The problem of talking about Governments running the Internet, is
that leaves out that it is the Government-Computer Science interface
that is needed to oversee the Internet.
Following is the preface from a draft paper I have recently posted
(and the URL for the Paper) that explores how the computer science
and the Internet developed as a result of the recognition of the
need for developing government support for computer science and
computer scientists as part of government.
It is important to study this development in order to determine
what is needed now for the Internet to continue to grow and
flourish.
Draft for Comment
Computer Science and Government: ARPA/IPTO (1962-1986)
Creating the Needed Interface
by Ronda Hauben
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Mr. McCormack. The important thing about a man in science is
that he must have demonstrated ability to think originally,
isn't that right.
Mr. Marchetti. Yes
Mr. McCormack. They are discovering things and looking ahead
maybe 10 and 20 years sometimes.
Mr. Marchetti. That is right
[Riehlman Comm. hearing, pg. 249]
During the war there developed a partnership between
military men and scientific men. It was not brought about
automatically; it is not a thing that occurs readily. These
men come from different backgrounds, and it is hard for
each group to understand the other....I can say to you that
the morale of the scientists today as I meet them is so low,
so low that while they will not refuse to serve, they will
serve without enthusiasm and without fruitful inspiration.
[Vannevar Bush, Riehlman Comm hearing 1954,
pg. 454-455]
ARPA is considered throughout the field as being the main
supporter and perhaps the most important force in the course
of U.S. and probably world history in the computer....the
country never would have grown in the computer field the way
it did if it hadn't been for ARPA."
[Ibid., pg. X-22. Discussion with Dr. L. Roberts,
April 23, 1974]
1. Preface
This paper is a beginning effort to explore the role of the
U.S. government in building the Internet. The Information
Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) created within the Advanced
Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in the U.S. Department of Defense
(DOD) is the early and most significant institutional form of
this role. Working within this institution, scientists provided
leadership in creating the new field of computer science and in
giving birth to the Internet. Understanding the role of
government in the creation and development of the Internet
involves exploring the interface between the computer scientists
working as part of IPTO and the military officers in the DOD.
More fundamentally, this interface is actually an interface
between the computer science community and the U.S. government.
During much of its 25 year existence, from 1962-1986,
the Information Processing Techniques Office funded and provided
leadership, not only for the creation of the new field of
computer science, but also for a large number of significant
accomplishments in this field. Among these accomplishments are
the creation of time-sharing and interactive computing, of packet
switching networking, VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration), AI
(Artificial Intelligence), the ARPANET, and perhaps most
sensationally, of the Internet. Also, under its direction and
support, interactive computing and the Internet have spread into
many aspects of our society and lives.
And yet the Office of Information Processing Techniques was
ended in 1986. This raises the question of how did it provide
the leadership to make such accomplishments possible? And then,
if it was successful in doing such important feats, why was it
ended?
Before the creation of ARPA, and IPTO, there was concern
within the scientific community and in the U.S. government about
how to fashion an appropriate peacetime institutional form within
government to support basic scientific research. ARPA/IPTO
succeeded in a significant way in providing such a form, but it
also encountered problems that eventually ended its existence.
This paper suggests that study of IPTO's birth, development and
ending will be helpful in trying to determine what institutional
form within the U.S. government is necessary to continue to
provide leadership for computer science research and for the
continued growth and development of the Internet.
The development and problems of the National Science
Foundation (NSF) are also relevant research questions to be
studied toward determining what form of institution is needed for
the future. However, since such important developments in
computer science were made under leadership from ARPA/IPTO, it is
more important to explore how this happened. Future study is
needed, however, to examine the extent to which the NSF
contributed to this effort and the problems this agency
encountered that prevented any greater contribution.
To state the problem more simply, I am proposing that there
is a need to study ARPA/IPTO, both its achievements and the
problems it encounter, as it presents important experience toward
determining how to design a U.S. government institution to
support the continued development of basic research in computer
science. This study is also important to provide an answer to
the question of how to design a government institution to provide
the needed continued oversight and support for scaling and other
critical functions for the child of computer science and the IPTO,
i.e. for the Internet. This paper is intended as a contribution.
URL for full paper: http://www.ais.org/~ronda/new.papers/arpa_ipto.txt
-------------------------------
Netizens: On the History and Impact
of Usenet and the Internet
http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook/
in print edition ISBN 0-8186-7706-6
