[ih] IETF relevance (was Memories of Flag Day?)

[Greg Skinner]

I found an email exchange over IBM’s VNET <https://web.archive.org/web/20000823132603/http://www.edh.net/net_bakeoff.txt> indirectly via Anne & Lynn Wheeler’s collection <https://garlic.com/~lynn/index.html> between several IBM staff (including Jim Gray and Edson Hendricks <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edson_Hendricks>) and Jerry Saltzer that took place from 1980-1981.  The exchange refers to events that took place a few years earlier that indicate they had knowledge of the ARPAnet.  They knew about the Internet, such as it was, at the time of the exchange, but I’m not sure if they were privy to any INWG discussions.

—gregbo

> On Aug 30, 2023, at 8:32 PM, Charles H. Sauer via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> 
> I joined IBM Research at Yorktown in March 1975, in a group that focused on analyzing network performance. I inquired about Arpanet access and was strongly discouraged. IBM Almaden Research Almaden was established in the 1980s, IIRC, but it is plausible that people at the predecessor IBM Research facility in San Jose would have gotten involved in TCP.
> 
>> On Aug 30, 2023, at 9:36 PM, Steve Crocker via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
>> 
>> IBM made a tentative attempt to get involved in the Arpanet sometime around 1972 or 1973.  IIRC, Doug McKay visited the office and said he had a proposal but he couldn’t show it to us.  Nothing came of it, but they were clearly trying to find a way in.  I think this was from Yorktown Research, but I may be remembering incorrectly.
>> 
>> Steve
>> 
>> Sent from my iPhone
>> 
>>> On Aug 30, 2023, at 10:30 PM, vinton cerf via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>> actually I thought Tony <help me out here, last name starts with "W" maybe>
>>> at DEC was involved in INWG.
>>> 
>>> and could IBM Almaden have gotten involved in TCP?
>>> 
>>> v
>>> rg/mailman/listinfo/internet-history
> 
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