[2370] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Hearings of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology on NSFNet
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (David J. Farber)
Sat Feb 22 13:05:23 1992
Date: Sat, 22 Feb 92 13:00:29 EST
From: farber@central.cis.upenn.edu (David J. Farber)
To: list.@central.cis.upenn.edu
The Subcommittee on Science, of the House Committee
on Science, Space and Technology, has scheduled a
public hearing on the topic of "Management of NSF
Network" for March 12, from 10 am to 2 pm in Rm 2325 of
the Rayburn House Office Building. Their interest,
as explained by staff organizing the hearing, is to
understand the NSF decisions in the past and to study
the proposed transition of the NSFNet/NREN to a
commercial environment. Of particular interest is
the NSFNet rebid scheduled in the next 2.5 years.
Asked to testify as witnesses are representives of
the community. There will be two panels, the first
with NSF staff: Dr. Stephen Wolff, director of
DNCRI, and Dr. Niko Haberman, director of CISE. The
second panel will have Mr. Mitchell Kapor
(President of EFF and Chairman of the CIX
Association), Dr. Douglas Van Houweling (Chairman of
ANS, member of the board of Merit), Dr. Eric Hood
(President of FARNET), Dr. Michael Roberts (former
President, current Vice President of EDUCOM), and
Mr. William Schrader (President of PSI Inc.).
It is believed that the Subcommittee Chairman is
interested in a full review of what has transpired
and is looking carefully at future plans. It is
a neutral inquiry into the situation.
Let us hope that positive results from this hearing
can help the community shape its future in ways that
will encourage an open environment.
