5.5.2003 -- While CENIC’s (Corp for Education Network Initiatives in Calfornia) mantra of A Gigabit or Bust may seem a bit “over the top” to some sectors of the telecommunications industry, California’s visionaries are once again leading the way to tomorrow’s Internet.
With a grant from the State of California, CENIC’s Next Generation Roundtable is focusing on speeding One Gigabit broadband to all Californians by 2010, or in California “shorthand,” One Gigabit or Bust.
On May 7, 2003, CENIC recognized the winners of its On the Road to a Gigabit Awards at an awards luncheon held in Santa Barbara, CA. The awards spotlight industry, academia, government, and community organizations who are applying ultra high performance network technology in innovative ways to encourage the development and implementation of a ubiquitous Gigabit state-wide network by 2010.
CENIC’s goal of a one gigabit per second (Gbps) ultra broadband infrastructure for all Californians represents more than a thousand-fold increase from today’s commercial DSL and cable networks. It is this increased functionality and performance of the nation’s broadband infrastructure that promises to once again spur enormous potential for continued U.S. economic growth.
Larry Smarr, director, California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology and Harry E. Gruber professor in the UC San Diego Department of Computer Science and Engineering, lauded CENIC for advocating a Gigabit or Bust to every home, school, and business by 2010. “Today’s research and education communities are living in the future and beginning to realize the benefits of a 10 to 40 Gigabit network. In many ways we are in a very similar situation as 10 years ago when the Internet was an unknown entity to a majority of people. The winners of the On the Road to a Gigabit awards showcase the “Best of the West” in network technology and applications. Remember Mosaic? Well, hold on to your hats, we’re just getting a glimpse of living in a Gigabit world.”
The California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, also known as Calit2, co-sponsored the On the Road to a Gigabit awards, and Smarr was one of the judges. Other experts judging the nominations included Susan Estrada, CEO, Aldea Communications; Jim Hawley, director of California Outreach, TechNet; Jeff Newman, partnership manager, Division of Science, Technology, and Innovation, California Technology, Trade & Commerce Agency; John Silvester, vice provost for Scholarly Technology, University of Southern California; and Thomas W. West, president of CENIC.
CENIC received more than 60 nominations for the On the Road to a Gigabit Awards; the categories for the best uses of high performance networking include:
Biggest, Fastest in the West: The Biggest, Fastest in the West Award honors the fastest and most scalable high-performance networking application/technology.
Community: The Community Award honors innovative uses of high-performance networking to overcome network disadvantages (economic and/or location based).
Education: The Education Award honors innovative uses of high-performance networking in K-12 and higher education.
Gigabit or Bust: The Gigabit or Bust Award honors the high-performance networking application/technology that best exemplifies what life would be like in a gigabit-connected world.
Innovation: The Innovation Award recognizes innovative contributions to high-performance networking that best exemplify the creative spirit and the bottoms-up philosophy that created the Internet.
Partnership: The Partnership Award honors the best use of high-performance networking developed by a private/public partnership.
The On the Road to a Gigabit Awards ceremony was held in conjunction with the CENIC 2003 annual conference that met in Santa Barbara, CA, May 7, 8 and 9. The first day of the conference not only highlighted the technologies paving the road to a Gigabit world, but also showcased the developments of CENIC’s Next Generation Internet Roundtable, including the release of the CENIC-commissioned study by Gartner entitled “One Gigabit or Bust Initiative—A Broadband Vision for California.”
About CENIC
CENIC is a not-for-profit corporation serving the California Institute of Technology, California State University, Stanford University, University of California, University of Southern California, California Community Colleges and the statewide K-12 school system. CENIC’s mission is to facilitate and coordinate the development, deployment and operation of a set of robust multi-tiered advanced network services for this research and education community.
More information about CENIC can be found at http://www.cenic.org.
CONTACTS:
Thomas W. West, President
CENIC
Voice: 562.346.2280
Email: twest@cenic.org
Julie M. Van Fleet
Voice: 619.276.0090
Email: julie@cenic.org