International Meeting of Internet Research Leaders, CESNET Conference 2006, Opened by the Minister Petra Buzková

Prague: The Minister of Youth, Education and Sport of the Czech Republic, Petra Buzková, opened the international professional conference CESNET Conference 2006. On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of its establishment, CESNET, an association of universities and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, which builds and develops the national research and education network called CESNET2, organized this conference on 7 and 8 March in Prague. Over 100 leading professionals from the Internet research area from 15 European countries and the United States have gathered at this event.

When opening the conference, Petra Buzková emphasized the accomplishments made so far by the CESNET association, showing her appreciation for the long-term stable contribution of the association to research, development and education in the Czech Republic. The Minister also expressed her hope in the successful continuation of this journey.

In the introduction of one of the key figures of Internet research, Klaus Ullmann – Chairman of the Board of Directors of the DANTE association, coordinating GN2, the project of national research and education networks within which the most powerful European network infrastructure, GÉANT2, is being constructed; chairman of the executive committee of the GN2 project; and director of the German national research network, DFN (Das Deutsche Forschungsnetz) – the importance of cooperation and a systematic approach within science and research support via a top-quality communication and information environment in a pan-European context was stressed.

Klaus Ullmann's presentation was followed by a speech by Jan Gruntorád, director of the CESNET association, who evaluated the ten-year history of the association but focused mainly on the existing research activities of the association and future prospects.

Concerning the professional branches, lectures at the two-day conference covered a very wide range of issues – from the physical processes occurring within optical signal transmissions and amplification, to highly-specialized distributed network applications. Lectures from the first day of the conference related mostly to applications of cutting-edge computer networks. The most crucial users of these networks include grids – distributed computing and storage systems. And grids were also the topic of many speeches from day one. Another important topic was represented by videoconferencing and virtual user cooperation means, also relating to user authentication and management methods, so-called middleware, which was discussed within several contributions. However, the cornerstone of the second day of the conference were the network technologies themselves, with new activities and technologies in the area of optical networks and the application of programmable hardware in high-speed data transmission playing the most significant role.

The conference ended with a contribution by a representative of the Swiss national research network (SWITCH), Simon Leinen, dedicated to the long-term dispute over the basic concept of computer networks – circuit switching vs. connectionless services. An analysis of previous development as well as a summary of future possibilities, including examples from real practice presented in a cultivated, detailed and non-confusing way, resulted in a very lively discussion, the extent of which considerably exceeded both the original expectations and the time schedule of the conference.

Fore more details on the conference, including presentations of individual lecturers and photos, visit http://www.ces.net/conference06/.

The CESNET association was founded by universities and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. The association is currently financed mainly from the resources of the governmental Committee for Research and Education and the resources of the members of the association. The association performs research and development in the area of information and communication technologies, building and developing the national gigabit optical network, CESNET2, designed for research and educational purposes. Due to the research activities and results achieved, the CESNET association acts as a representative of the Czech Republic in the project within which a pan-European network called GEANT2 is constructed, actively taking part also in the implementation of this project.