The research community has to be very careful to ensure that a research network, particularly an international research network, remains at the forefront of available technology. Interchange with the commercial world is indeed necessary for research but this must not be allowed to dilute the focus of research networking. Research networking is about exploiting technology in advance of that which the marketplace can offer. Research networks must play the vital role in acting as the bridge between development and the market place. Europe has lagged behind the USA in terms of telecommunications technology.
Liberalisation gives Europe the opportunity to close the gap.
It is important that European research networkers emulate the lessons learned by their US counterparts by contributing to the advance of technology, but also see the European dimension and benefit of such a contribution. A European superhighway based on European fibre-optics but US technology is not an achievement for European industrial policy. This reality will benefit the European research community. Research is a global activity and requires global cooperation. The commercialisation of the US research Internet was a mistake that Europe never made but it was a mistake that Europe is still helping to pay for.