[1506] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Help !
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Brian Lloyd)
Sun Oct 13 15:39:37 1991
Date: Sun, 13 Oct 91 12:38:39 -0700 (PDT)
From: brian@ray.lloyd.com (Brian Lloyd)
To: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: John Pettitt's message of Thu, 10 Oct 91 15:37:22 PDT <9110101537.AA09234@slxinc.specialix.com>
Reply-To: brian@ray.lloyd.com
I found John's message to be delightful. Seems that the petty
bickering, finger pointing, inuendo, and other ridiculous activity is
apparent to the outside world. Shame on you! (I wish that there was
a good plural for 'you' in the English language.)
OK, I understand; the smell of money and power can cause people to do
and say stupid things. On the other hand it would be detrimental to
EVERYONE if any of the service providers were to fail (that includes
ANS, PSI, CERFnet, Alternet, and any of the regionals). Were I you, I
would be spending some time getting together trying to decide how to
work together rather than on how you are going to slit each other's
throats.
Now I know many of the players personally. I also had the good
fortune to meet and have lunch with Ittai Hirshman of ANS at Interop.
(Funny, he was not wearing a black cape, helmet, and breath mask when
he was with me.) I think that you all are heading down the right
track and I think that it is possible for ALL the players to reach the
finish line without killing each other before anyone gets there.
I can understand the concern on the part of the different parties.
PSI, CERFnet, Alternet, and the other, smaller, IP providers are
wary of ANS because of ANS' perceived greater access and control over
a significant scarce resource, e.g., the NSFnet backbone (not to
mention that ANS is known to be funded by IBM and MCI, two companies
not known for their philanthropy and openness). I think that ANS
could diffuse the concern somewhat by joining the CIX. Actually I
think that would make the users more comfortable because there would
be more ways for packets to get from here to there without being
subject to someone's annoying acceptable use policy along the way.
The result would be more comfortable customers and thus more customers
for everyone (read that as "more dollars for everyone").
C'mon gang, quit fighting and figure out how all of you can turn a
profit. It will be beneficial to EVERYONE in the long run.
Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN Lloyd and Associates
Network Architect 3420 Sudbury Road
brian@ray.lloyd.com Cameron Park, CA 95682
voice (916) 676-1147
