[ih] infrastructure history [was: who invented the Internet]

[Dave Crocker]

On 7/25/2012 10:07 PM, John Levine wrote:
> My, we're cynical.  The Internet is one in a long line of technical
> developments that were done partly by private entities with a big help
> from the government, with a fairly straightforward public interest
> motivation.


I'm going to suggest that the above phrasing sets exactly the wrong 
perspective.  "Big help" significantly understates the role of 
government funding.

Looking at the details of research, development and operations for 
packet-switching and interworking, represented in today's Internet, I 
believe there was primarily government funding until the latter '80s, 
when commercialization started.  I believe the three notable exceptions 
were PARC's ethernet, Digital's routing work, and the interplay between 
PARC and ARPA reserarch folk.

To the extent that folks disagree, I'd be interested in seeing listings 
of details.

d/
-- 
  Dave Crocker
  Brandenburg InternetWorking
  bbiw.net