[ih] How TCP and the Internet "won" outside of the US?

[Jack Haverty]

On 7/23/24 10:16, Gergely Buday via Internet-history wrote:
> Russia does not like the open Internet as they did not like Radio Free
> Europe.
>
> - Gergely

I've always been curious about the adoption of the TCP-based Internet as 
it spread outside the US.

Inside the US, the Internet, and TCP, was characterized as "an 
Experiment".   It might provide research insights, but the "real" next 
generation system was being aggressively developed by big corporations, 
perhaps to evolve into some kind of OSI standards-based data 
communications infrastructure for the world - much as the telephone, 
telegraph, postal, and other such older global communications 
infrastructures had evolved.

The perception of the Internet as just "an experiment" made it of little 
relevance to the competitors, both corporations and standards bodies, 
that were battling to define the actual next generation. Thus, as just 
an Experiment,  the Internet got little attention from corporate or 
political interests.   It grew on its own and likely surprised a lot of 
people when it exploded and dominated, especially through the 1990s 
after the Web appeared and provided content and services interesting to 
the general public.

I've always assumed that the Internet grew outside the US much as it had 
grown inside.   But is that true?

So my question is --- How was the Internet received by the political and 
commercial interests in other countries?   Was it viewed as a threat, or 
ignored as irrelevant?  In the US, IIRC a lot of big companies were 
blindsided by the sudden (to them) emergence of the Internet and TCP.

But elsewhere?  For a country that "does not like the open Internet", 
when did they realize that, and what did they do about it?

Any recollections, pointers to literature, etc.?

Jack Haverty

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