[10578] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Gordon Cook's Ideal Internet - what does it look like?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Gordon Cook)
Sun Feb 27 07:08:01 1994
From: cook@path.net (Gordon Cook)
Date: Sun, 13 Feb 1994 15:33:00 PST
In-Reply-To: "Erik E. Fair" (A Vacationing Postmaster) <fair@apple.com>
To: fair@apple.com
Cc: steve@nsf.gov, tenney@netcom.com, com-priv@psi.com
To Glen and Eric and Com-priv:
What do I want the Internet to be?
Easy enough to answer:
1. an open interconnected network where anyone can get to any host for any
reason that does not break state or federal law,
2. a network where its technical evolution is conducted in an open manner as
with the present IETF,
3. a network with affordable access,
4. and a continuation of the cooperative amazingly successful experiment in
collaborative effort it has been up to this point in time.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see where this administration has been
very successful in focusing commercial attention on the internet and on
interactive telecommunications in general.
The commercialization gold rush is on. Major money is at stake. I am not
anti-commercial, but I am very much anti a process where there is any
possibility that *this* or the preceeding administration was getting in bed
with some key players in corporate America to behind the scenes and off the
record deliver a playing field tilted on their behalf.
I am going to dig and probe and try to shine light into every nook and cranny
of what goes on. What the NSF is doing is too important to the future of the
internet to be accepted without question. Who is setting policy where, why
and for what ends is too important to the preservation of the current network
and to critical aspects of its culture to be ignored.
I consider myself fortunate to be someone who had 18 months inside the beltway
to get savvy about the players and the stakes and who now because of this
technology can support himself as an independent writer and publisher beholden
to no single interest group to follow this rapidly changing and enormously
complex issue full time. Yep, I have a niche, and quite a specialized one,
but I'd counter that to make a difference within this field -- given the
complexity and speed of change -- one needs to be able to occupy a specialized
niche. And in this particular niche, as far as I know I am the only one
resident full time.
While Brock is very capable of speaking for himself, he also covers a helluva
lot broader area than I do and has the resources of a considerable
organization behind him as well as an excellent location. You can carp all
you want about network maps. All the ones I have seen do not clearly identify
those nodes. Yeah there is a lot of data out there, so much tha no one, not
even me, can possibly know it all. And, yep, when all else fails the network
itself can generally be counted on to suppy answers. And please don't read
things into telephone conversations third hand. My friend was told that the
PUBLIC meeting was still on. An hour later when it was to begin he was told
that it was cancelled. Plain and simple. Black and white. Question my
motives in anyway you like -- its a free country after all. Nevertheless I
have been and will continue to be very clear about them:
I think the future of the net is too important to be decided outside of public
scrutiny and I intend to be here watching, scrutinizing, probing, poking and
asking questions until hell freezes over. <smile>
