[Air-L] NSFNET: The Partnership That Changed the World

[Richard Forno]

FYI......rick

http://www.nsfnet-legacy.org/event.php

NSFNET Celebration

The NSFNET celebration event will be held on Thursday, November 29 and
Friday, November 30, 2007, at the Crystal Gateway Marriott  in Arlington,
Virginia.

The event will recognize the impact and achievements of the NSFNET program
through presentations and panel discussions featuring individuals who worked
directly on NSFNET and those whose work it benefited. The program will
examine many important aspects and contributions of NSFNET, including:

    * The life cycle of the NSFNET program, from the ideas that influenced
NSF's decision to support the deployment of a national network for research
and education; the subsequent decision to transition operational
responsibility for the core network to the private sector commercial
Internet service providers and telecom carriers; and the decision following
that to support the vBNS and related activities after 1995.

    * The technological advances that NSFNET facilitated.

    * The effects of NSFNET during its lifetime, including how it influenced
norms of connectivity at supercomputer centers, campuses, and elsewhere; how
it enhanced and altered scholarship; and how the issues confronted by
network community during this massive growth period were managed and
resolved.

    * The long-term contributions of the NSFNET to networking science on
national and international scales.

    * The individual and group achievements of the people and organizations
that participated in the NSFNET program.

    * The concept of collaborative effort between public, private, and
academic institutions, which was a defining characteristic of the NSFNET
program and a significant contributor to its success.

    * The future of high-performance networking for education, research, and
industry. 

http://www.nsfnet-legacy.org/event.php