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Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI) is a not-for-profit organization formed in 1986 to undertake, foster, and promote research in the public interest. Activities center around strategic development of network-based information technologies, providing leadership and funding for information infrastructure research and development.

CNRI engages in prototyping and system and technology demonstration projects in order to further the design and implementation of selected infrastructure components for new computing- and communications-based applications. Current research expands upon the core components of CNRI's Digital Object Architecture; Handle.Net Registry for assigning, managing, and resolving persistent identifiers for digital objects and other Internet resources, and Cordra.org which provides a mechanism for the creation of, and access to, digital objects as discrete data structures. Other areas of interest support ongoing research in digital libraries and other networked information technologies, including the MEMS and Nanotechnology Exchange.

Of Special Interest:

Invited keynote by Bob Kahn for the Internet Governance Forum 2025 in Norway.

Lyons, Patrice A. and Robert E. Kahn. "Blocks as Digital Entities". Information Services & Use 38 (2018), 173-185, IOS Press.

ITU Interviews Dr. Robert E. Kahn, Chairman, CEO and President, CNRI. YouTube, published November 17, 2014. Topics included the role of the Digital Object Architecture (DOA) in combating counterfeit ICT products and devices, and what governments and the corporate sector can do to help.