[ih] Fwd: Governments' Bureaucracy and The Internet

[Greg Skinner]

Forwarded for Barbara

> ----- Forwarded Message -----
> From: Barbara Denny <b_a_denny at yahoo.com>
> To: Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org>
> Sent: Saturday, November 7, 2026 at 05:55:26 PM PST
> Subject: Re: [ih] Governments' Bureaucracy and The Internet
> 
> Not sure people know about this so I thought i would add it to the mix here.  This article sounds  pretty good.  Even though i did meet Pål,  i don't know much about the work.
> 
> https://btw.media/en/pal-spilling-cable-made-norway-reachable-vulnerable
> 
> https://www.internethalloffame.org/inductee/pal-spilling/
> 
> barbara
> 
> On Saturday, November 7, 2026 at 01:46:43 PM PST, Steve Crocker via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> I can't speak about the role of the bureaucracy in creating the Internet.
> I saw a tiny bit of the bureaucracy during the creation of the Arpanet.
> 
> Two particularly relevant pieces of the bureaucracy related to the
> procurement of the 50 kilobit per second leased lines.  On the positive
> side, the government had access to a special price, I believe that made it
> possible use the lines instead of much slower lines and stay within the
> available budget.
> 
> On the other hand, the rules for ordering the lines included a nine month
> lead time.  That made it very hard to adjust to the occasional issues that
> arose requiring replanning the topology.
> 
> Steve
> 
> 
> Sent by a Verified
> 
> sender