Engaging the Broader Community
Faculty, staff, and students at Internet2 member organizations often collaborate with colleagues at non-member research and educational institutions on instructional, research, clinical, or content-related projects that benefit from high-performance networking. To support these efforts, the Internet2 community established the Sponsored Educational Group Participants (SEGPs) program, which allows Internet2 members to sponsor interconnection between the Abilene Network and statewide networks, or other wide-area networks within a state. These networks typically bring together primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, libraries, museums, and other educational organizations. By the end of 2004, Internet2 members had sponsored 34 networks to access Abilene as part of the SEGP program. Beyond network connectivity, each of the SEGP organizations takes part in the Internet2 K20 Initiative, which brings together Internet2 member institutions and innovators from the broader educational community to extend new network technologies and applications to all educational sectors.
