[ih] Re: internet-history digest, Vol 1 #107 - 9 msgs

[Bob Braden]

  *> 
  *> Message: 5
  *> From: "Rick" <listsubs at dstudio.clara.net>
  *> To: internet-history at postel.org
  *> Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2003 03:08:12 -0000
  *> Subject: Re: [ih] History of Online Databases
  *> 
  *> On 17 Jan 2003 at 21:17, David L. Mills wrote:
  *> > I submit the first online ubiquitous database was the ARPANET host name
  *> > file. This may not be what you have in mind.
  *> 
  *> Good point + you must be right. But the host name file
  *> was online of necessity, not through a choice of
  *> online vs offline.
  *> 
  *> What I really had in mind is when were the first
  *> databases designed for non-technical users -- research,
  *> academic or commercial -- that were online as a result
  *> of a conscious decision?
  *> 

There was an early (1971...?) ARPA-funded effort to build the
Datacomputer, a database storage and access system, and connect it to
the ARPAnet.  I don't recall what actual databases were stored in the
Datacomputer -- oh, I think there was a weather database.

The other major example of an online database in the early days was the
Englebart's NLS system at SRI NIC.  Unlike (I suspect) the Datacomputer,
this was a production database that may even have been used by other
than its designers.  For example, documentation on how to use various
ARPAnet computer systems, as well as for the example the RFC files,
were accessed from the NIC by researchers and even real users.

Looking up bits on a disk is not that hard a concept, it turns out.
The Web just provided a standard encoding and a very convenient
GUI.

Bob Braden