I wanted to share some updates and the preliminary project briefing line-up for the upcoming CNI Fall Member Meeting, scheduled for December 9–10, 2024, in Washington, DC.

While details are still being finalized, please note that the opening plenary session will be extended to include an update and discussion of the CNI leadership transition currently underway, as well as my customary survey of key developments and trends in the networked information and research landscapes. To accommodate this, we will start the meeting a little early, about 12:30 PM rather than the usual 1:00 PM. You can find a tentative meeting schedule at: https://www.cni.org/mm/fall-2024/schedule-f24

For the closing plenary, we’ll hear from Tony Hey, this year’s Paul Evan Peters Award recipient . His talk, “AI for Science: From Open Access to FAIR Data,” will serve as the Paul Evan Peters Memorial Lecture and draw from his prolific and expansive career as well as offering some speculations about what the future may bring.

More details are forthcoming about both plenaries and will be available on the meeting website at https://www.cni.org/mm/fall-2024/plenary-sessions-f24

CNI Senior Scholar Donald Waters has now made available a full draft of his report "Meeting the Climate Emergency: University Information Infrastructure for Researching Wicked Problems" for comment by the CNI community. The report can be downloaded at

https://www.cni.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/DJW-CNI-Report-v2.0.pdf

The plan going forward is to have Don convene a breakout session at the December 2024 CNI meeting to discuss the report; there will also be a webinar (date to be announced shortly) in mid-January 2025 for those who could not be at the in-person session. Comments can also be sent to Don directly via email at djw@40overbrook.com till about January 20, 2025. Based on this feedback, Don intends to revise the report and we expect that a final version will be available in early February, 2025; the final version will be announced here.

I think Don has done a great job of focusing attention on a set of issues that I have not seen much-examined and that are clearly of critical importance; I believe that many in the CNI community will find this report to be quite thought provoking, and I encourage you explore it. Here's Don's short summary:

Washington, DC – The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), and EDUCAUSE are pleased to announce that physicist and computer scientist Tony Hey has been named the 2024 recipient of the Paul Evan Peters Award. The award recognizes notable, lasting achievements in the creation and innovative use of network-based information resources and services that advance scholarship and intellectual productivity.

“Tony is a wonderful choice for the Paul Evan Peters Award,” commented CNI Executive Director Clifford Lynch. “While I think he is probably best known to our community for his work envisioning and advancing e-science (often called cyberinfrastructure in US circles), it’s remarkable to me how his work and his leadership repeatedly connect with the evolution of networked information—his contributions to high-performance computing, repositories, and scholarly communication, and the rich array of collaborations he established and advanced during his time at Microsoft. And, of course, he edited and highlighted the absolutely foundational Feynman Lectures on Computation. What a tremendous set of contributions!”

In 2023, Hey retired after eight years as chief data scientist at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) in the United Kingdom (UK), following a prolific career in physics, high-performance computing, computer science, and e-science. His role with STFC was wide-ranging—he assisted in the development of STFC’s strategy for data-intensive science and high-performance computing; looked at research networks for transferring large amounts of experimental and observational data at STFC and across the UK with the Jisc and JANET networks; helped to develop a program of artificial intelligence for science; and liaised with international partners. Hey commented that, in this role, he “particularly liked having the freedom to look across all ‘big data’ issues for the whole of STFC.”

He began his career as a physicist with a doctorate from the University of Oxford and a post-doctoral fellowship at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) with Nobelist Richard Feynman. After time at CERN (European Council for Nuclear Research) and a professorship at the University of Southampton, he transitioned to work in computer science. He led Southampton’s innovative transputer-based parallel computing research group that pioneered parallel benchmarks for distributed memory message-passing machines, and he co-wrote the first draft of the message passing interface (MPI) message-passing standard.

Today the Internet Archive issued a really important and valuable report titled "Vanishing Culture: A Report on Our Fragile Cultural Record" which takes a deep look at the disturbing state of the cultural record in the digital age; this resonates deeply with and further illuminates developments that CNI has been tracking since the turn of the century.

The report can be downloaded at

This is a long and complex report, and I haven't read the whole thing yet. The first section, which is around 30 pages, deals with Media Preservation and the Production of Public Memory, and highlights the horrible implications of the structural move away from media ownership to cloud based streaming platforms and licensing. The primary author on this part is Luca Messarra, a Public Humanities Fellow at the Internet Archive. The remaining roughly 100 pages of the report are an extensive series of case studies titled "Narratives of Cultural Preservation and Loss" that examine specific areas like books, news, moving images and born-digital materials.

The materials from the 5th Global Research Platform 9 (which was held in Osaka Japan Sept 16-17, 2024) are now available at

This provide a great look at high performance computing and communication initiatives that are supporting leading edge scientific research around the world. While I was to able to be in Osaka, I've had the opportunity to attend earlier workshops in the series, and found them very valuable in understanding the challenges we are going to face in the coming years.

Below, I've reproduced the full announcement from the workshop organizers which has more details. Please also note that 6GRP will take place in Chicago September 15-16, 2025 in conjunction with IEEE E-Science 2025.

The call for papers is now open for the IS&T Archiving 2025 conference, June 24-27 in Granada, Spain. CNI is delighted to serve again this year as a cooperating society of the conference, which covers digitization, imaging, preservation, metadata management, archival workflows, and more.

The conference details and proposal information are available at: https://www.imaging.org/IST/IST/Conferences/Archiving/Archiving2025/Archiving2025_Home.aspx?hkey=92f0ee33-a36c-4594-be74-d70b6302df03

Paige Pope, CNI Communications Coordinator

The call for proposals for the 20th International Open Repositories Conference (OR2025) has been released, and CNI is pleased to once again serve as a cooperating organization.

Please see below for the official call for proposals and links for additional information. Note that registration will open in February.

-Paige, CNI Communications Coordinator

————————————————————

We are now accepting proposals for the next edition of the CNI Pre-Recorded Project Briefing Series. More information about this year-round program is available on the CNI website , and the August edition was recently released.

Proposals may be submitted via online form: https://www.cni.org/resources/pbvs/submit-a-proposal

Videos should focus on a timely topic or on a project related to digital information. We especially invite briefings on recently published reports, and updates on new or ongoing projects, programs, or organizations that may have reported at CNI in the past. We recommend that these videos run no more than 15-20 minutes, though longer presentations may occasionally make sense; we leave this to the presenters’ discretion.

Anyone may propose a pre-recorded project briefing, including groups/individuals from non-member institutions and organizations. No more than 12 project briefings will be accepted for each edition; we issue calls for proposals approximately every two to three months.

CNI Executive Director Clifford Lynch will be speaking at the EDUCAUSE Annual Conference on Oct. 24th in San Antonio.

He’ll provide an early readout from a Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) Executive Roundtable taking place in October 2024 to examine the current approaches to selecting, acquiring, financing, and contracting institutional-level or other large-scale procurement of generative AI services and systems being pursued by CNI member institutions.

Session Title: “Research University Strategies for Implementing Generative AI Systems” Date: Thursday, Oct. 24 Time: 8:30-9:15 a.m. CT Location: 221A–C, Second Level

Additional conference information is available at https://events.educause.edu/annual-conference

The Association of Research Libraries, in collaboration with CNI, is recruiting a half-time researcher in residence position to help advance some of our joint work exploring the implications of artificial intelligence technologies for libraries and other cultural memory organizations. I think this is a good opportunity for the right person in the right situation, and I wanted to bring the opening to the attention of the broader CNI community.

For details, see

ARL Seeks Researcher in Residence–Artificial Intelligence for Half-Time 12-Month Renewable Position — Association of Research Libraries

Updated September 25, 2024 In collaboration with the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is seeking an exceptional colleague to further the Association’s research, advocacy,...

Clifford Lynch Director, CNI

Dates have been announced for the 6th National Research Platform Workshop (6NRP), which will be hosted at the University of California, San Diego January 28-30, 2025. Tuesday, January 25, will be tutorials, with the workshop proper on January 29-30. More details and registration information will be announced later this fall (and I will post it here).

I've had the good fortune to attend the last few of these annual meetings at UC San Diego and have found them invaluable for keeping up on key developments in advanced high performance computation and communications infrastructure.

Clifford Lynch Director, CNI

CNI is accepting project briefing proposals for the Fall 2024 Membership Meeting.

The submission deadline is this Friday, October 11, 2024.

For more details and to submit your proposal, visit https://www.cni.org/mm/fall-2024/project-briefing-proposals-f24.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at paige@cni.org paige@cni.org

Many CNI-announce readers will have seen some of the various editions of the EDUCAUSE Horizon report over the years. Today EDUCAUSE has published a particularly interesting and timely report in the series focusing on cybersecurity and privacy (and I think the pairing of the two topics is helpful in this context). The report looks at broad trends, key technologies and practices (I was surprised by what they did and didn't highlight here), and offers some provocative scenarios. See

for an overview of the work, and links to the report and supplemental materials. For a direct link to the report PDF, see

https://library.educause.edu/-/media/files/library/2024/9/2024hrcybersecurityprivacy.pdf

CNI invites project briefing proposals for our Fall 2024 Membership Meeting, December 9–10, in Washington, DC. The deadline for submissions is October 11, 2024.

For more information and to submit your proposal, visit https://www.cni.org/mm/fall-2024/project-briefing-proposals-f24

Key Details: We welcome proposals on timely topics , state-of-the-art developments, or cross-institutional projects related to networked information content and technologies. Presentations are typically 30 minutes to one hour; we also accept five-minute lightning talks. Anyone may propose a project briefing. Presenters are expected to attend and present in person except in very unusual circumstances. All sessions will be recorded and made publicly available, unless requested otherwise.

If you have questions, contact me paige@cni.org paige@cni.org.

Today, Jarret Cummings at EDUCAUSE published a really excellent concise update "Cautious Optimism on OSTP Research Cybersecurity Requirements" discussing the final version of the requirements for research security programs issued by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the relationship between these requirements and other federal cybersecurity frameworks. See

Last week, the US National Academies issued a report "International Talent Programs in the Changing Global Environment" and held a report release webinar. The report can be downloaded at

International Talent Programs in the Changing Global Environment

The U.S. science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce plays a vital role in fostering and sustaining innovation, economic competitiveness, and national security. This workforce currently depends, and for the foreseeable future will depend, on both international and domestic talent. Foreign STEM talent contributes to domestic innovation, economic growth, and U.S. leadership in science and technology and also expands perspectives and networks essential to future scientific co...

The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) invites project briefing proposals for our Fall 2024 Membership Meeting , taking place December 9–10 at the JW Marriott Hotel in Washington, DC.

Submit your proposal through the online form at: https://www.cni.org/mm/fall-2024/project-briefing-proposals-f24

The submission deadline is October 11, 2024

Project briefings (presentations) address state-of-the-art developments, issues of interest to the membership, a timely topic , or a specific project related to networked information content and technologies, particularly those that are cross-institutional or of broad interest to the community. Project briefings include information about a project’s goals, progress, and lessons learned, time for discussion, and perhaps demonstrations. Issue-oriented briefings include background information on a topic of interest and ample time for general discussion with attendees.

EDUCAUSE has released a new podcast episode, “AI and Scholarship”, featuring CNI Executive Director Clifford Lynch as part of The CNI Interviews Podcast series. In the episode, he discusses the evolving impact of AI on scientific research and education.

You can listen at https://er.educause.edu/podcasts/the-cni-interviews-podcast/2024/ai-and-scholarship

Our thanks to EDUCAUSE for producing this podcast and continuing the series, which features interviews with leaders and innovators in libraries, research, networked information, higher education, and related fields conducted around CNI meetings.

-Paige, CNI Communications Coordinator

Edition Guide Coalition for Networked Information Pre-Recorded Project Briefing Series August 2024

We invite you to view the six videos in the August 2024 edition of our Pre-Recorded Project Briefing Series.

Two briefings provide examples of institutions thoughtfully adopting artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. Enhancing Library Services with Conversational Artificial Intelligence shares the development of an academic library assistant chatbot for the University of Texas at Austin Libraries. Though chatbots are a common AI entry point for institutions, aligning them with a library’s values and needs remains challenging. This briefing provides an in-depth look at the development process of a customized chatbot that offers high-quality research assistance while emphasizing ethics and privacy. The Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) recently launched a two-year AI program, with projects covering government document metadata generation, e-book remediation for accessibility, chatbot integration for student support, and more. Learn more about the program in Ontario Universities' Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Task Force Moves Ahead .

In Sustainable Digital Innovation: Key Factors from a Successful Higher Education Model , Wayne Morse reflects on his extensive experience fostering sustainable digital scholarship programs and innovative digital pedagogy at Emory University. He shares insights on building effective teams of scholars, technologists, and students while navigating financial constraints, changing institutional leadership, and evolving technology.

I have informed Andrew Pace, the Executive Director of ARL, John O’Brien, the President of EDUCAUSE, and the CNI Steering Committee, of my plans to retire as Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) at the end of this program year (June 30, 2025) and transition to the role of Director Emeritus. This should provide ample time to select a new Executive Director and navigate a smooth transition in the organization’s leadership. Andrew and John will keep the CNI community apprised as this process moves forward.

I have been the Executive Director of CNI since mid-1997; this has genuinely been the role of a lifetime for me, a fantastic opportunity and honor. As a community, I think we can all be proud of what CNI has accomplished and what it has grown to be, and of the value it has brought to all of us. Working with the fantastic CNI staff, the leadership – past and present – of ARL and EDUCAUSE, the (sometimes very long-serving) members of the CNI Steering Committee, and all of you who make up the broader CNI community has been an incredible experience. Thank you.

I look forward to working together with you to continue to advance our collective agenda during this final year as Executive Director, as well as doing my best to ensure that CNI will continue to thrive far into the future.

Finally, please rest assured that as Director Emeritus I intend to remain engaged in the intellectual work at the heart of CNI’s agenda; I’m looking forward to having more time to think and to write about these issues and developments.

There have been several interesting developments in the move to post-quantum, or quantum-resilient cryptography, over the past few days. The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has formalized its first three post-quantum algorithms as Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS). Here's an overview press release outlining the process and background and providing links to the individual standards, as well as information about ongoing work in this area.

NIST Releases First 3 Finalized Post-Quantum Encryption Standards | NIST

NIST is encouraging computer system administrators to begin transitioning to the new standards as soon as possible.

The US Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has issued a legislatively-mandated report to Congress which is well worth reading. While dated July 2024, I am not clear exactly when it went public, but I suspect it may have only been in the last week or so. This is worth reading. See

https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/REF_PQC-Report_FINAL_Send.pdf