[IP] Re: NSF and the Birth of the Internet

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Robert Alberti <ip@sanction.net>
Date: August 18, 2008 10:58:46 PM EDT
To: dave@farber.net, steve.goldstein@cox.net, DeWayne Townsend <d-town@tc.umn.edu 
>
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:    NSF and the Birth of the Internet
Reply-To: alberti@sanction.net

Also the word "gopher" appears nowhere in the timeline, although for a
couple of years it WAS the Internet...

I basically read it as breathless NSF self-promotion and decided to pay
it no mind.

-Bob Alberti
RFC 1436

On Mon, 2008-08-18 at 19:20 -0400, David Farber wrote:
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: dewayne@warpspeed.com (Dewayne Hendricks)
> Date: August 18, 2008 4:17:03 PM EDT
> To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy@warpspeed.com>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] re: NSF and the Birth of the Internet
>
> [Note:  This comment comes from friend Steve Goldstein.  DLH]
>
> From: Steve Goldstein <steve.goldstein@cox.net>
> Date: August 18, 2008 12:15:01 PM PDT
> To: dewayne@warpspeed.com (Dewayne Hendricks)
> Subject: Re: [Dewayne-Net] NSF and the Birth of the Internet
>
> All this somewhat overblown chest-thumping does not make up for the
> way that NSF and the USA in general dropped the ball starting in the
> late 1990's with regard to leadership in the Internet, or rather the
> academic and research Internet.  I speak as one who was there (at NSF)
> and part of the early withdrawal from leadership, and then a rueful  
> on-
> looker in the early years of this millennium as the NSF went AWOL.
> They have been trying to play some catch-up ball, but with too little
> money and a dearth of solid and original thought.  Compared to Canada,
> the Netherlands, Japan and Korea (and maybe a few other countries of
> which I am unaware), NSF and the US are pikers putting on a big front.
>
> BTW, my job at NSF in the 1990's was, essentially, to spread Internet,
> and then advanced Inernet around the world.  I have not found any
> reference to STAR TAP or Starlight or the Internet Connections Manager
> Project (yet another ICMP!) in that video.  And, the some of the
> talking heads (e.g., Karen) just do not really understand what they
> are talking about.  For example, running domain name registration into
> the Mosaic browser support.  And, the domain name registration was
> originally run under DARPA (or was it ARPA then?) supervision
> (contracting?) and not by NSF.  NSF took it over after DARPA decided
> that the Internet had grown to the point that it was beyond their
> remit to handle.  And, then we handed it over to the Department of
> Commerce, which led, eventually, to the formation of ICANN to
> coordinate globally (disclosure: I am now about halfway through my
> three-year term on the ICANN Board).  But, in the exuberance of chest-
> thumping, and the others' roles seem to be overlooked or at least
> short-changed.
>
> Just my humble opinion, by the way.
>
> --Steve, the curmudgeon
> RSS Feed: <http://www.warpspeed.com/wordpress>
>
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------





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