[39] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
re: Was a "big Internet" needed to make TCP/IP useful?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Bill Nowicki)
Mon Oct 29 14:14:02 1990
Date: Mon, 29 Oct 90 10:10:43 PST
From: nowicki@Legato.COM (Bill Nowicki)
To: cperry@gateway.mitre.org
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
Date: Fri, 26 Oct 90 12:14:37 EDT
From: cperry@gateway.mitre.org
This process is often called "secondary analysis" and is a
strong argument for over-the-network collaboration and sharing
of data that DS-3 speeds and above will provide.
I am not convinced that continuing to pay for more expensive
infrastructure somehow will cause researchers to suddenly collaborate.
Just NFS mounting files over the Internet will NOT do it (read my
article in SIGCOMM CCR April 1988 on NFS transport issues -- the
higher level issues are much stickier than just bandwidth).
Collaboration is a great idea, so if NSF wants to fund research on
building better collaboration tools, that would be wonderful. They
could even do prototypes using the 90% of the NSFnet that is not
currently being used except under peak loads. :-)
Also I have no objection to DS-3 speeds, if and when the network
providers view it as cost-effective. Just object to continuing the
funding model of taxpayers paying for it directly.
While it is impossible to accurately determine the value of
discoveries that high-speed networks will bring, the cost of
lost opportunities for discovery appear far greater.
What about all the lost discoveries that could have been made if the
money were spent on directly funding more research instead of
continuing to subsidize the network? There are many ideas for making
networks more efficient that could make not only NSFnet but other
networks better, for many years to come. Government must get out of
the mindset that there is an infinite supply of money. Every time you
fund a new project that money must be taken away from other "need".
Government is not the only source of R&D either - if the $x Million
that it takes to subsidize the faster links were left in industry,
then perhaps it could be applied to make more competitive products. I
admit I am in Corporate R&D, one who has so far not signed and ignored
the rules, and therefore NOT on the Internet.
-- WIN
