Among CNRI's major goals is to discover and develop infrastructure
technologies for unlocking the world of information and knowledge
and shaping it so that the people, industry and government can
take maximum advantage of new, computer-based application. Experimental
development and use of new technologies is often the most effective
means for understanding their potential and driving their evolution.
CNRI is committed to furthering the design and implementation
of selected infrastructure components as a vital part of its research
effort. A priority is on the representation of and access to
information in digital form where it can become the core of the
world's information infrastructure.
CNRI conceives and performs research in the information technology
arena and also conceives and leads multi-party collaborative research
efforts involving U.S. Government, business and academic institutions.
Among its numerous current activities are the Cross Industry
Working Team, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts project,
the Internet Engineering Task Force Secretariat, the Magic Testbed,
the National Digital Library project, Digital Library Forum, the
Electronic Copyright Management System for the U.S. Registration
of Copyrights, Defense Technology Information Center project,
DARPA Network Computer Sciences Technical Reports Library, Python
Software Activity, American Association of Publishers Digital
Object Identifier. CNRI is actively developing technologies applicable
to distributed, networked, heterogeneous database systems as part
of a more general Digital Library initiative. CNRI has a major
research interest in technology for intellectual property management
in electronically networked environments. CNRI has hosted special
workshops and proposed experimental activities in the area of
computer-based registration and transfer of intellectual property
rights.
A key player in the evolution of Internet technology and applications, CNRI pioneered linkages between commercial electronic mail systems and the Internet and continues to play an important role in the work of the Internet Engineering Task Force. CNRI was a charter member of the Internet Society. As part of its general program, CNRI is also researching the potential for computer networking in other application domains such as manufacturing, audio and video conferencing and electronic publishing.