The ability for libraries to provide access to the coming wave of online innovations and the learning experiences and services they will enable will be largely determined by the speed and quality of a library’s connection to the Internet.
Each library will need to grapple with the question of how best to seamlessly and affordably scale bandwidth levels to keep ahead of user demand in order to thrive in and expand our role as essential places of learning to the communities we serve.
There exists a national fabric of not for profit state and regional R&E networks that are all connected together by Internet2, which is our country’s advanced research and education backbone network.
Many of these state/regional R&E networks trace their roots to the mid-80s with Internet2 being created in 1996.
They were conceived, engineered, and built from the ground up to meet the high performance internet connectivity needs of educational institutions starting with big 4 year research universities all around the country and expanding today to include connecting the broader education community ranging k-12 schools to libraries and museums.
I urge you to think of the R&E networking community as major allies of libraries - they exist to help libraries solve the bandwidth puzzle so we can continue to expand our special and essential role as places where everyone can access an infinite variety of new experiences and expertise and the learning opportunities and services this brave new world is enabling.
9. Advanced Applications Require Advanced
Connectivity
VoIP Cloud HD /Room
Rationale
Computing / Videoconferencing
Virtual • High bandwidth is needed for
3 Desktop Desktop Video chat applications such as HD
videoconferencing, content
Real-Time streaming, and large file sharing
Simulation/ Online and transfer
educational gaming
• Symmetric bandwidth helps with
QoS 2 real time 2-way communication
Requirements HD Streaming such as videoconferencing, video
Video chat, large file transfer, and VoIP
(low)
Database/
Content Access • High Quality of Service (QoS), in
Web particular low latency, is needed
Low Browsing
for real time applications.
File Sharing/
Examples include cloud
Email
Transfer computing, and
Instant videoconferencing
1 Messaging
1 = Basic connectivity is sufficient Speed Requirements Italics = Requires significant upstream
bandwidth (symmetric)
2 = Premium connectivity is helpful
3 = Premium connectivity is critical
SOURCE: “Connections, Capacity, Community: Exploring Potential Benefits of Research and Education Networks for Libraries,” A study commissioned
by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, CSMG Consulting, Boston, MA, February 21, 2011
14. NATIONAL INTERNET2
K20 INITIATIVE
For more information, please visit us at
http://k20.internet2.edu
Contact:
James Werle, MLIS
Director, National Internet2 K20 Initiative
360-499-2069
jwerle@internet2.edu
Editor's Notes
As we talk about technology trends and the future of libraries it can be helpful step back for a moment to put the changes into different contexts.So let me just start by suggesting the way information is organized, the way it is presented, and the way the majority of people seek and consume it has arguably changed more in the last 15 years than in the 163 years since America’s first modern public library was founded in Boston in 1848. This timeline shows just a few of the enormous innovations that have erupted in in quick succession over the last 15 years - its easy to forget this s just a mere blink of eye relative to the modern history of librarianship – so its no wonder at times we all feel like our heads are perpetually spinning over what it all means and how to best harness the infinite opportunities these innovations bring to our libraries and the communities we serve. It may also be why attending Internet Librarian this week can sometimes feel as much like a group therapy session as an opportunity to share knowledge and ideas. So I want to take a very short walk back to 1996 to drive home how insanely quickly innovations are emerging and evolving online - in almost entirely unpredicted ways and begin to assert that access to bandwidth will ultimately determine a library’s ability to be both an effective consumer and distributors of innovation and producers of innovation in the future. you’ll recall 1996 was a time when the Internet had just begun to become commercialized and available to the mainstream of society, though in terms of use almost unrecognizable compared with what we have today.
Its interesting to note there just weren’t that many people online 15 years ago– Its estimated that in 1996 there were only 20 million Americans connected to the Internet. Source: Internet of Yesterday & Today: 1996 vs. 2011 [INFOGRAPHIC]http://mashable.com/2011/09/09/internet-yesterday-today/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29“Do what you do best, then link to the rest!” jeffjarvis rule.
In 96’, only 28% of all public libraries offered public access to the Internet. 76% of those libraries and the vast majority of Americans with connectivity at home accessed the Internet at no greater 56Kbps on a dial up modem. Source:Public Libraries and the Internet 1996http://plinternetsurvey.org/sites/default/files/publications/1996_plinternet.pdf
In 1996 people were online an average of about ½ hour per month. Today most of us here probably spend at least a ½ hour a day just on various social media sites. Source: Internet of Yesterday & Today: 1996 vs. 2011 [INFOGRAPHIC]http://mashable.com/2011/09/09/internet-yesterday-today/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29according to Steve Coffey, who's now the chief research officer of the market research firm the NPD Group. (Today, we spend about 27 hours a month online, according to Nielsen.) http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2009/02/jurassic_web.html
All of this is also to underscore the point that the information technology revolution we’re all living through today is just getting started. The next 15 years will no doubt produce untold innovations that will only accelerate the rate of change in our lives and by extension how libraries serve people in the future.
Take a look at this chart - According to Cisco, online video will be the fastest growing application driving traffic on the Internet in the next 5 years... far surpassing traffic from other activities such as online file sharing and download, and lower bandwidth intensive but ubiquitous activities like email, web browsing, etc. To give you a sense for how much video we’re talking about.... Cisco forecasts that by 2015 there will be a million minutes of video per second crossing the Internet. That means it would take over 5 years to watch the amount of video going across Global IP networks ever second in 2015. source: http://bit.ly/z7ShRToday Internet video accounts for about 40 percent of consumer Internet traffic, and will reach 62 percent by the end of 2015. The sum of all forms of video (Internet TV, video on demand [VoD] like netflix, videoconferencing, and P2P video file sharing) will be approximately 90 percent of global consumer traffic by 2015.
So let’s talk about applications –Those listed in upper right corner of this chart like desktop video chat,, high definition streaming video and multi-person high def interactive videoconferencing and teleimmersion, various instantiations of cloud computing both administrative and public facing, as well as real-time online educational gaming, virtual worlds and simulations -- these last three will be infused into online courses that continue to explode in popularity. These are just a few of the applications our patrons are going expect to routinely use at the library in the future – all of these will require high performance broadband networks in order to operate properly – not just broadband that delivers fat pipes with poor performance..
According to the 2011 Public Libraries and the Internet Survey, nearly 50% of libraries reported their connection speed to be insufficient some or all of the time ---- At the same time, 75% reported that they did not increase their connection speed during the past year. This is despite the fact that about 70% of public libraries saw an increase in the use of their public access workstations and 75% reported an increase in the use of their Wi-Fi network. The bottom line here is we’re seeing is a dangerous trend developing – some might even call it a crisis. Where many libraries beginning to seriously fall behind the bandwidth curve – we’re struggling to keep up with patron demand for bandwidth today, let alone getting out ahead of the demand we know is coming tomorrow.
So essentially the ability for libraries to provide access to this coming wave of innovation and the learning experiences and services it will enable will be largely determined by the speed and quality of a library’s connection to the Internet. Each library will need to grapple with the question of how best to seamlessly and affordably scale bandwidth levels to keep ahead of user demand in order to thrive in and expand our role as essential places of learning to the communities we serve.
What I’d like to do in the brief time I have remaining is share one of the best kept secrets that I hope you will not keep to yourself. If you take away only one message from me today I would like it to be this. There exists a national fabric of not for profit state and regional R&E networks that are all connected together by Internet2, which is our country’s advanced research and education backbone network.Many of these state/regional R&E networks trace their roots to the mid-80s with Internet2 being created in 1996. They were conceived, engineered, and built from the ground up to meet the high performance internet connectivity needs of educational institutions starting with big 4 year research universities all around the country and expanding today to include connecting the broader education community ranging k-12 schools to libraries and museums.
So Before I turn the podium over I’m going to assign everyone a piece of homework - and that is to read or share the recent report commissioned by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation entitled “Connections Capacity, and Community: Exploring Potential Benefits of Research and Education Networks for Public Libraries”. The URL to the report is printed on this slide and will be available on Internet Librarian conference site. The title calls out public libraries specifically but much of the information in the paper applies to K-12 schools, colleges and universities and other “community anchor institutions as well. I urge you to think of the R&E networking community as major allies of libraries - they exist to help libraries solve the bandwidth puzzle so we can continue to expand our special and essential role as places where everyone can access an infinite variety of new experiences and expertise and the learning opportunities and services this brave new world is enabling