[ih] Congratulations! -- the "Nobel Prize for engineering"!

[Dave Crocker]

On 3/19/2013 1:24 AM, Brian E Carpenter wrote:
> However, I am a little miffed that Robert Cailliau missed out.
> He really was in at the invention of HTTP and HTML, and in fact,
> I'm pretty sure it was Robert who introduced Tim to the concept
> of markup languages, in 1980 (when Robert worked for me and
> Tim was a contract programmer at CERN).


We give credit to the people who invent 'components' like the 
transistor.  But a consistent focus is on the people who turn components 
into an integrated, working system that is directly usable (and 
preferable one that gets used).  I see these as requiring very 
different, essential, and complementary talents.[1]

At the level of "X introduced Y to the concept of Z", the Internet 
probably has some thousands of people who deserve credit, certainly 
hundreds.  Each of those was important -- some with more long-term 
effect than others, of course, because some of the recipients of these 
pointers managed to figure out how synthesize combinations into winning, 
integrated systems.[2]

But the aggregate of these mark the pervasively collaborative tone of 
the Arpanet/Internet's development.




d/

[1] They aren't mutually exclusive.  The Wright Brothers figured out a 
number of "component" solutions for flight that had been eluding others; 
and of course, they synthesized it into a maneuverable airplane.

[2] Ethernet is another example:
     http://techpresident.com/news/22670/where-did-internet-really-come

-- 
  Dave Crocker
  Brandenburg InternetWorking
  bbiw.net