[ih] CORRECTION: Not IEN's, but Packet Radio Notes

[Jack Haverty]

In 1971 I encountered the ARPANET, while a student and then staff in 
Lick's group at MIT.  In 1977 I encountered The Internet, with my first 
assignment at BBN to implement TCP for Unix.

In both cases I was still in my 20s, and blissfully unaware of things 
like "office politics".   I thought we were all working on the same team 
with the goal of building a new world using technology.   Naive, I know.

But office politics existed.  Groups at MIT, BBN, and elsewhere competed 
with each other within their own organization for research funding.  The 
various research sites themselves similarly competed with their peers.  
BBN, SRI, MIT, et al sought contracts from ARPA and others.  I never 
worked at ARPA, but I suspect Program Managers there also competed to 
get funds for their own projects.

In my own experience, I never encountered any pressure from ARPA to 
restrict distribution of research results (except for a few cases 
involving classified projects).  Or perhaps in my naivete I just didn't 
notice the pressure.

Managers, at some level in some organization, might have somehow 
restricted distribution of "their" research product, if only for fear of 
losing their funding to some other research activity - either because 
their benefactor warned them of the possibility, or because of fear they 
might do so.

In any event, I recall that information from other projects, in other 
groups at MIT or BBN, or from other research institutions, was not 
readily available in those years.  Perhaps we could get something, but 
it wasn't as easy as searching on the Web and downloading a copy is 
today.   I never heard, or just missed understanding, that anything was 
being restricted.  But it wasn't made easy either to get such materials.

As The Internet was embraced by the commercial world, more competitive 
issues of course arrived.  Proprietary plans, technical details, and 
such information were likely to be kept close for competitive advantage.

It seems to me that there is a large component of Internet History that 
has never been well researched - namely the influence of things like 
such "office politics", the moving of key people from one organization 
to another (a form of "technology transfer"), and other such 
non-technical events during the formative years of The Internet.

Fifty years in the past, it may be too late now to capture that part of 
History.   I doubt you'll find much about it in anything like RFCs or IENs.

Jack Haverty




On 4/16/25 17:07, Vint Cerf via Internet-history wrote:
> some key TCP players were part of the packet radio program (jim mathis,
> vint cerf, ....)
> v
>
>
> On Wed, Apr 16, 2025 at 7:49 PM Greg Skinner via Internet-history <
> internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
>
>> On Apr 16, 2025, at 9:33 AM, Alexander McKenzie via Internet-history <
>> internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
>>> Friends,
>>>
>>> I must apologize for a serious misstatement.  I now realize it was not
>>> IEN's which were strictly controlled, it was Packet Radio Notes.  I
>> myself
>>> was on the public distribution list for IENs and I should have remembered
>>> this.
>>>
>>> My sincere apologies,
>>> Alex McKenzie
>>> --
>>> Internet-history mailing list
>>> Internet-history at elists.isoc.org
>>> https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-history
>> OK, I understand (although some of those Packet Radio Notes are also
>> IENs).  But IMO some of the Packet Radio Notes (such as those that are in
>> https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA157696.pdf) that are not IENs could
>> have been valuable to TCP implementors who were not part of the initial
>> group of TCP implementors from the late 1970s and early 1980s.  At the very
>> least, they give an idea of how one might go about designing or tuning a
>> TCP implementation, or testing for interoperability (including performance).
>>
>> --gregbo
>>
>> --
>> Internet-history mailing list
>> Internet-history at elists.isoc.org
>> https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-history
>>
>

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