Before going on with our story, do you remember what is Internet2? It started in April 1999 as a $500 million project linking 37 U.S. universities. At this time, the network was supposed to operate at a 2.4 gigabit-per-second speed and the project, linking more than 140 universities, completed by 2003.
Have you heard about Internet2 lately? Harvard Business School (HBS) Richard Nolan spent lots of time on this project and is telling us about the current status.
"I talk to managers about Internet2," Nolan said. The usual response? "Internet what? I thought Internet 1 was dead."
Some executives, he says, are experiencing "dot vertigo," that dizziness accompanying claims about all the wonderful ways the Internet is going to transform their lives. What they don't realize is that their fears make them discount the impact of the Internet in what Nolan called a very dangerous way.
Quickly and quietly, said Nolan, Internet2 is making inroads in important ways in collaborative learning and R&D. When privatization and business applications start to enter the picture, which he predicted would happen by the year 2005, managers will have much to gain -- or lose.
The power of Internet2 lies in its ability to connect networks of networks. Currently, he said, universities and labs use it to connect researchers working on collaborative projects. These projects can range from building virtual reality models of the ear -- a medical application -- to studying the stars -- a scientific application.
And, even in a publication from Harvard, there is the -- usually irrelevant -- comparison.
A DVD version of the Hollywood movie "The Matrix," for example, can be downloaded via Internet2 in about thirty seconds, Nolan said. The same DVD would take approximately 25 hours to download via a standard DSL/cable line (and 170 hours -- or more than seven days -- via a 56K modem).
Source: HBS Working Knowledge, September 15, 2002
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