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From: gds@mit-eddie.UUCP (Greg Skinner)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.tv.da
Subject: re: Re: How to Decrease the Chances of Total Destruction
Message-ID: <1031@mit-eddie.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 10-Dec-83 22:44:44 EST
Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.1031
Posted: Sat Dec 10 22:44:44 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 13-Dec-83 00:56:56 EST
References: <355@ucbtopaz.CC.Berkeley.ARPA> <257@tty3b.UUCP>, <1014@mit-eddie.UUCP> <428@pyuxa.UUCP>
Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 42

***

Great Balls of Fire, Mr Skinner, I don't know what they are teaching up
there at MIT, but you better start questioning them about what's going
on out here in the real world.  When you say that only the military seems
to be funding communications projects,  You have it backwards.  There is 
more money going into this type of research in the private sector than
ever before in history.  Check out Bell Labs, Western Electric, Western 
Union, ITT, Northern Telcom, IBM, and literally hundreds of other firms
from one end of this country to the other.

There has been an explosion in this industry.  With the breakup of the Bell
System, everyone is poised to get into the act.  Look at MCI, Southern
Pacific, and GTE for starters.  The military is an after the fact user
of many of the systems being developed for commercial use.  Don't worry
about not being able to find a place in the communications industry that
does not accept military funding for communications research.  Most of
this type work is funded through the private sector.  The military usually
gets involved only after a particular system has been developed and they
want one too.  

Granted, the military does fund some communications research, however,
that funding is a drop in the bucket compared to what the private
sector is doing.  Take a look at the New York Times Business Section
on any given Sunday.  I would venture that at least 30% of the ads are
for comunications types, not conected with military spending.

***

Mayhaps I should clarify my earlier statement.  The private sector does
indeed participate in *communications* more than the military does, but
not in communications *research*.  I think that the people who work for
companies that are funded by the government are interested in developing
new techniques in communications, rather than developing random mail
systems or taking old ideas and integrating them in different contexts.
The companies you mentioned seem to do the latter.

---greg
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