[356] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
a strategic plan for farnet (and you)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Edward Vielmetti)
Thu Mar 14 03:17:32 1991
To: com-priv@uu.psi.com
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 91 01:04:53 EST
From: Edward Vielmetti <emv@ox.com>
I urge readers of this list to ftp a copy of
nic.cerf.net:/farnet/farnet_info/strategic-plan.ps
which is "A Strategic Plan for FARNET" (draft). Quoting from
the executive summary:
"This report identifies specific strategies that FARNET has chosen
to navigate the rapidly changing research and education networking
environment."
An interesting piece of this report are five alternative universes,
corresponding to five different visions of the future of FARNET and
what the future of the Internet would be then. The alternatives are:
- operations and advocacy
- customer service and advocacy
- operations and customer service
- users group for regionals
- FARNET goes away.
These were rank ordered by preference and likelihood by the members;
the two "winners" were #2 (customer service and advocacy) followed
by #4 (users group for regionals), which were both ranked higher than
the others on all things they asked about.
What are these futures supposed to look like? Reading the #2 and #4
futures sets yield these approaches, edited down somewhat.
"Customer services and advocacy."
Connectivity. NREN passes, connecting K-12 and public libraries.
IP-based networks grow much faster than had been expected. ANS
provides connectivity to a majority of commercial and non-commercial
information service providers. PSI and AlterNet grow slowly.
NIC/Customer services. FARNET concentrates on NIC services, customer
services, and marketing. A FARNET funded and operated NIC provides
documenation, education, a national user services hotline.
Role of FARNET. FARNET is successful in coalescing an ever growing
marking for services based on IP networks.
"FARNET as user group."
Connectivity. NREN passes, with a funded regional in each state
except California. Dept of Education awards NOC contracts to
AT&T consortim. Unable to incrase market share, ANS, PSI, and
Alternet fail.
NIC/Customer services. BBN wins the NIC contract. 'Funded with small
grants from the NIC, Special Interest Groups (affinity groups) have
sprung up and assist people and organizations with shared interests
to make better use of the net.'
Role of FARNET. FARNET remains an informal user group with a modest
operating budget and a large (but disparate) membership.
---
In all this (and in a general sense from reading the document) I
get an uneasy sense that these are not the kinds of networks that I
want to see. Each of the views has quite a monolithic approach to
how things will be; there's no visible signs of competition, marketplace,
or healthy disagreement on how things will be done. Success is dependent
solely on the ability to win government grants; small enterpreneruial
efforts are written off as "heroic efforts of a few individuals".
Organizations which are flourishing today (regional nets, Alternet,
PSI) just disappear somehow.
Particularly galling is the Capitalized Treatment of Special Interest
Groups, as if these were new things which would pop up if FARNET tossed
a few coins their way. (OK, I'm exaggerating.) No clue in any of this
about the thousands of user communities already exchanging information
and doing their thing on the internet right today.
Who is FARNET, and what have they ever done? What's their list of
projects, accomplishments, papers, software, etc ? My personal
favorite approach is their #5 future, "FARNET is Caput [sic]":
Congress fails to pass the NREN bill. Nevertheless,
IP-based networks grow much faster than expected.
(No mention of PSI or Alternet by name, but I suspect that they are
flourishing, along with a dozen others.)
--
Msen Edward Vielmetti
/|--- moderator, comp.archives
emv@msen.com
