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Internet Provider Seeks to Find Right Stuff for Education: CYBERSPACE:OWL Institute Introduces a Socially Responsible Internet Service.

Posted on: Tuesday, 9 May 2006, 06:02 CDT

By Jane Brissett, Duluth News-Tribune, Minn.

May 9--There's a new Internet service provider in town and rather than making profits for a corporation, it is expected to make money to advance high-quality content in cyberspace.

Tim Torgerson, a philosophy instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, dreams of creating a "Consumer Reports-like service" for educational curriculum. In February, he created the nonprofit One World Learning Institute (OWL) to do that.

OWL Internet service costs about the same as other providers, Torgerson said. However, the proceeds will support OWL researchers and developers who will study, test and evaluate curriculum, creating a trusted search tool.

For example, if someone wants to find out what free content is available for 10th-grade algebra, a search engine will find it and give evaluations to assist in selecting the appropriate material, Torgerson said. The teacher or learner can be confident of "looking at the best stuff," he said.

Torgerson teaches classes only online at UWS.

He has funded OWL to date with $30,000 of his own and borrowed money. Torgerson said he needs 5,000 subscribers to have enough money to do what he envisions.

A small group runs the institute. In addition to Torgerson, board members are Heidi Bakk-Hansen, secretary, and Jason Baumgarth, treasurer.

Torgerson originally had hoped to become part of the Soft Center incubator, but for years that project didn't get off the ground. "I had to put the whole business on the shelf," he said.

But recently he discovered ManyOne Networks, which has a model to help nonprofits secure a revenue source. There's no cost to join. "For the network partners, there's virtually no risk," David Orloff, operations manager of California-based ManyOne said.

In March, OWL began offering its dial-up and high-speed Internet services through ManyOne Networks, which gives partner organizations such as OWL $1.50 to $2 per subscriber per month, Orloff said.

OWL is only the fourth organization to partner in that way with ManyOne, which started its partner program in December. Two other organizations are contractually obligated but aren't offering the service yet, Orloff said.

The concept is in its infancy and people sometimes have difficulty understanding what he intends to do. "A lot of my work has been to explain it," Torgerson said.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Duluth News-Tribune, Minn.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: Duluth News-Tribune (Duluth, Minn.)

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