After four years, Internet2 (I2) is alive, well, and starting to grow up--at least in a smattering of universities across the world. I2 is a lot like an ideal sequel to a blockbuster movie. It has all the entertainment of the original taken to the next level.

For all intents and purposes, the Internet originally began as a National Science Foundation (NSF) computer network. Its primary purpose was to facilitate communication between NSF participants and academia. Gradually, the general public and business world recognized the value of the Internet, and you know the rest of that story.

Today, public, private, commercial, and academic users convey billions of pages of information across the Web. Many organizations simply take their marketing blurbs and press releases and publish them on the Internet. Some sites publish relatively worthwhile information. And growing numbers are beginning to offer interesting transaction-based services, along with sophisticated database applications.

Consider the way Amazon.com started as a database of publications in print, a place to share information about books, or a place to buy books. That was yesterday. Today, you can also access the site to acquire lawn and patio furniture, kitchen supplies, health and beauty items, or just about anything. Unfortunately, the Amazon model is really just more of the same: more retail offered via the Internet, giving consumers the ability to shop in a virtual environment.

Today's Internet innovation can only proceed up to a point. Video, for example, can't be easily conveyed across the Internet because it simply consumes too much bandwidth. And while commercial services and the public have taken the Internet by storm, the storm is part of its problem. Spend an hour or two following the strands of the Web and you'll likely encounter your share of bad weather.

Other times, access speeds are like rush hour on a Los Angeles freeway. You watch your screen fill up with uninteresting language while the pictures take forever to fill in.

Internet2 is a bold new effort to create the next generation of Internet computing infrastructure and the applications that use that infrastructure. In October 1996, 34 universities announced plans to create this faster, more powerful network-primarily for academic purposes. Today, the effort has the ear of the White House, more than 170 university members, and at least 17 corporate partners (some of which include Cisco, IBM, Lucent, Microsoft, and MCI). Several colleges and universities are already using the network.

If you put on your academic-planning hat, the Internet could be very popular for two basic reasons: enhanced communication between research institutions and a new distribution system for academic instructions. The first reason is more of the same. The second reason is popular among academic administrators. How can they increase their student rosters (and the tuition those students pay) without having to add physical campus space and housing? Internet2.

Of course, if you believe I2 is destined to remain an academic pursuit, review your history. One of the primary reasons for I2 is that the Internet continues to be consumed by business and industry. For the same reasons I2 makes academic administrators happy, so too will it please their commercial brethren.

Contributing Editor Cary Griffith is a Web site and electronic books developer based in Minneapolis.

Selected Internet2 reference sites

Visit the I2 web site http://www.internet2.edu, wade through the geek nomenclature, and you'll begin to get a sense of how I2 is eventually going to change your life. According to this site, the primary goals of I2 are to create a leading edge network capability for the national research community, enable a revolution in Internet applications, and ensure the rapid transfer of new network services and applications to the broader Internet community.

Sounds lofty and academic. The part that's going to change your life is "to the broader Internet community." The kinds of new network services and applications being created should one day help the camel get through the eye of the needle. In other words, bandwidth so enormous that videos will be available in digital libraries.

This site will tell you everything you want to know about I2, including its status, programs, and progress. One of its more interesting subsections covers I2 applications.

If you want more examples of the kinds of applications I2 can support, try the Next Generation Internet (NGI) Initiative http://www.ngi.gov. This site provides coverage of the government's I2 progress, research funding, the kinds of applications I2 can support, future NGI workshops, and an assortment of other valuable information.

Not surprisingly, a number of University participants have informative I2 sites. The University of Alabama site http://www.uab.edu/internet2 contains plenty of introductory information on I2, as well as more detailed specifics. Sections like Video Conferencing, Research Applications, and Who's Connected? will begin to give you a practical sense of today's Internet2.

Other Universities have general information that provides a basic introduction to I2, as well as how it's being used by the particular institution maintaining the site. A good example is Kansas State University http://www.ksu.edu/Internet2.

Georgia Tech provides users with a good, brief introduction to I2. This introduction concludes with a quick table of contents to http://www.internet2.edu, and a list of links to I2 at Georgia Tech.

Johns Hopkins University contains solid introductory and background information, along with a list of Johns Hopkins I2 contacts, members, programs, and similar kinds of information.

Other quasi-governmental or academic organizations have begun to cover I2, particularly if the new network can be used to advance the organization's cause. A good example is CREN (Corporation for Research and Educational Networking). This site http://www.cren.net/know/seminars/i2.html contains an entire subsection devoted to creating Internet2, which is designed to give you "a pragmatic introduction to the types of possibilities made a reality by" I2.

Almost all of the I2 corporate partners contain site subsections describing their participation. For example, IBM has a good general introduction to its I2 work http://www.ngi.ibm.com/internet2. The site gives an overview of the project and has a useful news link to IBM I2 press releases arranged in chronological order.

Not surprisingly, Cisco, which has much to gain from the implementation and continued development of I2's infrastructure, carries plenty of coverage of the fledgling Internet. But the best way to review it is to perform a search at the site.

I2 is gradually showing us how the new Internet computing infrastructure will work. Today the Internet of the future, based on I2-developed technology, is supporting very high-speed interaction and an entirely new set of sophisticated, interactive applications. It's a sequel everyone will want to watch.

C.G.