[ Up ] [ Grant Application ] [ WNY PRI Calendar ] [ Meeting Agendas ] [ WNY PRI Steering Committee ] [ Roster by Name ] [ Roster by Org ] [ Links & Lists ] [ Minutes & References ] [ E-Learning Workshop ]
[WNY PRI Home]
Edited & Last Updated 9/17/2001 by jow

WNYPRI Links & Listservs

Requests for inclusion on the roster for the WNY-PRI listserv and bona-fide requests for additional member contact information should be directed to Carol Kostyniak, Chair, or Jim Whitlock for forwarding and handling.  Please include a brief statement of your background and interests.

Local Email Discussion Lists (listservs):

• WNY-Partnership for Regional Internetworking (PRI):  The WNY Partnership for Regional Internetworking is a new advocacy and working group that plans to lobby for and work towards establishing the robust and seamless regional public sector internetworking that will be necessary to support public benefit networked video applications in education, healthcare and government service.  Our presumption is that such seamless regional internetworking can be best accomplished with a regional Dark Fiber network similar to the several hundred other such networks in various stages of planning throughout North America today.  Current regional and municipal Dark Fiber build plans capitalize on the dollar value of rights-of-way to dramatically reduce deployment costs.  Further, aggregation of traffic affords opportunities for both local peering and reduction of baseline operating costs through volume discount.
  
  A sub-group is actively working on finding the means and mechanisms to fund and operate a regional institutionally shared production-grade support facility and staff for the various video-conferencing and streaming video infrastructure technologies needed to support the networked video based applications that high quality regional inter-networks enable.
  
  Membership now spans most of the major colleges, universities, hospitals, public school groups, private school groups and both city and county government IT/IS departments.
  
  The discussion list is closed (you cannot subscribe by yourself) but anyone interested is invited to request inclusion by sending a brief note to Carol Kostyniak, who chairs the group.  
  
  
  

• WNY-High Performance Networked Video Initiative (HPNVI):  This too is intended primarily for Western New Yorkers but the membership extends outwards to more of our remote friends and collaborators.  It is intended as an announcement and occasional discussion list for anyone with bona-fide interests in applications of emerging high performance networked video technologies.  The WNY-HPNVI is a public service project hosted and staffed by the the University at Buffalo to provide support for regional early adopters in education, healthcare and government service.  The WNY-HPNVI, supported in part by loyal and generous corporate sponsors, develops maintains and operates a public access collection of IP-video infrastructure components  (the Sandbox) for demonstrations and trials.  Several high visibility demonstration/trial projects are conducted each year and the group works hard at freely sharing knowledge, experiences and best-practices.  The WNY-Partnership for Regional Internetworking (WNY-PRI, see above) is a spin-off working group forged by WNY-HPNVI members.  The discussion list is closed (you cannot subscribe by yourself) but anyone interested is invited to request inclusion by sending a brief note to James O. Whitlock, the staff project director.
  
  
  

North American Email Discussion and Distribution Lists (listservs):

• CANARIE NEWS:  Edited by Bill St. Arnaud, Senior Director Network Projects, CANARIE Inc.  CANARIE is roughly comparable to our Internet2 organization except that it primarily serves the Canadian research and education community.  The CANARIE News, however, is well established as the best single source of news updates and editorials related to regional and municipal Dark Fiber deployments throughout North America.  The list is open (you can activate your own subscription) and Bill distributes short bulletins, editorials and news flashes several time a week.  Subscription information is posted at http://www.canet3.net/news/news.html and their Library is also well worth a visit for Dark Fiber related references and, in particular, the FAQ about Community Dark Fiber Networks.
  
  
  

• Megaconference Discussion List: This list, hosted by Dr. Robert Dixon at Ohio State University is one of the two premier global discussion lists for those in the research and education communities who are implementing and supporting institutional high performance networked video infrastructures and applications.  Membership ranges from the most experienced development engineers in the world today to newcomers who have just purchased their first IP videoconferencing appliance.  Development engineers and senior management from most of the major manufacturers are also represented and lively global dialogues are the rule.  The focus is on practical solutions to real-world problems encountered deploying emerging networked video technologies -- in contrast to some of the Internet2 working groups whose missions are more oriented towards standards definition and new technology development.  There's little that will bite you as an early adopter that doesn't get discussed and frequently resolved on this list.  The Megaconference list and the Videnet list (see below) are also the best places to look for contacts and collaborators when you're trying to setup a demonstration or establish contact with a global 323 site where you don't know anyone.
  
  The Megaconference list is also the primary organizing and coordinating vehicle for the annual Megaconference on-line event co-incident with the Fall Internet2 Membership meeting, usually in early October.  The Megaconference is predictably the world's largest public global on-line conference and it serves to educate and humble early adopters and manufacturers alike.  Without question, if there's only one list you can manage to join and only one networked video event that you can participate in each year, make it the Megaconference.  This is where the rubber really meets the road!  The discussion list is closed (you cannot subscribe by yourself) but anyone interested is invited to request inclusion by sending a note to Dr. Robert Dixon briefly explaining their interest and background.  The new Megaconference-III web site is now being constructed at http://www.mega-net.net/megaconference/.  If you register for the Megaconference, you'll be included in the discussion list automatically.  Also check out the WNY-HPNVI About The Annual Megaconference page, my "Why Bother ..." editorial, and keep an eye out for local announcements on our various lists.
  
  
  

• ViDeNet Discussion List:  This list, hosted by Tyler Johnson at University of North Carolina is the second premier global discussion list for those in the research and education communities who are implementing and supporting institutional high performance networked video infrastructures and applications.  Tyler has earned a well deserved reputation as one of the foremost practical development engineering managers in in the H.323 and VOD world who serves end-user institutions.  The ViDeNet production infrastructure, designed and developed by Tyler, is the largest known and most successful such facility in the global research and education community today.  Tyler and ViDeNet are actively collaborating with RADVision and others on the development of solutions to the most serious problems impeding the growth of wholesale networked video applications today. These include Gatekeeper architectures that enable more effective multi-institutional federated administration and H.323 Dial Plan recommendations that attempt to reconcile the often conflicting objectives of the converging PSTN and on-line communities.  It was to the ViDeNet list that Allan Crosswell at Columbia issued his blind request for Gateway assets to provide outbound communications from NYC after the recent WTC attack, and it was on the ViDeNet list that a global community responded.  In general, the ViDeNet list is a bit less "how do I do or solve this or that" than the Megaconference list, but every institution in the R&E community with an H.323 asset collection is invited and encouraged to join.  When you join VideNet as a zone administrator, you will be subscribed to the list and will be afforded the opportunity Neighbor and interoperate with the ever-growing global ViDeNet community.  The discussion list is closed (you cannot subscribe by yourself) but if you would like to be on the list and are not a bona-fide zone administrator, send a note to Tyler Johnson explaining your interest and I suspect he'll add you to it.
  
  
  

• Wainhouse Research Bulletin:  The Wainhouse Research Bulletin, edited and distributed by Andrew Davis every few weeks, is the best concise visual collaboration industry overview and analysis we know of -- bar none.  Short, sweet and to-the-point, Andy and his team provide news of new commercial products, corporate financial snapshots, and industry trends that help keep the rest of us on track.  If you're not so technically inclined but want to stay abreast of the rapidly developing visual collaboration technology sector, this is the newsletter for you.  It costs nothing and you will not find your email address sold to the hungry hoards.  Signing up is simple and painless; click the link at the top of this paragraph.