Consortium Works on Improving Internet

AP Online
12-02-2003
Dateline: ANN ARBOR, Mich.
A University of Michigan professor is leading a nationwide team to develop the next generation of the Internet.

Concerned about the future of the World Wide Web, almost three dozen colleges joined up in 1996 to look for solutions. They were troubled by how much the flood of commercial traffic on the Internet slowed the flow of information between universities and researchers, The Detroit News reported in a Tuesday story. They envisioned a super-fast Internet capable of handling huge amounts of data, and which is free from pop-up ads, spam and other commercial intrusions.

Michigan State and Wayne State universities are among the 204 U.S. colleges that are part of the nonprofit consortium, also dubbed Internet2. The consortium is working with 70 corporations, such as Ford Motor Co. and AT&T, and about 40 organizations and federal agencies, including the National Science Foundation.

"When we started out we didn't have any notion of how long we'd be around," said Doug Van Houweling, Internet2's president and CEO. "Years later, it's clear there's still a lot of work to be done."

Some of Internet2's developments are already in use. Researchers nationwide now can remotely operate telescopes in Hawaii and Chile via computer. The group is also working on technologies that consumers may use in the future, such as faster connection speeds and stepped up security measures.

Van Houweling, a professor in Michigan's School of Information, directs Internet2's staff of 100 at its offices in Ann Arbor and Washington D.C., and other sites across the country.

Member universities give $60 million annually to the consortium, with corporations donating in $20 million. Internet2 also receives grants from government agencies. Committees work on specific projects, and the entire group meets annually. At its last meeting, in October, the group focused on high-performance computer network infrastructures.

Before heading up the consortium, Van Houweling was chairman of the board of Merit Inc., a nonprofit Michigan statewide computer network that promotes high-speed Internet development in the state. During his tenure, Merit was charged by the National Science Foundation to operate and manage the NSFNET backbone _ which later became a main highway on the Internet.

Van Houweling said the consortium is not out to replace the Internet, just fine-tune it. "Our value proposition is that what we discover can be used by our corporate members, who can then transfer that technology to the public sector," he said.

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