Copyright 1998 EDUCAUSE. From CAUSE/EFFECT Volume 21, Number 2, 1998, pp. 9, 45. Permission to copy or disseminate all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for commercial advantage, the EDUCAUSE copyright and its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of EDUCAUSE. To disseminate otherwise, or to republish, requires written permission. For further information, contact Jim Roche at EDUCAUSE, 4840 Pearl East Circle, Suite 302E, Boulder, CO 80301 USA; 303-939-0308; e-mail: [email protected]
Developing a Focused Policy Strategy: The Merger of FARNET and NTTF
by Garret SernBefore the July merger of CAUSE and Educom, which created EDUCAUSE, plans were under way to ensure that the organization maintained an effective policy presence in Washington, D.C. In early June, FARNET merged with what was then Educom's Networking and Telecommunications Task Force (NTTF). The new organization, Net@EDU, 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 was to promote the advancement of science and education. It did this 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 before the Internet was privatized. It developed into a forum for state networks to share information, enabling them to implement interconnection strategies that best suited their financial resources and geographic challenges.
Beginning in the early 1990s, FARNET hosted a series of workshops on how the National Information Infrastructure (NII) and the Internet might affect the public sector. Workshop topics included: the NII and health care, 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. In 1995, FARNET opened a policy office in Washington, D.C., to monitor the legislative and regulatory environment, and reported developments to its members via e-mail in Washington Update.
The next year, FARNET received a National Science Foundation award to create a clearinghouse for tracking state-by-state development of information infrastructure. The mission of the States Inventory Project (http://www.states.org) is to promote the exchange of information among state and local policy-makers. The project also aims to facilitate comparative analysis to help states more efficiently develop and maintain their own information infrastructures. The clearinghouse has more than 4,000 entries in its database, divided into nearly 100 categories for each state, territory, and province in North America.
About NTTF
As part of Educom, the Networking and Telecommunications Task Force (NTTF) monitored the pulse of the federal government. Created in 1986, NTTF helps colleges and universities identify and communicate strategic networking and telecommunications policy issues. Most of its members are chief information officers from leading universities.
While FARNET has concentrated on issues related to internetworking, NTTF has been 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 telecommunications-oriented subjects.
In 1988, NTTF organized its first annual conference in Washington, D.C., bringing together leaders from government, industry, and the public sector to discuss developments in telecommunications policy. Keynoting this year's "Networking '98" were Federal Communications Commission Chair William Kennard and John Hart, 3Com Corporation's senior vice president and chief technical officer.
In 1996, NTTF led a meeting on 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.
What the merger means
Both FARNET and NTTF played distinct and important roles in developing the Internet in the academic and public-sector communities. Their union within EDUCAUSE allows the organization to be a more effective policy and information resource for its membership. Under the EDUCAUSE umbrella, the new policy team--Net@EDU--will concentrate on researching and communicating Internetworking and telecommunications issues and will work to develop coherent policy networking strategies that reflect membership needs.
Within a few months, Net@EDU will host a series of workshops dealing with issues relevant to the higher education and state network communities. With backing from the National Science Foundation, the merged entity in August held a small, invitation-only workshop to discuss the April 2000 expiration of the very high-speed backbone network (vBNS) program. Another summer workshop explored the discrepancy in the pricing of advanced data communication services and the factors influencing these circuit costs. And coming soon is a workshop to determine how to prepare the nation's 3,000-plus higher education institutions for the next generation of networking. See http://www.educause.edu/netatedu/netatedu.asp for more information.
Net@EDU will relay networking policy developments to EDUCAUSE members through its free e-mail reports, the weekly Washington Update and occasional "Special Reports." To subscribe to Washington Update, send e-mail to [email protected].
Garret Sern ([email protected]) produces EDUCAUSE Washington Update for Net@EDU and is a policy analyst at EDUCAUSE.
