<div dir="ltr">Bob Kahn and I made that decision.<div><br></div><div>v</div><div><br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Aug 31, 2016 at 7:29 PM, Jack Haverty <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jack@3kitty.org" target="_blank">jack@3kitty.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Hi Vint,<br>
<br>
Wow, a great list of names from the early days. I know they all supported the ARPANET and Internet, especially by directing funding in the right direction. But I was curious about who made the decision to make all of the work open and freely available.<br>
<br>
There were several companies and organizations back in the 80s developing their own way of interconnecting networks - Xerox, IBM, Novell, Banyan, etc. As far as I remember, all of them made it difficult for others to use or evolve their technology, with various techniques of secrecy, patents, licenses, etc. They naturally wanted to protect their investment and competitive advantage.<br>
<br>
The government, and especially the military, with its understandable tendency to keep things secret, usually had such work also kept even more private for all sorts of reasons. Development plans of a new fighter jet, or the specifications of the capabilities of a new tank, and other such technology infrastructure work, was (I think) usually kept very secret.<br>
<br>
But in the case of computer networking technology, the work we now know as The Internet was (mostly) done in a very open and collaborative fashion, much more so than any company or organization I can remember.<br>
<br>
I have for a long time wondered who made that decision...IMHO it made a huge difference. I've also wondered if they, or their successors, now regret it.<br>
<br>
IMHO, networking technology has started regressing from that openness. Protocols are less open (so how exactly does Netflix/whatever work...?) Core functions are no longer universal and compatible (so many different ways to send messages inside various closed gardens of Social Media). Etc. Etc.<br>
<br>
It's interesting to look back at the 40 years or so of networks, but it's hard to see where it's going, and how the loss of openness will affect things. But that's for internet-future, not internet-history.<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
<br>
/Jack</font></span><span class=""><br>
<br>
<br>
On 08/31/2016 03:35 PM, Vint Cerf wrote:<br>
</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><span class="">
<br>
On Wed, Aug 31, 2016 at 5:43 PM, Jack Haverty <<a href="mailto:jack@3kitty.org" target="_blank">jack@3kitty.org</a><br></span><span class="">
<mailto:<a href="mailto:jack@3kitty.org" target="_blank">jack@3kitty.org</a>>> wrote:<br>
<br>
<br>
Someone (I wish I knew who) made the decision to do all of this work,<br>
and spend all of that money, in an open environment, and make the<br>
technology freely available and standardized for anyone to use. None of<br>
the competing Internet architectures (Xerox, Novell, DEC, IBM, ISO,<br>
etc.) did that. So when the rest of the world discovered that the<br>
military TCP/IP technology not only worked but also could solve their<br>
problems, the ascension of the Internet was natural.<br>
<br>
<br>
Bob Kahn, Larry Roberts and Dave Russell are probably the closest to the<br>
deciding parties<br>
at the IPTO level but one has to credit George Heilmeier and Steve<br>
Lukasic as DARPA<br>
Directors for their strong support for ARPANET and then Internet.<br>
<br>
v<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
--<br>
New postal address:<br>
Google<br>
1875 Explorer Street, 10th Floor<br>
Reston, VA 20190<br>
</span></blockquote>
</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr">New postal address:<div>Google<br><div>1875 Explorer Street, 10th Floor</div><div>Reston, VA 20190</div></div></div></div>
</div>