[ih] Essential components of Internet technology and operation

[Jorge Amodio]

I believe that one of the fundamental aspects of the Internet is that
since its conception has been a recursive technology that
enable via open participation and interconnection reinventing itself
over an over, and I bet it will continue to be as long as we
keep the packets flowing and the attorneys busy with other stuff.

-J

On Thu, Jul 26, 2012 at 4:56 PM, Dave Crocker <dhc2 at dcrocker.net> wrote:
> Folks,
>
> As evidenced by several efforts, including the latest, I doubt that
> considering different criteria for defining the start of the Internet is
> ever going to lead to rough consensus about a single definition.
>
> In the face of an impasse about an entirety, it often is useful to break
> things down into components and consider them separately.
>
> So I suggest an exercise a deconstructive exercise.
>
> For today's Internet:
>
>    a.  Consider a technical, administrative or operational innovation that
> is generally viewed as important for making the Internet work.
>
>    b.  Identify when it was innovated and by whom.
>
>    c.  Rinse, repeat, developing a list of essential components and their
> origins.
>
>
> For example, a couple of components that aren't near the margins of
> importance:
>
>    1.  Packet switching
>
>        While there is some debate about fine-grain of details about
> innovation, its conceptualization was roughly the mid-60s by one or very few
> folk, and its demonstration in a network was, perhaps, 1969 in the Arpanet.
>
>    2.  Hyperlinks
>
>        Conceptualized by Nelson and Engelbart, apparently separately. (I
> don't know enough about the internals of Engelbart's project to know exactly
> how it developed there and who exactly should get credit for it.)
> Terminology from Nelson.  Demonstrated operationally by Engelbart, in a
> standalone system.  Demonstrated in a distributed system by Berners-Lee.
>
>
> To the extent that my statements are inaccurate or incomplete, I suspect the
> debate and repair effort can be more constrained for most of the items (as
> long as we keep away from the invention of email...)
>
>
> With a small amount of diligence, this ought to produce an interesting
> timeline, possibly with, ummm, seven layers...
>
> Thoughts?
>
>
> d/
>
> --
>  Dave Crocker
>  Brandenburg InternetWorking
>  bbiw.net