[1210] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Network World "The Vision of a national research net needs rethin
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (John S. Quarterman)
Sat Aug 24 01:26:18 1991
Date: Fri, 23 Aug 91 18:33:08 CDT
From: John S. Quarterman <jsq@tic.com>
To: com-priv@uu.psi.com
To: rma@tsar.cc.rochester.edu (Richard Mandelbaum)
Cc: jsq@tic.com, com-priv@uu.psi.com
In-Reply-To: Your message of Fri, 23 Aug 91 13:00:06 -0400
Richard,
Good response. Suggest sending it to the offending publication as a
letter to the editor, or maybe even, slightly expanded, as a followup
article.
While it is probably obvious to most of the people on this list
that NREN is intended to lead to some sort of commercialization and
privatization, it is not necessarily obvious to the average reporter,
who may not have access to the unwritten assumptions of those actively
involved, or may not understand them without what seem to us very elementary
explanations. For example, you note that
The T3 upgrade of the NSFNET implied a change
from a physical governement operated network
to a government portion of a larger, at least
semi-commercial network.
I'd bet the average reporter would see it exactly the other way:
more government investment in a government-supported network.
They'd have to draw the connections with CO+RE, CIX, etc. to
see it differently.
>3.Establish a showcase national network.
>I really don't understand enough about the proposed NPAN to be able
>to intelligently comment. The idea of a federal government implemented
>NREN for the masses seems to pose at least as many problems as it solves.
One may say the same about NREN itself. That's part of what makes
it interesting....
John
PS: Is it inevitable that ANS will join CIX?
