by Matthew Lyon
Taylor, Robert. Interview by William Aspray. Charles Babbage Institute, DARPA/IPTO Oral History Collection, University of Minnesota Center for the History of Information Processing, Minneapolis, Minn., 28 February 1989.
U.S. Postal Service. “Electronic Message Systems for the U.S. Postal Service.” Report of the U.S.P.S. Support Panel, Committee on Telecommunications, Washington, D.C., January 1977.
Walden, David C. “Experiences in Building, Operating, and Using the ARPA Network.” Paper presented at the Second USA-Japan Computer Conference, Tokyo, Japan, August 1975.
Walden, David. Interview by Judy O’Neill. Charles Babbage Institute, DARPA/IPTO Oral History Collection, University of Minnesota Center for the History of Information Processing, Minneapolis, Minn., 6 February 1990.
Walker, Stephen T. “Completion Report: ARPA Network Development.” Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Information Processing Techniques Office, Washington, D.C., 4 January 1978.
Weik, Martin H. “A Third Survey of Domestic Electronic Digital Computing Systems.” Ballistic Research Laboratories, report no. 1115, March 1961.
White, Jim. “Proposed Mail Protocol.” Request for Comments 524. Stanford Research Institute, Menlo Park, Calif., 13 June 1973.
Zimmermann, H., and M. Elie. “Proposed Standard Host-Host Protocol for Heterogeneous Computer Networks: Transport Protocol.” Notes of the International Network Working Group 43, December 1973.
Electronic Archives
Charles Babbage Institute, Center for the History of Information Processing, University of Minnesota. Large archival collection relating to the history of computing. More information can be obtained via the CBI Web site at http://cbi.itdean.umn.edu/cbi/welcome.html or via e-mail addressed to [email protected].
Computer Museum, Boston, Massachusetts. Large collection relating to the history of computing, including the archives of the Message Group concerning the early development of e-mail. The archive is available via the homepage at http://www.tcm.org/msgroup.
Information Sciences Institute, University of Southern California. Collection includes up-to-date indexes and tests of Internet standards, protocols, Requests for Comments (RFCs), and various other technical notes available via the ISI Web site: http://www.isi.edu. Some of the earlier RFCs are not available electronically, but are archived off-line in meticulous fashion by RFC editor Jon Postel. A searchable archive is maintained at http://info.internet.isi.edu:80/in-notes/rfc.
Ohio State University, Department of Computer and Information Science. The CIS Web Server offers access to RFCs and various other technical and historical documents related to the Internet via http://www.cis. ohio-state.edu:80/hypertext/information/rfc.html.
Acknowledgments
This book grew out of an idea that originated with engineers at Bolt Beranek and Newman. Memories were growing fuzzy in late 1993, when we first started thinking about doing a book, and Frank Heart and others were interested in having BBN’s considerable role in the creation of the original ARPANET recorded. Not only did the company open its archives to us and cooperate in every way but it helped fund the project as well, while agreeing to exercise no control over the content of the book. Marian Bremer, then BBN’s head librarian, made the initial phone call that led to the book. Cary Lu and John Markoff urged us to take on the project.
Helen Samuels and the folks at MIT archives were immensely helpful, as was Kevin Corbitt, assistant archivist at the Charles Babbage Institute, Center for the History of Information Processing, at the University of Minnesota. We are grateful to John Day, Larry Roberts, Al Vezza, and John Shoch for digging around in old boxes for us. Deborah Melone and Bob Menk sent photographs and archives from BBN. Kevin Kelly and Martha Baer at Wired magazine got us focused on the history of e-mail. Noel Chiappa, good-natured tutor, spent hours on the telephone explaining, among other technical points, how routing tables and RFNMs work.
The following people allowed us to interview them at length: Wes Clark, Vint Cerf, Bob Kahn, Severo Ornstein, Bob Taylor, Larry Roberts, Jon Postel, Frank Heart, Alex McKenzie, Dave Walden, Ben Barker, Donald Davies, Paul Baran, Len Kleinrock, Steve Lukasik, Steve Crocker, and Bob Metcalfe. Louise Licklider, Bill McGill, John Swets, and Karl Kryter shared their memories of J. C. R. Licklider with us, and Mitch Waldrop helped fill in some blanks. Phil Patton entrusted us with his copy of the Barber Associates study, for which we are grateful. Brian Reid, Gary Chapman, Kevin Buckley, Dave Farber, and Colonel Clair Shirey let us pick their brains on various relevant topics. Marsha Longshore of IEEE sent technical articles our way, and Earl Swartzlander lent us his copies of the IEEE computer history annals. Steve Wolff helped us understand the often labyrinthine events that took place in the 1980s, particularly concerning NSF’s role in the development of the Internet.
The manuscript was read in whole or in part in various stages of completion by Vint Cerf, Lyman Chapin, Steve Crocker, Peter Denning, Frank Heart, Bob Kahn, John Kelley, Larry Landweber, Steven Levy, Hank Long, Paul McJones, Alex McKenzie, Peter Preuss, Larry Roberts, Einar Stefferud, Bob Taylor, John Vittal, Dave Walden, and Susan Zacharias. Everett Hafner, perfectionist and workhorse, kept us honest. The manuscript benefited tremendously from the keen mind and careful pen of Richard Lyon. Responsibility for errors, of course, rests with us.
Jon Coifman, our ace research assistant, helped immensely with the final stages of the manuscript preparation, and Andrea Perry was a careful proofreader. Julian Darley helped type in changes. Denise Bugg transcribed many tapes. Pete Lewis saved the day with his Wacom Pen Tablet. Sigrid Cerf supplied us with colorful stories and much sage advice. Matt Pallakoff, who wrote Retrieve It!, helped shave hours off our work weeks. And thanks to John Aielli, who knows why.
Zoë Mark Lyon, though busy with her own book, took time out of her schedule every single day to bolster our spirits and make us laugh. Denny Lyon, Amy Goodwin, Kelly McRee, Ellen Lyon, and Jeremy Lyon gamely took on extra child care. Sherry Turkle, Sarah Hafner, Teresa Carpenter, Terry Evers, Robert Wallich, Tony Bianco, and Carol Flake lent a sympathetic ear. Ladd Hanson and Mark McFarland helped with technical troubles. George Hackett and Bob Berdahl were long-suffering bosses, against their better judgment. Ann Walther, Lindsey Lane, and Tom Ferguson (keeper of the postage meter) came to the rescue more than once. Paulina Borsook offered her customary invaluable insights.
During our travels, Chris Paine, Katherine Magraw, Holly Myers, Kirk Neely, Lisa Van Dusen, Candace Thille, Julie Graham, Debbie Yager, Katherine and Irving Gottsegen, Jane and Frank Heart, Barry Muhlfelder, Jane Anderson, and Eric Ponteri put a roof over our heads.
As usual, literary agents John Brockman and Katinka Matson knew there was a book there. Bob Bender, our marvelous editor at Simon & Schuster, knew what that book should be. His wondrous assistant, Johanna Li, never let us down.
—Katie Hafner
katieh@ zilker.net
—Matthew Lyon
m_lyon@ utxvms.cc.utexas.edu
Index
Abramson, Norm
acoustics
airborne
BBN work in
see also psychoacoustics
Adams, Sherman
Adventure
aerospace industry
Aiken, Howard
air-defense early-warning system
Air Force, U.S.
air traffic control
algorithms
ALOHANET
alphanumerical displays
Alto Aloha Network
Alto personal computer
Andreessen, Marc
AN/FSQ32XD1A, see Q-32
animal research
ANSWER command
Archimedes
architecture
Army, U.S.
ARPA (Advanced Research Projects
Agency)
armed services resistance to
basic research and special projects
orientation of
behavioral sciences division at
budget of
Command and Control Research division
of
dance automation project of
downgrading of
early redefinition of goals in
formation of
freewheeling style of
Information Processing Techniques
Office (IPTO) of
Licklider at
original research direction of
staffing of
Taylor at
see also DARPA
ARPANET:
Baran’s theoretical work and
centralized approach to
cost factors in
data flow in
Davies’ theoretical work and
deadlines for setting up
design and development of, technology
for
duplication and isolation of work
avoided with
early advocacy of
early uses of
efforts to begin construction and
trials of
emphasis on openness in
expansion of
experiments with
first public demonstration of
first test of
full duplex transmission in
games on
host sites proposed for, see
also specific sites
interconnected links and nodes in
international network connections
to
as largest and most sophisticated in
the world
mass market for
memory buffer congestion problems
in
message blocks data transmission in
need for host computer eliminated
in
nuclear attack survivability and
packet-switching transmission in
periodic failures of
radio linkage of
redundancy levels in
remote maintenance and troubleshooting
of
response time and reliability in
routing procedures in
satellite linkage of
sharing of resources through
skepticism and hostility toward
software as
store-and-forward system of
subnetwork proposed for
telephone line transmission in
testing and analysis of
theories of Baran and Davies combined
in
topology of
transition to TCP/IP by
twentieth anniversary of
twenty-fifth anniversary of
volume and flow of data traffic in
ARPANET News,
Arthur D. Little
artificial intelligence (AI)
Associated Press (AP)
Association for Computing Machinery
AT&T (American Telephone and Telegraph
Company)
ARPANET takeover considered by
circuit maps of
as monopoly
network participation of
resistance to Baran network theory
by
@ sign
audio tapes
auditory nervous system
automated garbage collection
automatic database query
automatic phone dialers, see
also modems
Avery Fisher Hall (Philharmonic Hall)
Aviation Week,
Baran, Paul
background and education of
network design consultancy of
at RAND
struggle for acceptance of theories
by
technical reports and memos of
theoretical work on communications
networks by
bar codes
Barker, Ben
debugging skills of
host sites visited by
maintenance team of
BARRnet
Baruch, Jordan
BBN Report 1822
behavioral science research
Bell Laboratories
Bell System
Beranek, Leo
Berners-Lee, Tim
Betts, Austin W.
Bhushan, Abhay
BITNET (Because It’s Time Network)
Bobrow, Danny
Boggs, David
Bolt, Richard
Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN)
academic environment of
acoustical work of
artificial intelligence work at
buildings and offices of
computer systems division of
computer technology focus of
consulting services of
corporate consciousness of
early computers purchased by
ebbing fortunes and problems of
education group at
founding of
government investigation of
growth of
Heart at, see Heart, Frank, at BBN
hiring philosophy of
Honeywell DDP-516s purchased by
Honeywell’s relations with
hospital computer project at
host site relations with
IMP contract awarded to
IMP design and construction by
IMP Number Five at
IMP proposal submitted by
IMP source code of
information sciences division of
Internet-related businesses of
Licklider at
Moulton Street complex of
Network Control Center (NCC) at
new 316 IMPs designed by
small size of
Systems and Technology Division of
Tenex group of
time-sharing service of
Boston Globe
brain, neural connections in
brain teasers
Braun, Wernher von
Braving the Elements (Merrill)
British Post Office
Bronk, Detlev W.
Bryan, Roland
B-17 bombers
B-24 bombers
Bunker-Ramo
Bureau of the Budget, U.S.
Burroughs B6700 computer
Burroughs Corporation
calculating machines
California, University of:
at Berkeley
at Irvine
at Los Angeles, see UCLA
at Santa Barbara (UCSB)
Carnegie-Mellon University (CMU)
Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at
Carter, Jimmy
Carterfone
Case Western Reserve University
casino gambling
CATENET (Concatenated Network)
Cave Research Foundation
CDNet
Cerf, Sigrid
Cerf,Vint
background and education of
hearing impairment of
international network connections
and
Kahn and
UCLA IMP experiment and
CERFnet (California Educational Research
Network)
CERN physics laboratory (Switzerland)
Chamber of Commerce, U.S.
Chen, Joyce
chess games
Clark, Wesley
subnetwork proposed by
Clarke, Arthur C.
Cohen, Danny
Colby, Kenneth
cold war
COMET
command and control systems
ARPA research in
commands
Commerce Department, U.S.
communications theory
Computer Corporation of America
(CCA)
computer jargon
Computer Museum
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
computer programming
advanced techniques of
assembly-language
&n
bsp; conversational
courses in
disparate languages of
early complexities of
educational
e-mail
machine-language
medical
natural-language
computers:
batch processing method and
“bursty” nature of data communication
by
coordinating commands of multiple
users of
cost of
crashes and down time of
digital transmission in
early manufacture of
early research and development of
educational applications of
as extensions of human intelligence
instructional aids and help menus of
interactive aspects of
interconnection of, see ARPANET;
Internet
life sciences application of
log-in procedures for
maintenance of
measuring devices connected to
memory capacity of
military uses of
operating systems of
potential transformation of society
by
size and compounds of
speed and reliability of
time-sharing access to
video display screens of
computer science
college courses in
conferences on
corporate divisions specializing in
fruition of collective effort in
professional organizations promoting
Computer Science Research Network
see CSNET
“Confessions of a Hearing-Impaired
Engineer” (Cerf)
Congress, U.S.
Conrades, George
Consumer Reports,
Control Data Corporation (CDC)
Convair
cooperating processes
Copley Plaza Hotel
Corbató, Fernando
Corporation for National Research
Initiative
Cosell, Bernie
development and debugging specialty
of
Crocker, Dave
Crocker, Steve
background and education of
RFCs started by
UCLA IMP experiment and
Crowther, Pat
Crowther, Will
game developed by
software effort directed by
CRT
CSNET (Computer Science Research
Network)
Curtis, Kent
cyberspace
Cyclades
CPYNET
Dalal, Yogen
Dallas Naval Air Station
DARPA (Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency)
network responsibilities divested by
