[46103] in North American Network Operators' Group
Purpose of the Internet
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Alan Hannan)
Thu Mar 14 00:19:23 2002
Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 21:14:20 -0800
From: Alan Hannan <alan@routingloop.com>
To: nanog@merit.edu
Message-ID: <20020313211420.A72246@routingloop.com>
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> Actually, NANOG does great. Especially during Sept 11, information
> was disseminated, help was offered and accepted, and except for a
> couple of idiotic flames, the SNR was high. ARPA designed the thing
> to withstand nuclear blasts, and while this was not nuclear, it stood
> up well.
I read through nanog around september 11th a few days ago and I
concur that painful as it was to re-read, it is apparent that
nanog served well as a useful communications medium.
With regards to the purpose of the internet, I recall reading
in the Prologue to _Where Wizards Stay Up Late_, by Katie Hafner
and Matthew Lyon, a true anecdote about Bob Taylor. The authors
quote Mr. Taylor as refuting that the purpose of the arpanet was
to provide communications in spite of a nuclear attack.
Rather, it is asserted, the purpose of the arpanet was to
interconnect computers at various research/education facilities
so as to allow researchers to share resources.
We all heard that story too, but popular media tended to focus
on the sensationalist nuclear story.
Useful info from history.....
-alan
ps -> thanks jeff for the book back in 1996 :-)
