News for and about the Internet2 community

[Lauren Rotman <>]

Internet2 and National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education  
Enter Partnership

Organizations Will Explore Potential of Advanced Networks for Liberal  
Arts Colleges and Universities

(Georgetown, Texas) - December 4, 2009 - The National Institute for  
Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE) and Internet2 have signed a  
letter of agreement for reciprocal membership. The two organizations  
will collaborate to explore and raise awareness of advanced networking  
applications for teaching and learning, libraries, performing arts,  
language instruction, health science, and other areas. The timing is  
in alignment with Internet2's new membership structure, which creates  
a category of membership geared towards liberal arts colleges. Joint  
project work is scheduled to begin in January 2010.

NITLE and Internet2 will work together to identify test cases for  
applying advanced networking within liberal arts contexts, with an  
initial focus on the arts and humanities and opportunities for inter- 
campus teaching.

“This partnership is an investment in exploring the potential of  
Internet2’s high-bandwidth, low-latency network, which has strategic  
significance for the liberal arts sector,” Eric Jansson, director,  
NITLE Labs, said. “For example, research shows that when certain  
qualities are achieved in high-definition video-conferencing, you  
receive an exponential increase in cognitive engagement. At a certain  
point, virtual collaboration becomes so life-like that the feeling of  
being present is just there, hence the recent term ‘tele-presence.’  
Such engagement is consistent with liberal arts models of learning  
through rich interaction and dialogue.”

“One of the collective projects the liberal arts sector needs to  
actively engage is the question of how to build shared resources and  
services,” said Dave Smallen, vice president for information  
technology at Hamilton College. “Our investigations at Hamilton— 
through the New York Six consortium looking at ways to share digital  
media from our existing library collections, and through a Teagle  
grant to investigate applications of high performance computing in a  
liberal arts environment—suggest to me the important role that high- 
speed, high-bandwidth network infrastructure can play in answering  
this important question.”

The partnership will more generally allow the two organizations to  
exchange expertise.

“Both Internet2 and NITLE see great potential in exchange of expert  
resources,” said Ann Doyle, senior program manager of the Internet2  
Arts & Humanities Initiative. “Joint programming is one possibility,  
as is inviting experts from campuses involved with our organizations  
to speak at or participate in meetings, workshops, and conferences.”

Doyle added, “We are very excited about this partnership as it will  
provide the greater Internet2 community access to the expert resources  
of campuses in the NITLE consortium, as well as provide those schools  
the ability to learn and engage with Internet2 members to help in  
understanding the benefits of advanced networking. The opportunities  
for exchange and collaboration here are unlimited.”

Doyle and Jansson will work closely to advance the partnership between  
the organizations. Conversations between NITLE and Internet2 began in  
August 2009. The letter of agreement was finalized on October 29, 2009.

About the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE)
NITLE (pronounced “nightly”) helps liberal arts colleges and  
universities explore and implement digital technologies. Faculty and  
staff from nearly 130 institutions in the NITLE Network use its  
offerings to enrich undergraduate education. NITLE is the key  
organization for small colleges seeking to engage students, manage  
technology strategically, and anticipate the impact of emerging  
technologies. Established in 2001 with support from The Andrew W.  
Mellon Foundation, its mission is to catalyze innovation to advance  
liberal education in the digital age. (www.nitle.org)

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. By bringing research and academia together with  
technology leaders from industry, government and the international  
community, Internet2 promotes collaboration and innovation that has a  
fundamental impact on the future of the Internet.