Technology has come a long way in the past few decades. But, have you ever stopped to think about where it might go in the future?
Music lessons with an instructor thousands of miles away. Practicing your Spanish with native Spanish speakers in Mexico City. Watching an experiment take place in a laboratory across the continent, or even across the globe.
Now, imagine doing all of this in real-time, with high-quality video and sound.
With Internet2 technology, all of these things and more are possible, Bob Riddle, Internet2 applications technologist, said at the “Internet2 and Our Community Day” information sessions.
Internet2, or I2, is a high-speed network currently being supported by over 200 universities, 60 corporations and 40 non-profit and government laboratories in the United States.
The high speed makes it a powerful research and instructional tool by allowing almost instant transfer of large amounts of data that might take hours to transfer send the commercial Internet, where much of the relatively limited bandwidth is now being taken up by casual surfers and file-swappers.
“I2 is about trying to provide the capability to do things that are necessary to support research and educational missions that you can’t do on the Internet that exists today,” Riddle said.
The people behind I2 hope it will one day become “the next Internet,” and the advanced technologies powered by it will become available to the public.
“I2 hopes to go through the same cycle (as the original Internet), where it was research and development at its deployment and finally became a commodity,” Riddle said.
ETSU and the other Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) institutions hope to gain access to I2 in the near future, despite the current state budget crisis.
“One of the goals of (TBR’s Internet2 task force) is to put together a convincing argument to take forward to the government and the state legislature that the institutions becoming a part of I2 and getting the connectivity capabilities is vital to the economic well-being of this state, and money needs to be allocated for it,” said Mike Woodruff, vice provost for research at ETSU.
If ETSU becomes an Internet2 member institution, local community colleges and K-12 schools could also benefit.
However, that will likely be at least two years down the road due to the costs of network hardware upgrades necessary to support the speed of I2, said Pamela Plotkin, director of sponsored programs at ETSU.
“We’ve got to try and find someone who’s willing to fund it, and once it’s funded, have the work actually done,” Plotkin said.
By becoming members of Internet2, universities gain free access to loaner hardware that their institutions may not be able to afford in addition to access to the necessary networks that will allow research and education capabilities to expand.
“The opportunities here are immense,” Woodruff said.

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