|
|
By Joe St Sauver (joe@oregon.uoregon.edu)
Internet2 was originally established as a consortia of Carnegie Research I and Research II universities, and it currently has about 165 such "primary" members, including Oregon, Oregon State, Portland State, and Oregon Graduate Institute.
In December of 1999, however, UCAID (University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development), the organization that runs Internet2, decided to permit primary members to sponsor new "secondary" members.
These new secondary members, unlike Internet2's traditional primary members, are envisioned as typically being
Secondary members need not pay an Internet2 membership fee, but must be sponsored by a primary member that has an ongoing collaborative relationship with the secondary. Secondary members arrange to connect to Internet2 via an existing primary member or Gigapop of their choice (where the connecting member may or may not be the same as the sponsoring primary member), subject to whatever financial arrangements may be negotiated between the secondary and their connecting primary member/connecting Gigapop.
The University of Oregon will soon be submitting applications for secondary status for a number of its networking partners.
For full details on the secondary membership program, see the Internet2 web site at http://www.internet2.edu/