FIND Meeting

While at ISIT, I missed a FIND (Future Internet Directions) meeting. (You may have to register -- give your name -- to get access.) FIND is, as it says on their overview page, "a major new long-term initiative of the NSF NeTS research program. FIND invites the research community to consider what the requirements should be for a global network of 15 years from now, and how we could build such a network if we are not constrained by the current Internet -- if we could design it from scratch."

The page on the meeting is interesting in itself if you want to see what's going on with the FIND program (and maybe get ideas for future proposals). What is also interesting to me is this requirement of the program that PIs are supposed to get together at meetings roughly three times a year as part of the grant. This has not historically been how the NSF operates, though I hear it's common for DoD funding. I doubt the approach will necessarily spread to theory; it seems to me that it makes sense for FIND because it's such a highly targeted initiative, while theory grants cover a much more diffuse range of activities. But it may be that in the future we can expect more money being funneled into similar targeted initiatives -- with similar requirements.