Introduction

Organized by: TERENA, the Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association, and CARNet, the Croatian Academic and Research Network

Hosted by: CARNet, with local support from Generalturist ltd.

Venue: Hotel Opera, Kršnjavoga 1, Zagreb, Croatia

Under the auspices of Ministry of Science and Technology, Republic of Croatia.

TERENA Networking Conferences are prominent annual events, offering an opportunity to present and discuss technical and strategic aspects of the provision of networks and services to the research and education community, and the corresponding research and development activities. They bring together leading figures from the research networking community in Europe and worldwide, and provide a unique opportunity to learn about the latest developments and plans.

CARNet Users’ Conferences provide a meeting place, bringing together users, researchers, scientists, IT experts and all who face IT challenges. CUC is designed as a platform that provides the opportunity for exchanging ideas, and presenting and discussing experiences.

The joint conference TNC & CUC 2003 offered a unique opportunity for technical networking specialists and users of services to meet and discuss requirements for the future.

TNC & CUC 2003 gathered almost 500 participants. We had a rich programme with over 100 speakers. The official programme was complemented with a number of meetings, Workshops and BoFs offering an up-to-date information on latest development in the networking arena.

Following the custom of CUC conferences we decided to publish the Conference Proceedings on CD-ROM, because it is a suitable medium which will best represent the ingenuity of speakers in the use of multimedia in their papers. All lectures and other material from the Conference can be found on this web site.

The content of the Conference Proceedings is also available via the Web sites http://www.carnet.hr/CUC/ or http://www.terena.nl/tnc2003/.