[ih] XEROX/PUP and Commercialization (was Re: FYI - Gordon Crovitz/WSJ on "Who Really Invented the Internet?")

[Dave Crocker]

On 7/25/2012 4:21 PM, Jack Haverty wrote:
> I can understand why historians have such a difficult job sorting
> stuff out from the distant past.  We who were there all (think we)
> know from firsthand experience, but someone looking back a century or
> two might have real trouble.


You are referring to folk who are diligent and concerned with accuracy.

The real problem seems to have more to do with folk who lack one or both 
of these necessary attributes.

A couple of months ago, it was the invention of email.  Today it's 
invention of the Internet.

What's most significant to me is how easily the inaccuracies are 
promulgated.

I've suggested to John Markoff that this interplay between actual 
Internet history and media mis-history of the Internet is probably worth 
a story.

I have also wondered about an effort to conduct a series of targeted, 
online discussions among principals, to divulge and reflect on the 
history of specific lines of capability.  This would create a record of 
first-person recollections.  It might be worth synthesizing these into 
some live panel discussions, as are often done at the Computer History 
Museum.

A spontaneous version of the online part happened about email recently. 
  It was pretty interesting.

For example, I had never realized that Ray Tomlinson's innovation was in 
direct response to Dick Watson's, very different and less integrated 
proposal of RFC 196.

d/

-- 
  Dave Crocker
  Brandenburg InternetWorking
  bbiw.net