[ih] Success has many fathers but failure is an orphan

[Vint Cerf]

I have no reason to dispute the facts in the story, either. However, the
writer does fail to recognize the pioneering nature of the CSNET (it
adopted TCP/IP thanks to Larry Landweber's 1980/81 intervention before
Dennis Jennings made the same decision for the NSFNET around 1985. If I am
remembering correctly, Dennis was involved with the super computer effort
at the time he recommended that the nascent NSFNET also make use of TCP/IP.
In Fall 1986, then-Senator Gore held a hearing at which Bob Kahn introduced
the term "information infrastructure" and Senator Gore asked whether an
optical fiber network should be constructed to link the Supercomputer
centers together. The head of CISE at that time was Gordon Bell and he
convened a Feb 1987 meeting in San Diego that led to the proposal for the
National Research and Education Network program. I also seem to recall that
the supercomputer center directors lobbied unsuccessfully to build their
own, disconnected networks on the grounds that performance required
specialization and control by each center [perhaps someone on the list can
clarify that hazy memory]. They were overruled (assuming I am remembering
this correctly) in favor of an NSF-wide network.

vint



On Sat, Jan 5, 2013 at 9:07 PM, Guy Almes <galmes at tamu.edu> wrote:

> Alex,
>   I was UW Computer Science during the time period he writes of and I was
> not aware of him.  But, myopia aside, his story rings true with me for
> several reasons.
>   First, whatever the reason was, the fact that NSF funded and (more or
> less) organized an effort to connect all the US universities to the
> (NSFnet) Internet was clearly of huge importance to the growth of the
> Internet.
>   Second, the specific driver, enabling effective remote access to the
> five or so centers from the 200 or so research universities, was both a
> demanding application and one that gave the NSF a defensible reason for
> funding and organizing the NSFnet effort.
>   Third, that remote supercomputer application presented a clear
> motivation for much higher end-to-end capacity that the ARPAnet-based
> Internet that existed in 1984.  In short, moving gigabyte files motivated
> T1 performance levels.
>   Fourth, this story helps one understand the substantive ways in which
> Sen. Gore's efforts made a difference.
>
>         -- Guy
>
>
> On 1/5/13 5:38 PM, Alex McKenzie wrote:
>
>> http://www.analogsf.com/2013_**03/altview.shtml<http://www.analogsf.com/2013_03/altview.shtml>
>>
>
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