held at the Mercure Hotel near Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.
Tel: +31 20 617 9005
The venue is located close to Schiphol Airport and is easil accessible via the A4, A9 and A10 highways. There is also a free shuttle bus to and from the airport every 15 minutes or so, which has direct flights from many European destinations.
The workshop is aimed in particular at General Managers and Chief Technical Officers of National Research and Education Networking organisations (NRENs). The objective is to exchange information and raise awareness of the many discussions and initiatives that are occurring worldwide to develop a new 'clean slate' architecture for the Internet, and to discuss how the European research networking community may wish to participate in these developments.
A number of speakers will present their views on the proposed next steps in the Internet (r)evolution. One of them will be Bill St. Arnaud, who is a leading player in instigating customer-empowered dark-fibre networks, and who has great interest in these new developments. There will also be a panel discussion where workshop participants can put forward their questions, and contribute their own views.
Background
The historic development of network technology, infrastructure and services has never been a gradual one. It has rather been characterised as a series of radical changes, separated by periods of relative stability. Quite often, these changes have been initiated through wide discussions based on a number of characteristic buzzwords. It is therefore not unusual that ideas are often discussed for one or two years before they crystallise, and it becomes clearer what they actually mean, and how they will actually be implemented.
Starting about two years ago, one such discussion started worldwide, characterised by terms such as 'GENI', 'Clean Slate Internet' and "Internet Re-Design". The fundamental thought is that current Internet technology was never designed with today's network applications in mind, and therefore has created barriers rather than being a stimulus for their development. The Internet has been a fantastic success, but in many ways it is no longer fully meeting the needs of its users.
Some people therefore believe that it is time for an 'overhaul of the Internet'. Is this something you agree with?