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
