On the walk from my hotel to the conference venue, I pass the huge
market, where there is food in every size and shape,
and lorries in every size and shape.
When you see the first and second steet of this kind, you think that this particular
street is especially pretty and cosy. After a short while you realize that
this is the typical scenario in Catania.
A small park just north of the venue.
The leisure harbour
A fine turnout for the TERENA Technical Advisory Council (TAC) meeting at 9AM.
After the meeting started, the turnout got even better, beacuse
some some had gotten the impression (from the printed
programme) that it did not start before 9.30.
The TAC meeting featured several topics, the first of which was the TERENA
Server Certificate Service, presented by John Dyer from TERENA (to the
left), which is a very good and practical intiative that all
NRENs should join. Secondly, a joint video conferencing service presented by
Victor Reijs from HEAnet was given
a fair share of debate.
No matter where you go on the conference, there is always people working.
This year, there is a tendency that more and more people are
videoconferencing from their laptops. Could it be the "Breeze-effect"
that we see here?
Danes at the conference: Here we have support manager Kurt Bøge (whose
carreer has just been upgraded by
the appointment to chief administrator of the TERENA Server Certificate Service in
Denmark) and Helle Meldgaard who is mostly known as organizer of events for
video conferencing users and main author of UniVid.
UniVid is the site where
best practices in the field of video usage for teaching and research is
collected. Still only available in Danish, though.
More Danes: This picture shows next year's local TNC organizers in Denmark:
Gitte Kudsk to the right
and a Linda Greve Bendixen, who has recently joined UNI-C.
The coffee break is placed outside, where you have the choice between sun and shadow.
Next item on the agenda in TAC is about providing video conference services to schools.
In England, they have made a mavellous service with thousands of users. A lot of us
have something to learn, here.
No meeting touching Lifecycle and Portfolio Management is done without
displaying what has come to be known as the "Walter Figure" - named after it's
author Walter van Dijk from SURFnet.
Along with John Dyer and Claudio Allocchio (GARR/TERENA) we have Urs Eppenberger from SWITCH
on the podium for this agenda item.
Lunch in the same charming surroundings,
and even the weather couldn't be better.
The entrance to the venue of the conference, "Le Ciminiere", which is an old
factory (with a lot of chimneys - hence the name) which is converted into a cultural centre with
two museums and the conference facilities, we are using.
The opening session is chaired by the director of GARR, Enzo Valente,
who welcomes everyone.
The welcoming speech is given by Maurizio Binacchi from
MIUR (Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research)
First item is about a local giga-science initiative: Director of
INFN-LNS (National Institute of Nuclear Physics)
Emilio Migneco explains about the plans to make an...
underwater neutrino telescope, which will (when finished) consist of an array of
photo multipliers that fill up a whole cubic kilometer.
John Delaney gave a very inspired talk about how the sea will be explored in the future, using network techonlogi and IT.
One of his many interesting points was this: Looking at a river, pollution
will only affect those living downstream, but looking at the sea, we are all downstream. Think about that!
A nice quote explaining why we should continue of pushing the frontiers of research.
An impressive turnout for the opening session.
My next session was about "demanding applications", and the first speaker was
Ted Hanss from University of Michigan Medical School...
...talking about the potential uses of the network by the medical community.
Nike Nowlan from Trinity College Dublin was chairing
Next speaker was me! I was presented as the guy taking
pictures all the time, and
in order to live up to this expectation, I took this photo from the speaker's stand.
Last item on the agenda was about an interactive museum exhibition about Leonardo da Vinci,
called "The Mind of Leonardo"
...so this figure is not a picture of the mind of Leonardo, but rather the
infrastructure of the website.
Looking over the roof of the conference centre, you see some of the
chimneys that has given the centre it's name.
Everywhere, people are using laptops.
Speaker's room
The TERENA Presedent, Dorte Olesen, bids welcome to the opening reception and
invites people to have some food...
...and a few seconds later everyone stampedes towards the buffet...
...which is really popular.
The band was playing an interesting mix of Australian aboriginal instruments and
a techno-like style.
A beautiful evening under the clear sky
Yesterday I spotted this duo at McDonalds. Here, they are, culturally upgraded
to having beer in the street...
...together with a bunch of other danes.
A good conclusion to a perfect first day at the conference.
Martin Bech