The Launching of UCAID and Internet2

As president and CEO of the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development, I'm delighted to be here to give you an update on the activities we have been undertaking with the Internet2 project.

As many of you recall, higher education worked together with the National Science Foundation and a number of corporate partners to create NSFNet, the forerunner of what we today think of as the global Internet.

During the days of the National Science Foundation Network, we had dreams -- not just dreams about e-mail; we had dreams about remote access to education; we had dreams about researchers across the world being able to instantly collaborate with one another. We began to implement those dreams towards the end of the NSFNet project. Much to our pleasure and surprise, however, we discovered that this idea we had about the Internet had swept across the world. Right now the growth in demand for that network has exceeded the ability of even our most expert corporate partners to supply.

Higher education and its partners in government and industry convened a number of panels across the nation to address this issue of network growth. These panels concluded that if higher education wants to realize its dreams about what it can do with Internet technology, it needs to develop a new strategy for advancing that technology. What it really boils down to is that higher education has a different mission than industry does. And out of that recognition grew the Internet2 project.

Although the Internet2 project was undertaken to address the problems of Internet connectivity and higher education, we're also undertaking this project to develop technology that will be attractive and deployable throughout the global Internet.

In order to accomplish this goal, we are working carefully with the Federal government through their Next Generation Internet Initiative. We are also working closely with a number of corporate partners and corporate members of the Internet2 project to make sure that they are involved in creating -- and ultimately deploying -- the technology we develop.

When thinking about the future of advanced networking, we ultimately must look beyond the horizon of the Internet2 project itself. The University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development, or UCAID, is a new, not-for-profit corporation which hosts the Internet2 project. Its purpose doesn't end there, however. The mission of UCAID is to provide ongoing leadership and direction for advanced network development within the university community. We are quite confident that the relationship between higher education and advanced networking extends beyond the Internet2 project and towards new projects we haven't even dreamed of yet.

UCAID represents a broad-based interest in advanced networking among universities, as we now have over 120 voting university members in the U.S. The UCAID Board of Trustees is formed of chief executives and representatives of leading universities. David Ward, Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, is serving as the first chair of this Board of Trustees. Expert advisory councils have been formed to address some of the complex technology issues around advanced networking. One of their functions is to guide the Board on issues relating to applications, research and policy. A small core staff supports the work of university members.

As I just mentioned, there are over 120 university members of UCAID. We also have many member affiliates who represent organizations with a strong interest in working with higher education and advanced networking. Also, corporate membership and interest has grown dramatically since the beginning of the Internet2 project. Now more than 10 companies have committed to participating at the partner level, which means that they have agreed to contribute at least one million dollars to help the work of university members. A few of the first corporate partners were Advanced Network and Services, Cisco Systems and IBM.

UCAID member organizations already are working on the Internet2 project. The job of building the first generation of Internet2 is well under way.

The Internet2 mission statement is currently the primary guiding vision for the Internet2 project. Let me share that mission statement with you. The Internet2 mission is to facilitate and coordinate the development, deployment, operation and technology transfer of advanced, network-based applications and network services to further U.S. leadership in research and higher education and accelerate the availability of new services and applications on the Internet.

By its very nature, this mission is focused on long-term goals and activities that won't generate money in the next quarter or in the next year. This mission instead seeks to generate resources for the nation and the world as we move towards the next century. The focus of the Internet2 mission and the efforts that we wish to undertake are of a fundamentally different character than those private industry has an incentive to undertake. In particular, we are much more focused on meeting the networking needs that advance our ability to support our education and research missions.

As you will hear in the other sections of the seminar, the Internet2 project is focused on a new generation of network applications. It also is focused on building the network capabilities that can support those applications. But there is a further goal that we very much hope will be realized through the Internet2 project, and that is the advancement of the global Internet and its technology.

The Internet2 environment is not sealed off from the rest of the world. We know that the communications traffic between any one of our institutions and any other institution in our group constitutes only a relatively small portion of the total traffic that flows on and off our campus networks. So if we were to simply provide advanced networking among our Internet2 institutions, we would not solve the problem of meeting the networking needs of our faculty and students. Ultimately, we need to develop technology that can be integrated into current production. We need to strive to meet our needs within the context of the global Internet.

Let me say a few words about what I think this all will mean if we're successful. If the Internet2 project and its successors are successful, we will realize some of our dreams for the original Internet. For example, I believe we will routinely be able to participate in distant classrooms, and routinely be able to share discussions and seminars with one another, no matter where we are located. We will routinely be able to bring students and faculty together to look at experimental results and data. And finally, we will routinely be able to support our universities' ability to reach out to the global population to meet the global needs for knowledge. This is important work.

What is presented in this seminar is the first small steps that we're taking in that direction. The Internet2 project as a whole presents many technical and organizational challenges. The other sections of this seminar will describe the components of the Internet2 project, some of the processes, and some of the applications. We hope that you enjoy this seminar and that you will join in the work of this exciting and important project.

About CREN

© CREN, 1999

Contact Us