past vs future use

[Jim Fleming]

On Saturday, June 28, 1997 3:56 PM, Gordon Cook[SMTP:cook at netaxs.com] wrote:
@ why are you talking about FOIA larry?  what US government agency is
@ witholding data you feel you need?
@ 

It is one thing for U.S. Government agencies to withold
information, it is another for agencies to create "spin"
to explain a situation one way, when it is really another.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is currently in
"spin" mode. This is really a form of mis-information
or dis-information.

The NSF wants out of the InterNIC mess. Instead of
doing the right thing and stepping forward and admitting
that they have badly mismanaged the cooperative arrangement,
they are slowly dismantling the InterNIC and allowing
private companies to cart off lucrative pieces. Eventually,
there will be nothing there and the NSF can turn its
back and walk away, as if they were never involved.

No matter what "spin" the NSF tries to put on the mess,
they were (and still are) involved. They are a 3.3 billion
dollar per year agency which operates with no business
sense or concern for commerce, yet they continue to
dabble in those arenas. The only way to stop this cycle
is for the U.S. Congress to cut their budget and admonish
them for trying to play venture capitalists as opposed
to a funding agency for research and development.

As the Information Age unfolds, it will be especially
important for the U.S. Government to control agencies
like the NSF. As many more people become knowledge
workers and as the service sector dominates the product
sector, an organization with a $3.3 billion dollar budget
and no sense how to spend it can do a lot of damage to
the Information Industry, especially when after they do
the damage they try to cover it up with "spin" and walk
away.

--
Jim Fleming
Unir Corporation