[ih] Historical fiction

[Sytel]

Hello again,
Thanks for the go-ahead! Here's a rundown of the story concept and what we'd like to know...

We've recently begun to write an open-ended piece of historical fiction about the history of the ARPANET - specifically its early days and the everyday/social aspects of living and working alongside such a remarkable network. 
 
Rather than viewing the ARPANET as a stepping-stone on the road to the modern Internet, we've been trying to look at the early network as an entity in its own right - not just a transitional phase, but as an important and ambitious project of its day, with great things in its future. To that end, we've taken the unique (we hope) approach of personifying the Arpanet (beginning life as a child, reaching adolescence by the 1972 demonstration), and having "him" interact with his developers and users, as he matures, increasingly fitting into the student society around him. 
 
In writing this, we've found ourselves in the awkward position of having to write about the members of the original Arpanet team. While we have attempted to go about this with the utmost respect, and doing as much research as possible, most of our sources are inadequate for this; they describe Arpanet only in the context of being something that would one day become the Internet. We're more interested in the very early social aspects and day-to-day operations of the lab, and how the Arpanet's future was envisioned in those days. 
 
We'd also like to be sure we're portraying everyone involved fairly and accurately, and we want to make sure we get the facts straight, as well as doing justice to the unique characters of the real people behind the story.


These are some of the points we're wondering about; if you could answer any of these, that'd be great:

 
How was Arpanet viewed/seen *at the time*? How did it fit in the context of the era? What was its future envisioned to be?
 
What kinds of tests would be run on the Arpanet on a daily basis, i.e. what would be a typical day in the lab? And who would be in charge of performing what kind of test? What would happen in the lab other than tests?
 
What were some of the first things it was actually used for other than testing the capabilities of the network? When did it begin to perform those duties? 
 
How did people react to its potential social aspects? Were they even considered at the time, or were they overshadowed by its potential as a scientific/knowledge-sharing system? 
 
What did one of the old packets actually look like? We haven't been able to do much except extrapolate from modern packets. 
 
What were some common problems that happened during the early days of testing? Other than the famous Login error. 
 
Was the system ever shut down at night? At which point did they stop doing that, and what factored into that decision? At what point did the system become too important and decentralized to shut down *ever*?
 
Had the ARPANET become personified in the manner described, what advice do you think you might have given it, at various stages of its development? 
 
It's been said that there are many fathers and mothers of the 'net. Are there any mothers that you might consider especially noteworthy in the early days?
 
What was the initial reaction to the first non-academic uses of the network? Any steps that were seen as wrong turns? Any that were seen as wrong turns at the time but worked out for the best eventually?
 

Please feel free to answer them in any order, or to leave out any that are too obvious, too time-consuming or just unanswerable. 
 
The story itself, for anyone interested, is here: http://forum.ultima-java.com/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=1353 It's a lot to read, though, and if you don't have much time, this chapter would probably be a good introduction to the characters and concept: http://forum.ultima-java.com/viewtopic.php?p=29299#p29299 Don't feel obligated to look at it, though; I'm not trying to hype it or anything.

 
Thanking you in advance for your time, 
Sytel
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