[10923] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Questions on NSF Sol. ??
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Joseph W. Stroup)
Mon Mar 14 18:42:07 1994
Date: Mon, 14 Mar 1994 08:13:31 -0800 (PST)
From: "Joseph W. Stroup" <nettech@crl.com>
To: com-priv@psi.com
Cc: steve@nsf.gov
Steve,
You made the comment to me in a prior posting that "anyone" could bid on
the sol. I read the sol. and I agree. Under the current rules of the game
anyone could bid on a contract for a submarine, or a jet plane etc. But,
could anyone bid on the contract and have some sort of realistic hope of
being considered? The reason I am asking is as follows....
1. Lets say I am XYZ company with a worth 10 billion dollars. I can throw
un-limited amounts of cash at this deal and I want it bad enough to do so.
I bid the sol. your offices kick me as not qualified. The way the spec is
written in fact "anyone" can bid the sol. but, "Someone, someone very
special" would have to bid it to have any real chance of being the
winner. Why the word games ? Just explain it to people like you would a 4
year old.
2. On the NAP's who's idea was this ? Can't the NAP points be used to
slow or stop the growth of small Internet providers ? I would certainly
think so.
3. Was the sol. written with the help and or input by anyone from MCI,
NT, ANS, IBM or Merit ? Operating under the current agreement with ANS I
don't see any problem with the NSF consulting them on the requirements
for the new sol. As a matter of fact I would be very surprised if you
didn't.
4. I asked my questions here on the Internet because its a good forum to
do so. I have called the NSF offices and written for information only to
get the sent from one office to the next. FOIA requests go un-answered,
and general mail questions about the Internet go un-answered as well. I
have seen cases where FOIA requests from a government agency generate a
response - only for the requestor to learn that the WRONG document was
placed into his envelope. This caused the process to start all over again.
I have many questions about the sol. and how its to be handled. Asking
them on the Internet that my tax dollars fund is what I consider to be
appropriate. Onward.....
5. Why does the NSF use a cooperative agreement in place of a regular
contract ? There is more than enough justification to do so. There is no
classified research going on under the sol., there is no secret money
that will flow to the sol. winner, so why raise the level of interest ?
Use the regular contract mode and avoid alot of questions. The amount of
money paid to the winner can always be increased by a contract
modification.
6. What is the largest award under a contract the NSF has ever made ? Who
was it made to ?
7. What is the largest award under a cooperative agreement the NSF has
ever made ? Who was it made to ?
8. Were these awards made in support of basic or applied research or both ?
9. How long after the contracts were awarded and the research finished
were the findings made available to the general public ?
10. In the current ANS contact extension / situation technology has been
developed and is being used in IBM routers with government funding. I
refer to the claims made that the system will now take traffic and switch
it at T-3 speeds. Will this technology be made available to the general
public ? Or will IBM be considered just an ANS supplier and not partner ?
There fore exempt from providing that data ?
11. What steps has the NSf taken to insure that the people are getting
what they pay for ? How do you verify that under load conditions the
network will function at T-3 and still work ? Do you just take the
contractors word for it ?
12. Would the NSF consider requesting an outside firm confirm that the
network is in fact able to provide switching services at T-3 and that the
people are getting what they are paying for ? If not , why not ? There
has been concern on this issue for sometime.
Joseph Stroup
