News for and about the Internet2 community

[Lauren Rotman <>]

Florida LambdaRail, University of South Florida, and Internet2 Enable  
Expansion of Florida K20 Community’s Access to the Internet2 Network

Collaboration opens access to every K20 institution in Florida to the  
Internet2 Network

February 4, 2009 – Florida LambdaRail (FLR), the University of South  
Florida, and Internet2 today announced they are collaborating to  
provide access to nearly every K20 institution in the state of Florida  
to the nationwide Internet2 high performance network. In doing so,  
thousands more teachers and students across the state will be able to  
take advantage of the most cutting-edge Internet resources in support  
of research and education.

In 2006, FLR became an Internet2 Sponsored Education Group Participant  
(SEGP) to provide K20 schools connected to its network access to  
Internet2. Today’s announcement marks a major expansion of this effort  
through cooperation with the University of South Florida and the  
Florida Department of Education (DOE) through its Florida Information  
Resource Network 2 (FIRN2), which together with FLR, provide statewide  
connectivity to most K20 institutions in the state.

”USF is very pleased that its current participation with FIRN2 in  
providing Internet2 will be expanded and enhanced through this  
partnership with FLR.  The collaboration will not only provide  
enhancements to the infrastructure but will save costs overall, which  
is extremely important in this time of economic difficulty,” said  
Michael Pearce, USF vice president for information technology and  
chief technology officer.

The Florida SEGP network will connect to the Internet2 Network through  
the University of South Florida connection as well as through FLR via  
Southern Crossroads (SoX). Members of FLR include Florida State  
University, University of Central Florida, Florida Atlantic  
University, University of Florida, Florida International University,  
University of Miami and now the University of South Florida. By  
connecting Florida’s K-12 schools, libraries, community colleges,  
performing arts centers and museums, the newly expanded SEGP allows  
these institutions the ability to interact directly with thousands of  
K20 institutions connected to the Internet2 Network in 36 other  
states, offering a wide array of advanced online education resources  
and nationwide collaboration opportunities.

“In bringing together innovators from all regions of the country, the  
SEGP program seeks to encourage the development and use of advanced  
educational technologies at all levels of research and academia,” said  
Louis Fox, director of Internet2’s K20 initiative. “The unique and  
diverse K20 community brought together by the Florida SEGP will bring  
a new and exciting perspective as well as additional resources to this  
expanding program and will help support even greater contributions by  
this important segment of our community.”

The Florida K20 community will be able to take advantage of wide range  
of resources under the Internet2 K20 initiative like master music  
classes using DVD or HD-quality videoconferencing or events like  
Megaconference Jr., an annual project that uses videoconferencing  
technology to bring together thousands of students in elementary and  
secondary schools from around the world for an all-day learning  
conference. Students can also take part in immersive undersea  
exploration demonstrations with divers in remote locations around the  
world, among many other applications.

The K20 initiative has also recently launched a social networking  
site, called “Muse” which provides a focal point for bringing diverse  
and geographically disparate individuals and groups together for  
collaboration using the Internet2 Network.

“FLR is pleased to enter into this collaboration with the University  
of South Florida, and Internet2 that will lead to enabling nearly all  
K20 Institutions in the state of Florida access to the Internet2  
Network and other resources that FLR has to offer through its  
networking infrastructure,” said Dave Pokorney, chief technology  
officer and director of engineering of FLR and director of network  
services at the University of Florida.

Pokorney added, “From the very beginning of its existence the  
essential goal of the Florida LambdaRail was to be Florida’s Research  
and Education Network. With today’s announcement that goal has been  
reached. To meet this goal FLR acquired 1540 miles of dark fiber,  
optical and transport electronics that that it owns, operates and  
manages from the Network Operations Center located in Gainesville, FL.  
FLRNet is the foundation and enabling infrastructure providing all  
members a high performance fiber-optic network linking together its  
members to other resources throughout the world.”

For the first time, Florida K20 now has direct connectivity to a wide  
range of domestic and international research networks, including the  
Internet2 Network. This puts Florida universities and K12 on equal and  
competitive footing with the best institutions in the nation, with the  
ability to communicate in ways not possible using previous networks.

For more information, visit: http://k20.internet2.edu



About Florida LambdaRail

Florida LambdaRail LLC (FLR) is a Florida limited liability company  
formed by member higher education institutions to advance optical  
research and education networking within Florida. Florida LambdaRail  
is a high-bandwidth optical network that links Florida's research  
institutions and provides a next-generation network in support of  
large-scale research, education outreach, public/private partnerships,  
and information technology infrastructure essential to Florida's  
economic development.   For more information:http://www.flrnet.org



About USF

The University of South Florida is one of the nation's top 63 public  
research universities and one of 39 community-engaged four-year public  
universities as designated by the Carnegie Foundation for the  
Advancement of Teaching. USF was awarded more than $360 million in  
research contracts and grants in FY 2007/2008. The University offers  
219 degree programs at the undergraduate, graduate, specialist and  
doctoral levels, including the doctor of medicine. The University has  
a $1.8 billion annual budget, an annual economic impact of $3.2  
billion, and serves more than 46,000 students on campuses in Tampa,  
St. Petersburg, Sarasota-Manatee and Lakeland. USF is a member of the  
Big East Athletic Conference.



About Internet2

Internet2 is the foremost U.S. advanced networking consortium. Led by  
the research and education community since 1996, Internet2 promotes  
the missions of its members by providing both leading-edge network  
capabilities and unique partnership opportunities that together  
facilitate the development, deployment and use of revolutionary  
Internet technologies. Internet2 brings the U.S. research and academic  
community together with technology leaders from industry, government  
and the international community to undertake collaborative efforts  
that have a fundamental impact on tomorrow's Internet.

For more information: http://www.internet2.edu/





CONTACT:

Lauren Rotman

Internet2



202.331.5345







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