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 questions. This was described by several people as a "dynamic" performance.

I described how the standards would be posted on the network, how different access protocols would be used, and how making standards widely available had been so successful for the TCP/IP protocols. I explained how, once the data was digital, we could all start using advanced services, write better code and how, when all was said and done, we would enter a state of standards equilibrium, a nirvana of documentation.

Unbeknown to us at the time, the audience included an operative from ISO, sent over to keep tabs on the radical goings-on across the street. When my own spies informed me of this the next morning, I placed a call to Dr. Zakharov, head of the ISO computer group. I explained who I was and said that, at the request of ITU management, I would be happy to come over and give them a courtesy briefing on our little project.

"That sounds mighty exalted. Come over Thursday morning."

Two days later, I donned my suit and dashed through the rain to the other side of Rue Varembe. I bypassed the obligatory visit to ISO reception and went straight to the third floor and back through a warren of offices, where I was ushered into the inner sanctum of Dr. Zakharov.

Walking in, I saw an older man behind the desk wearing the sort of safari suit that the British favor. "You are Malamud?" he asked. "I have asked McKenzie to join us" he said, beckoning to a young man wearing a shirt and tie who nodded at me with a glum gaze.

"McKenzie is our database expert. I have asked him to be here because what we have here is a database issue, not a network issue."

"Let me first say that I know all about this Internet of yours," he continued. "I used the Internet even before it was the Internet. In fact, before it was the ARPANET. This Internet of yours may be fine for researchers, but here at ISO we have real clients to serve, so enough about this Internet."