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Internet Intellectual InfrastructureWhen Internet domain-name registration fees were introduced in 1995, 30 percent of each fee collected was set aside to preserve and enhance the Internet's "intellectual infrastructure." The National Science Foundation (NSF) will use money from the Internet Intellectual Infrastructure Fund to support Internet-related and Next Generation Internet projects. The following are some of the recipients of the funds. For more information, contact Peter West (703) 292-8070. Editor: Cheryl Dybus Contents of this News Tip:
NEW EDUCATIONAL LIFELINE CREATED FOR ALASKA CAMPUSESThe five campuses of the College of Rural Alaska encompass more than 200,000 square miles. Each serves scores of small Native villages, most only accessible by air, and for more than 20 years, the telephone has been the school's lifeline used to offer certificates and baccalaureate programs to villagers. "We have major infrastructure hurdles to overcome," notes Mike Sfraga, director of research and program development for the college, which is a division of the University of Fairbanks. Now, a $500,000 grant from the NSF's Office of Polar Programs will provide "decoders" that read satellite broadcasts to the college's local campuses. This will allow the college to beam educational television broadcasts and provide Internet access to the most remote areas. The grant will also help village residents learn about the science that could affect their daily lives. Michael T. Ledbetter, NSF program officer in the Arctic sciences section, notes that "too often, these communities have no information about the research that is going on their own backyards." [Peter West] "LTER SCHOOLYARD" CONNECTS FIELD WORK WITH SCHOOLSThe Jornada Experimental Range in New Mexico, through a unique program, is allowing students at Jornada Elementary School in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and at Franklin High School in El Paso, Texas, to study long-term changes in nearby desert plant communities with upgraded computer connections. The innovative partnership with Jordana and local schools comes from a grant from the Internet Intellectual Infrastructure Fund. The Jornada range is one of more than 20 sites funded by NSF's Long Term Ecological Research program. Permanent ecological study plots have been established at the two schools. Students are preparing basic site vegetation maps using aerial photos. Also, a new automated weather station has been installed for monitoring climate and other variables at each site. The school data will be compared with that from the Jornada LTER site via the Internet. Scientists and students will visit each other's sites. Similar LTER schoolyard projects are underway In Kansas, Colorado and Arizona. [Cheryl Dybas] GEMINI OBSERVATORY GETS FUNDING BOOST TO SPEED ITS INTERNET CONNECTIONSA $600,000 NSF grant from its Intellectual Infrastructure Fund is going to help the multi-national Gemini Observatory Project significantly increase its computer power by mid-year 2000 as it gears up full operation of the first of two 8-meter telescopes. Gemini's telescopes, one in Hawaii (Gemini North) and the other in northern Chile (Gemini South), are designed to explore the sky with both optical and infrared techniques. They will employ new technologies that, at times, researchers predict, will have more clarity than those from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Gemini is the highest-priority nationally funded project among all of the seven partner nations. The newest NSF grant for the Gemini project will increase the speed of connections to share critical data between Gemini's Mauna Kea Observatory, its Hilo headquarters and facilities around the world. The use of this grant, in coordination with a previous $350,000 NSF grant to the University of Hawaii's Information Technology Services will provide enough capacity for the Hawaii-based observatories for years to come, say experts. The nonprofit Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) manages Gemini under a cooperative agreement with NSF. [Bill Noxon]
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