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MIDnet Announces Award to GPN Consortium

LINCOLN, Neb, January 20, 2005- MIDnet, Inc. is pleased to announce it has awarded the Great Plains Network Consortium (GPN) a grant to implement a second round of technical workshops and a research and networking conference. Dr. Greg Monaco, GPN's Director of Research and Education is the lead investigator in the project.

"GPN implemented the first series of very successful MIDnet-funded workshops and we wanted to see them continue,” stated MIDnet Executive Director Carol Farnham. The workshops will focus on areas such as wireless networks, fiber optical networks, security, multicast and other networking-related topics.

MIDnet became the first of the regional networks (the pre-cursor to today's Internet) to become fully operational in 1987. MIDnet's original focus was to create a regional network for accessing and exchanging information. Throughout its history, information exchange continued to be a major focus. MIDnet moved from a University of Nebraska organization to non-profit status in 1992. Two years later, MIDnet was acquired by a California start-up. The board of directors of MIDnet reorganized and has reestablished MIDnet as a quality provider of network education and information exchange.

The Great Plains Network, created in 1997, is a consortium of Great Plains states dedicated to supporting research and education through the use of advanced networking technology. Assisted by the NSF EPSCoR program, and coordinated by principal investigator Jerry Niebaum, the consortium constructed a high speed network connecting the educational state networks in seven states. The Great Plains Network was the first regional network to connect to the national Abilene network in February 1998. Although the nature and topology of the network has changed considerably, the consortium continues to foster the mission of collaboration and cooperation.

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Contact: info@midnetinc.org

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