[ih] infrastructure history [was: who invented the Internet]

[John Day]

I would go slightly further.  The primary reason most private 
corporations were involved was because there was government funding.

If there had not been significant government funding none of them 
except possibly Xerox who had its own technology would have been 
there.  It was too far outside their planning horizons.

At 9:03 -0700 2012/07/26, Dave Crocker wrote:
>On 7/25/2012 10:07 PM, John Levine wrote:
>>My, we're cynical.  The Internet is one in a long line of technical
>>developments that were done partly by private entities with a big help
>>from the government, with a fairly straightforward public interest
>>motivation.
>
>
>I'm going to suggest that the above phrasing sets exactly the wrong 
>perspective.  "Big help" significantly understates the role of 
>government funding.
>
>Looking at the details of research, development and operations for 
>packet-switching and interworking, represented in today's Internet, 
>I believe there was primarily government funding until the latter 
>'80s, when commercialization started.  I believe the three notable 
>exceptions were PARC's ethernet, Digital's routing work, and the 
>interplay between PARC and ARPA reserarch folk.
>
>To the extent that folks disagree, I'd be interested in seeing 
>listings of details.
>
>d/
>--
>  Dave Crocker
>  Brandenburg InternetWorking
>  bbiw.net