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

Mon Jul 23 15:06:45 PDT 2012

On Jul 23, 2012, at 17:30 , Ian Peter wrote:

> 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."

I believe, as others have mentioned elsewhere about similar quotes, you are conflating "an internet" with "The Internet".

By the way, I still agree with your thesis that it is impossible to find a single point of origin - because there wasn't one.

> 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 .

Having recently looked up Noel Chiappa's home page for related reasons, I found this:
	<http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/history/Internet_plaque.jpg>

Impressive.  That's 30 names or so, and all the ones I recognize (most of them) have good reason IMHO to be on that plaque.

However, I think the sentence right above the dedication date says it all.

-- 
TTFN,
patrick

>> From: <internet-history-request at postel.org>
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>> Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2012 12:03:59 -0700
>> To: <internet-history at postel.org>
>> Subject: internet-history Digest, Vol 64, Issue 14
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>> 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."
>>> ...
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
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>> 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."
>>> 
>>> ...
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
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