Higher education needs a national computing cloud

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Higher education needs a national computi ng cloud

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http: //www.infoworld.com/print/ 53404

InfoWorld (http://www.infoworld.com)

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Higher education educatio n nee needs ds a natio national nal computing cloud By whurley Created 2009-01-25 11:03 PM

January 26, 2009 The Honorable Barack Obama The White House Washington, DC 20500-0001 Dear Mr. President: My sincerest sincerest congratulations, congratul ations, sir, on your  recent inauguration as the 44th President of  these United America. Yourof testament testame nt not n otStates only toofthe greatness g reatness ofvictory our  is democracy but to the transformative power of  democracy democra cy itself. Along with millions of my fellow human beings b eings worldwide, I wa watched tched with pride as you took the oath and became a living example of the impact of a single American citizen. You said, "The world has changed, and we must change with it." [1] I couldn’t agree more, Mr. President, and I believ b elieve e the policies of your administration will be b e a wellspring of innovation. innovation. I know that both b oth you and the vice president president strongly strongl y support supp ort expanding expanding research research initiatives initiatives at institutions of higher high er education -- the heart h eart of American American innovation. innovation. For those th ose institutions, the future is here. But, as William Gibson said, "It's just not evenly distributed yet." [ What shou ld Obama's bama's tech strategy strategy b e? InfoWorld 's Galen Galen Gruman prop oses a nation al tech agenda [2] . | And Inf oWorld 's Tom Yager Yager explains explains why a nation al telecom strategy strategy [3] is a key key ing redient for a strong econo my. ] We've allowed the cost of technology to hamstring our ability to innovate. Researchers are no longer limited by ideas or or knowledge, but rather by access to the computing resources needed needed to execute experiments and analyze the results. I propose you you create a government-funded government-funded computing cloud for use u se by all colleges coll eges and universities univers ities.. Such Su ch a resource resource would level level the academic playing field. Researchers Researchers toiling at thousands of smaller institutions would have access access to computing powe p owerr currently available available only to a handful. handfu l. We cannot predict from where the next great great innovation innovation will come, but public pu blic cloud computing would dramatic d ramatically ally improve our collaboration and innov inn ovation ation as a nation. Great leaps in technological and social social p progress rogress can can occur almost simultaneously. simul taneously. In

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6/13/2009 12:57 PM

 

Higher education needs a national computi ng cloud

http: //www.infoworld.com/print/ 53404

September 1962, 1962, a young researcher researcher published the seed of one of the greatest technological developments deve lopments of our time, while another young man from Kosciusko, Miss., Miss., started his journey toward a pivotal pivotal moment in the struggle strug gle for civil rights. Where some see random random chance, I see providence. provi dence. Paul Baran's recommendation recommendation of a national public pu blic utility ut ility to transport computer data and James Meredith's admittance to the University of Mississippi changed America's technological and social cores forever. Your technologically sav savvy vy administration administration has an opportunity to realize another great leap. My letter cannot be compared compared to Baran's B aran's paper, but I hope it is a timely t imely idea. An idea proposed proposed too t oo far ahead of its time has as little value as one proposed after a commitment has already been made. So I hope to catch you now, before your plans for educational reform are etched, while there is still time to add a prov p rovisio ision n for a computing cloud that t hat has the potential to t o transform disparate, isolated isolated researchers into the world' world's s most power p owerful ful innovation innovation engine.  Again, Mr. President, I congratulate  Again, congratulate you and your staff on your brill brilliant iant victory victory with the help of  technology, and your improbable, inspiring, triumphant inauguration. Respectfully, whurley (William Hurley) Cloud Clo ud Computi Computing ng Source URL URL (retr ieved on 2009-06-13 needs-national-computing-cloud-404

12:57 PM ):  ):  

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http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/higher-education-

Links: [1] http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/inaugural-address/ [2] http://www.in http://www. infoworld.com/article/09/01/20/03FE-obam foworld.com/article/09/01/20/03FE-obama-tech-agen a-tech-agenda_1.htm da_1.html?sou l?source=fssr  rce=fssr  [3] http://weblog.infoworld.com/yager/archiv http://weblog.infoworld.com/yager/archives/2009/01/an_i es/2009/01/an_infrastructu nfrastructu.html .html?source=fssr  ?source=fssr 

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6/13/2009 12:57 PM

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