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+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.
+
+
+
+
+
+Cohen Informational [Page 2]
+
+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
+
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+Cohen Informational [Page 5]
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+RFC 2441 Working with Jon November 1998
+
+
+Full Copyright Statement
+
+ Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1998). All Rights Reserved.
+
+ This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
+ others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
+ or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
+ and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
+ kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
+ included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
+ document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
+ the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
+ Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
+ developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
+ copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
+ followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
+ English.
+
+ The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
+ revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.
+
+ This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
+ "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
+ TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
+ BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
+ HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
+ MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
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+Cohen Informational [Page 6]
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