Not the point. "What would information technology be like today if ARPA/IPTO style funding still existed?" would be the more relevant question. I'd call those dudes "great artists". That's the community Kay comes from, the one that gave rise to the Internet, PARC, and everything else that several generations of hustlers have made careers off iterating upon.
It's also worth noting that TCP/IP was able to outfox the planned X.25 ISO standard for international network transport in large part because ARPA was releasing code and standards for free and testing it live. All of that happened before the Internet was commercialized.
It's also worth noting that TCP/IP was able to outfox the planned X.25 ISO standard for international network transport in large part because ARPA was releasing code and standards for free and testing it live. All of that happened before the Internet was commercialized.