[2153] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
NREN and NSF
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (HORN%athena@leia.polaroid.com)
Tue Jan 28 18:18:26 1992
Date: Tue, 28 Jan 1992 18:19 EST
From: HORN%athena@leia.polaroid.com
To: com-priv@psi.com
Gordon Cook suggests institutional funding rather than researcher
funding. This model would also be fine with me. Some hybrid would be
even better, since researchers are motivated to be sure that their
interests are met and institutions are motivated to be sure that the
institution's network continues to function as a whole. I picked the
researcher because it is my impression that this would involve fewer
changes to the NSF grant process.
I find myself still of two minds about NREN. If the gigabit network
were separated from the National data highway perhaps things would be
easier. I actually think both are desirable, but for very different
reasons.
The gigabit research will probably reveal many interesting things
about high speed circuitry and distributed system design. There are
probably important net uses that are only possible with such networks.
But to learn these things you must go FAST. The T3 45 Mbps is at
least an order of magnitude short. This research should be using at
least 545 Mbps circuits. These are technologicaly available, but only
used for internal telco circuits today.
The other part of NREN should focus on funding uses, not networks. If
the ideal network for libraries is UUCP, then fund libraries to use
UUCP. Given the present uncertainties about how best to address the
needs of these new kinds of uses, how about funding multiple studies:
some theoretical studies about how different solutions could be used,
and some demonstration studies using different solutions. (Actually
there is some of this already funded, but more funding won't hurt.)
One hundred $10,000 grants to schools and libraries will probably do
much more good than $1,000,000 for T3 circuits.
Perhaps you add just one constraint to the $10,000 grants. Require
that they choose a vendor that permits connectivity to all the other
grantee's for the services selected.
Rob Horn horn%hydra@polaroid.com
