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

[Brian E Carpenter]

The techies knew it 5 years before the management and pols.

Regards
    Brian Carpenter

On 25-Jul-24 08:42, Miles Fidelman via Internet-history wrote:
> 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
>>
>>
> 
>