RFC 1527 (rfc1527) - Page 2 of 17
What Should We Plan Given the Dilemma of the Network?
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 1527 Cook Report on Internet September 1993
A Corporation for Public Networking? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
The Dilemma of an Unregulated Public Resource in a Free Market
Environment
As currently structured, the NSFnet and american Internet provide
access to several million researchers and educators, hundreds of
thousands of remote computers, hundreds of databases, and hundreds of
library catalogues. Money being invested in the network as a result
of the High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) initiative
should considerably increase the numbers and variety behind this
unprecedented collection of resources. No other computer network on
earth currently comes close to providing access to the breadth and
depth of people and information. If access to information is access
to power, access to the national computer network will mean access to
very significant power.
Furthermore, access to the american Internet and NREN is also
access to the worldwide Internet. According to the Director for
International Programs at the NSF in February 1992, the development
of the Internet over the past twelve years has been one of
exponential growth:
Date Connected Hosts
August 1981 213
October 1985 1,961
December 1987 28,174
January 1989 80,000
January 1991 376,000
January 1992 727,000
These hosts are computers to which anyone in the world with Internet
access can instantaneously connect and use if there are publically
available files. Any host may also be used for remote computing if
the system administrator gives the user private access. These seven
hundred thousand plus hosts are located in more than 38 nations. But
they are only part of the picture. By system-to-system transfer of
electronic mail they are linked to probably a million additional
hosts. According to Dr. Larry Landweber of the University of
Wisconsin, as of February 10, 1992, Internet electronic mail was
available in 106 nations and territories.
Cook