[ih] Historical documents/books online ? (was: Re: distributed network control: Usenet)

[Toerless Eckert]

Btw: is there any organized efforts to help make historically relevant
work available ? For example such books as "The Matrix" and others
mention here ?

I talked to someone whose book is still in print at Springer, and he already
made the upfront deal to forego royalties, and in return Springer granted the
right for him to put up the PDF for free on the Internet. He also said
that  once a book goes out of print, Authors typically do get permission
from their publishers to make such online version freely available.

Given how many of the historical books of interest in the contex of this
list have authors who are still around do something like emailing
to their publisher and getting a BDF version together, it would be
great if there was a site summarzing such guidance and providing
useful pointers, such as sites where such old book PDF could be
posted (e.g.: i wouldn't know if arxiv would be appropriate for example),
because obviously you wouldn't want books on some non-long-lived
web page like an authors personal one...

I fear that special interests books are much more easy vanishing han
being preserved if this doesn't get organized...

Cheers
    Toerless

On Thu, Jul 22, 2021 at 11:37:00AM -0400, Miles Fidelman wrote:
> Toerless Eckert wrote:
> > Brian
> > 
> > Does this fit into the list ?
> > Its the only one i came across in Germany back then and found it pretty good:
> > 
> > The Matrix: Computer Networks and Conferencing Systems Worldwide, John Quarterman, 1989, Digital Press
> > 
> An excellent map of the early networks.  If you hadn't mentioned it, I was
> about to.
> 
> Miles
> 
> 
> 
> > Comparing the titles and only knowin the matrix, i think your reading list is
> > going more into in specific areas, whereas the Matrix might be a more beginners overview.
> > 
> > Cheers
> >      Toerless
> > 
> > On Thu, Jul 22, 2021 at 08:57:20AM +1200, Brian E Carpenter via Internet-history wrote:
> > > On 22-Jul-21 03:50, Miles Fidelman via Internet-history wrote:
> > > > Well... yes.  I wasn't quite sure if you were alluding to BBN - I kind
> > > > of thought you might have been referring to either DoD or the US Government.
> > > > 
> > > > Still - what about the various component networks - like NASA SPAN, and
> > > > the European nets?  Or did those come later?
> > > SPAN, and the US version of HEPNET, were DECnet based (Phase IV, and migrating to Phase V == DECnet/CLNP as time went on). The European TCP/IP
> > > scene was pretty fragmented, that's why Carl Malamud's book is such a treasure, but there are at least four references, starting with Carl:
> > > 
> > > 1. Exploring the Internet: A Technical Travelogue, Carl Malamud, Prentice
> > > Hall, 1992.
> > > 
> > > 2. A History of International Research Networking, Howard Davies and Beatrice Bressan (editors), Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. (A somewhat mistitled book, since it describes only the European scene, with much emphasis on OSI.)
> > > 
> > > 3. The “hidden” history of European Research Networking, or “The sad saga of the obscurantism of some European networking leaders and their influence on European Research Networks”, Olivier H. Martin, 2012, available at http://www.ictconsulting.ch/papers.html.
> > > (Highly recommended!)
> > > 
> > > 4. Network Geeks – How They Built the Internet, Brian E. Carpenter, 2013, Springer, ISBN: 978-1-4471-5024-4. (Badly titled by the publisher and not so highly recommended, but Chapters 7 & 8 are relevant.)
> > > 
> > >     Brian
> > > 
> > > > Miles
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > Jack Haverty via Internet-history wrote:
> > > > > Weren't those all managed by the same organization or its contractor,
> > > > > in the early 80s before EGP?
> > > > > 
> > > > > I remember that at one point BBN was the contractor managing CSNET
> > > > > (Dick Edmiston).   NSFNET started in mid-80s and IIRC was thoroughly
> > > > > dominated by Dave Mills' Fuzzballs.  Our experiences when Dave was
> > > > > experimenting with connecting his Fuzzies to the core Internet was a
> > > > > primary motivator for EGP, which made it possible for Fuzzies to
> > > > > connect and do their thing without impacting the core.   BBN
> > > had some
> > > > > managerial role in NSFNET too IIRC.
> > > > > 
> > > > > After EGP, and probably more importantly BGP, the world of
> > > > > Internetworking changed.
> > > > > 
> > > > > /Jack
> > > > > 
> > > > > 
> > > > > On 7/20/21 4:03 PM, Miles Fidelman via Internet-history wrote:
> > > > > > > Jack Haverty wrote:
> > > > > > > > What I was referencing was a non-technical design decision -- the
> > > > > > > > notion
> > > > > > > > that there shouldn't be any single person, corporation, or
> > > > > > > > organization
> > > > > > > > "managing the network".   The ARPANET, and IIRC all other
> > > networks of
> > > > > > > > the day, were under a single organization's control.
> > > > > > Really?  NASA SPAN, DOEnet, then CSnet, and then the Supercomputer
> > > > > > Center Networks, and the NSFnet regionals & Backbone?
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > 
> > > > > 
> > > > 
> > > -- 
> > > Internet-history mailing list
> > > Internet-history at elists.isoc.org
> > > https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-history
> 
> 
> -- 
> In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
> In practice, there is.  .... Yogi Berra
> 
> Theory is when you know everything but nothing works.
> Practice is when everything works but no one knows why.
> In our lab, theory and practice are combined:
> nothing works and no one knows why.  ... unknown
> 

-- 
---
tte at cs.fau.de