[ih] FYI - Gordon Crovitz/WSJ on "Who Really Invented the Internet?"

Mon Jul 23 14:30:44 PDT 2012

Here we go again - the search for the single point of origin of the
Internet.

The writer of the LA Times article might have done well if he had checked
with his friend Bob Taylor. He writes.

"Bob Taylor is a friend of mine, and I think I can say without fear of
contradiction that he fully endorses the idea as a point of personal pride
that the government-funded ARPANet was very much the precursor of the
Internet as we know it today"

Well that's not what Bob Taylor has written elsewhere. To quote Bob,

"I believe the first internet was created at Xerox PARC, circa '75, when we
connected, via PUP, the Ethernet with the ARPAnet. PUP (PARC Universal
Protocol) was instrumental later in defining TCP."

So John Schoch and PUP has to become at least part of this history - as has
Louis Pouzin and datagrams at Cyclades, and a number of other early
projects.

Claiming a single point of origin only lessens the richeness of the
Internet. Many people were involved, many projects. None can claim sole
inventor rights - indeed, the Myth of the Sole Inventor is an unproductive
way to  view our history. Mark Lumley has covered this well with "The Myth
of the Sole Inventor"
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1856610 .

Ian Peter

> From: <internet-history-request at postel.org>
> Reply-To: <internet-history at postel.org>
> Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2012 12:03:59 -0700
> To: <internet-history at postel.org>
> Subject: internet-history Digest, Vol 64, Issue 14
> 
> Send internet-history mailing list submissions to
> internet-history at postel.org
> 
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
> http://mailman.postel.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-history
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
> internet-history-request at postel.org
> 
> You can reach the person managing the list at
> internet-history-owner at postel.org
> 
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of internet-history digest..."
> 
> 
> Today's Topics:
> 
>    1. Re: FYI - Gordon Crovitz/WSJ on "Who Really Invented the
>       Internet?" (Andrew G. Malis)
>    2. Re: FYI - Gordon Crovitz/WSJ on "Who Really Invented the
>       Internet?" (John Curran)
> 
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2012 15:02:44 -0400
> From: "Andrew G. Malis" <agmalis at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [ih] FYI - Gordon Crovitz/WSJ on "Who Really Invented the
> Internet?"
> To: John Curran <jcurran at istaff.org>
> Cc: internet-history at postel.org
> Message-ID:
> <CAA=duU3hBQv0YZ7iC3jjR4kSM12XWX+8W9z4PQH7xwW=om7JYQ at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> The LA Times fires back at Crovitz and the WSJ. This was written by Michael
> Hiltzik, who was quoted by Crovitz:
> 
> http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-mo-who-invented-internet-20120723,0,5
> 052169.story
> 
> Cheers,
> Andy
> 
> On Mon, Jul 23, 2012 at 2:25 PM, John Curran <jcurran at istaff.org> wrote:
> 
>> Internet History Folks -
>> 
>>    I make note of this, as some of the folks on this list might have
>>    differing views.
>> 
>> FYI,
>> /John
>> 
>> ===
>> <
>> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444464304577539063008406518.htm
>> l#
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>>  Gordon Crovitz: Who Really Invented the Internet? Contrary to legend, it
>> wasn't the federal government, and the Internet had nothing to do with
>> maintaining communications during a war.
>> 
>>    -  By L. GORDON CROVITZ
>> 
>> [image: Columnist's name]
>> 
>>    -
>> 
>>  A telling moment in the presidential race came recently when Barack
>> Obama said: "If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else
>> made that happen." He justified elevating bureaucrats over entrepreneurs by
>> referring to bridges and roads, adding: "The Internet didn't get invented
>> on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all companies
>> could make money off the Internet."
>> ...
>> 
>> 
>> 
> -------------- next part --------------
> An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
> URL: 
> http://mailman.postel.org/pipermail/internet-history/attachments/20120723/a07f
> f837/attachment.html
> -------------- next part --------------
> A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
> Name: not available
> Type: image/gif
> Size: 6558 bytes
> Desc: not available
> Url : 
> http://mailman.postel.org/pipermail/internet-history/attachments/20120723/a07f
> f837/attachment.gif
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2012 15:03:47 -0400
> From: John Curran <jcurran at istaff.org>
> Subject: Re: [ih] FYI - Gordon Crovitz/WSJ on "Who Really Invented the
> Internet?"
> To: internet-history at postel.org
> Message-ID: <49BE1247-1D7B-4F8B-9F90-86A78E2A6A3B at istaff.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
> 
> To be clear, I was not referring to the political aspects of the article,
> but  the references along the lines of:
> 
>  "So having created the Internet, why didn't Xerox become the biggest company
> in the world? "
> 
> FYI,
> /John
> 
> On Jul 23, 2012, at 2:25 PM, John Curran wrote:
> 
>> Internet History Folks -
>>  
>>    I make note of this, as some of the folks on this list might have
>>    differing views.
>> 
>> FYI,
>> /John
>> 
>> ===
>> <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444464304577539063008406518.ht
>> ml#>
>> 
>> 
>> Gordon Crovitz: Who Really Invented the Internet?
>> Contrary to legend, it wasn't the federal government, and the Internet had
>> nothing to do with maintaining communications during a war.
>> By L. GORDON CROVITZ
>> 
>> A telling moment in the presidential race came recently when Barack Obama
>> said: "If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made
>> that happen." He justified elevating bureaucrats over entrepreneurs by
>> referring to bridges and roads, adding: "The Internet didn't get invented on
>> its own. Government research created the Internet so that all companies could
>> make money off the Internet."
>> 
>> ...
>> 
>> 
> 
> -------------- next part --------------
> An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
> URL: 
> http://mailman.postel.org/pipermail/internet-history/attachments/20120723/43e6
> 21af/attachment.html
> -------------- next part --------------
> A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
> Name: renocol_GordonCrovitz.gif
> Type: image/gif
> Size: 6558 bytes
> Desc: not available
> Url : 
> http://mailman.postel.org/pipermail/internet-history/attachments/20120723/43e6
> 21af/renocol_GordonCrovitz.gif
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> _______________________________________________
> internet-history mailing list
> internet-history at postel.org
> http://mailman.postel.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-history
> 
> 
> End of internet-history Digest, Vol 64, Issue 14
> ************************************************