The paper gives an introduction to some projects and initiatives that are connected with the new-generation Internet. US-Ignite partnerships, the European commission Future Internet Program, the European Fire projects, the Global Environment for Network Innovation (GENI), and WiMAX, are presented. New technologies and protocols, such as Software-defined networking (SDN), OpenFlow, a route configuration mechanism and the constituent protocols to add redundant packet forwarding capabilities that will provide high reliability communication for critical applications, are described. The goal of the paper is to understand intricacies, and nuances of some of these techniques and show some of the possibilities of next-generation high-speed networking and their possible applications in the field of the Internet and the applications to education, libraries and museums.