News for and about the Internet2 community

[Greg Wood <>]

Contact:
Jim Gray
(919) 660-2935

                                                                        
                                                                        
DUKE?S FUQUA SCHOOL OF BUSINESS LAUNCHES GLOBAL CONFERENCE SYSTEM 
TELEPRESENCE ENVIRONMENT								

DURHAM, NC--March 14, 2002--Duke University?s Fuqua School of Business 
today officially launched its use of "telepresence across Internet2 
networks" at its campuses in both Durham, NC and in Frankfurt, Germany. 
 The simultaneous electronic ribbon cutting celebrates a first for 
Fuqua and the Internet2 application community.

As an alternative to the typical lower-speed videoconferencing 
connections, Fuqua has now begun using super-fast Internet2 networks in 
the United States and DFN, the German high-performance research and 
education network, to carry the video and audio content of its Global 
Conference System telepresence environment between Durham and Frankfurt.

"Fuqua has pioneered the use of high-performance videoconferencing 
environments. Our use of Internet2 networks and DFN enables us to have 
real-time conversations with our associates in Frankfurt with extremely 
high-quality audio and video. This is what we call the 'telepresence 
environment', and is what sets us well apart from traditional 
videoconferencing," explained Nevin Fouts, associate dean for 
information technology at Fuqua.

Fuqua?s Global Conference System telepresence environment allows staff 
and faculty to meet on an as-needed basis by just walking into a 
conference room that is connected to another conference room across the 
ocean, via Internet2 networks and DFN. Future leverage of this 
technology will allow Fuqua faculty, staff, and students to meet with 
corporate executives "room-to-room". Companies such as3Com, 
AOL/Time-Warner, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Glaxo-SmithKline, NEC, and 
Capital One are among the newcomers to this new capability, following 
Fuqua's lead and using telepresence at lower bandwidths using T1 
circuits.  TeleSuite Corporation has been working with Fuqua through a 
partnership agreement to provide early access to this advanced technology.

The Global Conference System telepresence environment combines 
technology from TeleSuite Corporation and Nortel Networks and was made 
possible through the collaborative efforts of technology staffs at Fuqua 
and Nortel Networks along with networking resources within Internet2, 
DFN, Duke?s Office of Information Technology, Abilene, DANTE, and NCREN.

"Telepresence is an exciting advance in collaborative applications, in 
which Fuqua is playing a leadership role among both business schools and 
international collaborations," said Ted Hanss, director of applications 
for Internet2.

A close partnership between Internet2 and DFN assisted in establishing 
the high-performance transoceanic connection used by the Global 
Conferencing System. The network path used in today's demonstration 
included two 2.5 gigabit per second connections that GEANT, the European 
research backbone network, recently established with the Internet2 
Abilene network. DFN is a GEANT consortium partner.

Fuqua?s initial telepresence environment was deployed in the fall of 
2000 and made possible through a gift from the Global Executive MBA 
Class of 1999. Mike Coleman, CEO of Integrity, Inc. and a member of the 
class, referred to Fuqua?s vision and leadership as ?bold and 
thoughtful?.  ?Fuqua?s leverage of telepresence as it expanded its 
global reach has demonstrated how thoughtful use of advanced 
technologies can enable interactions and communications beyond what is 
achievable with telephones and traditional videoconferencing."

About Internet2(R)
Led by over 190 US universities, working with industry and government, 
Internet2 is developing and deploying advanced network applications and 
technologies for research and higher education, accelerating the 
creation of tomorrow's Internet. Internet2 recreates the partnership of 
academia, industry and government that helped foster today's Internet in 
its infancy.  For more information about Internet2, see: 
http://www.internet2.edu/

About The Fuqua School of Business
The Fuqua School of Business (www.fuqua.duke.edu) was founded in 1969 
and is now ranked among the top graduate schools of business in the 
United States. Fuqua offers its MBA degree in four formats. The Duke MBA 
- Daytime is the school's flagship program; the other non-residential 
executive MBA options include The Duke MBA - Weekend Executive, The Duke 
MBA - Global Executive, and The Duke MBA - Cross Continent. Fuqua is 
also a leader in non-degree executive education.

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