Founded in 2005, Box provides a secure content and file sharing collaboration platform. Content on Box can be shared internally and externally, accessed through iPad, iPhone and Android applications, and extended to partner applications such as Google Apps, NetSuite and Salesforce. Headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, Box is a privately held company and is backed by venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Emergence Capital Partners, Meritech Capital Partners, Scale Venture Partners, and U.S. Venture Partners. To learn more about Box, please visit box.com.

Internet2 has signed a Master Services Agreement (MSA) with Box that provides various terms and conditions specific to the higher education community. In addition, Internet2 has worked with Box to co-develop a customized service offering that integrates with the Internet2 Network and with InCommon to better meet the needs of the Internet2 community. The production service is brokered by Internet2 and provided by Box. The service is a federated service that leverages InCommon and will be delivered over the Internet2 Network.

Yes, all data is stored in US.

The listing for Box applications is located at www.box.com/apps.

No. Your institution has to be an InCommon higher education participant (or join InCommon as a higher education participant) in order to use the service. Direct Internet2 members get an additional discount, but membership in Internet2 is not required.

NET+ Box is available now! Internet2 higher education members who are InCommon participants may sign up for a full-service, customized Box offering that incorporates federated identity management. United States higher education institutions who are not Internet2 members but are InCommon participants may also subscribe for services at a higher cost.

Five universities participated in an early adopter program that allowed us to identify potential issues before the public offering was initiated. These schools are Cornell University; Indiana University; University of California, Berkeley; University of Michigan; and the University of Notre Dame.

Internet2 members may purchase the new offering by signing an "Enterprise Customer Agreement" (ECA) between the Internet2 member and Internet2. In subsequent years, your Internet2 membership, via the ECA, will simply have a Box renewal option built in.

A trial offering is available allowing Internet2 or InCommon schools access to the full offering for 45 days for 25 test accounts. This enables a campus to evaluate the features and benefits of the service before committing. Once the trial period ends, campuses may subscribe to the Box service as the result of a pre-negotiated arrangement developed by a group of university counsel and Internet2 with Box, based on the size of your institution.

Visit "How To Participate," to gather and prepare the required information and then fill out the online application form (linked at the bottom of that page). You will then be assigned a Box service technical account representative who will work with you to create a customized environment, domain (box.yourinstitution.edu) and brand the service with your logo. Startup time is expected to be approximately one week to fully activate your domain, depending on the number of signups in process.

No, it must be a single, institution-wide subscription. The benefits of an environment like Box are viral collaborations and connections that occur between individuals and groups by allowing the entire community to quickly and easily share files. Offering it to a single department would generally cost more than the full price of the enterprise Box service. This program is also intended to minimize the contracting effort for the members with substantive and favorable cost terms.

If you or a member of your institution have already created an account using your university email address, it can be merged into the new service offering when your school signs up. Account holders can be notified and offered the opportunity to create a separate personal account using another non-university email address if they choose.

The decision is up to the university to maintain the account as a university service as long as they choose, however access to the account is linked to federated privileges. Once the campus credentials are revoked, the account can be reverted to a "personal account" under the terms and conditions of Box's free or paid personal services. Specific details of these account transitions are being worked out by early adopter schools.