RFC 249

Coordination of Equipment and Supplies Purchase ✨

okay bestie, this is RFC 249 🎀 It's from the Network Working Group and it was written by R. F. Borelli of the University of Illinois Center for Advanced Computation. It's dated October 8, 1971, and it's catalogued as NIC 7690 (no category or status is listed in the original). It doesn't obsolete or update any other RFCs, so it's a standalone memo 🦋

The purpose of this message is to share an agreement between Messrs. Steve Crocker of ARPA and R. F. Borelli of the University of Illinois 💖 The Center for Advanced Computation agreed to study whether a coordinating point for buying equipment and supplies for the network would actually work 🧚

So the Center is going to put together a list of common equipment and supplies that Network members need ✨ Then it'll check whether it's worth contacting the right manufacturers and distributors to negotiate the best possible group price 💅 Once the negotiations wrap up, the results go back out to Network members, along with a listing of items, costs and supplies 🌸

The two biggest pitfalls with this concept are:

1. Insufficient demand for commonly required items. 😭
2. Not satisfying each organization's administrative requirements for competitive bidding on items which are not sole-source justified. 💀

At this time, it's way too early to let this kill the idea 🙈 Once the listing of items and range of sources are collected and analyzed, these two points can be addressed. Honestly, this project might have to be abandoned, however, there are sufficient reasons to believe these problems can be overcome, so it could totally be workable 👑

We're asking all Network members to send the Center, ATTN. R. F. Borelli, a descriptive listing of the equipment and supplies they need this fiscal year 🫶 Listing every acceptable alternate is super important, because it raises the chances of commonality. For example, TI-725 terminals could be considered a substitute for Teleterms 1030's, etc. 💜 The only items excluded for now are 2400 ft. Magnetic Computer Tapes, tabulating cards, and conventional computer printer paper. Any extra suggestions or ideas are both encouraged and welcomed 🌈

A sample format of information is attached 🍓

Here's the sample format, verbatim:

          Sample Format of Information Requirement is as Follows:
          ------------------------------------------------------
                                                                  Current
                                                                 Estimated
   Quantity      Description and Special Needs      Mfgr.           Cost
   --------      -----------------------------      -----       -----------

       3         Remote Terminals                 Texas Instr.  $4,200.00 @
                 Model TI-725 with upper and            or
                  lower case                      Teleterms

   100 rolls/mo  Electro Static Printer Paper      Gould        $10.00/roll

And the "Requested by" block, also verbatim:

   Requested by:

                     University of Illinois
                     Center for Advanced Computation
                     Urbana, Illinois  61801
                     Telephone:  (217) 333-6375

A listing of items not intended as all-inclusive are: ✨

1. Gould Electrostatic Printers and printer paper.
2. Computek graphics terminals.
3. ARDS graphics terminals.
4. CRT alphanumeric terminals (Hazeltine, Datapoint, DEC, etc.).
5. Hard-copy portable terminals (TI-725, Teleterm 1030, NCR etc.).
6. Teletype (ASR and KSR-33, 35 and 37)
7. Plasma panels.
8. Plotters (CalComp, Bendix, Calma, etc.).
9. Digitizers and scanners.
10. Computers (PDP-11, PDP-10).
11. Computer peripherals (TU-56, TC-11, etc.).
12. IMLAC's.

The original also has this machine-readable note from its archive entry, kept exactly as written 🦋

         [ This RFC was put into machine readable form for entry ]
         [ into the online RFC archives by BBN Corp. under the   ]
         [ direction of Alex McKenzie.                   12/96   ]