From: axl867@leo.anu.edu.au (Albert Langer)
Newsgroups: aus.aarnet,comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: Upgrading AARNet
Followup-To: aus.aarnet,comp.org.eff.talk
Date: 13 Dec 1992 07:50:12 GMT
Organization: Guide Mark IV - Pilot Study, Room 42
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: 150.203.3.11

In article <summer.723680424@murillo> summer@mullian.ee.mu.OZ.AU 
(Mark Summerfield) writes:

>Albert's response to my last post clarified things greatly for me --
[references to Vogons and Grebulons omitted for less quoted material :-)]
>            I now understand the sort of R&D Albert believes a 
>RDN-CRC should be involved in, and I am inclined to agree.  

GREAT! Nothing like unhurried rational discussion on the net to incline 
towards agreement :-)

I believe many others will also support the need for that sort of R&D
to make AARNet easier to use and more widely accessible by fully developing
and implementing technology for which most of the advanced research has
already been done.

Many can contribute through defining requirements, organizing R&D projects 
using resources available through AARNet client site computer centers and 
graduate and undergraduate courses in software engineering and Information 
Technology and/or mobilizing support from Government and industry.

We should know tomorrow whether the job can be done through a Cooperative
Research Centre or not. Either way, the job has to be done and people
interested will have to get organized to make sure it is done pretty
soon. Please keep in touch. (I hope people can use some of the holiday
period to develop working documents etc and prepare for getting it all
together early in the new year).

>                                                        I can, however,
>understand why Telecom shows so little interest in these areas: Telecom
>is essentially in the business of network provision for Telecommunications
>applications.  Choices about which value-added services Telecom provides,
>and which may be left to other parties, are significant -- it does not
>necessarily benefit Telecom to be a Jack of all trades. [...]

Certainly Telecom should stay out of the "Information and Entertainment"
business to avoid disasters like Viatel/Discovery (due to collapse any
day now). But it DOES have the technical expertise to provide much
more than physical medium infrastructure and layer 1-3 networks. 

Telecom Australia's very survival depends on aggressively marketing 
advanced technology throughout the world, which it cannot do with an 
orientation towards suppressing such technology at home because of 
substitution effects on existing products like fax, AUSTPAC, DDN etc.

Ma Bell had the intelligence to actively support the development of
the Internet (even hubbing mail and news traffic free for a long time,
not to mention providing Unix, C, C++ etc etc).

>There *are* Vogons
>who just don't understand, but there are also plenty of non-Vogons who
>*do* understand, but still arrive at the same decision.  

Leaving aside the gross stupidity of Telecom's recent short-sighted 
sabotage, their MEDIUM as well as long term interests should be causing
them to actively SUPPORT R&D to upgrade AARNet. The Vogons understand all
right - just as well as the Soviet apparatchiks who opposed "perestroika"
correctly understood what effect it would ultimately have on their
social status. It's precisely the NON-Vogons who don't seem to understand... 

>                                                        Ask Optus for
>some money -- they seem to be in the business of sponsoring conference
>dinners, so maybe if you can convice them it will make them more popular...

Whether the job is done through a "Cooperative Research Centre" or not,
I think the basic principle explained in the CRC guidelines is sound.
The project should be a joint venture between researchers and the 
beneficiaries of research who REALLY want the job to be done and want
to cooperate to get it done. Cash from people seeking popularity is
better spent on conference dinners and advertisements that they say
"Yes" (or opposing ads from people offering to save us from having to 
make choices etc.)

I'm not particularly worried about the cash side. Even if the current
$13M goes down the tube, the U.S. Government's commitment to NREN will
soon enough trickle down to the local compradores and R&D for networking 
will be very popular. The important thing will be to ensure the funds
that will soon be available get spent productively instead of being
squandered by lemmings and parasites.

>I still think the money for upgrading the infrastructure (e.g. upgrading
>those congested links) should come from elsewhere.  There is plenty of
>R&D to do without seeing a functioning resource like AARNet as something
>which has to be funded out of a specific R&D budget, surely?

Surely. I still think you are understating the case. Diverting R&D
funds appropriated for the Cooperative Research Centres Program to
an operational infrastructure subsidy for the Australian Vice Chancellor's
Committee's latest venture outside their own business was not just
undesirable. It was corrupt and illegal. It could only have been persisted
with for as long as three months within the context of an R&D funding
process so thoroughly steeped in patronage and cronyism that the
boundary between cynical hypocrisy and outright illegality had become
blurred. I am hopeful that the lessons learned from the RDN-CRC fiasco
could have a positive impact on the R&D funding process generally.

I doubt that any contracts for anything at all can be signed before
the elections are called - which could easily be announced tomorrow.

The recent behaviour of the Grebulons, lemmings, Vogons, Vice Chancellors
et al greatly IMPROVES the chances of worthwhile R&D to upgrade AARNet 
being funded once the importance of doing so is understood.

-- 
Albert.Langer@anu.edu.au, Room 42, Red Cedars Motel, Watson ACT 2602, AUSTRALIA
Voice: +61 6 241 3222,  Fax: +61 6 241 2355, Telex: 62542 N-ISDN:? B-ISDN:????? 
Disclaimers: Nobody speaks for me, and vice versa. Totally unauthorised. 
RDN-CRC Narrow Bandwidth WG official statements: Try Roger_Clarke@anu.edu.au
Xref: sparky aus.aarnet:1215 comp.org.eff.talk:7669