The national Internet2 K20 Initiative brings together Internet2 member institutions and innovators from primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, libraries, and museums to extend advanced networking-enabled technologies, applications, middleware, and content to all educational sectors, as quickly and connectedly as possible. The K20 Initiative now comprises 38 states, all of whom have been connected to the Internet2 Network through the sponsorship of Internet2 members. Regional networking partners have been absolutely critical to providing connectivity for the K20 community to the national Internet2 initiative. In the next year, Internet2 hopes to continue working in partnership with Internet2 Connectors to expand connectivity to the K20 community, and to improve access to vital resources for teaching and learning.
In 2007, the K20 Initiative undertook a number of new outreach activities. These include the launch of Muse, a new social networking tool that makes it easier for the K20 community worldwide to discover and connect with each other. With Muse, users can quickly discover collaborators and projects, easily communicate with other community members, and find inspiration for creating new and exciting projects using advanced research and education networks.
The K20 Initiative’s support of the library community was featured in an article entitled “Internet2 and Libraries: Serving Your Communities at the Speed of Light” in the November/December issue of Computers in Libraries magazine. A new K20 Middleware Working Group was launched to explore what opportunities currently exist for broadening outreach and coordinating the formation of federations among K20 networks and systems. Internet2 extended outreach to a number of states—initially Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, and Idaho—to engage them in creating a K20 education network and, eventually, participating in the K20 Initiative.