Current | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001

14 April 2004

Huge benefits from international collaboration

The NGI-NZ Society recent agreement with Internet2 in the United States promises a range of benefits to members.

Internet2 is a consortium of 205 United States research universities established to further US leadership in research and higher education. It’s high-speed backbone network, Abilene, provides interconnection to more than 200 research and education agencies throughout the US.

NGI-NZ and Internet2 signed a Memorandum of Understanding earlier this year to jointly collaborate on the development of next generation internet technologies and applications. “What many may not realise is that this is not a network connection, but a ‘community connection’,” says NGI-NZ Society CEO Tone Borren. “It already allows our members automatic access to the many activities, including conferences, forums, and discussion platforms, in the advanced networking arena.

“It opens up opportunities for our membership to learn and gather useful information, even while the physical network interconnection is still pending. There is huge value in the collaboration that is made possible by what you could call the ‘communities beyond the network’, for example in application areas such as grid computing.”

NGI-NZ has recently co-hosted a visit by Grid Computing expert Professor Ian Foster. His talks in New Zealand (see http://www.ngi-nz.co.nz/publications/presentations/foster.html) emphasised the benefits of collaboration and global team work.

Internet2 currently has more than 40 agreements with international partner organisations and networks in the Americas, Asia and Pacific Rim, and Europe and the Middle East. These organisations serve constituencies similar to those targeted by NGI-NZ Society – universities and other research organisations committed to advancing networking technology and applications for the use of the research and education community. All of those organisations sign up to a number of provisions that include:

• Providing for eventual interconnection between the respective institutions
  
• Collaboration on advanced technology and applications development
  
• Promoting the transfer of technology to the wider education community and the commercial marketplace.

“The network connection is obviously something we are working to achieve in short order through stakeholder initiatives here, including the work of the Government steering group led by MoRST,” says Tone Borren. “But collaboration and promotion are goals that are already possible for our members through our Internet2 MOU.”

NGI-NZ Society will be represented at the Internet2 Spring Meeting in Arlington, Virginia by the NGI-NZ Chair, Neil James, later this month. These meetings are held on a regular basis and are open to all member organisations. They are working meetings where representatives from universities, corporations, government, research labs, educational organizations, and international networking organizations come together to share progress and continue formulating plans for future work.

For further information on resources available through NGI-NZ’s international partnership with Internet2, see http://international.internet2.edu/partners/.

“We are keen for our member organisations to make the most of the membership and investigate how they can participate in the global scene for advanced networking through our new relationship with Internet2,” says Tone Borren.

About NGI-NZ Society Incorporated
Visit our website: www.ngi-nz.co.nz

About Internet2®
Visit: http://www.internet2.edu/.