Digital Convergence Initiative

The Comanche Indians� nomadic lifestyle frequently brought them through the areas that have become modern San Antonio, San Marcos, Austin and Waco. As European setters entered the region these trails became the path of Central Texas commerce from �punchin� dogies� to delivering goods. Eventually many of these trails were paved into roads and now many of these roads are paralleled with miles of fiber optic cable. Naturally, the Comanche Bit Trail is the literal backbone of the Digital Convergence Initiative. Like the original trail, bits mingle and businesses mutate into their 21st century forms while transiting the trail.

How do you make digital bits converge? Convergence happens between businesses exploiting higher bandwidths and newer network protocols. The Comanche Bit Trail is a group of organizations that make it easier to experiment with wide area networking protocols. Whether you are just experimenting with peer to peer podcasting or building sensor networks you will eventually need something from the backbone that the standard Internet may not deliver. The collection of companies and Universities that comprise the Bit Trail want to make those experiments easier to perform. For example, the Adaptive Web Services activity spearheaded by IBM and Telcordia will be placing servers that implement our emerging protocols to be used by anyone using the Bit Trail. In other words, we need to validate that these protocols are worthwhile and, more importantly, usable by a broad range of developers before we take them through the standards process. Because these protocol developers live close to the Bit Trail, everyone can easily get together and hash out problems to produce solutions. Business opportunities emerge from these partnerships.

The Digital Convergence Initiative team is the place to go to get on the Bit Trail. You need to bring a project description (1 page only, please) and a technical requirements specification (just one more page) to DCI. Initially, the Comanche Bit Trail technical team will get together with project planners on an as needed basis. We will help you refine your project and coordinate access to the Bit Trail business partners. This will save you time finding the right networking/hosting partner and getting access to their technical team.