<nettime> Basic Research and the Internet: Draft paper for comment

[ronda@umcc.ais.org (Ronda Hauben)]

I am working on a new draft paper about the development of the Internet
and the basic research that made the Internet possible. Part I is
available and I welcome comments on it. Following is an introduction and
the URL for the draft follows. 


           Computer Science and the Role of Government 
               in the Development of the Internet: 
                                   by Ronda Hauben
                                   rh120@columbia.edu                    
 
Part I - Basic Research for the National Defense and the U.S. 
Department of Defense: A Paradox? 
 
"It must be clearly understood that most of this money purchased research
of the highest quality. However, not nearly so clear is the rationale that
dictated that the Department of Defense whould be the principal sponsoring
agency for much of this vital research." 

               "A History of the Information Processing
               Techniques Office of the Defense Advanced Research 
               Projects Agency" by Norberg and O'Neill, pg. 339
 
I-A Successful Basic Research Program is Challenged by the US Congress.
The question emerges of why and what would be the effect? 
 
     In fiscal 1970, the Senate Appropriations Committee raised the
question of whether the U.S. Department of Defense was within its mission
obligations to be funding the forefronts research and development work
that it was supporting. This research included the development of a new
scientific field, the field of computer science, and more particularly,
the field of computer communications.
 
     This question raised by Congress, whatever the cause, had an
important effect on the development of this new science and of its progeny
which includes the Internet among its spectacular achievements. In this
paper I want to explore several questions, the first and perhaps most
interesting: Why would the U.S.  Department of Defense be the place where
this new field of scientific research developed? I also want to look at
this field of research, the field of computer communications research and
explore how it developed. And perhaps most importantly, I want to look at
the effect that the Congressional concern had the research and the
researchers. These experiences raise the question why the US government,
which has a constitutional obligation to provide for the welfare of its
citizens and for the national defense, would act in this way. Are these
actions contrary to these obligations? 
 
     A second significant result of this challenge by Congress would
ultimately be that the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO)
which pioneered basic research in computer science and in the new field of
computer communications at ARPA in the DoD would be ended in 1986. With
the end of IPTO a significant loss was sustained by people in the US and
abroad who have gained much from the work of this office. However, to
understand the nature of the problem that led to the end of IPTO in 1986,
it is important to look back and try to understand why basic research in
science and then in computer science had come to be placed within the U.S.
Department of Defense. 
 
II. Basic Research and the National Defense
 
     What is the nature of basic research and how did support for certain
kinds of basic research become a responsibility of the U.S. Department of
Defense? To answer this question, it will be helpful to review how it is
that civilian conducted basic scientific research that could be considered
crucial to the national security or national defense would fall within the
responsibility of the U.S. Department of Defense. 

See the draft paper: 
 

URL is http://www.columbia.edu/~rh120/other/basicresearch.txt

or write for copy to ronda@panix.com




                  Netizens: On the History and Impact
                    of Usenet and the Internet
                http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook
                also in print edition ISBN 0-8186-7706-6




#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net