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

[John Day]

I haven’t looked at it in detail, but it would have to be at least in the 1974-75 timeframe with the publication of the Cerf-Kahn paper and the INWG documents. Just looking at the ones I have electronically, The INWG 96 July 1975 is titled Internetwork end-to-end protocol, INWG 39 uses the term. The document I have is not dated but it says it is an attempt to capture the discussion of a June 1973 meeting in New York.

As for early things that could be a PC:  In 1970, there was something called an IMLAC that had a pedestal to the right on top of which was a desktop and a screen. The pedestal held the computer and did graphics.  We had one for running TNLS, the remote form of NLS and it had a mouse and keyset. (A friend has the mouse.) Around 1990, I explained it to a reporter as “a PC with a mouse accessing the web.” ;-)  (NLS was a hypertext system.)

In 1976, our group had put Unix on the Net the previous year and then stripped it down to run on a LSI-11 (a PDP-11 on a single board) which was in a pedestal with a floppy drive and a plasma screen with touch. It could connect out to the Net through our Unix system. We used it for a land-use management system for the 6 counties around Chicago and made several of them for the DoD, which were installed at CINCPAC and in the DC area.

I am sure there are other early examples of “PC-like” things. The limitation was hardware, so that one had a computer to one’s self.  By 1971 or 2, I had a dial-up TI Silent 700 at home (more a terminal than what I would call PC-like) and I only lived 5 blocks from the office. ;-)

Take care,
John

> On Jun 13, 2019, at 15:57, Jorge Amodio <jmamodio at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 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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