[ih] Early use of the "Internet" term (1977)

Jorge Amodio jmamodio at gmail.com
Thu Jun 13 12:57:05 PDT 2019


Hi There,

I've got involved for some time now with the San Antonio Museum of Science
and Technology, and I'm sort of becoming a Master Curator on a program I'm
creating to catalog, organize and design several exhibits of vintage
computers particularly from Datapoint Corporation, earlier known as
Computer Terminal Corporation, founded in San Antonio, TX in 1968.

There are some interesting stories around CTC & Datapoint, where actually
one of the first personal computers was designed and manufactured, 10+
years earlier than the IBM PC.

While working on basic research, I stumbled onto two documents from 1977
where the INTERNET term was used.

First document is an internal Datapoint Interoffice Memo dated Nov 1, 1977.
Subject of the document was "INTERNET Press Announcement" and part of the
text says "INTERNET will be officially announced in conjunction with the
annual shareholders meeting December 1, 1977 at the Marriott Essex House..."

The second document is Morgan Stanley Progress Report for Datapoint
Corporation (DPT-NYSE) which on part of the text includes "On December 1,
1977, we expect the Company will announce a major new system-oriented,
primarily software-based product, probably dubbed "Internet." As we
understand it, Internet is a package of system programs which utilizes a
microprocessor-controlled coaxial cable as a means to tie together the
individual independent operations of a large number of intelligent
terminals, file processors, and/or application-dedicated satellite
processors...."

Does anybody know about it and has any further references ?

If somebody is interested in a copy of the documents I've both scanned on
pdf format.

Thanks & Regards
Jorge
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