Missouri Research and Education Network (MOREnet) is a member-driven consortium, operating as a separate business unit within the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

Columbia, Missouri Columbia is a city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It is the county seat of Boone County and home to the University of Missouri. Founded in 1821, it is the principal city of the five-county Columbia metropolitan area. It is Missouri's fourth ...

. They are primarily made up of Missouri's K-12 schools, colleges and universities, public libraries and government organizations. In addition to maintaining a

computer network A computer network is a set of computers sharing resources located on or provided by network nodes. The computers use common communication protocols over digital interconnections to communicate with each other. These interconnections are ...

for

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

access to school districts and libraries in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

. they also provide technology consulting, a technology help desk as well as professional development and training, consortium discounts and a la carte services by a team of approximately 85 subject matter experts.

History

In 1991, Missouri's four-year public colleges expressed the desire to connect to the NSFnet, a precursor to today's internet. Growth was rapid, by 2002, they connected 509 Missouri public school districts, 64 higher education institutions and 125 tax-supported libraries. 1991: Organization Formed for higher ed primarily to share research electronically 1993:A pilot project with

Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is the administrative arm of the Missouri State Board of Education that works with school officials, legislators, government agencies, community leaders, and citizens to maintai ...

to include 100 K-12 school districts to include internet connection (which at the time was still an interesting, but unproved concept) as well as hands-on training and technical consultation 1995: The Missouri Secretary of State secured $500,000 for shared online resources available to the entire MOREnet consortium 1997: The MOREnet backbone increased to 45 Mbit/s, which was 30 times faster than the 1993 service 1999: The MOREnet backbone increased to 155 Mbit/s, enabling full-scale interactive video services 2003: The MOREnet backbone increased to 622 Mbit/s 2009: The MOREnet backbone was migrated to a fiber-optic infrastructure to support 10 Gbit/s (10,000 Mbit/s) capacity 2013: Awarded nearly $1 million in grant funding to 3 members for projects designed over a 3-year period to improve outcomes through the adoption of new technologies and STEM based activities, visual learning, business continuity and disaster recovery. 2013: Began a backbone fiber expansion project to bring much needed infrastructure to the un- and under-served region of southeast Missouri 2014: Upgraded network to support up to 100 Gbit/s, making MOREnet one of the first research and education networks in the country to support that speed

Work Environment

In 2016, MOREnet was recognized for exemplary workplace practices from When Work Works, a national initiative, led by the partnership for the Families and Work Institute and the Society for Human Resource Management. MOREnet practices a modified version of ROWE (Results-Only Work Envioronment). A management strategy used at MOREnet, where employees are evaluated on performance, not presence. In a ROWE, leadership focuses only on results – increasing the organization's performance while cultivating the right environment for people to manage all the demands in their lives...including work.

References

External links

Official website
{{Mizzou University of Missouri Educational technology companies of the United States Non-profit organizations based in Missouri Non-profit organizations based in Columbia, Missouri