Reply-To: Logintounmask

Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 15:48:29 -0600

Reply-To: [logintounmask]

From: educause <[logintounmask]>

Subject: EDUCAUSE Washington Update, July 13, 2006

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EDUCAUSE Washington Update, July 13, 2006

IN THIS EDITION

Cyberinfrastructure Advisory Committee Holds First Meeting

NSF Seeking Public Comment on Draft Strategic Plan

CYBERINFRASTRUCTURE ADVISORY COMMITTEE HOLDS FIRST MEETING

The Advisory Committee for Cyberinfrastructure (ACCI) of the recently

created NSF Office of Cyberinfrastructure (OCI) held its first meeting

in June in Washington, D.C. The committee is seen by NSF as the voice

of the user community, and the OCI is the focal point at NSF for

addressing the increasing demands of cyberinfrastructure (CI), the

next-generation Internet, and cyber tools. Every department at NSF is

involved with CI. NSF is also working with agency partners (DOE, NASA,

and NOAA) and is reaching out with foreign colleagues to establish an

international CI network. In addition, an agency-wide council with

representation from each directorate meets every week or so to discuss

what activities, programs, and plans are under way vis-a-vis CI.

NSF Director Arden Bement stated that NSF cannot afford to keep funding

campus facilities, R&D, new projects, and so forth. Partnerships will

be revisited. He indicated that NSF has limited resources and noted

that a major cultural shift is in the offing because many universities

are "out on a limb" with capital expenditures; that there is a need to

co-fund software development on the modular level; and that more

extensive partnerships with vendors are necessary. Industry needs to

become more involved.

As a follow-up on the meeting, the ACCI will submit a list of questions

for all NSF directorates to answer. They will use a cluster group

structure for data collection and run as a virtual organization, using

e-mail to continue dialogue and determine when the next face-to-face

meeting will occur. Four focus groups were established--

Campus/University, Architecture & Software Development, Data, and

ACI/Competitiveness--and these groups will continue to meet monthly.

NSF SEEKING PUBLIC COMMENT ON DRAFT STRATEGIC PLAN

For the first time, NSF is seeking public comment on its draft

strategic plan for fiscal years 2006-2011. In particular, the NSF

requests comments on the following:

* What are the strengths and weaknesses of the draft plan?

* Does NSF's draft strategic plan effectively communicate NSF's

investments and priorities in supporting the science and

engineering communities? If not, what is lacking and how can

it be improved?

Comments MUST be provided by July 17, 2006, through the Web site at

or by e-mail to <[logintounmask]>. A final plan will be

reviewed by NSF and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and sent

to Congress by September 30, 2006, at which time it will be posted on

the NSF Web site.

************************************************************

Written from the EDUCAUSE Washington office, The EDUCAUSE Washington

Update is a free service of EDUCAUSE, a nonprofit association

dedicated to advancing higher education by promoting the intelligent

use of information technology.

From listserv.educause.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0607&L=update&P=7031 July 2007