The iGrid2002 conference in Amsterdam from 23-26 September was a conclusive success. Next generation Internet is created with insatiable bandwidth available for application experiments demonstrated on site at the Science Park Amsterdam (WTCW) with broadband connectivity worldwide.
There was a worldwide interest to participate in iGrid2002. 24 sponsors, over 400 attendees and visitors from 20 countries were present during the conference enjoying demo presentations, symposia and tutorials.
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| The symbolical opening of iGrid2002. From left to right: Maxine Brown (UIC), Kees Neggers (SURFnet) and Cees de Laat (UvA). photo by Erik-Jan Bos | An impression of the demonstration room, showing the 540 mb/s 'HDTV over IP' demo from Seattle to Amsterdam. photo by Erik-Jan Bos |
The opening was done by Maxine Brown (UIC) and Kees Neggers (SURFnet) by symbolically connecting Netherlight and Starlight. From that moment onwards, 28 demo presentations from 15 countries were showing new applications using the new lambda connection between Amsterdam - Chicago/New York - Geneva - Amsterdam. Telemedicine, cultural heritage, virtual laboratories, virtual reality and many more subjects were shown at the demo presentations.
The Executive Forum, which was attended by 80 decision and policy makers, listened to a live video conference speech from Ben Verwaayen (CEO British Telecom), to speakers from the UK, Canada and the Netherlands and visited the demonstrations.
The symposia on 'Virtual Reality & Visualization', 'International Virtual Laboratory' and the Tutorials were an exchange of information and new collaborations were discussed! [ppt presentations are here]
Video on Demand of the presentations given during the Opening, the Executive Forum, the Symposia, the BOF 'Lessons Learned' and of the iGrid documentary and interviews are now available.
There is an opportunity for the participants of iGrid2002 to submit a paper to be published in FGCS.
As discussed with prof. Hertzberger, the editor of the Journal FGCS,
Future Generation of Computer Systems, he approved the creation of a
special issue dedicated to the IGRID2002 workshop and demonstrations.
The idea is to get the articles in about a month after the event so
that you can include the experiences (and records) of the
demonstrations in Amsterdam on the special infrastructure for this
event.
The Guest editors of this special issue will be Tom DeFanti, Maxine Brown and Cees de Laat.
A page with bandwidth usage statistics is available.
For a photographic impression of the conference see the slideshow made by SURFNet's Erik-Jan Bos.