Connectivity Providers Database

From: CINET Editor <cinet-editor@CND.ORG> Date: Fri, 1 Jul 1994 10:34:27 -0700 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ C I N E T - L N e w s l e t t e r +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ Issue No.22, Thursday, July 1, 1994 +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | China's InterNET Technical Forum (CINET-L) is a non-public discussion | | list, CINET-L is technically sponsored by China News Digest and CINET-L | | newsletter is published by volunteers in CINET-EDITOR@CND.ORG, for more | | information regarding CINET-L, please see the end of this message. | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Table of Contents # of Lines =========================================================================== 1. What I See And Hear In China About Computer Networking .............. 109 2. China Lays Foundation for Futuristic Info Superhighway ............... 59 3. Sun Tze Art of War on WWW ............................................ 23 4. Review and Prospect of IHEP Network Development - An Introduction .... 29 5. A New Architecture for the NSFNET ................................... 154 6. New Executive Director Talks About the Future of Internet Society - A Conversation with Tony Rutkowski .................................. 215 =========================================================================== [Erratum: We received a correction notice on the abbreviation of China Education and Research NETworks, in the first newsbrief of last issue, Issue No 23, June 13. The proper name should have been CERNET, not CERN. We extend our thanks to Shuang Shu for sending in the correction notice] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. What I See And Hear In China About Computer Networking .............. 109 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- By: Chen Huijie [Editor's Note: Mr. Chen Huijie, major in Library and Information Science, went to China during May and June of 1994, visited universities, libraries and talked to many professionals in his field. His personal experiences give vivid account on the current stage as well as the future potential of the computer/network development in China. Below are the relevant parts of his report. CINET-EDITOR wish to thank Mr. Chen Huijie for sharing the most current and exciting information with our readers. Some names of universities have been intensionally left out according to Mr. Chen's request.] In the morning of May 30, I was talking to a group of library staff and library students about campuswide information networks. Among many things, I talk about the network resources such as ftp sites, newsgroup, listserv, CND, etc. I showed them a book of Internet directory, more than 1000 pages, which I brought with me as a gift to the Univerisity. The audience had a great interest in the topic. Then it came the lunch break. After lunch in Shao2 Yuan2, we went back to the computer room in the main library. One of my formal classmates, now a leader in the library automation project, went to his PC perform some daily operation. I watched him over his shoulder. He was using FTP to transfer a file from a floppy to a VAX mahcine at the same room. Before that, I had spent one Saturday afternoon at Hai3 Dian4 Book City and I noticed that there were several books talking about TCP/IP. In and out of the library's computer room, I also saw a diagram of computer network in the campus. Actually, I had a chat with my friends about that, asking where the network connected to externally. Seeing he was doing ftp, an curious idea come to my mind. I asked, could you ftp to USA? He said, we were not connected to outside yet. I said, let me have a try. I sat down at the computer and issued a command, ftp 129.xx.x.x It worked! That is, they were connected! They were part of Internet! Then, we ftped a few places according to the book, all worked. Because they didn't have name server set up then, we had to use the IP numbers only. Then, we started to look for a way to telnet out. No way. I ftped a copy of NCSA telnet from Rutger University. But then I found out that I didn't have enough local information to set up the software configuration file. We worked there until we had to leave for the afternoon's lecture. When I went back to my friend's home in the afternoon, I was told that they found out the way to telnet. There was a telnet software in the PC already, and they used it to telnet to some local computer. Now, with the directory I gave them, immediately they could telnet to many OPAC (online public access catalog) sites in the U.S.A. and other locations. For the first time, they were able to see the OPAC in the outside world interactly. Of course, they will be able to do much more with a true internet connection. Next morning, we went back. I telnet'ed to my Indiana account. From there I tapped the ip addresses for other members in our team. Then, everyone in our team was able to check their email. All of us were quite excited. Me too. :-)! I told them that we had a CINET-L in the US and we all watched closely for the computer network development in our country. Now, back to the U.S.A., I have had several round of email exchange with my friend in Beijing already. When I was in Fuzhou, I also talked with another friend, who is working for the Fuzhou Telecommunication Office. According to him, there is a public data exchange network. In Chinese, this is called Gong1 Gong4 Shu4 Ju4 Jiao1 Huan4 Fen1 Zhu3 Wang3, or Fen1 Zhu3 Wang3 in brief. This network runs by the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications system. My friend told me that this network is provided for data communications only, with a much lower fee standard. He said this network is very similar to Tymnet, Telenet, or SprintNet in the U.S.A. I really wish to have more information about this service. My speculation is, if you can hook up to this net, you will pay much less for use CompuServe account, for instance. The Ministry of Post and Telecommunications system also provides leased lines at a level slightly higher than a T1 line, according to my friend. This seems more likely to be a backbone system. I was told that leased line services can reach many major cities in the country. "Every provincial capital cities at least." In Fujian, the Fen1 Zhu3 Wang3 (Public Data Exchange network) and Leased line services are available in the county (Xian4) level. The ATM (automatical teller machines) are the major users of the existing data networks. So, the opportunity for computer networking in China is maturing. Major computer network will sprout all over in China in just few years. A side note: I saw an ad in Can1 Kao3 Xiao1 Xi1 (a newspaper: Reference Info) for a public BBS in Shenzhen. The ad is found in the mid section (Zhong1 Feng4) in the paper. Amazing! It sounds like another BBS in USA. It is a pity that I don't have time to visit a computer shop in China during my three week visit. But the floppy disks can be found in Peking Univerisity's bookstore, including 3M and Maxell's. Computer books are too much! Also, from the outside of stores in Zhong1 Guan1 Chun1, it seems to me that notebook and network hardware are the most popular products. The Chinese systems are still quite limited, only a few brands are mentioned. Oh, yes, there is another interesting phenomena. The supply of pins of the dot matrix printer heads are everywhere. I also saw a 360k disk drive and a bulky 10MG harddisk priced very high in an "electronic store" in Fuzhou. At the same counter I also saw 720K and 1.44k disk drives and 200mg harddisk. I didn't see modem in that store. But I saw many I/O cards and a few graphic cards. The most popular U.S. computer brand are AST and Compac, then IBM. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. China Lays Foundation for Futuristic Info Superhighway .............. 59 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Forwarded by: Cindy Zheng <zhengc@Sdsc.Edu> Source: HPCwire, June 24, 1994 Beijing, China -- China's technological deficit is turning into an asset as the country lays the foundation for its futuristic information superhighway. "Compared with western countries China is spared the pain of eliminating outdated equipment due to its not-so-developed telecommunications infrastructure," China's Telecommunications Minister Wu Jiachuan said during an interview with Jeffrey Parker of Reuters New Service. The central government can install the world's newest technologies without being hindered by entrenched technological interests. Beijing plans to use $7 billion in foreign investment in the effort by 2000 but will still not allow foreigners to take equity or management stakes, Xinhua news agency late on Monday quoted the minister of posts and telecommunications as saying. Wu reiterated China's ban on direct management or equity ownership of services by foreigners, a policy that reflects national security concerns and -- some analysts say -- the ministry's strong interest to protect its lucrative monopoly. Wu said foreign investment is welcome in telecoms equipment production and supply as well as engineering, design, product development, scientific research and education, adding that by 2000, China hopes to tap "at least" $7 billion in foreign capital -- more than the $5.67 billion it has used over the last 10 years in telecoms development. It will use $2.1 billion in foreign capital in the next 18 months alone, he said. Overall investment in telecom fixed assets last year was 40.4 billion yuan, he said, while the 1994 budget is 53.6 billion yuan. As a matter of policy, China is installing only advanced digital exchanges, bringing fully automatic phone service to vast areas where until now there has been no service at all. "Some 89 percent of the exchange switches for urban telecommunication systems in the country and 99 percent for long distance calls are computerized," he said. Wu said Beijing now plans to install 10 million telephone lines a year through to the end of the century, a task he called crucial and unprecedented in any country, and stressed China's rapid adoption of fiber optic cable. The addition of 12 million lines last year brought China's total to 42 million -- still one of the world's lowest penetration rates at just 3.5 lines for every 100 people. The target is 140 million lines by 2000, he said. With the exception of the Tibetan capital Lhasa, all of China's provincial capitals will be wired into a trunk network of fiber optic cables by June 1995, Wu said. "Some 17 more major optical cables, to add to the present 22, will be constructed by the year 2000 to intensify the telecommunications coverage and take Lhasa and other cities in Tibet into the network," Wu said. Wu said that by 2000 China's telecom system will be the world's biggest and have "all the telecommunications techniques available elsewhere in the world." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Sun Tze Art of War on WWW ............................................ 23 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- _From: Gleason Sackman <sackman@plains.nodak.edu> Source: net-happenings <net-happenings@is.internic.net> We are please to annouced the Chinese classic, Sun Tzu Art of War, has been just put up on our experiment Chinese WEB located at biomed.nus.sg. The home page for Sunzi Art of War is located http://biomed.nus.sg/CM/cweb/sunzi/xx/sunzi.xx.html where xx refers to hz, b5 or gb depending on the coding system which you are using. eg. if you are using zwdos, you will look for http://biomed.nus.sg/CM/cweb/sunzi/hz/sunzi.hz.html. The home page for Chinese WWW is located at http://biomed.nus.sg/CM/cweb/cstart.html FYI, the Chinese WWW is a project proposed by Mr Jek Kian Jian, NCB (kianjin@ncb.gov.sg) and Dr Tommi Chen, Technet (tommi@technet.sg) funded by NSTB. The WWW at biomed.nus.sg started off with sample text which is used to test the chinese client. Sunzi Art of War is the first serious text which we have placed up on the WWW. More classic will be coming in so stay tune. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Review and Prospect of IHEP Network Development - An Introduction ... 29 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Written by: Wu Ling (wl@bepc2.ihep.ac.cn) Computing Centre Institute of Higher Energy Physics Chinese Academy of Sciences For Institute of High Energy Physics(IHEP), March 2, 1993 was an unforgettable date---64K IHEP-SLAC leased line was established, the first high rate link in China. Many institutions in China would like to connect with IHEP and share this link, for example, the CCAST (Center of Chinese Advanced Sci. and Tech.), the ISTCI (Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China), and as well as universities in China, etc.. About 300 top- scientists and professors or Ph.Ds are having IHEP computer accounts and are able to access by dial-up phone line with modem to communicate with collaborators in the world. In May, 1994, IHEP finally gained full access to the Internet, so that IHEP users can transfer files and connect to any of the Internet nodes instead of just sending E-mail messages, and all the outside users can ftp and telnet to IHEP directly from their internet machines. Our permanent Internet email address is now user@machine.ihep.ac.cn ------------------------- IHEP Computing Center has set up WWW and Gopher server. At the moment, the bandwidth (64K) is rather low, if we want to expand our link or provide Video conference in the future we need higher bandwidth. Changing our link from satellite to fiber optic will connect, via KEK, Japan in the future. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. A New Architecture for the NSFNET .................................. 154 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Forwarded by: Cindy Zheng Source: http//www.internic.net Written by: Kent England We reported on the results of the NSF Solicitation 93-52 for a new network infrastructure in the last issue of the NSF Network News (Mar/Apr 1994). This article examines the new network architecture outlined in the solicitation and shows how it is part of the continuing evolution of the Internet. A CONTINUING EVOLUTION The NSFNET was born of a need for communications infrastructure to support the NSF national supercomputer centers. In November of 1987, Merit, the Michigan networking consortium, together with IBM and MCI, won a five-year NSF award to replace the original network built with "Fuzzball" routers and 56kbps circuits. The second NSFNET was designed to network thirteen sites, including the five national supercomputer centers, in a new higher-speed T1 (1.5Mbps) national network. Over time the original fractional T1 circuits were upgraded to full T1, the network was expanded to include more of the newly formed regional networks, and the network was upgraded to provide a T3 (45Mbps) service. The NSFNET rapidly evolved from a network in support of the work of supercomputer centers to a broader mission of network infrastructure in support of research and education for the newly Internet-enabled academic and research community. As the NSFNET burgeoned with traffic from more and more universities and not-for-profit organizations, commercial enterprises began to join the Internet by subscribing to regional networks. The success of the Internet put more demand for bandwidth on the one and only backbone, the NSFNET, and the volume of traffic on the NSFNET continued to grow exponentially. PRODUCTION VS. RESEARCH NETWORKS The NSF supports both applied research into communications and networking technology and "production" network infrastructure to support the daily work of the research and education community. A research network makes a poor production network and a production network should not be used (deliberately) for network research. However, successful research networks often become production networks, as in the case of the NSFNET. CUSTOM VS. COMMERCIAL If commercial networks and services do not exist, the research and education community needs custom networks built especially to meet their needs for communications infrastructure. As commercial products and services become available, the research and education community may be well served by commercial services without the need for custom built networks. Successful production networks demonstrate the commercial viability of new markets, which leads to commercial networks. This is the natural evolution of the NSFNET and the Internet: from a research network, to a custom production network, and finally toward a commercial network environment. THE MATURE NSFNET In time, commercial Internet access providers arose from the NSFNET community, and many other companies took notice of the commercial opportunities in the Internet access market. The Internet was maturing. Solicitation 93-52 is the NSF's plan for an orderly retreat from the field of emerging commercial Internet access services, making way for the further development of a commercial Internet services market and the continued growth and evolution of the networking industry. THE NEW NETWORK ARCHITECTURE The new architecture consists of three interrelated components. Keeping the New Internet Together (NAPs and Routing Arbiter) Network Access Points (NAPs) and Routing Arbiter (RA) services are the mechanisms whereby the vBNS (very high-speed Backbone Network Service) and various network service provider (NSP) networks, carrying regional and midlevel traffic, are glued together. In order to ensure that the Internet remains fully interconnected when the old NSFNET is gone, the NSF included NAPs and RA services in its new architecture. The NAPs will act as gateways to make it possible for several NSP networks, many regional and midlevel networks, and the vBNS to remain an integrated whole in the absence of what used to be the One Backbone, the NSFNET, at the top of the old routing hierarchy. However, building NAPs and transitioning regional and midlevel networks to commercial network service providers do not guarantee the continuation of a fully-interconnected Internet. One other element is needed to ensure continued interconnectedness -- a coherent routing architecture and service. Merit currently provides routing services to assure complete and consistent routing for all traffic across the NSFNET backbone service. Under the new architecture, the Routing Arbiter is responsible for maintaining a coherent and consistent routing policy across the Internet via Route Servers located at the NAPs. The Routing Arbiter will maintain a routing database and will manage routing exchanges among the NAP-attached networks on an optional basis. Networks will be allowed to manage their own routing, but each NSP attached to the NAP has the option of receiving a complete routing information feed from the Routing Arbiter. To receive NSF funding according to the solicitation, regional networks are required to connect to an NSP which is connected to each of the priority NAPs. The vBNS must also be connected to each priority NAP. This physical architecture ensures that the links are present to support complete interconnection and interoperability of the new Internet. Interregional Connectivity As the old NSFNET backbone is phased out, production backbone traffic will move to commercial Internet access providers. Therefore, a second part of the new network architecture is direct NSF support to the regional and midlevel networks attached to the old NSFNET for an orderly transition to commercial NSPs for backbone transport service. Unlike the time when the old NSFNET was created, today there are several NSPs capable of supporting nationwide Internet service for the regional and midlevel networks. NSF will provide funds on a declining basis over four years to provide interregional connectivity while transitioning from the NSF-provided backbone service to fee-for-service NSPs. At the end of the four-year transition period the NSF will no longer provide funds directly to any service providers, with the exception of the vBNS. The NSF will continue to provide funds to deserving institutions for access to the Internet, under the New Connections program and its successors, but the NSF will no longer be in the business of building or maintaining production traffic Internet backbone services. The Very High Speed Backbone (vBNS) While the NSF may turn over the production backbone network service to commercial providers, the NSF still has research and development goals to pursue, as well as the need to support the NSF national supercomputer centers with a high speed research network. Therefore, the new architecture includes a new very high speed Backbone Network Service, or vBNS, which will link the five NSF national supercomputer centers. As virtual shared physical infrastructure, this new network service is devoted to the ongoing development of high speed networks that will one day be the basis of a new generation of high speed commercial networks, and will also provide the supercomputer centers with high speed transport services. The vBNS is not intended to support the day-in and day-out flow of electronic mail, file transfers, and other traffic of the larger Internet. That task is left to the regional and midlevel networks in concert with the new national Internet service providers. THE FUTURE INTERNET "It's Easier to Invent the Future than to Predict It" -- Alan Kay The new architecture fits well into the new competitive Internet services environment, an environment which demands this more complex architecture including multiple backbones, many regional and midlevel networks and institutional networks of the universities, corporations and other institutions which together comprise the Internet. This architecture extends this competitive access environment to the backbone infrastructure, allowing the NSF to concentrate on its core missions: to advance the future of supercomputing and network communications research while supporting network infrastructure with funding directed to the research and academic community. [Kent England is the Executive Director of Network Services (InterNIC Information Services and CERFnet) at the San Diego Supercomputer Center.] --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. New Executive Director Talks About the Future of Internet Society - A Conversation with Tony Rutkowski ................................. 215 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: http://www.internic.net Forwarded by: Cindy Zheng By: Susan Calcari In this interview, Susan Calcari, Info Scout, speaks with the new Executive Director of the Internet Society, Tony Rutkowski. An engineer and lawyer, Tony has enjoyed a wide variety of positions over the past 30 years in both the private and public sectors of the telecommunications industry, including Director of Technology Assessment in the Strategic Planning Group of Sprint International, Counselor to two different Secretary-Generals of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, and publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the industry's leading trade magazine, Telecommunications. He remains a Research Associate at the operational and administrative functions of the Internet community 2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was one of the founding Trustees of the Internet Society as well as its Vice-President. We thank him for taking the time to tell us about the Internet Society and his new role in its future. S: Briefly, what is the Internet Society and how did it come into being? T: The Internet Society was created by many key individuals involved in the creation and evolution of the Internet as the means for assuring continued growth, development, and globalization of the Internet, its technologies and applications. The Society is the vehicle to allow the evolution from a formerly US-based, government-funded development arena to one which is truly worldwide and encompasses the entire breadth of the Internet community, including the commercial sector. By 1990 the time had come for the creation of an international organization for the Internet. At the time, I was counsel to the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, and in exchanges of email with the Internet's father-champion-guardian Vint Cerf, we saw that a number of people across the international Internet domain were thinking along the same lines. Organizations frequently form this way; this is often expressed as "...if it didn't happen, someone would have invented it." The ITU itself was created that way by postal, telegraph & telephone bureaucracies almost 150 years ago to serve as an international forum for telecommunication operations, regulations, and policy. Certain needs for the continued operation of the Internet must be addressed, including standards making, administration of numbering and addressing, agreements of the network architecture and general routing patterns, liaison with national and other international organizations, dealing with legal and regulatory issues, and assistance to developing countries for whom the Internet is so beneficial. The Internet Society's Board of Trustees and members - organizational and individual - reflect a broad community. They not only span the world, but myriad different organizations and professions, all with a common bond in their motivation to scale the Internet, its technologies, and applications for everyone. Vint Cerf - the creator of TCP/IP and the Internet - is the Society's President. S: How many individuals and organizations belong to ISOC? T: There are approximately 3000 individual members and 80 organizational members. S: What are the goals of the organization? T: Some of the key near-term goals have already been met: We have brought the Internet Architecture Board and standards infrastructure under the Society's umbrella and correspondingly the Society and Internet standards were recognized by other international organizations. Providing a formal locus and status was very important to the Internet standards that had already found such overwhelming marketplace acceptance. We have also provided a single authoritative international point of reference for "all things Internet" for other organizations, governments, press, Wall Street analysts, etc., and this contributes to the continued visibility and scaling of the Internet. The principal long-term goal is to scale the organization sufficiently ahead of the demands placed on it, especially during the transition away from the current structure of federally funded Internet-related activities in the US. We need to ensure that the standards-making, operational and administrative functions of the Internet community undertaken by the Society can be adequately funded. S: What services does it offer its members at this time? T: By providing the international organizational aegis for continued existence and evolution of the Internet and its technologies and applications, the Society inherently serves its members' interests. It serves as the single global point of contact for current information about the Internet and related developments. Our annual International Networking Conference (INET) brings together more than 1000 people from around the world to provide an invaluable snapshot of developments in geographical and application areas. The annual Workshop for Technologically Emerging Countries brings together several hundred promising computer network specialists to participate in intensive instruction and return to their nations to implement Internet infrastructure. The quarterly Internet Society News magazine provides a timely vehicle for the latest global Internet developments and is the legal publication of record for Internet Standards. S: What services are planned for next year? T: New services include implementation of a Internet Global Network Information Service (NIS). This comprehensive information service will use all popular platforms and will reside on the Internet to deliver information about current Internet developments in every region, country, application sector, and user community. It will be coupled with an "international infoscout" initiative and, if awarded, it will also support the NII Global Link project as part of the US Dept. of Commerce's TIIAP program.(1) We plan to create and nurture Society chapters throughout the world, hold workshops and tutorials for developing countries, K-12 and businesses, offer special services for organizational members such as the construction and hosting of WorldWideWeb home pages, and publish a revamped Internet Society News publication. S: Can you give me specific examples of how ISOC plans to "establish relationships with other organizations involved in developing international technical standards"? T: From the outset we began working with most of the major telecommunications and information system standards bodies in the world - especially the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Telecommunication Union Standards Sector (formerly the CCITT). We recently effected a Category A liaison status with the ISO - a peer standards body relationship that provides for effective cooperation and allows Internet Standards to stand on their own as recognized international standards. A similar relationship has been effected in principle with the ITU, but a significant issue remains regarding their assessment of large annual dues. In addition, there is ongoing activity with ATM Forum, the Frame Relay Forum, the IEEE, and the European Computer Manufacturers Association, as well as individual national standards organizations. S: Can you tell us specifically how ISOC will "represent the interests of Internet users everywhere"? How does ISOC relate to our readers from the research and education community? T: Certainly taking all the actions necessary on a global scale to continue the Internet's exponential growth, availability, development and use helps represent the interests of the research and education community worldwide. In addition, in dealing with international organizations and government administrations in different countries, we encourage them to realize the enormous value of Internet information infrastructure specifically to their research and educational communities, to undertake initiatives to introduce and scale that infrastructure, and to lower the barriers and costs often posed in the availability of underlying transport networks at frequently exorbitant prices. S: What is ISOC's position on the US Administration's actions on the National Information Infrastructure (NII) to date? Has ISOC taken a position on current legislation? T: The Society takes care to avoid intruding in the affairs of individual countries. With that caveat, it's hard to avoid commending the remarkable focus the US Clinton-Gore Administration has provided not only on the NII, but most recently Vice-President Gore himself has called for Global Information Infrastructure initiatives. This leadership has had a profound effect worldwide. ISOC typically does not take positions on national legislation. However, it has pointed out that the Internet has thrived as a networking phenomenon existing separately from the stifling effects of government regulatory controls. This view is consonant with about 30 years of regulatory history that has become fairly prevalent throughout the world and embodied in provisions of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). When requested, the Society provides advice in legislative matters. It also has become significantly involved in Internet security developments - an area of considerable importance as the Internet supports large numbers of business transactions. S: Will ISOC be involved in NII policy in other ways besides standards setting, such as interoperability, universal access, or competition? T: All of these matters have long been an intrinsic part of the Internet environment separately and independently from national infrastructure initiatives. The Internet by its very nature effects and fosters interoperability, universal access and competition. This is not expected to change, and certainly the Society supports related efforts. S: On a more personal level, what are the factors which led you to accept the position of Executive Director? T: It's like being asked to be the Captain of the starship Enterprise. It was a great honor to be selected by the most eminent group of Internet leaders to represent their interests. They selected from a field of nearly 200 candidates - even including a former Ambassador. It's a testimony to the interest in the position. On a personal level, the uniqueness of the opportunity, the importance to the entire world, and a skill set and experiences that were perhaps highly relevant to the Society position were certainly motivating factors. S: What do you think will be your contributions to the organization? T: Effecting the collective vision and desires of a remarkable 18-member Board of Trustees to implement all of the goals of the Society as quickly and effectively as possible. In essence, that is the continued exponential scaling, availability and use of the world's most remarkable communications and collaborative medium. S: What are your predictions for the future of the Internet? T: Already the world's largest and highest performance computer network, the Internet will remain - along with underlying transport, telephone, and mass media networks - one of the four major electronic communication network platforms of the world as long as we have computers. One hundred years from now, the Internet will continue to be regarded as one of the truly remarkable achievements in human history - technologically and sociologically. S: Thank you. (1) The Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program (TIIAP) is intended to foster largely Internet-based demonstration projects which provide for or advance the NII. The Society's Global Link initiative would link the rest of the world to those projects by assisting in an exchange of information. [This article is reprinted with permission from the NSF Network News, published by InterNIC Information Services." This newsletter and its contents may not be sold for profit or incorporated in commercial documents without the written permission of the copyright holder.] +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Executive Editor: XU Ming Yang | | Coordinate Editor: Cindy Zheng | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | CINET-L (China's InterNET Tech Forum) is a non-public discussion list, | | however, CINET-EDITOR@CND.ORG welcomes contributions on networking in | | China. Some related discussions may be found on CHINANET@TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU | | To join the forum CHINANET@TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (or CHINANET@TAMVM1.BITNET), | | send a mail to LISTSERV@TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU or LISTSERV@TAMVM1.BITNET | | (Note: NOT CHINANET@TAMVM1) with FIRST LINE of the mail body as follows: | | SUB CHINANET Your_First_Name Last_Name | | Back Issues of CINET-L Newsletter are available via anonymous ftp | | from CND.ORG [IP: 132.249.229.100] directory ~ftp/pub/cinet | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+