Noting that “the realities of the world have changed dramatically since the creation of the Air Force in 1947,” the US Air Force has released a new mission statement:

The mission of the United States Air Force is to deliver sovereign options for the defense of the United States of America and its global interests — to fly and fight in Air, Space, and Cyberspace.

According to the USAF, the term “cyberspace” includes network security, data transmission and the sharing of information. My guess is that they mean to focus on the USAF’s own network infrastructure, not all of cyberspace. Still, it reminds us of the challenges of Internet governance and cyber-security¹, and the debate over whether the US military should engage in cyber-warfare.

¹A few years ago I wrote a short paper on a related issue for First Monday: The Tensions of Securing Cyberspace: The Internet, State Power & The National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace

[via Slashdot]

(via Nettime-L)
Jeremy Norman, Northern Californian book dealer, has the world’s largest
private collection of rare and one-of-a-kind manuscripts, essays, and
ephemera relating to the birth of the Internet, from the earliest papers
on difference engines to the first digital-computer patents. In February,
Norman plans to offer the whole lot at Christie’s, in its first auction of
this kind of material. Scheduled to take place on Feb. 23 in New York
City: an “Origins Of Cyberspace” auction at Christie’s. For sale: 255 cool
things that point to the history of computation.

If I had an extra $1,000 sitting around, I’d bid on the original edition of Vannevar Bush’s ground-breaking “As We May Think” article.