[226] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Should the NREN be funded? [CERFnet presentation]
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Pushpendra Mohta)
Wed Feb 27 19:36:02 1991
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 91 15:57:55 PST
From: Pushpendra Mohta <pushp@CERF.NET>
To: com-priv@psi.com, schoff@psi.com
>>
>>
>>Two weeks ago, an OTA workshop on the "Privatized NREN" was held
>>in DC. Attached is the uneditted PSI Presentation to the workshop,
>>I'd like to encourage CERFNet, ANS, ALTERNet, AT&T, ADAPSO, and the
>>RBOC's to post their presentations.
>>
>>Your elected officials, and the unelected bureucrats may shortly
>>spend some of your taxes, appropriately or inappropriately.
>>
>>Marty
>>----------------------
>>
Here is Susan Estrada's Presentation .
Direct all comments to estradas@cerf.net
--pushpendra
CERFnet Coordinator
>From estradas@Sdsc.Edu Wed Feb 27 15:27:33 1991
Return-Path: <estradas@Sdsc.Edu>
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 91 23:27:35 GMT
>From: estradas@Sdsc.Edu (Susan Estrada)
Message-Id: <910227232735.2080011b@Sdsc.Edu>
Subject: forw to the comm.priv list.
To: pushp@Sdsc.Edu
X-St-Vmsmail-To: MOHTAP
Susan Estrada
estradas@cerf.net
1-800-876 CERF
Executive Director of CERFnet
Submission for The Privatized NREN: Marketplace and Public Policy
Issues
Office of Technology Assessment
February 14, 1991
TOMORROW, HOTELS--THE DAY AFTER, THE WORLD!
Did you ever have a truly grandiose thought? The sort of thought
that, if expressed, would instantly give your friends cause to decide
you'd become a true megalomaniac? An idea so great, like how to
achieve world peace, that your mind just shelves it? "C'mon, dumbo,"
your mind tells you, "there's just no way to get from here to there!
Don't make a fool of yourself trying!"
I have had such a thought for some time. The thought is that
everyone in the country ought to be connected. There ought to be a
United States Computer Network, as dense as the telephone network,
that puts us all together to share everything: mail, computing, ideas
in research or education or design or manufacturing, electronic
journals, national invitational arguments, maybe even voting,
banking, or (that old signature bugaboo of computer "misuse")
sharing recipes. And, we should all be able to do this at a low cost.
Nuts, right? C'mon, dumbo, my mind said, don't breathe a word of
this--there's no way to get from here to there.
After all, we have the telephone. And some telephones are fax
machines. As the executive director of CERFnet, I do a lot of
traveling. When I'm on the road, I have to use the telephone and (if
I'm lucky enough to have one available) fax. But both of these lack
the intelligent and, yes, *leisurely* intimacy available to me in my
office or at home, where I can do what a previous generation did
with nice, long, chatty letters--only much, much faster. I can send
electronic mail, even long, windy messages, with full confidence that
the recipient can decide at leisure how to deal with whatever I've
sent. He or she can print it out and read it over and discuss it with
colleagues and forward it, and so forth. An immediate response is
not required, as on the telephone--a medium that has all too many of
us regretting what we just said or just didn't say. I can troubleshoot
network problems by logging into machines all over the state from
the convenience of my hotel room.
Fax is just an incredibly expensive (and often far too public) way of
doing what most of us in the research community usually do with
electronic mail, except for the graphic capabilities. And even those
could be added and enhanced with the right sorts of computers and
output devices at either end.
So what I really want on the road is the same setup I have at home
or in the office. And I want everyone else with whom I might ever
communicate to have the same thing. But that's the idea of a
megalomaniac, of course.
Hotels should have data jacks. Magazines and other media serving
the computational community could publish directories of such
hotels. That would be a big help. Of course, extra data jacks are not
really what you want for electronic mail. What you want at the very
least is a computer available in your hotel for your use, with a
modem connected. Better yet, it should be available to be installed
in your room. Still better, it should be permanently installed in your
room just like the telephone, and ultimately it should have a high-
speed connection to the Internet. Megalomania all over again.
As nearly all of us in the research community are aware, there has
been a long hard push to create a National Research and Education
Network, inspired by the success of NSFnet and the Internet. The
spearhead for this effort in Congress has been Senator Al Gore, and
the other major movers have been Dr. Allan Bromley and
Representative George Brown. This laudable effort looks like it may
succeed and, indeed, I think it had better succeed if the country is to
retain scientific and technological leadership in the world.
But some of the advocates of this network want, at least initially, to
structure it as a separate network for the government labs,
universities, and industrial research laboratories. I don't see it that
way. I would invite the regular industrial community, the business
community, the entire production side of our economy, in at the
start. Inevitably, I think, all sectors of the economy must be
connected, and reachable by computer. The analogy of the interstate
highway system with the computer network is irresistible, and the
logic of it is plain. A policy that separates research activities from
other important aspects of the economy and the culture as a whole
will have to change, for example, just to connect a hotel to the
Internet.
Much of how this will happen depends on how the NREN lead agency
chooses to dispense the funding. Competition in this youthful
industry is good and something that should be encouraged.
Competition has resulted in lower prices for better service. The
NREN lead agency must take that into account when deciding how to
disperse the funding and must encourage, if not mandate,
competition in the provision of backbone and mid-level services.
But, competitive networks should not segregate the academic,
business, and government sectors of the economy.
And what, then, of regulation? In the good sense, regulation of the
service providers will provide a way for users to directly govern
behavior of the providers, making a better network for all involved.
In the bad sense, regulation can stifle creativity and the offering of
new services resulting in a stagnant network.
The scope for network service providers today is incredibly broad.
The players and their organizations are young and eager and the fans
are volatile. In some areas, there are up to eight networks providing
connectivity to today's Internet. And the playing field is changing
monthly as people identify the the tremendous opportunities
available in data communications networks.
In view of the fluid situation, maybe I'm not such a megalomaniac,
after all. We are very close to having the capacity for what I am
suggesting: the computers are certainly available, and the broad
bandwidth networks based on fiberoptics are almost here and the
NREN is a lure to entrepreneur. Maybe the slogan of "hotels today
and the world tomorrow" is not so far out that one daren't utter it.
The main obstacles are in our imaginations and our tangles of
regulations. I say, let's cut these Gordian knots. Let's get connected!
