[amsat-bb] ORI receives half million dollar grant, and it's only the first.

[Chris Thompson]

I had heard the story before, maybe from Phil at Symposium, but it is good
to hear it again.  I remember fondly using KA9Q NOS TCP/IP when I was at
University.  We used it to demo connecting to the PDP11 in the radio shack
from a Sinclair Z88 using a TNC and PYE Westminster with a packet crystal.
That was in front of all the incoming Electronic Eng and Comp Sci
students.  The whole setup fitted in a brief case.  We picked up quite a
few new members from that.  It was great stuff.

We definitely need more of that type of thing today.  Thanks for guiding
this money into a fund that benefits Amateur Radio and STEM.  I think that
is fantastic,

73
Chris


On Fri, Sep 11, 2020 at 9:13 AM Burns Fisher via AMSAT-BB <
amsat-bb at amsat.org> wrote:

> Indeed this is fascinating!  Thanks for sharing it, Phil.
>
> I wonder if there are any other non-commercial entities holding big blocks
> of addresses.  I suppose it would not be THAT hard to find out.  (I'm
> pretty sure HP via Digital holds a whole quad's worth unless they have sold
> it off or split it among their various spin-offs since I worked there, but
> this obviously a commercial entity).
> MIT? Stanford?
>
> 73,  Burns WB1FJ
>
> On Fri, Sep 11, 2020 at 8:48 AM Joseph Armbruster via AMSAT-BB <
> amsat-bb at amsat.org> wrote:
>
> > Phil,
> >
> > I appreciate your summary of all this.  Apparently, I am late to the game
> > on this news story, but maybe I am not the only one and hopefully others
> on
> > the -bb learned something from this moment in history.  I know I sure
> did!!
> >
> > Joseph Armbruster
> > KJ4JIO
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Sep 11, 2020 at 8:25 AM Phil Karn <karn at ka9q.net> wrote:
> >
> > > On 9/11/20 03:43, Joseph Armbruster wrote:
> > > >
> > > > So Hank transferred the block of IPs to you, individually?  Was that
> > > > the kind of thing where you were all working on a campus together and
> > > > it was all word-of-mouth or was it a more formal act on paper?  In
> > > > 2010 though, why did Brian need to ask Hank at all?  I mean at that
> > > > point, they were your individual property.  I'm surprised whatever
> > > > university you were attending did not try to stake a claim to them.
> > > > Was there any paper trail regarding the ownership / transfer between
> > > > the original 1980 phone call request and ARDC's inheritance?
> > >
> > > IP addresses were registered somewhat informally in the early days when
> > > the Internet was a research project and address blocks were free, but
> > > they were regularly published in various Internet documents like RFCs
> > > (Requests for Comments). When the Internet grew up, more formal
> entities
> > > like ARIN (American Registry for Internet Numbers) and ICANN (Internet
> > > Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), among others, were created
> > > to register who owned what and to make those databases publicly
> > > available. At various times, Hank, Brian and I were on all these lists
> > > next to network 44, making us each at various times the legal owners.
> > >
> > > I haven't been a student anywhere since I graduated from CMU with my
> > > MSEE in 1979.
> > >
> > > Since control had been passed informally between us over the years
> > > according to whoever was then most willing to do the work, when IPv4
> > > addresses began to get scarce we got concerned that someone might try
> to
> > > grab them from us hams. So Brian proposed to create the nonprofit ARDC
> > > to legally own network 44. Since Hank's name and mine had also been
> > > associated with 44 at various times, Brian thought it important to make
> > > sure all of us were OK with it. I for one never thought twice about it.
> > > In fact, when it later dawned on us just *how* much this thing might
> > > soon be worth, I was even more glad that we'd all agreed.
> > >
> > > For many years Brian rejected inquiries to buy or even lease part of
> > > network 44, but eventually we (the ARDC board) realized that, with IPv6
> > > finally being deployed, IPv4 addresses wouldn't be in demand forever.
> So
> > > we authorized him to seek a buyer of the upper 1/4 that had never been
> > > used. I never quite let myself believe that Brian would pull it off.
> But
> > > he did, and now we have a pretty good endowment to do neat things with
> > > in ham radio, open source and STEM education.
> > >
> > > What really ticks me off, and always will, is that Brian had the vision
> > > and did all the hard work yet only lived long enough to see our first
> > > two grants (TAPR student scholarships and the ARISS power supply
> > > project).  Fate has a truly wicked sense of humor.
> > >
> > > Phil
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > expressed
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> >
> _______________________________________________
> Sent via AMSAT-BB at amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
> to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions
> expressed
> are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of
> AMSAT-NA.
> Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program!
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>


-- 
Chris E. Thompson
chrisethompson at gmail.com
g0kla at arrl.net