On the question of the future of state and regional networks serving the research, education and related communities

Jim Williams, LEARN

You cannot step twice into the same river; for other waters are continually flowing in. — Heraclitus of Ephesus

Some recent examples

• CarterPhone – 1968• Divestiture – 1984• Packet switching may change the way we do

telecommunications – Jim Williams, inspired by Ronald Reagan, circa 1985

• "There is no one in charge, there are no leaders, there are no rules," he said. "We're just here to say, 'It's our Internet, and stop messing with it.‘ Kyle – at a scientology protest, 2/10/08 Austin, Tejas

• “The US is behind by almost every measure” - John Windhausen, Jr. 2/10/08 Tempe, AZ

Change and regional network milestones

• Gathering around an idea - TCP/IP• dARPAnet > NSFnet• Northwestnet/BARnet/PrepNet > Verio

– Others morphed (NyserNet, Merit)– A few just disappeared or were aborted

• MOREnet – learning from early examples

• The great fiber adventure

Time

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- ‘Broad’ goals / “Fuzzy’ paths

- Strong energy / passion- Minimal Structure / Controls

- Loosely organized- Participants “get on the bandwagon”

- Fading energy / passion- No structure to hang on- Loss of focus on goals

- Focused energy / passion- Strong organizational management, structure and controls

- Refocused goals- Clear Paths- Committed Participants

http://www.morantechnology.com

Think on these things

• Who do we serve and who else could do it?• What do we provide and who else provides

it?• How can we leverage what we have to

offer a unique suite of services?• Are we just trying to preserve

organizations, or do we have a higher Purpose?

• “The best way to predict the future is to keep inventing it” – from my Internet2 t-shirt

What to do?

• If you don’t change, expect change• Go commercial?• Move up/down the stack? • Champion broadening broadband• Expand public sector service• Actively participate/LEAD in next gen net

(GENI, IPv6 etc) • Don’t just duplicate what the private

sector does better

• Humans process threats and avoid risk.

• Change is not necessarily bad – e.g. Tyrannosaurus rex

• The technologies we advocate may be short lived.– Gutenberg Revolution (1450 –

present)– Flawn Academic Center (aka

UGL) (1963 – 2006)• The institutions we serve will last

longer then we do.• The US will not in the foreseeable

future regain its network technology leadership position.

• I enjoyed growing up in a country with the highest standard of living – my granddaughter has more options.

• Governance structures seem periodic.

• The 3 level architecture seems persistent