Harvard students could soon be taking classes and speaking with professors via video teleconference, thanks to new Internet technology being developed at universities across the nation.

The quarter-billion-dollar project, dubbed "Internet II," already involves more than 50 major research universities, including Harvard, and organizers said they plan to bring at least 50 more on board during the next few years.

"We are trying to enhance the residential [college] experience by...extending the boundaries of the campus," said William H. Graves, a member of the Internet II steering committee and chief information officer at the University of North Carolina.

Possible uses for Internet II include interactive classes sent via satellite to students at many universities and audio/visual film clips accessible via the Internet.

While classes over the Internet are available now, a truly interactive classroom, where students can speak with and ask questions of the professor, is not possible with current technology.

Preliminary access to Internet II is expected at some schools within the next six to 12 months, but project coordinators estimated that the complete development of the project will take from three to five years.

The new technology will not replace the Internet, which will still serve most of the needs of the general public.

According to project organizers, Internet II is geared towards the more specialized demands of academia.

"It is meant to be a faster, less congested network with the capability to handle the increasing demands of future network applications," said Franklin M. Steen, director of Harvard Arts and Sciences Computer Services.

The new technology will allow researchers to share large blocks of information, creating faster and more efficient collaboration between universities.

The Cost

The development of Internet II will cost about $100 million per year for the next few years, according to Gregory H. Jackson, associate provost for information technology at the University of Chicago. This breaks down to as much as $500,000 per university per year.

Each university will direct a large portion of this funding toward updating its own internal network to make its system compatible with Internet II technology.

Funding from the federal government is another possible source of revenue for the project.

Earlier this month, President Clinton announced that the federal government will provide some funding through the government's major research agencies.

According to Jackson, the Internet was first developed to help transfer data between research universities.

Over the years, the system has evolved to serve the smaller technological needs of business and personal use.

The resulting congestion has impeded the use of the Internet by researchers moving large amounts of data, Jackson said.

"Internet II is making sure [researchers] have a certain capacity for education and computing," he said.

Graves said he was enthusiastic about the possible applications of Internet II.

"The important thing is what we are going to do with the technology, not the technology itself," he said