Around the World in 80 Seconds: Internet2
The University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development's Internet2 project promises to bring a technological revolution-if you can afford to buy into their expensive club

by Ruta Rimas

Internet2 Logo

October, 1996, in a cold, dark basement, at a hotel just outside Chicago's O'Hare airport, scientists from 34 universities gathered to discuss a pressing matter, one that would change academia forever. The problem: the slow speed of the Internet, clogged by too much information, was preventing them, the academics, from sharing their research. To collaborate effectively meant physically relocating, though each researcher had invested too much time and energy with their respective university and each had teaching obligations, to make such a sacrifice. But there was hope: a new network, one that connected universities only, opening the floodgates to a vast sea of knowledge. Dubbed Internet2, this new network was created by those academic networking gods amid blinding flashes of light and high-tech thunder.Or so the tech-geek legend goes.

While the melodramatic touches-the lightning and thunder- might not be true, the rest of the birth story of Internet2, is. Organized by the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID), I2 is a collaborative effort on the part of over 200 universities, nearly 100 corporations, and numerous government agencies that, according to the consortium's published goals, maintains three primary focuses-"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." So, what, exactly, does all of this mean?

Simply put, I2 is a souped-up, turbo charged version of the commercial Internet as we know it today. There are, however, three basic qualities that set I2 apart-cost of membership, the actual physical wiring of the system, and the use of I2 by its members. As Philip Galanter, Associate Director of Arts Technology at New York University, states, "[I2] is far more expensive now than 99.9% of consumers can afford." I2 is a member organization, one with high dues. Anyone interested in becoming a corporate partner must pledge at least $1,000,000 in goods and services over a three-year period. Or, one has to be a member of a university willing to shell out at least $500,000 a year. I2 runs on the high-performance backbone Abilene network. Abilene was developed in partnership by UCAID, Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks, Nortel Networks, Qwest Communications, and Indiana University and through the network's fiber-optic technology and high bandwidth, transfers data about 45,000 times faster than a regular 56K modem. In fact, on October 6, 2002, a new Internet2 Land Speed Record was set by transferring the equivalent of the entire contents of a CD-ROM over more than 9000 miles of network in less than 17 seconds. I2's exclusivity allows for it to be a testing ground for new technologies because there is no clutter. This reason, according to Greg Wood, Director of Communications for I2, is what draws in corporate interest. Says Wood, "Corporate folks have things figured out with the I2 community that they couldn't have figured out on the commercial Internet."

Mike Nelson, a spokesman for IBM (one of I2's corporate partners) and member of the I2 Strategy Council, acknowledges how essential it is for the cooperation of all these institutions. One current project, a new authentification program called "Shibboleth", is the result of an IBM, National Science Foundation, Tivoli, Sun, Red IRIS, Carnegie Mellon University, Brown University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) alliance. Says Nelson, "without the team effort, [Shibboleth] would not have been possible. The team brought it all together."

Other technological innovations include the recent trans-Atlantic electronic touch. On October 28, 2002, MIT officials announced that a high-speed network has the capability to transmit the sensation of touch. Two researches, one at MIT and one in London, picked up a virtual box that was displayed on a computer screen and claimed to feel the tug and pull of the other person.

On a less impressive, but just as important note, I2's media streaming developments and capabilities came to full tilt at a recent member meeting. While most streaming media on the commercial Internet is choppy and uneven, media steamed on a network with the incredible bandwidth of I2, delivers impeccable quality. To demonstrate this achievement , 12 Los Angeles based members "attended" a live performance of Aaron Copland's Symphony No. 3 by the New World Symphony from Miami Beach, Florida. The concert was delivered on a 30x17 foot screen with a 12 speaker sound system, a feat unheard of on the commercial Internet.

Scene from The Technophobe and The Madman

In February 2001, the first I2 streamed musical was shown at NYU's Loew Theater. Actors in "The Technophobe and the Madman" were situated at two separate locations; NYU's Loew Theater in New York City and Renesslar Polytechinal Institute in Tory, NY, 160 miles apart. The stages at both sites were connected by multiple channels of video and audio. Each site also had three video projection screens used as backdrops and as a place in which actors at one location could perform with the actors at the other.

Within the next few years, the technologies developed by the I2 project and its members are expected to trickle down to the regular Internet by corporate commercialization of the technologies. Naturally, such a development raises questions about the ownership of the intellectual property and technological developments that form from the work of I2. Who reaps the financial benefits once these developments go commercial?

To answer this question, I2 developed a set of guidelines called the "Intellectual Property Framework" . Greg Wood of I2 stresses that this framework "is not a prescriptive document. It is an attempt to provide a little help for our members on how to handle Intellectual Property." One quality of the I2 project, though, helps ease a lot of the headaches caused by determining who owns what technology; the intellectual painkiller in question is what is known as open-source standards.

Open-source standards are the sharing of fundamental technological protocols, such as the code that makes up the operating systems that run desktop computers. Take a plain, unadorned hamburger, for instance. Fundamentally speaking, all hamburgers are the same: a ground beef patty with toppings and a bun. Every chef needs this knowledge in order to make a good burger. What separates one burger from the next is what the chef does to alter it. Add lettuce, tomato, maybe bacon to one, and cheese, ketchup, and some secret sauce to another. Pretend, then that this burger is a new technological development. The ground beef patty is like the open-source technology available to I2 members; the extra ingredients will be the selling points for marketable products (to be developed by individual corporations.) What this means is that separate companies can make different items but all these new products will be compatible with one another. IBM's burger will be fundamentally the same as Hewlett Packard's. "Companies no longer have to worry about the underlying protocol," says Wood. "We are going to see a lot of progress in the next three to four years."

This open-source standard, however, draws many criticisms. The rapidity of these technological changes frightens some technological critics. How will this new networking technology be used? Technology such as Pervasive Computing, a name that can send wary shivers up anyone's spine, holds the potential to completely transform our lives. According to IBM, pervasive computing frees users from their desktops and enables them to be wirelessly connected through "handheld devices, automobile telematics systems, and home appliances." Pervasive computing, for example, creates a "mobile employee." These employees will have access (and be accessible to clients) to information anytime, anywhere. "The quality of customer service can be enhanced, and its costs reduced, by expanding self-service transactions to mobile users, particularly through voice-enabled applications. And through wireless data exchange with business partners and suppliers, an enterprise can improve supply-chain management and overall cash flow," reads IBM's Pervasive Computing software website. Robert Dannin, a professor in the department of anthropology at New York University, says, "another obvious I2 application is the pentagon's plan for TIA (Total Information Access), which will merge the commercial transactions of every citizen with all other forms of government intelligence and criminal documentation. My head is spinning at the thought of all this." In response to such concerns, Wood assures that the preservation of individual privacy is one of the consortium's utmost concerns; the user authentification project, Shibboleth, is a prime example.

One the hairiest issues tangled up in the I2 project is that of the corporate involvement in academic affairs. Some, like Philip Galanter, endorse the idea of academic research with commercial applications. Says Galanter, "it is the only way the common man will have access to this technology." Due to the hefty membership fees, this self-selective organization is only available to the financial elite and research institutions. There is no way to gain access to any of these open standard technologies if you are not a member.

The devotion and blind faith of new technology is also detrimental to I2. The tremendous amount of time and effort put into such projects demonstrates to the public that this type of undertaking is a natural progression and that it should be embraced. As Douglas Wernick, a former research assistant of Dannin's, states in an unpublished piece "What Now, What Next", "the overall attention and promise being attached to this legendary event has initiated a global trend of unfounded devotion to its goals based on a vision of the future by the ones who stand to gain the most by it."

This closed-off technology puts I2 and I2's initiatives years ahead of other projects. Says Wood, "we need to look long-term. You can't get to the moon by climbing a tree." Which begs the question-whose moon is it to claim?

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Ruta Rimas is an undergraduate studying journalism and metropolitan studies at New York University.

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