Page 218 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

Internet and Its Rad cal Potent al | 1

deliver the retaliation. The creation of redundant paths for packets to reach in-
tended receivers, even if a part of the network is disabled, was the feature of the
ARPANET that made it superior to circuit switching on the telephony model.
The techniques of open network architectures and signaling were debated pub-
licly by technologists at ARPA and the RAND Corporation (a U.S. defense con-
tractor), in hopes that the Soviets would learn of the U.S. system and also adopt
it. In other words, in spite of the paranoia and secrecy surrounding the Cold
War military industrial complex, “our whole plan, the concept of packet switch-
ing and all the details, was wide open. Not only did Rand publish it, they sent it
to all the repository laboratories around the world” (Baran, in Brand 2001).

moving BEyonD ThE miLiTary inDusTriaL ComPLEx
The Internet’s growth beyond the military industrial complex was spurred
by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), which subsidized connectivity
for research universities and other knowledge centers while providing linkages
for international networks. The NSFNET “backbone” that was designed to carry
bulk Internet traffic was initiated in 1986 and added onto later by NASA and the
Department of Energy. International networks such as NORDUNET, BITNET,
and EARN connected European academic institutions. BITNET merged with
other academic networks into the Corporation for Research and Educational
Networking (CREN). Consortia arrangements developed independently of these
organizations as new federal and state governments, municipal governments,
and corporate members developed “peering” relationships to share growing
traffic loads collaboratively.
Despite repeated claims by the United States that democratic and global gover-
nance of the Internet is just around the corner, the U.S. Department of Commerce
(DOC) still retains formal control over the “root” of the Internet, which is the
cluster of servers that maps domain names to unique Internet protocol addresses
(such that typing www.prwatch.org takes you to IP address 209.197.113.33). The
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) manages the
creation of top-level domain names and country code domain names and the ac-
creditation of domain name registrars. As there can be only one authoritative
root server, the ICANN’s proxy management of domain names for the DOC
keeps the United States in charge of “ruling the root.” The ICANN also settles
disputes involving the registration of trademarked names in “cyber-squatting”
battles. Other global organizations contribute to Internet governance. The In-
ternet Society is an nongovernmental organization that promotes technology
development conducive to open standards, protocols, and administration of the
Internet. It has been instrumental in providing training and education while col-
laborating to establish servers and connectivity in countries around the world.

ConTEmPorary soCiaL anD CuLTuraL asPECTs

The discovery of “cyberspace” by the popular press in the early 1990s oc-
curred as an important genre of science fiction, such as the cyberpunk writing of