[1789] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Congressional Record Appears to Speak to Narrow NREN Control
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Sean Donelan)
Thu Dec 26 16:02:40 1991
Date: Thu, 26 Dec 1991 15:00:38 CST
From: SEAN@SDG.DRA.COM (Sean Donelan)
To: com-priv@psi.com
X-Vmsmail-To: SMTP%"com-priv@psi.com"
>>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.
While support from the private sector is important, more important is
figuring out why they would want to connect to the Network. Once it is
clear that there is some practical purpose for connecting together the
money problems and other hurdles are much easier to solve.
For example San Diego City & County Public Libraries, actually most of
the city & country public services share a common computer network. Although
in a perverse way this actually makes it harder to connect to other networks,
since things like law enforcement and public safety also use the same network.
[The SDCC network has been covered in published articles, so there are no
secrets being reveled here].
But interconnection is certainly possible when it can solve some problem.
San Diego City & County Public Libraries have been connected to DRANET
for a year or two to access various databases around the country. DRA uses
off-the-shelf hardware and relatively low-speed networking so there isn't
any glamour reasons for connecting. The point is when there is a concrete
problem being on a network would solve, they were able to go to their funding
sources to get the money for a specific need. Of course I'm certain they
wouldn't turn down any offers of "free" money.
If SDCCPL wants to be on the Internet, the circuits and hardware are already
in place. It is mostly a matter of the policy makers saying that it is OK,
and making some software changes.
--
Sean Donelan, Data Research Associates, Inc, St. Louis, MO
Domain: sean@sdg.dra.com, Voice: (Work) +1 314-432-1100
