Plans for Clinton Visit still in flux

[Bill Nickless]

There has been some concern expressed about the dearth of information about 
the Clinton visit.  The problem is that there simply IS no information we 
can count on in terms of scheduling, or possibly even which room at Dine' 
college will be used.

The best information we have, as of the sending of this email message, is 
that Clinton is expected to tour the visualization lab at Dine' college 
some time on Monday.  Earlier we were hearing he would participate in a 
Digital Talking Circle.  Please understand that we simply _do_not_know_ 
what is going to happen, because this involves political maneuvering 
between at least a half dozen entities.  I fully expect the plans to be in 
flux until Marine One leaves Shiprock altogether.  I wish this were not the 
case.

Tomorrow morning (Thursday) Liz Frank will be making the four hour drive up 
to Shiprock from UNM.  She will be working to configure the Access Grid 
node up there.  We expect nothing major to be taken out of the UNM Access 
Grid node itself, which will remain operational.  Some involved network 
hacking was required to keep the UNM Access Grid node working while their 
Cisco 2621 router was moved to another building to handle the T1 lines.  I 
am hoping that ANL people will be available, by phone and/or mud, to help 
her walk through the process of configuring the node.

I expect to go up to Shiprock on Friday, arriving there after noon.  My 
first priority is to get the 6 T1 lines terminated properly, and routing 
set up.  I have very limited AG node operating experience, but may be able 
to work on audio testing once the networking is going.

Liz Frank will be returning from Shiprock to UNM sometime Friday afternoon, 
with an intent to return to Shiprock sometime on Saturday.  If all goes 
well, we should be ready to start doing testing Saturday evening, 
continuing through Sunday.

As mentioned above, we must be prepared for the Clinton demo to be anywhere 
from 8:00 AM MDT to 6:00 PM MDT on Monday, April 17.  Even if we hear 
something different, we still have to be prepared to do the demo with as 
little as 10-15 minutes of notice.  I'm sorry that I can't be more 
specific, but literally nobody on the planet knows for sure when it will 
take place.  Several people may have an idea, but they all have to come to 
consensus and that's not going to happen before Clinton is literally 
walking to the Dine' college Access Grid node.  Since the national Meida 
will be here, we should try to have it up and running all day as an 
attractive thing for them to see.  No matter what--you can rest assured 
that Frank will be making this a PR extravaganza!

Following is a summary of things that have to be done:

  - Configure the Dine' College Access Grid node.  Liz Frank is going to
    be the person with the screwdriver and keyboard.  She will need help
    to get it done quickly and correctly.  As mentioned in the mud, audio
    gear there will include the Gentner.  Argonne folks, could you please
    be prepared to walk her through this?

  - Configure the Multisession Bridge stuff for this demo.  We need to
    choose a private multicast group for the active particpants.  (And
    no, we DO NOT KNOW who the participants outside of UNM and Dine'
    college will be yet!!!)  We need a one-way bridge to a normal
    Virtual Venue room for interested onlookers.

  - Keep pushing.  Things keep falling into place slowly.

  - Keep talking.

  - Keep testing.

  - Keep tempers in check.  :)

Thanks all!

===
Bill Nickless    http://www.mcs.anl.gov/people/nickless      +1 630 252 7390
PGP:0E 0F 16 80 C5 B1 69 52 E1 44 1A A5 0E 1B 74 F7     nickless at mcs.anl.gov