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rfc:rfc2441

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

Cohen Informational [Page 5] RFC 2441 Working with Jon November 1998

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Cohen Informational [Page 6]

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