IST 2004 - Participate In Your Future

The IST 2004 event took place at the Netherlands Congress Centre in The Hague. It brought together policy makers, FP6 project leaders and ICT researchers to discuss the big issues facing information society technologies.

One strong theme of the conference focused on international collaboration between the EU and countries such as China, India and Russia. The relationship between the EU and Latin America was also explored, highlighted by the success of the ALICE project to create the RedCLARA research and education network for Latin America.

Complementing the conference was an exhibition of current research projects, where tomorrow’s technology is in development. It was in this context that DANTE participated, highlighting GÉANT2 and its enabling role in scientific and academic research. Two network demonstrations were featured to draw attention to the potential applications of the network.

• eVLBI: Using The GÉANT network to Build a Telescope as Big as Europe
  This real-science presentation by the Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE) and the European VLBI Network (EVN) saw radio-telescopes across Europe connected by GÉANT to create a telescope as big as Europe. All telescopes focused on the same cosmic ray source, and the data collected was transferred via GÉANT and processed in real-time. Webcams at each telescope, and at the processing centre in the Netherlands, allowed visitors to the GÉANT2 stand to follow the progress of the experiment.
  
  
• BioCASE: A Biological Collection Access Service for Europe, Enabled by Research Networking
  The BioCASE project revolutionises the way in which biological collections are used, enabling widespread accessibility across Europe. To achieve this, biological databases throughout the continent are linked via GÉANT, making use of its extensive geographical reach. The IST demonstration consisted of an interactive interface with the BioCASE database, allowing the visitor to appreciate the accessibility, range and depth of information from the several million items catalogued in collections across Europe. The capacity of the network will support expansion of the BioCASE project, including the transfer of large multimedia files on biological specimens.

GÉANT2 jointly exhibited under the umbrella stand of “E-infrastructures. Empowering Research and Education with the most advanced ICT”. Joining GÉANT2 at the stand were DEISA, EGEE, SEE-GRID and DILIGENT. These projects set the benchmark for ICT research in Europe, using GÉANT2 to develop advanced Grid applications.

Further information about each of these projects can be found via the links alongside. Detailed case studies on eVLBI and BioCASE can be downloaded from the GÉANT newsroom.