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

[Jack Haverty]

The CBI and others do a good job but they tend to be focused on the
history of the technology.  I think that "Internet History" should
encompass more than the technical aspects, but should include how the
technology came out of the labs and diffused into the larger picture
to become an infrastructure of humanity.  The Internet has built new
companies, and industries, and destroyed others.  It has changed how
people communicate and interact all over the planet.  It has toppled
governments.  It has disrupted and changed a broad spectrum of human
activities and processes.   And it's not done yet - I think it's only
beginning.

That's the "human history" that I suggest is worth capturing.  There's
lots of stories there.  It's a big job.

/Jack Haverty


On Wed, Jul 25, 2012 at 7:36 PM, Noel Chiappa <jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu> wrote:
>     > From: Jack Haverty <jack at 3kitty.org>
>
>     > The idea of projects to proactively capture recollections is a good
>     > one. You would think that an entity such as The Internet .. would
>     > attract the attention of not only technical museums, but also archives
>     > and organizations capturing general human history.
>     > ...
>     > Perhaps the Library of Congress (and other similar institutions) could
>     > be motivated to launch an analogous "Internet History Project"?
>
> The Charles Babbage Institute already has an extensive oral history program
> in information technology:
>
>   http://www.cbi.umn.edu/oh/
>
> A number of names from networking stuff already appear in that list (Baran,
> Cerf, SCrocker, Heart, Kahn, Kleinrock, Mills, Walden). I would probably try
> and get them involved if you wanted to do a more extensive networking oral
> history project; they know how to do this, to get the maximum historical
> value.
>
>         Noel