[1787] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Congressional Record Appears to Speak to Narrow NREN Control
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Steve Cisler)
Thu Dec 26 00:50:27 1991
Date: Wed, 25 Dec 91 21:49:49 -0800
From: Steve Cisler <sac@apple.com>
To: com-priv@psi.com, cook@tmn.com
Cc: sac@apple.com
Gordon Cooke comments on some vague provisions of the recent NREN
act:
>The law contains only the following criteria on how the NSF shall spend
> the several hundred million it is given for the network. On page s 17730
> we read Sec 201 (a) 2 "to the extent that colleges, universities and
> libraries cannot connect to the network with the assistance of the private
> sector [since when has the private sector ever assisted ths?] the national
> science foundation shall have the primary responsibility for assisting
> colleges, universities and libraries to connect to the network; 3 the
> National science Foundation shall serve as the primary source of
> information on access to and use of the Network;
I can only speak for the role of one program within Apple, but I'm sure
there are similar stories from Sun, IBM, Next, HP, DEC, and various
telecomms firms in the private sector. You may argue about motivation,
but it is happening.
Apple Library of Tomorrow is supporting projects in 1992 which will
focus on connecting libraries up to the Internet including the following:
-a wireless metropolitan area network in San Diego, California, using
spread sprectrum radio to connect San Diego Public Library and San
Diego State University.
-support of the Electronic Frontier Foundation's publishing of a new users
guide to the culture, history, tools, and information sources on the Net.
-working with the Smithsonian Institution's Prints and Photographs
Department to mount a database of JPEG-compressed color images for
access by the Internet communties.
-strong support for the Access Colorado project which will allow library
staff to explore the Internet and will provide local call public access to the
catalogs and other databases of the member libraries.
More details will be posted in com-priv as the projects get underway.
Steve Cisler
Apple Library
sac@apple.com
