National Institute forFrom the Executive Director
In the early 1990s, I began graduate school at the University of Washington interested in virtual reality, broadband networks, and human nonverbal behavior. This unlikely combination was the result of a liberal arts education and a deep belief in the potential of telecommunications. In graduate school, I had the good fortune of being able to conduct research at Hughes Research Laboratories and the Advanced Telecommunication Research Institute. These labs afforded me access to private research networks, high definition video, exotic displays, and talented multidisciplinary colleagues. Together, we explored the future impact of these technologies on human communication.
A few years into graduate school, I took a hiatus to join the founding team of F5 Networks as chief scientist. I mollified my doctoral committee by highlighting the John Dewey-esque “learn by doing” opportunity at hand. Privately, I was excited to be moving these ideas beyond the lab. F5 focused on the server-side, pioneering load balancing and traffic management to create massively scalable servers. We followed F5 with Zama Networks, focused on optimizing backbone networks. I immersed myself in new protocols like IPv6 and new research networks like Internet2®. Unfortunately, the telecom meltdown and the dotcom bust were a deadly combination for network companies large and small.
This turn of events delighted my committee because it gave me the time to finish my dissertation, Toward the Human Computer Dyad. It also gave me time to reflect upon what I had learned both in the lab and in the field. I came away knowing that these technologies and networks would have a powerful effect upon telecommunications. Internet2 continues to focus on these frontiers, and I am extremely pleased that NITLE and Internet2 are partnering to explore the utilization of these technologies in liberal education. I am also pleased that NITLE will represent our constituency in future Internet2 discussions.
In the past twenty years, the internet has become ubiquitous at liberal arts colleges. In the next twenty years, the future internet, as envisioned by Internet2, will become ubiquitous. This medium will provide unique opportunities to expand, enhance, and extend the teaching and learning pedagogy that makes our institutions so unique. That is why I believe that it is important for us to be well represented within Internet2 and within any other organization where future standards are being debated.
W. Joseph King, Ph.D.
Executive Director