Baylor Accepted As Member Of Internet2 Consortium
by LoAna Lopez
Baylor University will now play a larger role in expanding the possibilities of a broader Internet, as a member of the non-profit research and development consortium Internet2.
The membership became official in December 2000.
Led by more than 180 universities working in partnership with industry and government, Internet2 offers great promise for Baylor's role in new developments concerning the Internet, said Dr. Reagan Rawsower, associate vice president and Baylor's chief information officer.
"Baylor's membership allows faculty researchers to participate in the development of high speed digital applications that will serve as the foundation of tomorrow's Internet, dubbed Internet2," Ramsower said.
Recreating the partnership of academia, industry and government that helped develop such staples of today's Internet as email and the World Wide Web, the primary goals of the Internet2 consortium are to create a leading edge network capability for the national research community, enable revolutionary Internet applications and ensure the rapid transfer of new network services and applications to the broader Internet community.
Internet2 and its members are developing and testing new technologies, such as IPv6, multicasting and quality of service (QoS) that will enable revolutionary Internet applications not possible on today's Internet. More than a faster Web or email, these new technologies will lead to completely new applications such as digital libraries, virtual laboratories, distance-independent learning and tele-immersion.
Although a formidable challenge for Baylor and its faculty, Ramsower said the Internet2 partnership is vital to the university.
"Involvement entails a high level of research and resource commitment that will pay rich dividends in the future as the telecommunication revolution unfolds," he said.
Ramsower said that interested faculty can contact Tim Logan, director of the Academic Technology Center, at 710-6665 for more information about involvement with Internet2. For more information about the consortium, visit http://www.internet2.edu .