DataBus - Vol 40 No 5: August-September, 2000
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President's Corner
This issue of the DataBus covers key information from CalREN and the impact it will have for K-12 education to the latest on E-rates. You'll also find every thing you need to sign up for our 40th annual conference. Of great interest to the K-12 technology community is the Digital California Project and CENIC. CENIC, the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California, is a non-profit corporation founded by the five major California universities: California Institute of Technology, California State University, Stanford University, University of California, and the University of Southern California. CENIC is the body that is developing and administering the Digital California Project, a multi-million dollar initiative that will extend high-performance network capability to every county and school district in California. The Program Steering Committee will formulate and oversee the planning, development, coordination and implementation of the DCP. CEDPA Board members recently met with Dr. Tom West, President and Executive Director of CENIC, to discuss CEDPA's role in the DCP and to express CEDPA's concern that the "technology implementers" of school agencies were not represented on the Program Steering Committee. As a result of that meeting, CEDPA has been extended an invitation to become a member of the Program Steering Committee. In this capacity, CEDPA will represent the interests of K-12 technologists and serve as a conduit of information about the DCP to its membership. A new section for news and information about the Digital California Project has been added to CEDPA's website. Be sure to check this section frequently for the latest information about the DCP, and be sure to attend the DCP sessions that will be given by Tom West and Warren Williams at the fall conference. Whether you are new to our K-12 technology community our or a long time CEDPA member you'll want to attend this year's conference. It's a great chance to meet with your colleagues around the state and compare notes on issues and share ideas. Our conference will feature two keynote speakers–Toby Richards, Director of Education Customer Marketing and Programs with Microsoft Corporation, and Bill Rodrigues, Vice President & General Manager, K-12 Education with Dell Computer. Both will provide insight on what's around the corner for educational technology as well as a vision on future technologies that will increase access both in and out of the classroom. We have enhanced our break-out session schedule with feature sessions and expanded our tracks to cover a broader spectrum of educational technology. You'll hear real-life experiences from your colleagues as well as strategies from industry leaders to prepare us for what lies ahead, and participate in discussion panels on a variety of topics. This year's Network Operation Center will cover topics on network security, pro-active anti-virus protection, "server appliances," real-time network monitoring, virtual private networks (VPN), firewalls, web filtering, wireless LANs, video streaming and more. Our vendor show is bigger and better than ever! All the leading software and hardware manufacturers and resellers will be on hand with the latest technologies and solutions to fill your networking needs. As a limited offer, each registered attendee will receive a free subscription to Microsoft's TechNet - a $299.00 value. Microsoft's TechNet is a technical knowledge-base resource distributed on CD with a wealth of technical information, fixes and white papers from BackOffice server to end-user applications. Be sure to sign up early to reserve your copy, as this offer is limited to the first 350 attendees. After an information-filled few days, get ready to celebrate the 5th anniversary of our Conference Golf Tournament with a visit to the "Pebble Beach of the South." We will be playing at the scenic Sandpiper Golf Course in Goleta, 12 miles north of Santa Barbara. The Sandpiper Golf Course is a championship public golf course situated in a spectacular coastal setting. The golf tournament tees off with a 'shotgun start' (so we all begin and finish together) at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, 11/17. In closing, a reminder that signups for the Golf Tournament are due by October 10th. Also, hotel reservation forms must be submitted directly to the Fess Parker DoubleTree Resort by October 12th in order to guarantee CEDPA conference rates. Additional copies of the conference announcement and/or the registration forms can be downloaded from the Conference Central secion on CEDPA's website. See you at the conference! |
CEDPA