Background: Building on the tremendous success of the last ten years in generalizingand adapting research Internet technology to academic needs, a number ofuniversities are now joining togetherwith government and industry partners to accelerate the next stage ofInternet development in academia. The Internet II project, as it is known,will bring focus, energy and resources to the development of a new familyof advanced applications to meet emerging academic requirements inresearch, teaching and learning.
As reported in the October 11, 1996 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education, computing officials at 34 research universities have agreed to work together to build Internet II, a nationwide computing network that will operate at speeds several times faster than today's Internet. The universities have pledged to create a new organization, financed by membership fees, which will help to fund the effort. Partners in the effort will include computer and telecommunications companies, in addition to the higher education community. The new network will be used only for communications between the campuses that choose to participate -- all messages heading toward other locations will still use the Internet. Educom VP Mike Roberts notes that the plan calls for involving as many corporate partners as possible: "The challenge here is not to invent it, but to integrate it." He adds that Internet II would solve the current "chicken-and-egg" problem, where the telecommunications companies are reluctant to invest in the next generation of network technology until there is a critical mass of potential users.
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