[chapter-delegates] How about a World Internet Day?

[Veni Markovski]

At 14:42 20-05-05  -0700, Fred Baker wrote:
>On May 20, 2005, at 1:48 PM, Marie-Anne Delahaut wrote:
>>It is a good idea and this dialogue is wonderful... But what is the date 
>>indeed ?
>
>Good question. Sometime in 1968 or 1969. Bob Braden, and probably Vint 
>Cerf or Bob Kahn, might remember.

I've asked Vint and Steve some time ago about important dates, related to 
the Internet.

Here're some of them:

Oct 29, 1969 was the date that charlie kline tried to connect to SRI Int'l 
and finally succeeded (telnet to their host I believe).
Charlie was at the UCLA 35th anniv celebration and described the 
"non-event" except that it was an important milestone in getting
the network up and running with real hosts on board.
[cut]
There are many milestones so I think an attempt to celebrate a birthday is 
hard.
For Internet one might reasonably pick 1/1/1983 as the date the system was 
deployed on all of the networks supported by DARPA.
[cut]
For the Arpanet, here's a few of the milestones I'd choose.  Other
people will have very different selections.

o Decision to build the network.  Bob Taylor gets credit, I believe.
Sometime in 1967?  There was also a meeting in Gatlinburg, TN around
that time which was influential in the decision process.  I didn't
attend.

o Delivery of first IMP to UCLA.  This skips over the decision to create
IMPs instead of connecting computers directly to each other or having a
central switch.  It also skips over the RFP process and the selection of
BBN.  Some might choose to put any or all of these into the "important
birthdays" list.

o Creation of the RFCs.  Not thought to be important at the time, but it
set the framework for open publication and broad participation.

o Decision to have thin protocol layers so others could build on them,
and to have the layers open.

o Development and deployment of NCP, Telnet and FTP protocols, thereby
creating the first set of platform independent protocols.

o Bake off in Oct 1971, if I recall correctly, where each of the
machines tried to connect to each other machine.  Very high success
except for one notable site.  At this point, the network was effectively
fully connected and usable in a regular way.

o Creation of the TIP, a combined IMP and terminal concentrator.  Very
significantly increased the use of the net.

o Public demo of Arpanet at ICCC 1972 at the Hilton in Washington, DC.
(Same hotel as the IETF this coming week, almost exactly 32 years ago.)
[cut]

The first IMP was scheduled to be delivered to UCLA on Sept 1, 1969.  It
actually arrived a couple of days early.  I'm not sure why Sept 2 was
reported as the anniversary, but it's certainly close enough.

On Oct 29, 2004, Len Kleinrock had a symposium at UCLA
commemorating the 35th anniversary of the Arpanet and looking forward in
the future.  He chose that date because it was convenient in terms of
scheduling resources at UCLA, not exactly on the same date as any event
in 1969.  So far as I know, that's where "Oct 29" has come into the
dialog.


see also:

www.livinginternet.com
And, of course, "Where Wizards Stay Up Late" by Katie Hafner and Matthew
Lyon and "The Dream Machine" by M. Mitchell Waldrop.