IP: letter to Business Week editor or how soon they forget

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Date: Fri, 30 May 1997 11:16:34 -0700
From: Dave Crocker <dcrocker () brandenburg com>




At 10:55 AM -0700 5/30/97, David Farber wrote:
> role as Internet "matchmaker" in the mid-1980's was only possible because of
> technologies and competencies developed during the preceding decade through
> basic research programs, in particular those funded by the Advanced Research
> Projects Agency of the U.S. Department of Defense.
...
> "...directly from breakthroughs in basic science.  In developing the
Internet,
> for instance,  the National Science Foundation played the role of
> matchmaker, putting together diverse collections of people and technologies
> without spending much on actual research."


        First, The Roessner report leaves itself pretty widely open by
citing NSF's contribution to the Internet but missing Arpa's.  In any
event...


        People's definition of "basic research" varies and I would expect
BW (and most everyone else) to use the term rather more broadly than, say,
government funding agencies.  With that in mind, it's probably worth noting
that the ARPA money was NOT marked as what ARPA called "basic" research.
So while it is formally correct that the Internet technology did not
develop out of money allocated to "basic" research according to government
accounting terminology, one can only marvel at carrying that into everyday
usage of the term.


        When researchers start from a base of that nasty area of
mathematical statistics, called queueing theory, and then build a network to
test the theory, I for one would certainly be inclined to call that
research basic.


        Perhaps BW would have had an easier time with this if that initial
research activity, the Arpanet, hadn't become directly useful within months.


d/


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