1 00:00:00,012 --> 00:00:05,809 So, as you can see, none of this is easy. It wasn't easy for Larry Smar and now we 2 00:00:05,809 --> 00:00:09,001 basically have the lobbyists it once again. 3 00:00:09,001 --> 00:00:14,518 Lobbyists are deciding that there's only going to be 15 million dollars. 4 00:00:14,519 --> 00:00:18,830 Because if it's 15 million dollars, they can only build a 56 kilobit line. 5 00:00:18,830 --> 00:00:23,020 But Michigan thought outside the box, some people might say we cheated. 6 00:00:23,020 --> 00:00:27,210 Other universities wanted to get the grant, kind of thought we did cheat. 7 00:00:27,210 --> 00:00:31,219 We didn't play by the rules, like in Star Trek, we rewrote the rules. 8 00:00:31,219 --> 00:00:34,649 So, we got it. And we slid underneath the nose of AT&T, a 9 00:00:34,649 --> 00:00:39,329 one and a half megabit network that started, started large and it started fast 10 00:00:39,329 --> 00:00:42,727 and got faster. And, as Doug talked, it was a very, very, 11 00:00:42,727 --> 00:00:47,618 very successful network and it, it, it didn't, it had follow on effects just like 12 00:00:47,618 --> 00:00:51,251 Larry talked about. It had these follow on effects causing 13 00:00:51,251 --> 00:00:56,069 campuses to build networking because in would come this really fast, national 14 00:00:56,069 --> 00:00:59,446 network so you'd better fix the on campus networking. 15 00:00:59,446 --> 00:01:03,356 So it was really quite wonderful. And the partners, IBM, and MCI. 16 00:01:03,356 --> 00:01:08,462 The other thing is, AT&T was being beat up by MCI at the time, and maybe they weren't 17 00:01:08,462 --> 00:01:10,826 noticing. So we might have been lucky. 18 00:01:10,826 --> 00:01:15,234 It could easily have been two years earlier, or two years later it might not 19 00:01:15,234 --> 00:01:16,926 have worked. So, whatever. 20 00:01:16,926 --> 00:01:19,656 It did work. And, and we can be very grateful. 21 00:01:19,656 --> 00:01:24,762 So the, University of Michigan. Was sort of the center of, they were in 22 00:01:24,762 --> 00:01:29,522 the network operations patients center and did the network design, worked on the 23 00:01:29,522 --> 00:01:34,730 software with IBM, and built the network. And, it had a very exponential growth as 24 00:01:34,730 --> 00:01:38,345 it went forward. This building right here is on our north 25 00:01:38,345 --> 00:01:42,618 campus, and it was for me personally the very first place that I typed. 26 00:01:42,618 --> 00:01:46,920 The 1st characters that went across the internet, I walked in this door to, I 27 00:01:46,920 --> 00:01:51,474 wasn't at the university at that time, but I had friends here and so I came in and I 28 00:01:51,474 --> 00:01:54,204 was typing you know, hello, on the internet. 29 00:01:54,204 --> 00:01:58,902 And so, this building was where the network operations center was and where I, 30 00:01:58,902 --> 00:02:02,858 I touched the internet for the and the NSF net for the 1st time. 31 00:02:02,858 --> 00:02:07,067 So, it started out real simple. But it's goal, it's goal was to enable 32 00:02:07,067 --> 00:02:11,702 connections to other networks. The regional networks got formed, Larry 33 00:02:11,702 --> 00:02:15,562 Smar mentioned that. And so then the backbone became sort of a 34 00:02:15,562 --> 00:02:19,173 forcing function. Get more campuses on and more and more 35 00:02:19,173 --> 00:02:22,902 states, etcetera, etcetera. Now, one of the things that was quite 36 00:02:22,902 --> 00:02:26,594 interesting is we in the academic field had the right to use this network. 37 00:02:26,594 --> 00:02:29,880 But when it first started out, it was supposed to be academic only. 38 00:02:29,880 --> 00:02:33,656 And then once it was established in the late 80s and early 90s, there were some 39 00:02:33,656 --> 00:02:37,668 people that started sort of like, bending those rules or bypassing those rules or 40 00:02:37,668 --> 00:02:41,680 ignoring those rules, and it wasn't really clear who was supposed to police those 41 00:02:41,680 --> 00:02:44,795 rules. And the people like at the University of 42 00:02:44,795 --> 00:02:49,357 Michigan, they, their heart wasn't in reducing who would use the internet. 43 00:02:49,357 --> 00:02:53,815 They wanted to expand, right? And so there were places, often bulletin 44 00:02:53,815 --> 00:02:58,288 board systems would somehow get a connection to the internet and they would 45 00:02:58,288 --> 00:03:01,288 give internet access to a bunch of nonacademics. 46 00:03:01,288 --> 00:03:06,376 And so it became Increasingly in the late 80s understood by everyone around the 47 00:03:06,376 --> 00:03:09,620 world. But this is pretty much nerds, right, that 48 00:03:09,620 --> 00:03:14,846 can sit with a screen with a command lined interface with a text based screen, and 49 00:03:14,846 --> 00:03:19,278 they can get excited about that. I'm, I'm like that, I can get excited 50 00:03:19,278 --> 00:03:23,789 about things that are non-graphical because I just make it up in my head. 51 00:03:23,789 --> 00:03:31,733 But we needed something to pop this into the collective consciousnes of all 52 00:03:31,733 --> 00:03:38,921 humanity, rather than just acedemics first, and then nerds second. 53 00:03:38,921 --> 00:03:42,365 But, that was about to change.