rfc1259.txt

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   animated graphics that create a convincing illusion of being in a
   physical place.  This visualization of objects from molecules to
   galaxies is already becoming an extraordinarily powerful scientific
   tool.  Networks will amplify this power to the point that these
   simulation tools take their place as fundamental scientific apparatus
   alongside microscopes and telescopes.  Less exotically, a consumer or
   student might walk around the inside of a working internal combustion
   engine -- without getting burned.

   Perhaps the most significant change the National Public Network will
   afford us is a new mode of building communities -- as the telephone,
   radio, and television did.  People often think of electronic
   "communities" as far-flung communities of interest between followers
   of a particular discipline.  But we are learning, through examples
   like the PEN system in Santa Monica and the Old Colorado City system
   in Colorado Springs, that digital media can serve as a local nexus,
   an evanescent meeting-ground, that adds levels of texture to
   relationships between people in a particular locale.  As Jerry Berman
   of the ACLU Information Technology Project has said:



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RFC 1259                 Building The Open Road           September 1991


      Computer and communications technologies are transforming speech
      into electronic formats and shifting the locus of the marketplace
      of ideas from traditional public places to the new electronic
      public forums established over telephone, cable, and related
      electronic communications networks. (11)


   To both local and long-distance communities, accessible digital
   communications will be increasingly important; by the end of this
   decade, the "body politic," the "body social," and the "body
   commercial" of this country will depend on a nervous system of
   fiber-optic lines and computer switches.

   But whatever details of the vision and names gives to the final
   product, a network that is responsive to a wide spectrum of human
   needs will not evolve by default.  Just as it is necessary for an
   architect to know how to make a home suitable for human habitation,
   it is necessary to consider how humans will actually use the network
   in order to design it.

   In that spirit, I offer a set of recommendations for the evolution of
   the National Public Network.  I first encountered many of the
   fundamental ideas underlying these proposals in the computer
   networking community.  Some of these recommendations address
   immediate concerns; others are more long-term.  There is a focus on
   the role of public access and commercial experiments in the NREN,
   which complement its research and education mission.  The
   recommendations are organized here according to the main needs which
   they will serve: first ensuring that the design and use of the
   network remains open to diversity, second, safeguarding the freedom
   of users.  The ultimate goal is to develop a habitable, usable and
   sustainable system -- a nation of electronic neighborhoods that
   people will feel comfortable living within.

I.  Encourage Competition Among Carriers

   In the context of the NREN, act now to create a level and competitive
   playing field for private network carriers, (whether for-profit or
   not-for-profit) to compete.  Do not give a monopoly to any carrier.
   The growing network must be a site where competitive energy produces
   innovation for the public benefit, not the refuge of monopolists.

   The post-divestiture phone system offers us a valuable lesson: a
   telecommunications network can be managed effectively by separate
   companies -- even including bitter opponents like AT&T and MCI -- as
   long as they can connect equitably and seamlessly from the user's
   standpoint.  The deregulated telecommunications system may not work
   perfectly and may produce too much litigation, but it does work.  We



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RFC 1259                 Building The Open Road           September 1991


   should never go back to any monopoly arrangement like the pre-
   divestiture AT&T which held back market-driven innovation in
   telecommunications for half a century.  Given the interconnection
   technology now available, we should never again have to accept the
   argument that we have to sacrifice interoperability for efficiency,
   reliability, or easy-of-use.

   Similarly, the NREN, and later the National Public Network, must be
   allowed to grow without being dominated by any single company.
   Contracting requirements in the current legislation advance this
   goal.

      The Network shall be established in a manner which fosters and
      maintains competition within the telecommunications industry and
      promotes the development of interconnected high-speed data
      networks by the private sector. (12)

   Absent a truly competitive environment, a dominant carrier might use
   its privileged access to stifle competitors unfairly: "Use our local
   service to connect to our undersea international links, without the
   $3 surcharge we tack on for other carriers." The greatest danger is
   "balkanization" -- in which the net is broken up into islands, each
   developing separately, without enough interconnecting bridges to
   satisfy users' desires for universal connectivity.  Strong
   interoperability requirements and adherence to standards must be
   built into the design of the NREN from the outset. (13)

   After 1992, private companies will manage an ever-greater share of
   the NREN cables and switches.  The NSF should use both carrot and
   stick to encourage as much interconnection as possible.  For example,
   the NSF could make funding to NREN backbone carriers contingent on
   participation in an internetwork exchange agreement that would serve
   as a framework for a standards-based environment.  As the NREN is
   implemented, some formal affirmation of fair access is needed --
   ideally by an "Internet Exchange Association" formed to settle common
   rules and standards.  (Their efforts, if strong enough, could
   forestall a costly, wasteful crazy-quilt of new regulations from the
   FCC and 50 State Public Utilities Commissions.) This association
   should decide upon a "basket" of standard services -- including
   messaging, directories, international connections, access to
   information providers, billing, and probably more -- that are
   guaranteed for universal interconnection.  The Commercial Internet
   Exchange (CIX) formed in 1991 by three commercial inter-networking
   carriers represents a substantive, initial move in this direction.







Kapor                                                           [Page 7]

RFC 1259                 Building The Open Road           September 1991


II.  Create an Open Platform for Innovation

   Encourage information entrepreneurship through an open architecture
   (non-proprietary) platform, with low barriers to entry for
   information providers.

   The most valuable contribution of the computer industry in the past
   generation is not a machine, but an idea -- the principle of open
   architecture.  Typically, a hardware company (an Apple or IBM, for
   instance) neither designs its own applications software nor requires
   licenses of its application vendors.  Both practices were the norm in
   the mainframe era of computing.  Instead, in the personal computer
   market, the hardware company creates a "platform" -- a common set of
   specifications, published openly so that other, often smaller,
   independent firms can develop their own products (like the
   spreadsheet program) to work with it.  In this way, the host company
   takes advantage of the smaller companies' ingenuity and creativity.

   Even interfaces rigidly controlled by a single manufacturer, like the
   Macintosh, embrace the platform concept.  Two years ago, when Apple
   began planning the System 7 release of its Macintosh operating
   system, one of its first steps was to invite comment from software
   companies like Macromind, Aldus, Silicon Beach, and T/Maker.  In
   substantive, sometimes very argumentative sessions, Apple revealed
   the capabilities it planned to these independents, who knew their
   customers and needs much better than Apple.  One multi-media company,
   after arguing that Apple should take a different technical turn,
   actually found itself doing the work in a joint project.  The most
   useful job of Apple's famous "evangelists" is not selling the Mac
   specs, but listening to outsiders, and helping Apple itself stay
   flexible enough to work with independent innovators effectively.

   In the design of the NREN, information entrepreneurship can best be
   promoted by building with open standards, and by making the network
   attractive to as many service providers and developers as possible.
   The standards adopted must meet the needs of a broad range of users,
   not just narrow needs of the mission agencies that are responsible
   for overseeing the early stages of the NREN.  Positive efforts should
   be made to encourage the development of experimental commercial
   services of all kinds without requiring the negotiation of any
   bureaucratic procedures.

   In the early stages of development of an industry, low barriers to
   entry stimulate competition.  They enable a very large initial set of
   products for consumers to choose from.  Out of these the market will
   learn to ignore almost all in order to standardize on a few, such as
   a Lotus 1-2-3.  The winners will be widely emulated in the next
   generation of products, which will in turn generate a more refined



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RFC 1259                 Building The Open Road           September 1991


   form of marketplace feedback.  In this fashion, early chaos evolves
   quickly a set of high-demand products and product categories.

   This process of market-mediated innovation is best catalyzed by
   creating an environment in which it is inexpensive and easy for
   entrepreneurs to develop products.  The greater the number of
   independent enterprises, each of which puts at voluntary risk the
   intellectual and economic capital of risk-takers, is the best way to
   find out what the market really wants.  The businesses which succeed
   in this are the ones which will prosper.

   It is worthwhile to note that not a single major PC software company
   today dates from the mainframe era.  Yesterday's garage shop is
   today's billion-dollar enterprise.  Policies for the NPN should
   therefore not only accommodate existing information industry
   interests, but anticipate and promote the next generate of
   entrepreneurs.

   The diverse needs of these many users will create demand for
   thousands of information proprietors on the net, just as there are
   thousands of producers of personal computer software today and
   thousands of publishers of books and magazines.  It should be as easy
   to provide an information service as to order a business telephone.
   Large and small information providers will probably coexist as they
   do in book publishing, where the players range from multi-billion-
   dollar international conglomerates to firms whose head office is a
   kitchen table.  They can coexist because everyone has access to
   production and distribution facilities -- printing presses,
   typography, and the U.S.  mails and delivery services -- on a non-
   discriminatory basis.  In fact, the sub-commercial print publications
   are an ecological breeding ground, through which mainstream authors
   and editors rise.  No one can guarantee when an application as useful
   as the spreadsheet will emerge for the NPN (as it did for personal
   computers), but open architecture is the best way for it to happen
   and let it spread when it does.

   The PC revolution was brought about without direct public support.
   Entrepreneurs risked their investors' capital for the sake of
   opportunity.  Some succeeded, but many others lost their entire
   investment.  This is the way of the marketplace.  We should take a
   much more cautious attitude about the commitment of public monies.
   In the absence of proven demand for new applications, government
   should not be spending billions of dollars on the creation of
   broadband networks.  Neither should telephone companies be allowed to
   pass on the costs of the NPN in a way which would raise the rates for
   ordinary voice telephone service.

   Instead, we should position the NREN to show there is a market for



Kapor                                                           [Page 9]

RFC 1259                 Building The Open Road           September 1991


   network applications.  The commercial experiments just beginning on
   the Internet provides one source of innovation.  Deployment of a
   national ISDN platform in the next few years represents another
   relatively inexpensive seed bed.  As such experiments demonstrate
   more of a proven demand for public network services, it should be
   possible for the private sector to make the investments to build the
   broadband NPN using experience from the NREN.