Early Adopters

The Campus Testbed Phase of Early Harvest

Request for Proposals

The purpose of this note is to invite participation by a limited number of institutions in the test-implementation phase of an NSF-supported Internet2 activity called Early Harvest. In the first phase of this work earlier this fall, a group of national experts from leadership campuses were brought together to develop best practices in the design and deployment of core middleware services (notably identifiers, authentication and directory services). In this second phase, called Early Adopters, the focus is on helping campuses deploy middleware and adding those experiences to the best practice compendia.

Early Adopters offers a unique opportunity to participant institutions. There will be access to technical assistance on a high level. The campuses will form a self-support group that can be used to share successful approaches, provide additional counsel, and motivate recalcitrant areas of campus to become more involved. Early Adopters will receive significant national visibility. And, of course, participants will be able to quickly leverage their middleware infrastructure for other campus activities, from inter-institutional resource sharing to administrative application development.

At the same time, there are obvious costs to campus participation in Early Adopters. The institution must be willing to make a significant commitment of staff time, both at technical and policy levels. Some financial expenses are associated with the deployment of authentication and directory systems. And, as with any leadership effort, there is some degree of risk and invention required.

More information, including time frames, application process, and supporting materials, can be found off of the Early Harvest website at http://middleware.internet2.edu/earlyharvest/. Campuses interested in participating should send in application materials, including letters of endorsement from senior campus management, by Friday, November 12, 1999. Participants will be selected based upon the strength of their application and what they bring to the effort, both in terms of skills and diversity of campus environments.

Thank you for your attention.