[Novalug] Reminder -- DC ACM Lecture, Wednesday May 6th: Sascha Meinrath, "The M-Lab: An Open Research Platform for Testing Internet Performance"

DC ACM winter@frostmarch.com
Mon May 4 11:04:09 EDT 2009


The Washington DC Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery,
with support from American University, is proud to present the May 2009
lecture.

Speaker:  Sascha Meinrath
           with contributions by Robb Topolski

Topic:    The M-Lab: An Open Research Platform for Testing Internet
Performance

Measurement Lab (M-Lab) is an open, distributed server platform for
researchers to deploy Internet measurement tools and was founded by the
New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, the PlanetLab
Consortium, Google Inc., and academic researchers.

Today, M-Lab participants are already developing a suite of tools that
allow users to test various aspects of their broadband connections. The
M-Lab platform supports the development of these measurement tools and
assists scientific research by providing widely-distributed servers and
ample connectivity for researchers' use. Each tool is allocated
dedicated resources on the M-Lab platform to facilitate accurate
measurements. Server-side tools are openly licensed and operated to
allow third-parties to develop their own client-side measurement
software. All data collected via M-Lab will be made available to the
research community to allow researchers to build on a common pool of
network measurement data.

M-Lab was launched in 2009 and is actively looking to expand the
coalition of partnering organizations, network engineers and scientists,
and server deployments around the globe to support the initiative.

Speaker Bio:

Sascha is the Director of the New America Foundation's Open Technology
Initiative and Research Director of the Foundation's Wireless Future
Program.

Sascha has been described as a "community Internet pioneer" and an
"entrepreneurial visionary" and is a well-known expert on community
wireless networks (CWNs), municipal broadband, and telecommunications
policy. In 2009 he was named one of Ars Technica's Tech Policy "People
to Watch". Leading news sources, including the Economist, the New York
Times, the Nation, and National Public Radio, often cite Sascha's work
in covering issues related to CWNs and telecommunications policy.

Sascha is a co-founder of Measurement Lab, a distributed server platform
for researchers around the world to deploy Internet measurement tools,
advance network research, and empower the public with useful information
about their broadband connections. He also coordinates the Open Source
Wireless Coalition, a global partnership of open source wireless
integrators, researchers, implementors and companies dedicated to the
development of open source, interoperable, low-cost wireless technologies.

He is a regular contributor to Government Technology's Digital
Communities, the online portal and comprehensive information resource
for the public sector. Sascha has worked with Free Press, the
Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA), the Acorn
Active Media Foundation, the Ethos Group, and the CUWiN Foundation.
Sascha serves on the Leadership Committee of the CompTIA Education
Foundation as well as the Advisory Councils for both the Knight Center
of Digital Excellence and the Knight Commission on the Information Needs
of Communities in a Democracy.

Special Guest:

A short technical talk will be presented by M-Lab Engineer Robb
Topolski. Robb is an independent networking and protocol consultant with
over 25 years experience in digital communications over wireline and
wireless networks, in projects from from individual applications to
blade-server installations, protocols from AX.25 to VOIP, and in modes
between disaster-recovery to long-term redundancy.

His report, "NebuAd and Partner ISPs: Wiretapping, Forgery and Browser
Hijacking" (http://www.freepress.net/files/NebuAd_Report.pdf), raised
public awareness and helped launch congressional investigations into
large-scale ISP eavesdropping. An article about his investigation into
Comcast's intereference in peer-to-peer uploads can be found here:
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/17-02/mf_brianroberts

When:

Wednesday, May 6th 2009  7:30pm to 9:00pm

Where:

American University
Butler Pavilion
Butler Hall Boardroom (6th Floor)
4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20016-8011
http://www1.american.edu/maps/
http://www.american.edu/finance/transportation/upload/Campus-Maps-2008-7-15-08.pdf

Closest Metro: Tenleytown (Red Line) - take AU Shuttle

http://www.american.edu/finance/transportation/index.cfm

Parking also available (after hours is free):

http://www1.american.edu/tesol/CampusMapButlerDirections.htm#ButlerDirections

The closest parking garage is Bender Arena but there is also ample
parking in the Nebraska Avenue Lot.

This lecture is free and open to the public.  ACM membership is not
required to attend.


Regards,

William Fielder
Chair, DC ACM





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