[10384] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: $50 Million Dollar Gift
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Gordon Cook)
Sun Feb 20 20:11:19 1994
From: cook@path.net (Gordon Cook)
Date: Sun, 20 Feb 1994 17:09:54 PST
In-Reply-To: stpeters@spare-parts.crd.ge.com (Dick St.Peters)
To: stpeters@dawn.crd.ge.com
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
To imply that *I* single handedly could prevent AT&T from "bidding its best"
is quite a ludicrous statement. With this logic MCI apparently won because it
had no ATM offerings and hence nothing to fear being disclosed in the COOK
Report. While AT&T *and* Sprint were prevented from bidding their best
because some particulars might fall into my hands!
When a reporter for a national network magazine calls me and wonders what
light I can shed on what has happened because his editors were struck by the
apparent incongruity of the IXC with the least significant committment to ATM
winning this contract, it seems that I might not be the only one for whom the
NSF's actions don't compute.
Also your analysis of this process with every player having to be real careful
lest proprietary competitive data escape into public view, implies a CONTRACT
bid for **competitive** technology.
Yet the bid was advertised as a **cooperative agreement** for
PRE-competitive technology which, last thing I heard, meant this stuff was
still R&D enough so that the rules of non disclosure for fear of loosing
COMPETITIVE advantage would not apply. I fail to see how your logic holds.
Since when are closed door deals none of the press' business??
And speaking of logic, in view of the langauge from the science board
resolution that said Steve could use a grant, a contract, or other means to
spend the money, I'd hope we'd have some reassurance from Mr Rudolph the NSF
General Counsel as to whether or not this is still a cooperative agreement.
Steve W told me that the NSB langauge was just "boilerplate". Perhaps, but why
use it? Its use muddies the picture, especially in the absence of the legally
binding documents - documents without even any estimated release date.
