News for and about the Internet2 community

[Greg Wood <>]

********News from the NSF Middleware Initiative********

TESTING IS UNDERWAY ON SOFTWARE TO LINK INTERNET SERVICES AND APPLICATIONS

Universities Provide "Real World" Evaluation for Emerging Middleware 
Development

Washington, D.C. -- September 4, 2002 -- Eight universities are 
participating in a closely coordinated testbed effort to deploy and 
evaluate emerging technologies that will link otherwise unconnected 
applications or services across the Internet.  The National Science 
Foundation Middleware Initiative (NMI) is developing these technologies 
as well as the practical deployment and evaluation program to help 
scientists and educators share applications, scientific instruments, and 
data across the Internet.

The NMI Integration Testbed is managed by Southeastern Universities 
Research Association (SURA) and includes the University of Alabama at 
Birmingham, the University of Alabama in Huntsville, the University of 
Florida, Florida State University, Georgia State University, the 
University of Michigan, the Texas Advanced Computing Center (University 
of Texas at Austin), and the University of Virginia.  These sites will 
use and evaluate software, services and architectures that facilitate 
researchers' and educators' access to distributed electronic resources 
for faculty and campus projects.  Their efforts will gauge middleware's 
practicality, emphasizing factors such as performance, ease of use, 
robustness, and technical support.

NSF launched NMI in September 2001 by committing $12 million over three 
years to create and deploy advanced network services that simplify 
access to diverse Internet information and services. NMI consists of two 
teams: The Grids Research Integration Deployment and Support (GRIDS) 
Center and the Enterprise and Desktop Integration Technologies (EDIT) 
Consortium.  See http://www.nsf-middleware.org/outreach/news.htm for 
NMI's press release about the Integration Testbed.  For more 
information, send mail to .

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