3.9 Announcement of Internet Week 99

(Education Working Group)

JPNIC selected to be host

Internet Week season has arrived again.

http://www.nic.ad.jp/jp/iw/index.html

Internet Week 99 will be held at Pacifico Yokohama for five days, from December 14 to 18.

As is commonly known, IW (Internet Week) has continued to grow in size from year to year. Internet Week, with its rich diversity of programs, is an event where groups and organizations from around the country, all of which are engaged in research and development of the Internet technology, convene in a hall. It has gained support from many people as the importance of its role is increasing, which has required more and more commitment to its planning and operation.

Last year's IW was jointly hosted by 11 participating organizations, with the executive committee in charge of event operations. Meanwhile, there was room for improvement in that it is desirable that an incorporated organization host the event in order to wade through contractual and financial issues. JPNIC has made a strong commitment to planning and operation of the event with recognition of the event's educational value and the importance of the meaning for each community to share a common place. It was also confirmed within JPNIC that an appropriate response should be made if asked to be in the driver's seat. The decision that JPNIC would host the event was made on June 7 at the First Organizing Committee Meeting.

The Organizing Committee consists of representatives from co-hosting organizations, with meetings held twice a month. The role of each participant is as follows:

Organizing Committee Chairman: Susumu Sano (JPNIC)
Secretary General: Koki Higashida (JPNIC)
Program Chairman: Yoshiki Ishida (JEPG/IP)

Other staff members, who are in charge of public relations, network, operations, sponsors from business firms, and accounting are organized to be at work for planning and preparations.

Configuration of Tutorials

This year, 30 tutorials will be chosen and presented by the Program Committee. In recent years, tutorials have come to be a central feature of the event as their popularity has risen. Resources of programs presented the past two years have been archived and are available through networks to people from various fields who are learning about network technology. PDF format lecture notes and a video archive (RealVideo format lecture materials), which is being created jointly with the Wide Project are under way in order to be released in March 2000.

Beginners may feel confused about today's tutorial programs which are mostly furnished with leading edge technologies. For IW to be helpful to beginners engaged in management and educational businesses in particular, the 5-program Beginners Track was established this year. Prices have also been halved, with the aim of encouraging the participation of beginners.

Tutorials slated for this year include the following.

• Beginners' Tutorial (5)
• Security (7)
• Basic Technology of the Internet (8)
• Trend of Leading Edge Technology (8)
• Trend of the Internet (2)

( ) = Indicates the number of programs.

BOF Sessions

BOFs have been held every year during Internet Week to provide occasions for carefree exchange of information. This year in particular, we have invited the public and many the Internet communities to conduct their own BOF sessions. Together with those selected by the Program Committee, there will be a total of 16 BOF sessions.

This year, once again, JPNIC's Educational Working Group is planning to hold a BOF ("Current status and issues of internt education in Japan," 12/18 at 15:00). Participation in this event will be welcomed.

Participating Organizations

In continuation from last year, the following leading organizations will participate in the IW.

• Japan Engineering and Planning Group for IP (JEPG/IP)
• Japan Society for Software Science and Technology (JSSST) Internet Technology Study Group
• Japan UNIX Society (JUS)
• WIDE Project (WIDE)
• Internet Association of Japan (IAJ)
• Java Conference (Java Conference)
• Japan Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center (JPCERT/CC)
• UBA (Unix Buisiness Association)
• Japan Network Operators Group (JANOG)
• Nihon Sun User Group (NSUG)
• Japan Linux Association (JLA)
• Network Association

Sponsor

The 14 companies listed below are sponsoring this year's event. Some of the companies will hold solution seminars during the event. Visitors are welcome.

Woodland, Inc.
NTT Communications, Co., Ltd.
Crayfish Co., Ltd.
Sun Microsystems K.K.
Agilent Technologies Japan, Ltd.
Dit Co., Ltd.
Tokyo Telecommunication Network Co., Inc.
Net One Systems Co., Ltd.
Nortel Networks Japan
PSINet Japan Inc.
Impress Corporation
Internet Research Institute, Inc.
Nifty Corporation.
World Axle Incorporated Company

(As of November 22, 1999)