History

Prior to EDUCAUSE's official formation in July 1998, plans were underway to ensure that the organization maintained an effective policy presence in Washington, D.C. In early June FARNET merged with then-Educom's Networking and Telecommunications Task Force (NTTF). The merged FARNET/NTTF organization will act as the networking policy arm for EDUCAUSE.

About FARNET

FARNET and NTTF share a tradition of promoting the development of higher education and public sector networking. Founded in 1987 as the Federation of American Research Networks, FARNET 's original mission focus was to promote the general advancement of science and education by assisting in the interchange of information and research using high-speed communication and related telecommunications techniques. Emphasizing the coordination of regional and backbone high-speed networks, FARNET was a primary information source for the government and industry during the pre-privatization days of the Internet. It developed into a forum for state networks to share information, enabling them to discover and implement those interconnection strategies that worked best according to their financial resources and geographic challenges.

Beginning in the early 1990's, FARNET hosted a series of workshops discussing how the National Information Infrastructure (NII) and the Internet might impact the public sector, including: the NII and healthcare; practical NII implementation issues from the state perspective; developing network partnerships in libraries and K-12 education; and improving the ease and reliability of the operation of the Internet itself.

In 1995, FARNET opened up a policy office in Washington, D.C. to monitor the legislative and regulatory environment; communicating developments back to its membership via an ongoing e-mail report called "FARNET'S Washington Update".

In 1996 FARNET received a NSF award to design and build a clearinghouse for tracking information infrastructure development on a state-by-state basis. The primary mission of the States Inventory Project (located at http://www.states.org) is to promote the exchange of information among state and local policymakers and to facilitate comparative analysis so that states may more efficiently develop and maintain their own information infrastructures. The State Inventory Project clearinghouse currently has over 4000 entries in its database, divided into nearly 100 categories for each state, territory, and province in North America.

About NTTF

Educom's NTTF has always monitored the pulse of the federal government. Created in 1986 as a vehicle to provide leadership and focus for colleges and universities in identifying and communicating strategic networking and telecommunication policy issues, NTTF's membership is composed primarily of CIOs from leading universities.

While FARNET primarily has concentrated on issues related to Internetworking, NTTF has been actively involved in a broader range of telecommunications policy issues. NTTF has responded to a number of requests by the federal government for public sector input on several different telecommunication-oriented subjects.

In 1988, NTTF organized the first in what has become an annual conference in Washington, D.C.; bringing together leaders from government, industry and the public sector to discuss the latest developments in telecommunications policy. This year's "Networking '98" featured as keynote speakers FCC Chair William Kennard and John Hart, 3Com's Senior Vice President for Technology.

In 1996, NTTF led a meeting on the subject of higher education's role in networking development. With FARNET, NTTF facilitated the germination of what later became known as Internet2, an effort to reestablish higher education's leadership role in Internetworking.

Net@EDU: What it Means For EDUCAUSE

Both FARNET and NTTF played distinct and important roles in the initial development of the Internet in the academic and broader public sector communities. Their union under the EDUCAUSE umbrella as Net@EDU provides a means for IT networking thought leaders to advance the evolution of a global networking environment that best supports the transformation of higher education through information technology.

Since its inception, Net@EDU has received grant awards from the National Science Foundation to run a variety of workshops focusing on campus cyberinfrastructure, identity management, and the future of advanced networking in higher education.

Based in Washington, D.C., and administered through the EDUCAUSE Policy Office, Net@EDU helps shape national information technology policy by members lending their vast technical expertise (and historical insights) to EDUCAUSE federal policy advocacy efforts. Net@EDU members have testified before Congress and often join EDUCAUSE policy staff in meetings with federal policymakers. Net@EDU members also make up the majority of the EDUCAUSE Network Policy Council, a special advisory body that works to enhance the higher education community's ability to comprehend and respond to these issues.