Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!fernwood!apple!decwrl!ucbvax!MERIT.EDU!hwb
From: hwb@MERIT.EDU (Hans-Werner Braun)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Internet/NSFNet proposal to be run by IBM -- call to action!
Message-ID: <9010300135.AA12143@kiddo.merit.edu>
Date: 30 Oct 90 01:35:40 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 25

This discussion is somewhat based on somewhat unreal assumptions. What
happened some while ago was that the partnership that manages and operates
the NSFNET on behalf of and under a cooperative aggreement with the
National Science Foundation have created a new company to be more responsive
to the everchanging requirements of the Internet. While IBM is one of the
three parent corporations of this new company, they do not control it at all.
There is only one IBM person on the Board of Directors who has no more rights
than any of the other seven members. Also, IBM is putting money *into* this
company and not getting money out of it. Just like the comment someone else made
here or on the com-priv mailing list where other companies contribute to PBS
stations for benefits like visibility and such. Given the non-for-profit nature
of the new company it would not even be legal for IBM to have a revenue stream
coming in from that company. There is absolutely no desire to be more 
restrictive on the network than there are restrictions today and there is
also no desire to abandon current protocols. Over time, the network should
even support more protocols, like OSI CLNP in parallel to IP, as demonstrated
on the NSFNET backbone already. Also, over time people should look into ways
to abandon as many traffic restrictions as possible. All this is an evolving
process and won't happen over night and this new company is just one of several
who are trying to foster the evolution of the Internet. There are other
companies that came earlier, there are likely more to come in the future,
all of which play important parts of the network. Soooo, IBM running the
NSFNET and/or the Internet is really a little far fetched.

	-- Hans-Werner