US IGNITE LAUNCHES TO CATALYZE THE NEXT GENERATION OF INTERNET APPLICATIONS: Public-private partnership will spur development of 60 next-gen apps within 5 years
A new public-private effort, the US Ignite Partnership, has launched to capitalize on what is possible through virtualized, ultra-fast broadband networks, and “ignite” the development of next-generation Internet applications and services for societal benefit. The Urbana Champaign Big Broadband (UC2B) consortium is a founding partner of US Ignite, and Graduate School of Library and Information Science Associate Professor Jon Gant, Champaign Mayor Don Gerard, and Urbana Alderman Brandon Bowersox-Johnson attended the launch event at the White House held on June 14, 2012.
UC2B is an intergovernmental consortium that includes the University of Illinois and the cities of Urbana and Champaign and is dedicated to building and operating an open-access fiber-optic broadband network throughout the Champaign-Urbana area. With 2,500 homes and 200 community organizations connecting to UC2B, not only will it be one of the largest networks of users connected at gigabit speeds in the nation, but it makes Champaign-Urbana one of the most appealing locations for researchers and entrepreneurs to create and test new, next-generation applications.
“Build the next generation Internet, and they will come,” said Ethernet inventor Bob Metcalfe, “but not without encouragement and a willingness to be surprised. In the 1970s, many doubted there were uses for even 50-kilobit-per-second Internet. But soon application explorers came up with remote login, file transfer, and email. Pioneers have since found new worlds in telephony, television, publishing, commerce and social interactivity. Today, while investing in gigabit generations of Internet, we are again sending out our application explorers.”
The primary goal of the US Ignite Partnership will be to catalyze approximately 60 advanced, next-generation applications over the next five years in six areas of national priority: education and workforce development, advanced manufacturing, health, transportation, public safety, and clean energy. Responsibilities of the Partnership will include connecting, convening, and supporting startups, local and state government, universities, industry leaders, federal agencies, foundations, and community and carrier initiatives in conceptualizing and building new applications. The resulting new applications should have a significant impact on the U.S. economy, including providing a broad range of job and investment opportunities.
“The UC2B partnership with US Ignite is groundbreaking,”
said Gant. “It provides the Champaign-Urbana community with an authentic
opportunity for digital inclusion. Certainly the new high-speed UC2B network
will transform the online world for so many people. UC2B will help to connect
households in underserved neighborhoods in Champaign-Urbana where more
than 60 percent of households identified as not being subscribed to a broadband
service. But, even more exciting, our community will
participate actively on the frontier to help develop and produce the
next-generation applications and digital experiences. This partnership helps us
to understand how to meet the education, health, economic, social, and
democratic needs in Urbana-Champaign. And we will be doing this in concert with
new neighbors and friends connected in other cities using applications and
services designed to run on one of the fastest Internet networks anywhere in
the world.”
A number of these applications are in development or early testing right now. “Today, in Cleveland, Ohio there are families receiving medical care to which they wouldn’t otherwise have access through advanced telemedicine built on a new and flexible ultra-fast network. In Chattanooga, Tenn., a dozen new startups are building new applications for everything from improved transportation to disaster response to a smart energy-grid by taking advantage of the city’s gigabit-to-the-home fiber optic network,” says US Ignite Executive Director Sue Spradley. “The future of technology as many think about it, is possible today. And through US Ignite, we’ll be helping to deploy advanced applications for Americans everywhere.”
Local government officials are encouraged by the opportunities presented by this partnership. "It was very exciting to meet people from other communities who are using this type of technology. This partnership with US Ignite will provide immense opportunity for entrepreneurial innovation and job creation,” said Champaign Mayor Gerard.
Urbana Alderman Bowersox-Johnson agrees, “US Ignite will expand the opportunities for every UC2B subscriber to access cutting-edge tools for health care, workforce development, education and more."
The advanced technologies that will power the US Ignite initiative have been developed through the National Science Foundation’s GENI (Global Environment for Network Innovation) program and by US Ignite’s commercial partners. Flexibility is provided through the use of Software-Defined Networking. Speed is provided by symmetric ultra-fast connections. And “GENI Racks” power the low-latency, programmable local cloud capabilities available to US Ignite applications. “The combination of these three factors changes the game for applications developers,” said US Ignite Chief Technology Officer Glenn Ricart.
The US Ignite Partnership will be an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit, funded through its member organizations, and will work collaboratively with its partners to implement a multi-pronged strategy. The Partnership was formed with leadership from the National Science Foundation in response to the Administration’s call to ensure all Americans have access to the information and tools necessary to thrive in a 21st-century economy.
The Partnership has already entered into agreements that will bring its efforts to 25 cities across the country, including small, medium and large municipalities. Additionally, there are over 15 commercial partners who have agreed to be part of the US Ignite Partnership, including telecommunications and network powerhouses alongside local single-community efforts.
“We trust that as we succeed in demonstrating just how game-changing the next-generation of flexible, ultra-fast networks and the applications they enable can be, hundreds of new companies and communities will join us,” concluded Executive Director Spradley.