From ian.peter at ianpeter.com Mon May 2 02:33:30 2005 From: ian.peter at ianpeter.com (Ian Peter) Date: Mon, 2 May 2005 19:33:30 +1000 Subject: [ih] New article on Internet origins In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Folks, I've just published the following article which may be of interest to some of your readers. Happy reading, and thanks to all those on this list who gave me source material or otherwise contributed. So, who really did invent the Internet? The beginnings of the Internet are shrouded in myth and misunderstandings that have led to some claims of proprietary ownership of the Internet. Where and when did the Internet begin? The only thing Internet historians seem to agree on is that it was not 1969, or the Pentagon, (or for that matter Al Gore). From there on, there is a wide divergence of views as to when, where, and by whom the Internet may have been invented. In the article at http://www.nethistory.info/History%20of%20the%20Internet/origins. html we examine various theories, including: 1. Packet switching represents the origins of the Internet 2. The TCP/IP protocol represents the origins of the Internet 3. A range of telco-led activities from the 1960s represents the true origins 4. The birth of the Internet is best explained through a history of applications rather than the protocols 5. The range of inventions and activities emanating from Xerox Palo Alto laboratories, including Ethernet, represent the true beginnings. Examining these various events, we come to some important findings, including; * There are a number of valid claims to origins of the Internet. * Although an original date and place might be obtainable for the first networked transmission that could be called an Internet, the result would need by definition to include more than one party or network, and is unlikely to be a satisfactory or useful conclusion. * Not only US projects were involved in the beginnings of the Internet. * Not only government funded US research programs were involved in the beginnings of the Internet. * Not only telcos and the commercial sector were involved in the beginnings of the Internet. * Neither Arpanet nor TCP/IP is present in all valid theories. We conclude that any claim by a nation, project, person, or team of individuals, or participants in any single event to "the beginnings of the Internet" is wrong. Further, any claim that the validity or legitimacy of any structure or arrangement can be justified as Internet governance purely because it arose from one of these events is false. And finally "Nor should this article undermine the significant contributions of a number of individuals to claims as "fathers of the Internet". Most of these individuals, particularly those who are most prominent, are at pains to point out the crucial involvement of others - however, the institutions they represent are often less careful in ensuring that widespread involvement of individuals from commercial and government funded sources in a number of countries are ultimately to be thanked for the origins of the Internet. If this paper does no more than clarify that the Internet really has no owner and no single place of origin, it will have served well." Read on at http://www.nethistory.info/History%20of%20the%20Internet/origins. html From dpreed at reed.com Mon May 2 04:18:00 2005 From: dpreed at reed.com (David P. Reed) Date: Mon, 02 May 2005 07:18:00 -0400 Subject: [ih] New article on Internet origins In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <42760C68.3030200@reed.com> Enjoyed skimming this, but it's hardly definitive historic research. Since the "origins" (whatever that term might mean) go back to the "network of networks" described by Licklider and Taylor (later of Xerox PARC)) in a 1967 Scientific American article, and can be traced from that through *both* PARC and ARPA, I don't believe this is any better than the books cited, all of which are pretty lame and PR-focused. From ronda.netizen at gmail.com Mon May 2 10:21:14 2005 From: ronda.netizen at gmail.com (Ronda) Date: Mon, 2 May 2005 13:21:14 -0400 Subject: [ih] New article on Internet origins In-Reply-To: <42760C68.3030200@reed.com> References: <42760C68.3030200@reed.com> Message-ID: On 5/2/05, David P. Reed wrote: Since the "origins" (whatever that term might mean) go back to the "network of networks" .... One characteristic it seems most do agree on that is that the Internet is not a single network but a network of networks or a metasystem. Given that characteristic, the nature of the protocol which makes this metasystem possible is important, and particularly that the protocol that makes the internet possible is the tcp/ip protocol. Knowing something about the process and history of developing this protocol is something valuable for those who want to understand the nature of the Internet and how it has developed. There are many myths out there. There is a need for accurate history and understanding of the development. The work in progress I have on the development of the tcp/ip protocol is an effort to have knowledge of the process be available rather than mythology that one doesn't need to know anything about the internet and its development or that one can't know anything, etc. I have the work in progress online and welcome comments. It is online at http://umcc.ais.org/~ronda/new.papers/birth_tcp.txt The title is: The Internet: On its International Origins and Collaborative Vision (A Work In Progress) Also I have other papers online about the early development of unix, useneet etc (and these are also in the book that Michael and I co-authored "Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet" published by the IEEE Computer Society Press and distributed more recently by Wiley. A draft of the book is online at http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook/ with best wishes Ronda -- > Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet > http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: