The Internet Hall of Fame is an honorary

lifetime achievement award Lifetime achievement awards are awarded by various organizations, to recognize contributions over the whole of a career, rather than or in addition to single contributions. Such awards, and organizations presenting them, include: A * A.C. ...

administered by the

Internet Society The Internet Society (ISOC) is an American nonprofit advocacy organization founded in 1992 with local chapters around the world. Its mission is "to promote the open development, evolution, and use of the Internet for the benefit of all people ...

(ISOC) in recognition of individuals who have made significant contributions to the development and advancement of the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...

.About page
Internet Hall of Fame website. Last accessed April 24, 2012

Overview

The Internet Hall of Fame was established in 2012, on the 20th anniversary of ISOC. Its stated purpose is to "publicly recognize a distinguished and select group of visionaries, leaders and luminaries who have made significant contributions to the development and advancement of the global Internet". Nominations may be made by anyone through an applications process. The Internet Hall of Fame Advisory Board is responsible for the final selection of inductees. The advisory board is made up of professionals in the Internet industry.

History

In 2012, there were 33 inaugural inductees into the Hall of Fame, announced on April 23, 2012, at the Internet Society's Global INET conference in

Geneva, Switzerland Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situa ...

. There were 32 inductees in 2013. They were announced on June 26, 2013, and the induction ceremony was held on August 3, 2013, in

Berlin, Germany Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. The ceremony was originally to be held in

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

, but the venue was changed due to the ongoing government protests in Turkey. The class of 2014 inducted 24 people. They were announced at an event in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

. There were no inductees in 2015 or 2016, while the ISOC worked to create an Advisory Board to provide leadership on the program's direction. This Advisory Board would be responsible for the selection of the inductees going forward. On September 18, 2017, the

gathered to honor the fourth class of Internet Hall of Fame Inductees at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

, where nearly 50 years ago, the first electronic message was sent over the Internet's predecessor, the

ARPANET The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was the first wide-area packet-switched network with distributed control and one of the first networks to implement the TCP/IP protocol suite. Both technologies became the technical fou ...

. On September 27, 2019, 11 new members were inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in a ceremony in San Jose, Costa Rica. The inductees included Larry Irving, the first African-American to be inducted. In February 2021, the Internet Hall of Fame announced that nominations were open for 2021 inductees until April 23, 2021, which was later extended to May 7, 2021.

Inductees

From 2012 to 2017, inductees were considered in three categories: * Pioneers: "Individuals who were instrumental in the early design and development of the Internet." * Global Connectors: "Individuals from around the world who have made significant contributions to the global growth and use of the Internet." * Innovators: "Individuals who made outstanding technological, commercial, or policy advances and helped to expand the Internet's reach." An asterisk (*) indicates a posthumous recipient. In 2019, inductees were not assigned categories.

Pioneers

2012 * Paul Baran^* *

Vint Cerf Vinton Gray Cerf (; born June 23, 1943) is an American Internet pioneer and is recognized as one of " the fathers of the Internet", sharing this title with TCP/IP co-developer Bob Kahn. He has received honorary degrees and awards that include ...

* Danny Cohen *

Steve Crocker Stephen D. Crocker (born October 15, 1944) is the inventor of the Request for Comments series, authoring the first RFC and many more. He attended Van Nuys High School, as did Vint Cerf and Jon Postel. Crocker received his bachelor's degree (1 ...

Donald Davies Donald Watts Davies, (7 June 1924 – 28 May 2000) was a Welsh computer scientist who was employed at the UK National Physical Laboratory (NPL). In 1965 he conceived of packet switching, which is today the dominant basis for data communic ...

^* *

Elizabeth J. Feinler Elizabeth Jocelyn "Jake" Feinler (born March 2, 1931) is an American information scientist. From 1972 until 1989 she was director of the Network Information Systems Center at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI International). Her group operate ...

* Charles Herzfeld^* * Robert Kahn * Peter Kirstein^* *

Leonard Kleinrock Leonard Kleinrock (born June 13, 1934) is an American computer scientist and a long-tenured professor at UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. In the early 1960s, Kleinrock pioneered the application of queueing theor ...

* John Klensin *

Jon Postel Jonathan Bruce Postel (; August 6, 1943 – October 16, 1998) was an American computer scientist who made many significant contributions to the development of the Internet, particularly with respect to standards. He is known principally for bein ...

^* *

Louis Pouzin Louis Pouzin (April 20, 1931 in Chantenay-Saint-Imbert, Nièvre, France) is a French computer scientist. He designed an early packet communications network, CYCLADES. This network was the first actual implementation of the pure datagram model, ...

* Lawrence Roberts 2013 * David Clark *

David Farber David J. Farber (born April 17, 1934) is a professor of computer science, noted for his major contributions to programming languages and computer networking. He is currently the Distinguished Professor and Co-Director of Cyber Civilization R ...

Howard Frank Sir Howard George Frank, 1st Baronet, (10 November 1871 – 10 January 1932) was an English estate agent and public servant. He was a co-founder of Knight Frank. Frank was born in Blackhurst, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, the son of Frederick Frank ...

^* *

Kanchana Kanchanasut Kanchana Kanchanasut (กาญจนา กาญจนาสุต) is a Thai computer science professor at the Asian Institute of Technology who became the first Thai person to use email. She hosted the first server in Thailand connected to t ...

J.C.R. Licklider Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider (; March 11, 1915 – June 26, 1990), known simply as J. C. R. or "Lick", was an American psychologistMiller, G. A. (1991), "J. C. R. Licklider, psychologist", ''Journal of the Acoustical Society of A ...

^* *

Bob Metcalfe Robert Melancton Metcalfe (born April 7, 1946) is an engineer and entrepreneur from the United States who helped pioneer the Internet starting in 1970. He co-invented Ethernet, co-founded 3Com and formulated Metcalfe's law, which describes the e ...

* Jun Murai * Kees Neggers * Nii Quaynor *

Glenn Ricart Glenn Ricart is a computer scientist. He was influential in the development of the Internet (ARPANET) going back to 1969 and early implementation of the TCP/IP protocol. Since then he has been active in technology and business as well as donat ...

* Robert Taylor *

Stephen Wolff Stephen South Wolff is one of the many fathers of the Internet. He is mainly credited with turning the Internet from a government project into something that proved to have scholarly and commercial interest for the rest of the world. Dr. Wolff ...

* Werner Zorn 2014 *

Douglas Engelbart Douglas Carl Engelbart (January 30, 1925 – July 2, 2013) was an American engineer and inventor, and an early computer and Internet pioneer. He is best known for his work on founding the field of human–computer interaction, particularl ...

^* * Susan Estrada * Frank Heart^* * Dennis Jennings * Rolf Nordhagen^* * Radia Perlman

Global connectors

2012 * Randy Bush *

Kilnam Chon Kilnam Chon (Hangul: 전길남; born 3 January 1943) is a South Korean computer scientist. As a result of his contributions, South Korea became the second country in the world to have the IPv4 network (the Internet), after the United States. Born ...

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic ...

* Nancy Hafkin *

Geoff Huston Geoffrey Angier Huston (born November 8, 1957) is a retired American professional basketball player. He was a point guard for the New York Knicks, Dallas Mavericks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers. Collegiat ...

Brewster Kahle Brewster Lurton Kahle ( ; born October 21, 1960)Alexa Internet profile
, via juggle.com. accessed Novemb ...

* Daniel Karrenberg * Toru Takahashi *

Tan Tin Wee Tan Tin Wee (born 1962) is a Singapore, Singaporean Bioinformatics, bioinformatician and university lecturer. He is an associate professor at the Department of Biochemistry at the National University of Singapore and Chief Executive of the Natio ...

2013 * Karen Banks * Gihan Dias *

Anriette Esterhuysen Anriette Esterhuysen is a human rights defender and computer networking pioneer from South Africa. She has pioneered the use of Internet and Communications Technologies (ICTs) to promote social justice in South Africa and throughout the world, ...

* Steve Goldstein * Teus Hagen *

Ida Holz Ida Holz Bard (born 30 January 1935) is a Uruguayan engineer, computer scientist, professor, and researcher, known as a pioneer in the field of computing and the Internet. Biography Coming from a Jewish family of Polish origin, from age 18 to 22 ...

* Qiheng Hu * Haruhisa Ishida^* * Barry Leiner^* * George Sadowsky 2014 * Dai Davies * Demi Getschko * Masaki Hirabaru^* * Erik Huizer * Steve Huter * Abhaya Induruwa *

Dorcas Muthoni Dorcas Muthoni (born 1979, Nyeri) is a Kenyan entrepreneur, computer scientist and founder of OPENWORLD LTD, a software consulting company she started at the age of 24. Through her work as an entrepreneur and computer scientist, Muthoni seeks to ...

Mahabir Pun Mahabir Pun ( ne, महावीर पुन, ) is a Nepali researcher, teacher, social entrepreneur and an activist known for his work in applying wireless technologies to develop remote areas of the Himalayas, also known as the Nepal Wireless ...

Srinivasan Ramani Srinivasa (Sanskrit ) is a Hindus, Hindu name. The term Srinivasa is Vaishnavism, Vaishnava in origin, the combination of two Sanskrit words, ''Shri'' (श्री) and ''nivasa'' (निवास). It is a name for males in India as well as a fa ...

* Michael Roberts * Ben Segal *

Douglas Van Houweling Doug Van Houweling is a professor at the University of Michigan School of Information. He is best known for his contributions to the development and deployment of the Internet. For these accomplishments, he was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fa ...

2017 * Nabil Bukhalid *

Ira Fuchs Ira H. Fuchs (born December 1948) is an internationally known authority on technology innovation in higher education and is a co-founder of BITNET, an important precursor of the Internet. He wainductedinto the Internet Hall of Fame in 2017. Si ...

* Shigeki Goto *

Mike Jensen Mike Lindemann Jensen (; born 19 February 1988) is a Danish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Danish 1st Division club HB Køge. He has also been capped by Denmark. Jensen joined the Brøndby youth academy at age 13, and ...

* Ermanno Pietrosemoli * Tadao Takahashi * Florencio Utreras * Jianping Wu

Innovators

2012 *

Mitchell Baker Winifred Mitchell Baker (born 1957) is the Executive Chairwoman and CEO of the Mozilla Foundation and of Mozilla Corporation, a subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation that coordinates development of the open source Mozilla Internet applicati ...

Tim Berners-Lee Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee (born 8 June 1955), also known as TimBL, is an English computer scientist best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web. He is a Professorial Fellow of Computer Science at the University of Oxford and a profes ...

* Robert Cailliau * Van Jacobson *

Lawrence Landweber Lawrence Hugh Landweber is John P. Morgridge Professor Emeritus of computer science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He received his bachelor's degree in 1963 at Brooklyn College and his Ph.D. at Purdue University in 1967. His doct ...

Paul Mockapetris Paul V. Mockapetris (born 1948 in Boston, Massachusetts, US) is an American computer scientist and Internet pioneer, who invented the Internet Domain Name System (DNS). Education Mockapetris graduated from the Boston Latin School in 1966, rece ...

Craig Newmark Craig Alexander Newmark (born December 6, 1952) is an American internet entrepreneur and philanthropist best known as the founder of the classifieds website Craigslist. Prior to founding Craigslist, he worked as a computer programmer for compani ...

Raymond Tomlinson Raymond Samuel Tomlinson (April 23, 1941 – March 5, 2016) was an American computer programmer who implemented the first email program on the ARPANET system, the precursor to the Internet, in 1971; It was the first system able to send mail be ...

Linus Torvalds Linus Benedict Torvalds ( , ; born 28 December 1969) is a Finnish software engineer who is the creator and, historically, the lead developer of the Linux kernel, used by Linux distributions and other operating systems such as Android. He also ...

* Philip Zimmermann 2013 *

Marc Andreessen Marc Lowell Andreessen ( ; born July 9, 1971) is an American entrepreneur, investor, and software engineer. He is the co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used web browser; co-founder of Netscape; and co-founder and general partner of Silico ...

John Perry Barlow John Perry Barlow (October 3, 1947February 7, 2018) was an American poet, essayist, cattle rancher, and cyberlibertarian political activist who had been associated with both the Democratic and Republican parties. He was also a lyricist for th ...

^* * François Flückiger * Stephen Kent * Anne-Marie Eklund Löwinder * Henning Schulzrinne *

Richard Stallman Richard Matthew Stallman (; born March 16, 1953), also known by his initials, rms, is an American free software movement activist and programmer. He campaigns for software to be distributed in such a manner that its users have the freedom to ...

Aaron Swartz Aaron Hillel Swartz (November 8, 1986 – January 11, 2013) was an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, writer, political organizer, and Internet hacktivist. A prolific programmer, Swartz helped develop the web feed format RSS, the tech ...

^* *

Jimmy Wales Jimmy Donal Wales (born August 7, 1966), also known on Wikipedia by the pseudonym Jimbo, is an American-British Internet entrepreneur, webmaster, and former financial trader. He is a co-founder of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipe ...

2014 *

Eric Allman Eric Paul Allman (born September 2, 1955) is an American computer programmer who developed sendmail and its precursor delivermail in the late 1970s and early 1980s at UC Berkeley. In 1998, Allman and Greg Olson co-founded the company Sendmail, I ...

* Eric Bina *

Karlheinz Brandenburg Karlheinz Brandenburg (born 20 June 1954) is a German electrical engineer and mathematician. Together with Ernst Eberlein, Heinz Gerhäuser (former Institutes Director of Fraunhofer IIS), Bernhard Grill, Jürgen Herre and Harald Popp (all Fraunh ...

John Cioffi John Mathew Cioffi (born November 7, 1956) is an American electrical engineer, educator and inventor who has made contributions in telecommunication system theory, specifically in coding theory and information theory. Best known as "the father of ...

* Hualin Qian *

Paul Vixie Paul Vixie is an American computer scientist whose technical contributions include Domain Name System (DNS) protocol design and procedure, mechanisms to achieve operational robustness of DNS implementations, and significant contributions to open ...

2017 * Jaap Akkerhuis * Yvonne Marie Andrés *

Alan Emtage Alan Emtage (born November 27, 1964) is a Bajan- Canadian computer scientist who conceived and implemented the first version of Archie, a pre- Web Internet search engine for locating material in public FTP archives. It is widely considered the ...

* Ed Krol * Tracy LaQuey Parker * Craig Partridge

Inductees since 2019

2019 * Adiel Akplogan * Kimberly Claffy * Douglas Comer *

Elise Gerich Elise or Elyse may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Elise, the unidentified person to whom Beethoven dedicated ''Für Elise'' * ''Elise'', a 1979 speculative fiction novel by Ken Grimwood * ''Élise ou la vraie vie'' (''Elise, or the Real Life' ...

* Larry Irving *

Dan Lynch Daniel Lynch (born June 21, 1962) is a former college and professional American football offensive guard; he attended Washington State University; he was inducted to their athletic Hall of Fame in 2006. Lynch went on to a career in the venture ca ...

* Jean Armour Polly * José Soriano * Michael Stanton * Klaas Wierenga * Suguru Yamaguchi^* 2021 * Carlos Afonso *

Rob Blokzijl Robert "Rob" Blokzijl (21 October 1943 – 1 December 2015) was a Dutch physicist and computer scientist at the National Institute for Subatomic Physics (NIKHEF), and an early internet pioneer. He was founding member and chairman of RIPE, the Rés ...

^* * Hans-Werner Braun * Frode Greisen * Jan Gruntorad * Saul Hahn *

Kim Hubbard Kim or KIM may refer to: Names * Kim (given name) * Kim (surname) ** Kim (Korean surname) *** Kim family (disambiguation), several dynasties **** Kim family (North Korea), the rulers of North Korea since Kim Il-sung in 1948 ** Kim, Vietnamese f ...

* Rafael (Lito) Ibarra * Xing Li * Yngvar G. Lundh^* * Dan Kaminsky^* * DaeYoung Kim * Kenneth J. Klingenstein * Alejandro Pisanty * Yakov Rekhter * Philip Smith *

Pål Spilling Pål Spilling (October 29, 1934 – January 16, 2018) was a Norwegian Internet pioneer and professor at the University of Oslo and the UNIK Graduate Center at Kjeller in Norway. He obtained his cand.real. degree in physics from the University of ...

^* * Liane Tarouco * Virginia Travers * George Varghese * Lixia Zhang

Advisory board

2012 * Lishan Adam *

Joi Ito is a Japanese entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He is a former director of the MIT Media Lab, former professor of the practice of media arts and sciences at MIT, and a former visiting professor of practice at the Harvard Law School. Ito has ...

* Mark Mahaney * Chris Anderson *

* Alejandro Pisanty *

Alex Corenthin Alex is a given name. It can refer to a shortened version of Alexander, Alexandra, Alexis. People Multiple *Alex Brown (disambiguation), multiple people *Alex Gordon (disambiguation), multiple people * Alex Harris (disambiguation), multiple peo ...

Aleks Krotoski Aleksandra Krystyna Theresa Krotoski (born October 22, 1974) is a broadcaster, journalist and social psychologist based in the United States who writes and broadcasts about technology and interactivity. She currently presents the BBC Radio 4 ser ...

Lee Rainie Lee may refer to: Name Given name * Lee (given name), a given name in English Surname * Chinese surnames romanized as Li or Lee: ** Li (surname 李) or Lee (Hanzi ), a common Chinese surname ** Li (surname 利) or Lee (Hanzi ), a Chinese s ...

* William H. Dutton * Loïc Le Meur 2013 and 2014 * Lishan Adam * Raúl Echeberría * C.L. Liu * Hessa Al Jaber * Hartmut Glaser * Alejandro Pisanty * Grace Chng *

Katie Hafner Katie Hafner (born December 5, 1957) is an American journalist and author. She is a former staff member of '' The New York Times'', and has written articles about technology, healthcare, and society, and books about the computer underground, the ...

* Oliver Popov *

* William H. Dutton *

* Andreu Veà Baró 2017 * Randy Bush * Steven Huter *

* Abhaya Induruwa *

* Gihan Dias * Dennis Jennings * Lawrence Roberts *

* John Klensin * George Sadowsky * Susan Estrada *

* Demi Getschko *

* Nancy Hafkin * Radia Perlman