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Keywords: Jonathan B Postel
Network Working Group D. Cohen
Request for Comments: 2441 Myricom
Category: Informational November 1998
Working with Jon
Tribute delivered at UCLA, October 30, 1998
Status of this Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this
memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1998). All Rights Reserved.
Tribute
In 1973, after doing interactive flight simulation over the ARPAnet,
I joined ISI and applied that experience to interactive speech over
the ARPAnet.
The communication requirements for realtime speech were unique (more
like UDP than like TCP). This got me involved in the Network Working
Group, and I started another project at ISI called "Internet
Concepts".
In 1977 Steve Crocker, who was then at ISI, told me that Jon was
willing to join us, and that Jon will be a great addition to my
Internet Concepts project. Steve was right on both accounts.
Jon and I worked together from 1977 until 1993 when I left ISI.
According to ISI's management Jon worked for me for several years,
and I worked for him for several years. In reality we never worked
for each other (nor for ISI), we always worked together, to advance
the technology that we believed in. Over most of those 16 years we
had our offices together, and always worked with each other, even
when we worked on totally different projects.
Jon was always most pleasant to work with. He was most caring both
about the project, and about the individuals on the team. He was
always full of great intentions and humor. Jon was always ready for
mischiefs, one way or another. He was always game to hack something.
Cohen Informational [Page 1]
RFC 2441 Working with Jon November 1998
When I worked on the MOSIS project, in 1980, users submitted their
VLSI designs to us by e-mail. For several defense contractors,
getting access to the ARPAnet was too complex. We suggested that
they would use a commercial e-mail service, like TELEmail, instead.
Then we had the problem of getting all the e-mail systems to
interoperate, since none of them was willing to interoperate with the
others. Jon and I solved this problem during one long night of
hacking. This hack later became the mail-tunnel that provided the
service known as "InterMail", for passing e-mail between various
non-cooperating systems, including systems like MCImail and IEEE's
COMPmail.
I'm sure that Jon was so enthusiastic to work with me on it for two
reasons:
* Such interoperability among heterogeneous e-mail systems
was our religion, with no tolerance for separatism;
* We definitely were not supposed to do it.
Jon hated bureaucracy and silly rules, as Cary Thomas so well
described. Too bad that we lived in an environment with so many
rules.
We started Los-Nettos without lawyers and without formal contracts.
Handshakes were good enough. At that time several other regional
networks started around the country. Most of them were interested in
expansion, in glory, and in fortune. Jon was interested only in
getting the problem solved.
This was Jon's priority, both at work, and in his life.
I find it funny to read in the papers that Jon was the director of
IANA. Jon was IANA. Much more important, Jon was the corporate
memory of the Internet, and also the corporate style and the
technical taste of the Internet.
Jon was an authority without bureaucracy. No silly rules! Jon's
authority was not derived from any management structure. It was due
to his personality, his dedication, deep understanding, and demanding
technical taste and style.
Jon set the standards for both the Internet standards and for the
Internet standardization process. Jon turned the RFCs into a central
piece of the standardization process.
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RFC 2441 Working with Jon November 1998
One can also read that Jon was the editor of the RFC, and may think
that Jon checked only the grammar or the format of the RFCs. Nothing
could be further from the truth, not that he did not check it, but in
addition, being the corporate memory, Jon had indicated many times to
authors that earlier work had treated the same subject, and that
their work would be improved by learning about that earlier work.
For the benefits of those in the audience who are either too young or
too old to remember let me recall some recent history:
The Internet protocols (mainly IP, TCP, UDP, FTP, Telnet, FTP, and
even SNMP) were defined and documented in their RFCs. DoD adopted
them and announced a date by which all of DoD units would have to use
TCP/IP. They even translated RFC791 from Jon's English to proper
Militarese.
However, all the other countries (i.e., their governments and PTTs)
in the world joined the ISO wagon, the X.25 based suite of OSI
protocols. The US government joined them and defined GOSIP. All the
large computer companies (from IBM and DEC down) announced their
future plans to join the GOSIP bandwagon. DoD totally capitulated
and denounced the "DoD unique protocols" and was seeking ways to
forget all about them, spending million of dollars on GOSIP and
X.500.
Against them, on the Internet side, there was a very small group of
young Davids. The OSI camp had its prestige, but we had working
systems, a large community of devotees, and properly documented
protocols that allowed integration of the TCP/IP suite into every
UNIX system, such as in every SUN workstation.
Against the strict laws in Europe, their universities developed an
underground of Internet connections. One could get from California
to the university in Rome, for example, for example, by going first
over the Internet across the US to the east coast, then to the UK,
then using some private lines to France, then to CERN in Switzerland,
and from there to Rome - while breaking the laws of all those
countries with every packet.
Meanwhile, in the states, Academia, and the research communities,
never knew about GOSIP.
The Internet, against all the conventional wisdom, grew without
anyone being in charge, without central control, and without any
central planning.
The war between the ISO and the TCP/IP camps never took place. One
camp turned out to be a no show.
Cohen Informational [Page 3]
RFC 2441 Working with Jon November 1998
What made it all possible was the wise selection of what to
standardize and what not to, and the high quality of the standards in
a series of living documents.
Our foundation and infrastructure of standards was the secret weapon
that won the war. Jon created it, using the RFC mechanism initiated
by Steve Crocker. It was Jon who immediately realized their
importance, and the need for someone to act as the curator, and
volunteered.
The lightning speed with which Microsoft joined the Internet was not
possible without the quality of the existing standards that were so
well documented.
During the transition from ARPA, through the NSF, to the commercial
world there was a point in which the trivial funding required for the
smooth operation of editing and distributing the RFCs was in doubt.
At that time the prospect of not having funds to run this operation
was very real. Finally the problem was solved and the process
suffered no interruption.
What most of the involved agencies and managers did not know is that
there was never a danger of any interruption. Jon would have done it
even with no external funding. If they did not pay him to do it, he
would have paid them to let him do it. For him it was not a job, it
was labor of love.
Jon never joined the PowerPoint generation. Jon always believed that
the content was the only thing that matters. Hand written slides
were good enough. Color and logos were distractions, a necessary
evil in certain occasions, not the style of choice.
Jon defined quality by counting interesting ideas, not points per
inch.
When fancy formatting creeped into the Internet community, Jon
resisted the temptation to allow fancy formats for RFCs. Instead, he
insisted on them being in ASCII, easy to e-mail, guaranteed to be
readable anywhere in the world. The instant availability and
usability of RFCs was much more important to him than how fancy they
looked.
The Internet was not just a job for Jon. It was his hobby and his
mission in life.
We will miss Jon, who was for the Internet its corporate memory, its
corporate style, and its corporate taste.
Cohen Informational [Page 4]
RFC 2441 Working with Jon November 1998
I will miss him even more as a colleague and a friend.
In Summary:
* Jon was pleasant, fun/funny, and unselfish.
He was full of mischief, adventure, humor, and caring.
He was devoted to his work, to the Internet, and to the
people who worked with him.
* It was great working together and having neighboring
offices for 16 years.
* Jon set the standards for the Internet standards.
* Jon was the Internet's corporate memory, the corporate taste,
and the corporate style.
* Jon was an authority without bureaucracy.
* Jon was an Internet Missionary.
* Jon was a great friend that I will miss for ever.
Security Considerations
Security issues are not relevant to this Tribute.
Author's Address
Danny Cohen
Myricom
EMail: cohen@myri.com
Cohen Informational [Page 5]
RFC 2441 Working with Jon November 1998
Full Copyright Statement
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1998). All Rights Reserved.
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Cohen Informational [Page 6]