Potsdam. The German IPv6 Council initiated a contest for ideas pertaining to the next generation of the internet. The council invites submissions of applications which are based on the new internet standard of IPv6. This way the transition to the new rules of data traffic on the internet should take place in an efficient manner and on a large scale. The IPv6 Council, founded in late 2007 in Potsdam, will award prices of up to 10.000 Euros to the best developers' ideas for concepts, applications, and implementations. The submission deadline is April 10. The winners will be announced and receive their awards at the 2nd German IPv6 Summit on May 14th, 2009 in Potsdam.
"The contest should provide an opportunity for software and application developers and interested parties in general to gain further experience in dealing with the new internet protocol," Professor Christoph Meinel explained the objective. The director of Hasso-Plattner-Institute (HPI) holds the chair for Internet Technologies und Systems at HPI and is the chairman of the German IPv6 Council. The main evaluation criteria would be considerations about how the proposals promote the continuous propagation of IPv6 and how strongly they contribute to the transmission of a new internet experience, Meinel said.
Following the 3rd National IT Summit in late November 2008 the German IPv6 Council announced the development of a detailed roadmap for implementation of the new mega-net, an endeavor it pursues in cooperation with the federal government, industry associations, scientists and other actors from academia, and internet users. With its final declaration (the "Darmstädter Erklärung") the IT Summit provided a new impulse for the introduction of the new IPv6 internet in Germany.
The German IPv6 Council is the German national branch of the international IPv6 Forum, an umbrella organisation of more than 50 national bodies. It is the professed goal to unite all national industrial, academic, political, and administrative actors who are concerned with the improved technical standards for data transmission on the new internet and to advocate the implementation of the new internet protocol. This objective should be achieved through an increased awareness of end users and industry for a more refined and secure internet as well as improvements in technology and marketing. Currently about a dozen representatives from politics, industry, and academia work together in the German IPv6 council.