The Internet, the backbone of today's information and communication systems, was actually begun in the early 1980s by research universities. But since its introduction to the public, its popularity world-wide has escalated and the Internet has quickly become clogged, creating delays in the flow of information.

For the academic world, the problem goes beyond an annoying frozen screen. Basic research has suffered. But select universities nation-wide are taking back the Internet for educational purposes through Internet 2.

On Friday, Dec. 3, Columbia's Academic Information Systems (AcIS) will host a half-day event, "Internet-2 at Columbia," at Butler Library, Room 203 from 9:45 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

There will be an overview of Internet-2, and current applications of the new Net and opportunities for faculty and researchers will be discussed, including new forms of communication and possibilities for I-2 research funding. Members of the campus community who are interested in the next generation of Internet technology and what it means for research are urged to attend.

Columbia is one of 160 Universities nation-wide with access to Internet 2, a virtually virgin network space restricted for educational purposes. Included among Columbia-developed applications supported by Internet 2 are the Columbia Genome Center; digital libraries; and the Xbind project, which enables applications to use two types of networks, ATM and ether-Net, at the same time.

Internet 2 offers the academic world a congestion-free pipeline for the speedy transfer of large amounts of data, including streams of video, video conferencing, and on-line texts with multi-media and digital images. Through Internet 2, massive amounts of information can flow more consistently, resulting in better quality and consistency in images and information.

Even now at Columbia, Internet 2 is enabling faculty and staff and other users throughout the world to access collaborative digital library collections such as the Advanced Papyrological Information Systems and the Digital Scriptorium.

In the case of the Advanced Papyrological Information Systems project, people are linked to digital images of the most important writing material of the ancient world, which reside in the collections of six separate universities. The Digital Scriptorium brings text and art from the middle ages to computer screens around the world from the collections of Columbia's Rare Book and Manuscript Library, UC Berkeley and other contributors.

"What seems to be a single website is, in fact, information that is dynamically assembled from research universities all over the country," said David Millman, Manager of Research and Development, Academic Information Systems and technical coordinator for digital libraries.

For more information contact David Millman.