KAPOR TESTIFIES ON NSFNET POLICIES AND FUTURE OF THE NET In his capacity as the President of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Chairman of the Commercial Internet Exchange (CIX), Mitchell Kapor testified last Thursday before a House Committee on the current operation and management of NSFNet, and the future of the NREN and computer-based communications. The testimony took place in Washington, D.C. before the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. The committee was examining the present and proposed policies of NSFNet, the government body which currently handles the funding for and sets the operating policies for much of the Internet. The key items that Mr. Kapor was asked to address at the hearing were: To assess the NSF's efforts to provide support to the communities of science, education, engineering and research. To comment on the current plan the NSF to resubmit the award of operation of the NSFNet backbone for competitive bidding. How Congress can help ensure a successful evolution of the Internet into the NREN. To relate his vision of what the NREN might be and become. To define the roles of public and private sectors in realizing such a vision. To suggest specific steps for Congress and federal agencies that would help the goals of the NREN to be achieved. A full text of his testimony will be available in comp.org.eff.news sometime this weekend as well as available thereafter via ftp from eff.org. =================== NOTES ON TESTIMONY BY M.KAPOR TO THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE AND TECNOLOGY RE:NSFNET AND FUTURE OF THE NREN (3/12/92) Thank you very much for the opportunity to testify. I am here today in 2 capacities: As President of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a public interest advocacy organization promoting the democratic potential of new computer and communications technologies, and as Chairman as the commercial Internet Exchange, or CIX, a trade association of commercial internetworking carriers, which represents one-third of the several million user Internet -- or interim NREN as it is becoming known. As you may know, I am also the founder of Lotus Development Corporation and the designer of Lotus 1-2-3, which has played a seminal role in the emergence of the 100 billion dollar personal computer industry. To frame my remarks, let me begin by saying that we fully support the NREN legislation which is designed to develop computer networks which will link research and education institutions,. government, and industry. Among the chief goals of the NREN are: expanding the number of users on the network, avoiding the creation of information have and have-nots providing enhanced access to electronic information resources supporting the free flow of ideas promoting R&D for the purpose of developing commercial data communications The Internet, as it evolves into the NREN, serves a vital testbed for the eventual development of a ubiquitous national public networking. In that context, the problems I wish to address today should be seen as the normal growth pains of an experiment which has already succeeded far beyond the wildest imagination of its creators. Problem #1: The NSF-imposed Acceptable Use Policy is hindering the developing of information services which would serve the R&E community and others. The AUP attempts to define limitations on the type of traffic which can flow on the network. However, there is no agreement in practice about how to apply the AUP. Businesses which might wish to operate on the net to provide services however are reluctant to do so because they perceive restriction and uncertainty. User should be able to order technical and books and journals on-line from publishers and vendors. Users should be able to consult commercial on-line databases to aid in their research. Until there is a stable climate in which providers can be secure that they are not violating policies, they will stay away. Therefore, the NSF should be directed to modify or drop the AUP to permit innovation in information services to develop at its maximum course through the commercial sector. Problem #2: The current arrangements between NSF, Merit, and ANS, while well-intentioned, have created a tilt in the competitive playing field. ANS enjoys certain exclusive rights through its relationship with NSF to carry commercial traffic across the NSFNET. This has introduced significant marketplace distortions in the ability of other competitive private carriers to compete for business, as you have heard. The Science Board should therefore be directed to reconsider its decision to extend the current arrangement by up to 18 months. The arrangement by which ANS simultaneously provides network services for NSF and operates its own commercial network over the same facility must be brought to an orderly, but rapid, close. Problem #3: The current basic approaches to funding of network services by NSF and to network architecture as a whole have ceased to be the most efficient and most appropriate methodologies. The time has come to move on. The historical and current funding model has been to subsidize network providers at the national and regional level. We need to move to a situation in which individual education and research institutions receive funds through which they purchase network services from the private sector. The historical network architecture model has operated through a centralized, subsidized backbone network. We longer need this for the day-to-day production network which serves the overwhelming majority of users of the system. Instead we should move to a system of interconnected private national carriers. If industry knows that there is an open and fair opportunity to compete to provide network connections and services to the research and education community, it will supply as much T-1 and T-3 connectivity as is needed, more cheaply and more efficiently than through any other method. Finally, let me urge that the entire process be kept open. Industry needs to be more involved in the overall process. Decisions ought to be made in the market-place, not in Washington. ===============