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

[Miles Fidelman]

As I understand it, it was the European Interop show.  All the OSI folks 
were promising "real soon now." Meanwhile, all the TCP/IP stuff was on 
display, up and running in the shownet, and available for sales.  So 
much for OSI.

Miles Fidelman


Jack Haverty via Internet-history wrote:
> 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
>
>


-- 
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.  .... Yogi Berra

Theory is when you know everything but nothing works.
Practice is when everything works but no one knows why.
In our lab, theory and practice are combined:
nothing works and no one knows why.  ... unknown