[ih] ARPANET 50-year anniversary panel session with Vint, Steve Crocker, and others

[Jack Haverty]

On 2/23/19 10:12 AM, John Levine wrote:

> Writing, editing, and publishing journal articles is a
> lot of work, and not everyone can afford to do it for free.

Writing, editing, and publishing thousands of RFCs and IENs, and all of
the material on the archives of forum sites like this, is also a lot of
work.  People either do it for free, or as part of whatever they are
getting paid to do.   Decades of such material are freely available
online in multiple repositories.

But "internet-history at postel.org", and others like it, even RFC
repositories, likely exist at the whim of their sponsor.  The archives
may just disappear someday when some contract expires.  Of course, even
professional journals may disappear when their finances dictate.

So, ... perhaps the way to publish "a paper" for open access by current
and future historians is to make it an RFC...?  Assuming that is even
permitted of course.  But it seems contrary to the traditional purpose
of RFCs et al.  The format constraints might also be an obstacle.

Or, perhaps put it into Amazon with a very low price, where it will be
accessible electronically or even on paper by their print-on-demand?  
Amazon seems to have longevity.

/Jack Haverty