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

[Brian E Carpenter]

On 19/03/2013 14:26, Dave Crocker wrote:
> 
> 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]

Absolutely.

> 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.  

Yes, but Robert C was working directly with TBL in 1989/90, both of them
moonlighting in fact as the Web was not what either of them was paid
to do. It's a good thing that my group wasn't sophisticated enough
to be running a firewall then, or I'm sure we'd have blocked all
that unknown Port 80 traffic for good and all.

> 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.

Yes. Not good material for prize-giving or journalism.

   Brian

> 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
>