[Library_members] Letter to the Kan-ed Membership

[Christina Madden]

** High Priority **


March 17, 2008

Dear Kan-ed Members,

It is my pleasure to contact you with some substantial updates
regarding the Kan-ed program.  You are receiving this letter because you
are either currently a Kan-ed member, or a potential member of the
Kan-ed network.  The Kan-ed network was funded by the Kan-ed legislature
in 2003.  As established in statute, the purpose of the Kan-ed network
is to “provide for a broadband technology-based network to which
schools, libraries and hospitals may connect for broadband internet
access and intranet access for distance learning.”

Kan-ed currently provides a private statewide network to which our
members connect for video conferencing, distance learning, training,
professional development, and virtual meetings.  Kan-ed provides access
to research and education databases, provides grant funding for internet
access and private network access, and provides grants for video
conferencing equipment.  Kan-ed also provides an authenticated portal,
called the Kan-ed Empowered Desktop, which can be customized by users. 
We also provide funding to support EMResource, which is a trauma
diversion and resource tracking system that has been used in Kansas to
address trauma care, emergency preparedness, and state-wide
communication.

Kan-ed currently has 809 of 899 members that have submitted the FREE
membership application to take advantage of many of the Kan-ed
resources.  Kan-ed also has 280 “connected” members…members that
have a physical connection to the private Kan-ed network.

While we think we have made significant progress, it is simply not
enough.  New technologies are now allowing many more opportunities for
our members, and we wish to make you aware of some of the changes that
will be taking place for our Kan-ed members.  We hope that after reading
this letter, you are as excited about these changes as we are.

Legislative Update

Also, I wanted to provide you with a brief legislative update.  Last
week, the House Education Budget Committee, chaired by Rep. Joe McLeland
(R-Wichita), initially recommended that the House Appropriations
Committee remove all $2 million in State funding that Kan-ed receives. 
However, the Appropriations Committee ultimately approved a motion that
was offered by Rep. Ty Masterson (R-Wichita) and seconded by Rep. Jason
Watkins (R-Wichita) to remove Kan-ed's entire budget of $10 million from
the FY 2009 appropriations bill and instead consider the possibility of
funding Kan-ed during Omnibus at the end of the legislative session.  In
the meantime, Kan-ed is currently presenting to Senate committees, and
we urge you to reach out to local legislators in your community and tell
them the value and importance of Kan-ed.  A reduction or elimination of
Kan-ed funding would have dramatic consequences and your legislators
need to know the value that Kan-ed brings you.  Because the entire House
will debate the appropriations bill on Wednesday March 19th, any contact
you can make with your local Representative between now and then would
be tremendously helpful for the future of Kan-ed.

New Statewide Network

The existing Kan-ed network will cease to exist in July of 2009.  The
network backbone has been under utilized, and the technology that is
used by the Kan-ed network is being replaced by more advanced
technologies.  In fact, some of the vendors that provide our current
backbone will no longer support the backbone after July of 2009. 
Therefore, we need to migrate to a new network.

Kan-ed and KanWIN (Kansas state agency network) have completed a joint
bid process for a new, statewide layer 3 network.  The RFP was released
on November 30th, 2007 and closed on December 31st, 2007.  Kan-ed and
KanWIN followed all State of Kansas Division of Purchases procurement
guidelines and Kan-ed met all federal e-rate guidelines in order to
contract for the new network.  

We were impressed with the submissions, and after careful review
including two neutral third-party reviews of the bid responses, the
State of Kansas awarded AT&T the contract for a new statewide layer 3
wide area network.  Kan-ed and KanWIN are currently in the process of
engineering a test pilot of the new solution.  Several states have
already migrated to the new layer 3 technology solution, so we are very
encouraged that this will be a great solution for Kansas.  Kan-ed will
be selecting test sites for a pilot which will run from August 1, 2008
through December 1, 2008.  Pilot sites will have access to the current
Kan-ed network, too, so they won’t be on an “island” with the new
network.  Upon successful completion of the pilot, Kan-ed will develop a
migration plan for current Kan-ed connected members and for connecting
members that wish to be newly connected.

Advantages of the New Network

So, why is this new network so exciting?  There are several reasons. 
First of all, this new network is much more efficient in relation to
bandwidth utilization and will allow Kan-ed to provide more assistance
to our members to connect to the new network.  Instead of leasing under
utilized statewide dedicated circuits that form the current Kan-ed
network, Kan-ed will be assisting members with access to a new virtual
private network that resides on the AT&T global business network.  This
robust, commercial network is used by Fortune 500 companies, and the
State of Kansas is provided a slice of this network for our use.

Specifically, Kan-ed will be able to provide a T-1 private connection
to the Kan-ed network at no cost to the Kan-ed member.  This T-1
connection can also provide OPTIONAL commercial Internet, if the Kan-ed
member so desires, at no cost.  Higher access levels (3mb, 6mb, etc.)
will be subsidized directly by Kan-ed to reduce their cost and to make
them more available for our members.

In the past, Kan-ed assisted members with internet connectivity by
providing broadband subsidy dollars.  In the new solution, Kan-ed will
instead be able to provide a circuit, router and installation for a T-1
of private network access to Kan-ed w/optional internet access AT NO
COST.  Kan-ed can do this because we have postalized the cost across our
membership base, are utilizing newer technologies that are available,
and with federal E-rate, we can maximize our funding to pay for
connections for our members.