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Instead of having a single "inventor", the Internet was developed by many people over many years. The following are some Internet pioneers who contributed to its early and ongoing development. These include early theoretical foundations, specifying original protocols, and expansion beyond a research tool to wide deployment.


The pioneers


Claude Shannon

Claude Shannon (1916–2001) called the "father of modern
information theory Information theory is the scientific study of the quantification (science), quantification, computer data storage, storage, and telecommunication, communication of information. The field was originally established by the works of Harry Nyquist a ...
", published " A Mathematical Theory of Communication" in 1948. His paper gave a formal way of studying communication channels. It established fundamental limits on the efficiency of communication over noisy channels, and presented the challenge of finding families of codes to achieve capacity.


Vannevar Bush

Vannevar Bush (1890–1974) helped to establish a partnership between U.S. military, university research, and independent think tanks. He was appointed Chairman of the National Defense Research Committee in 1940 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, appointed Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development in 1941, and from 1946 to 1947, he served as chairman of the Joint Research and Development Board. Out of this would come DARPA, which in turn would lead to the ARPANET Project. His July 1945 ''Atlantic Monthly'' article "
As We May Think "As We May Think" is a 1945 essay by Vannevar Bush which has been described as visionary and influential, anticipating many aspects of information society. It was first published in ''The Atlantic'' in July 1945 and republished in an abridged v ...
" proposed Memex, a theoretical proto-
hypertext Hypertext is E-text, text displayed on a computer display or other electronic devices with references (hyperlinks) to other text that the reader can immediately access. Hypertext documents are interconnected by hyperlinks, which are typi ...
computer system in which an individual compresses and stores all of their books, records, and communications, which is then mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility.


J. C. R. Licklider

Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider (1915–1990) was a faculty member of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and researcher at Bolt, Beranek and Newman. He developed the idea of a universal network at the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) of the United States Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). He headed IPTO from 1962 to 1963, and again from 1974 to 1975. His 1960 paper "Man-Computer Symbiosis" envisions that mutually-interdependent, "living together", tightly coupled human brains and computing machines would prove to complement each other's strengths.


Paul Baran

Paul Baran (1926–2011) developed the field of redundant distributed networks while conducting research at
RAND Corporation The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is financed ...
starting in 1959 when Baran began investigating the development of survivable communication networks. This led to a series of papers titled "On Distributed communications" that in 1964 described a detailed architecture for a distributed survivable packet switched communications network. In 2012, Baran was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame by the Internet Society.2012 Inductees
Internet Hall of Fame website. Last accessed 24 April 2012


Donald Davies

Donald Davies (1924–2000) independently invented and named the concept of packet switching in 1965 at the United Kingdom's National Physical Laboratory (NPL). In the same year, he proposed a national data network based on packet switching in the UK. After the proposal was not taken up nationally, during 1966 he headed a team which produced a design for a local area network to serve the needs of NPL and prove the feasibility of packet switching. He and his team were the first to describe the use of an "Interface computer" to act as a router in 1966; one of the first to use the term '
protocol Protocol may refer to: Sociology and politics * Protocol (politics), a formal agreement between nation states * Protocol (diplomacy), the etiquette of diplomacy and affairs of state * Etiquette, a code of personal behavior Science and technology ...
' in a data-commutation context in 1967; and also carried out simulation work on packet networks, including datagram networks. In 1967, a written version of the proposal entitled ''NPL Data Network'' was presented by a member of his team ( Roger Scantlebury) at the inaugural Symposium on Operating Systems Principles. Scantlebury suggested packet switching for use in the ARPANET; Larry Roberts incorporated it into the design and sought input from Paul Baran. Davies gave the first public presentation on packet switching in 1968 and built the local area NPL network in England, influencing other research in the UK and Europe. The NPL network and the ARPANET were the first two networks in the world to use packet switching and NPL was the first to use high-speed links. In 2012, Davies was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame by the Internet Society.


Charles M. Herzfeld

Charles M. Herzfeld (1925–2017) was an American scientist and scientific manager, best known for his time as Director of DARPA, during which, among other things, he personally took the decision to authorize the creation of the ARPANET, the predecessor of the Internet. In 2012, Herzfeld was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame by the Internet Society.


Bob Taylor

Robert W. Taylor (10 February 1932 – 13 April 2017) was director of ARPA's Information Processing Techniques Office from 1965 through 1969, where he convinced ARPA to fund a computer network. From 1970 to 1983, he managed the Computer Science Laboratory of the
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center Xerox Holdings Corporation (; also known simply as Xerox) is an American corporation that sells print and digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut (having moved from Stamf ...
(PARC), where technologies such as Ethernet and the Xerox Alto were developed. He was the founder and manager of Digital Equipment Corporation's Systems Research Center until 1996. The 1968 paper, "The Computer as a Communication Device", that he wrote together with
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 ...
starts out: "In a few years, men will be able to communicate more effectively through a machine than face to face." And while their vision would take more than "a few years", the paper lays out the future of what the Internet would eventually become.


Larry Roberts

Lawrence G. "Larry" Roberts (1937–2018) was an American
computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...
. After earning his
PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...
in
electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
from MIT in 1963, Roberts continued to work at MIT's
Lincoln Laboratory The MIT Lincoln Laboratory, located in Lexington, Massachusetts, is a United States Department of Defense federally funded research and development center chartered to apply advanced technology to problems of national security. Research and dev ...
where in 1965 he connected Lincoln Lab's TX-2 computer to the SDC Q-32 computer in Santa Monica. In 1967, he became a program manager in the ARPA Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO), where he led the development of the ARPANET, the first wide area packet switching network. Roberts applied Donald Davies' concepts of packet switching for the ARPANET, and also sought input from Paul Baran. He asked Leonard Kleinrock to measure and model the network's performance. After Robert Taylor left ARPA in 1969, Roberts became director of the IPTO. In 1973, he left ARPA to commercialize the nascent technology in the form of Telenet, the first data network utility, and served as its
CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
from 1973 to 1980. In 2012, Roberts was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame by the Internet Society.


Leonard Kleinrock

Leonard Kleinrock (born 1934) published his first paper on queueing theory, "Information Flow in Large Communication Nets", in 1961. After completing his Ph.D. thesis in 1962, in which he applied queuing theory to message switching, he moved to UCLA. In 1969, under his supervision, a team at UCLA connected a computer to an Interface Message Processor, becoming the first node on ARPANET. Building on his earlier work on queueing theory, Kleinrock carried out theoretical work to model the performance of packet-switched networks, which underpinned the development of the ARPANET. His theoretical work on hierarchical routing in the late 1970s with student Farouk Kamoun remains critical to the operation of the Internet today. In 2012, Kleinrock was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame by the Internet Society.


Bob Kahn

Robert E. "Bob" Kahn (born 1938) is an American engineer and
computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...
, who in 1974, along with Vint Cerf, invented the TCP/IP protocols. After earning a Ph.D. degree from Princeton University in 1964, he worked for
AT&T Bell Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...
, as an assistant professor at MIT, and at Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN), where he helped develop the ARPANET IMP. In 1972, he began work at the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) within ARPA. In 1986 he left ARPA to found the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI), a nonprofit organization providing leadership and funding for research and development of the National Information Infrastructure.


Douglas Engelbart

Douglas Engelbart (1925–2013) was an early researcher at the Stanford Research Institute. His
Augmentation Research Center SRI International's Augmentation Research Center (ARC) was founded in the 1960s by electrical engineer Douglas Engelbart to develop and experiment with new tools and techniques for collaboration and information processing. The main product to come ...
laboratory became the second node on the ARPANET in October 1969, and SRI became the early Network Information Center, which evolved into the domain name registry. Engelbart was a committed, vocal proponent of the development and use of computers and computer networks to help cope with the world's increasingly urgent and complex problems. He is best known for his work on the challenges of human–computer interaction, resulting in the invention of the computer mouse, and the development of
hypertext Hypertext is E-text, text displayed on a computer display or other electronic devices with references (hyperlinks) to other text that the reader can immediately access. Hypertext documents are interconnected by hyperlinks, which are typi ...
, networked computers, and precursors to graphical user interfaces.


Elizabeth Feinler

Elizabeth J. "Jake" Feinler (born 1931) was a staff member of Doug Engelbart's
Augmentation Research Center SRI International's Augmentation Research Center (ARC) was founded in the 1960s by electrical engineer Douglas Engelbart to develop and experiment with new tools and techniques for collaboration and information processing. The main product to come ...
at SRI and PI for the Network Information Center (NIC) for the ARPANET and the
Defense Data Network The Defense Data Network (DDN) was a computer networking effort of the United States Department of Defense from 1983 through 1995. It was based on ARPANET technology. History As an experiment, from 1971 to 1977, the Worldwide Military Command an ...
(DDN) from 1972 until 1989. In 2012, Feinler was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame by the Internet Society.


Louis Pouzin

Louis Pouzin (born 1931) is a French
computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...
. He built the first implementation of a datagram packet communications network, CYCLADES, that demonstrated the feasibility of internetworking, which he called a "catenet". Concepts from his work were used by Robert Kahn, Vinton Cerf, and others in the development of TCP/IP. In 1997, Pouzin received the ACM SIGCOMM Award for "pioneering work on connectionless packet communication"."Postel and Pouzin: 1997 SIGCOMM Award Winners"
ACM SIGCOMM web site
Louis Pouzin was named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by the French government on 19 March 2003. In 2012, Pouzin was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame by the Internet Society.


John Klensin

John Klensin's involvement with Internet began in 1969, when he worked on the File Transfer Protocol. Klensin was involved in the early procedural and definitional work for DNS administration and top-level domain definitions and was part of the committee that worked out the transition of DNS-related responsibilities between USC-ISI and what became ICANN. His career includes 30 years as a principal research scientist at MIT, a stint as INFOODS Project Coordinator for the United Nations University, Distinguished Engineering Fellow at MCI WorldCom, and Internet Architecture Vice President at AT&T; he is now an independent consultant. In 1992 Randy Bush and John Klensin created the ''Network Startup Resource Center'', helping dozens of countries to establish connections with FidoNet, UseNet, and when possible the Internet. In 2003, he received an International Committee for Information Technology Standards Merit Award. In 2007, he was inducted as a Fellow of the
Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional member ...
for contributions to networking standards and Internet applications. In 2012, Klensin was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame by the Internet Society.


Vint Cerf

Vinton G. "Vint" Cerf (born 1943) is an American
computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...
.Cerf's ''curriculum vitae'' as of February 2001
attached to a transcript of his testimony that month before the
United States House Energy Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet The U.S. House Energy Subcommittee on Communications and Technology is a subcommittee within the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. The subcommittee existed as the ''Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet'' during the 111th ...
, from
ICANN The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is an American multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces ...
's website
He is recognized as one of " the fathers of the Internet", sharing this title with Bob Kahn. He earned his Ph.D. from UCLA in 1972. At UCLA he worked in Professor Leonard Kleinrock's networking group that connected the first two nodes of the ARPANET and contributed to the ARPANET host-to-host protocol. Cerf was an assistant professor at
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
from 1972 to 1976, where he conducted research on packet network interconnection protocols and co-designed the DoD TCP/IP protocol suite with Bob Kahn. He was a program manager for the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) from 1976 to 1982. Cerf was instrumental in the formation of both the Internet Society and Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), serving as founding president of the Internet Society from 1992 to 1995 and in 1999 as chairman of the board and as ICANN Chairman from 2000 to 2007. His many awards include the National Medal of Technology, the Turing Award,Cerf wins Turing Award
16 February 2005
the Presidential Medal of Freedom,2005 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
from the White House website
and membership in the National Academy of Engineering and the Internet Society's Internet Hall of Fame.


Yogen Dalal

Yogen K. Dalal, also known as Yogin Dalal, is an Indian electrical engineer and computer scientist. He was an ARPANET pioneer, and a key contributor to the development of internetworking protocols. He co-authored the first
TCP TCP may refer to: Science and technology * Transformer coupled plasma * Tool Center Point, see Robot end effector Computing * Transmission Control Protocol, a fundamental Internet standard * Telephony control protocol, a Bluetooth communication s ...
specification, with Vint Cerf and Carl Sunshine between 1973 and 1974. It was published as (''Specification of Internet Transmission Control Program'') in December 1974. It first used the term ''internet'' as a shorthand for ''internetworking'', and later RFCs repeated this use. Dalal later proposed splitting TCP into the TCP and IP protocols between 1976 and 1977, leading to the development of TCP/IP. He also worked at Xerox PARC, where he contributed to the development of the Ethernet, the Xerox Network Systems (XNS), and the Xerox Star. After receiving a
B.Tech A Bachelor of Technology (Latin ''Baccalaureus Technologiae'', commonly abbreviated as B.Tech. or BTech; with honours as B.Tech. (Hons.)) is an undergraduate academic degree conferred after the completion of a three to five-year program of studi ...
in
Electrical Engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, he went to the United States to study for a master's degree at
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
in 1972 and then a
PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...
in 1973. His interest in data communication as a graduate student led him to working with new professor Vint Cerf as a teaching assistant in 1972, and then as a research assistant while studying for his PhD. In Summer 1973, while Cerf and Bob Kahn were attempting to formulate an internetworking protocol, Dalal joined their research team to assist them on developing what eventually became TCP. After co-authoring the first TCP protocol with Cerf and Sunshine in 1974, Dalal received his PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and remained active in the development of TCP/IP at Stanford for several years. Between 1976 and 1977, Dalal proposed separating TCP's
routing Routing is the process of selecting a path for traffic in a network or between or across multiple networks. Broadly, routing is performed in many types of networks, including circuit-switched networks, such as the public switched telephone netw ...
and transmission control functions into two discrete layers, which led to the splitting of TCP into the TCP and IP protocols. Due to his experience in
communication protocols A communication protocol is a system of rules that allows two or more entities of a communications system to transmit information via any kind of variation of a physical quantity. The protocol defines the rules, syntax, semantics and synchron ...
such as TCP, several key researchers were greatly interested in recruiting him, including Bob Kahn's ARPANET team at DARPA, Ray Tomlinson at BBN, Bob Taylor's team at Xerox PARC, and
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 (196 ...
at the
Information Sciences Institute The USC Information Sciences Institute (ISI) is a component of the University of Southern California (USC) Viterbi School of Engineering, and specializes in research and development in information processing, computing, and communications techno ...
(ISI). In early 1977, Dalal joined
Robert 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 ...
's team at Xerox PARC, where he worked on the development of the Xerox Network Systems. He also worked on the 10 Mbps Ethernet Specification at Xerox PARC, along with DEC and Intel, leading to the
IEEE 802.3 IEEE 802.3 is a working group and a collection standards defining the physical layer and data link layer's media access control (MAC) of wired Ethernet. The standards are produced by the working group of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Eng ...
LAN Lan or LAN may also refer to: Science and technology * Local asymptotic normality, a fundamental property of regular models in statistics * Longitude of the ascending node, one of the orbital elements used to specify the orbit of an object in sp ...
standard. He later left Xerox, and became a founding member of the startup
tech companies A technology company (or tech company) is an electronics-based technology, technological company, including, for example, business relating to digital electronics, software, and internet-related services, such as e-commerce services. Details Accor ...
Claris and
Metaphor Computer Systems Metaphor Computer Systems (1982–1994) was an American computer company that created an advanced workstation, database gateway, unique graphical office interface, and software applications that "seamlessly integrate" data from both internal and ...
in the early 1980s. He later became a managing partner of Mayfield, and joined the
Board of Directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...
at several tech companies including Narus and
Nuance Nuance may refer to: * Nuance Communications, company that sells voice and productivity software * Music: ** Nuance (American band), 1980s dance music group ** Nuance (Canadian band), 1980s pop rock group from Quebec {{Disambiguation ...
. In 2005, he was recognized by Stanford as one of the pioneers of the Internet.


Peter Kirstein

Peter T. Kirstein (1933–2020) was a British
computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...
and a leader in the international development of the Internet. In 1973, he established one of the first two international nodes of the ARPANET. In 1978 he co-authored "Issues in packet-network interconnection" with Vint Cerf, one of the early technical papers on the internet concept. His research group at University College London adopted TCP/IP in 1982, a year ahead of ARPANET, and played a significant role in the very earliest experimental Internet work. Starting in 1983 he chaired the International Collaboration Board, which involved six NATO countries, served on the Networking Panel of the NATO Science Committee (serving as chair in 2001), and on Advisory Committees for the Australian Research Council, the Canadian Department of Communications, the German GMD, and the Indian Education and Research Network (ERNET) Project. He leads the Silk Project, which provides satellite-based Internet access to the
Newly Independent States The post-Soviet states, also known as the former Soviet Union (FSU), the former Soviet Republics and in Russia as the near abroad (russian: links=no, ближнее зарубежье, blizhneye zarubezhye), are the 15 sovereign states that wer ...
in the Southern Caucasus and Central Asia. In 2012, Kirstein was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame by the Internet Society.


Steve Crocker

Steve Crocker (born 1944 in
Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. I ...
) has worked in the ARPANET and Internet communities since their inception. As a UCLA graduate student in the 1960s, he helped create the ARPANET protocols which were the foundation for today's Internet. He created the Request for Comments (RFC) series, authoring the very first RFC and many more. He was instrumental in creating the ARPA "Network Working Group", the forerunner of the modern Internet Engineering Task Force. Crocker has been a program manager at the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), a senior researcher at
USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...
's
Information Sciences Institute The USC Information Sciences Institute (ISI) is a component of the University of Southern California (USC) Viterbi School of Engineering, and specializes in research and development in information processing, computing, and communications techno ...
, founder and director of the Computer Science Laboratory at The Aerospace Corporation and a vice president at
Trusted Information Systems Trusted Information Systems (TIS) was a computer security research and development company during the 1980s and 1990s, performing computer and communications (information) security research for organizations such as NSA, DARPA, Army Research Lab, ...
. In 1994, Crocker was one of the founders and chief technology officer of
CyberCash CyberCash, Inc. was an internet payment service for electronic commerce, headquartered in Reston, Virginia. It was founded in August 1994 by Daniel C. Lynch (who served as chairman), William N. Melton (who served as president and CEO, and late ...
, Inc. He has also been an IETF security area director, a member of the Internet Architecture Board, chair of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Security and Stability Advisory Committee, a board member of the Internet Society and numerous other Internet-related volunteer positions. Crocker is chair of the board of ICANN. For this work, Crocker was awarded the 2002 IEEE Internet Award "for leadership in creation of key elements in open evolution of Internet protocols". In 2012, Crocker was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame by the Internet Society.


Jon Postel

Jon Postel (1943–1998) was a researcher at the
Information Sciences Institute The USC Information Sciences Institute (ISI) is a component of the University of Southern California (USC) Viterbi School of Engineering, and specializes in research and development in information processing, computing, and communications techno ...
. He was editor of all early Internet standards specifications, such as the RFC series. His beard and sandals made him "the most recognizable archetype of an Internet pioneer". The Internet Society's Postel Award is named in his honor, as is the Postel Center at
Information Sciences Institute The USC Information Sciences Institute (ISI) is a component of the University of Southern California (USC) Viterbi School of Engineering, and specializes in research and development in information processing, computing, and communications techno ...
. His obituary was written by Vint Cerf and published as RFC 2468 in remembrance of Postel and his work. In 2012, Postel was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame by the Internet Society.


Joyce K. Reynolds

Joyce K. Reynolds (died 2015) was an American
computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...
and served as part of the editorial team of the RFC series from 1987 to 2006. She performed the
IANA The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is a standards organization that oversees global IP address allocation, autonomous system number allocation, root zone management in the Domain Name System (DNS), media types, and other Interne ...
function with
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 be ...
until this was transferred to
ICANN The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is an American multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces ...
, then worked with ICANN in this role until 2001, while remaining an employee of
ISI ISI or Isi may refer to: Organizations * Intercollegiate Studies Institute, a classical conservative organization focusing on college students * Ice Skating Institute, a trade association for ice rinks * Indian Standards Institute, former name of ...
. As Area Director of the User Services area, she was a member of the Internet Engineering Steering Group of the IETF from 1990 to March 1998. Together with
Bob Braden Robert Braden (28 January 1934 – 15 April 2018) was an American computer scientist who played a role in the development of the Internet. His research interests included end-to-end network protocols, especially in the transport and network laye ...
, she received the 2006 Postel Award in recognition of her services to the Internet. She is mentioned, along with a brief biography, in RFC 1336, ''Who's Who in the Internet'' (1992).RFC 1336 ''Who's Who in the Internet: Biographies of IAB, IESG and IRSG Members'', G. Malkin, Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), May 1992


Danny Cohen

Danny Cohen led several projects on real-time interactive applications over the ARPANet and the Internet starting in 1973. After serving on the computer science faculty at Harvard University (1969–1973) and Caltech (1976), he joined the
Information Sciences Institute The USC Information Sciences Institute (ISI) is a component of the University of Southern California (USC) Viterbi School of Engineering, and specializes in research and development in information processing, computing, and communications techno ...
(ISI) at University of Southern California (USC). At ISI (1973–1993) he started many network related projects including, one to allow interactive, real-time speech over the ARPANet, packet-voice, packet-video, and Internet Concepts. In 1981 he adapted his visual flight simulator to run over the ARPANet, the first application of packet switching networks to real-time applications. In 1993, he worked on Distributed Interactive Simulation through several projects funded by United States Department of Defense. He is probably best known for his 1980 paper "On Holy Wars and a Plea for Peace" Also published at '' IEEE Computer''
October 1981 issue
which adopted the terminology of endianness for computing. Cohen was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2006 for contributions to the advanced design, graphics, and real-time network protocols of computer systemsNational Academy of Engineering member
, 2006
and as an IEEE Fellow in 2010 for contributions to protocols for packet switching in real-time applications.IEEE Fellow
, 2010
In 1993 he received a United States Air Force Meritorious Civilian Service Award. And in 2012, Cohen was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame by the Internet Society.


David J. Farber

Starting in the 1980s Dave Farber (born 1934) helped conceive and organize the major American research networks CSNET, NSFNET, and the National Research and Education Network (NREN). He helped create the NSF/DARPA-funded Gigabit Network Test bed Initiative and served as the Chairman of the Gigabit Test bed Coordinating Committee. He also served as Chief Technologist at the US Federal Communications Commission (2000–2001) and is a founding editor of ICANNWatch. Farber is an IEEE Fellow, ACM Fellow, recipient of the 1995 SIGCOMM Award for vision and breadth of contributions to and inspiration of others in computer networks, distributed computing, and network infrastructure development, and the 1996 John Scott Award for seminal contributions to the field of computer networks and distributed computer systems. He served on the board of directors of the
Electronic Frontier Foundation The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. The foundation was formed on 10 July 1990 by John Gilmore, John Perry Barlow and Mitch Kapor to promote Internet ci ...
, the Electronic Privacy Information Center advisory board, the Board of Trustees of the Internet Society, and as a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee on High Performance Computing and Communications, Information Technology and Next Generation Internet. On 3 August 2013, Farber was inducted into the Pioneers Circle of the Internet Hall of Fame for his key role in many systems that converged into today's Internet.


Paul Mockapetris

Paul V. Mockapetris (born 1948), while working with
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 be ...
at the
Information Sciences Institute The USC Information Sciences Institute (ISI) is a component of the University of Southern California (USC) Viterbi School of Engineering, and specializes in research and development in information processing, computing, and communications techno ...
(ISI) in 1983, proposed the Domain Name System (DNS) architecture. He was IETF chair from 1994 to 1996. Mockapetris received the 1997
John C. Dvorak John C. Dvorak (; born 1952) is an American columnist and broadcaster in the areas of technology and computing. His writing extends back to the 1980s, when he was a regular columnist in a variety of magazines. He was vice president of Mevio ...
Telecommunications Excellence Award "Personal Achievement - Network Engineering" for DNS design and implementation, the 2003 IEEE Internet Award for his contributions to DNS, and the Distinguished Alumnus award from the University of California, Irvine. In May 2005, he received the ACM Sigcomm lifetime award. In 2012, Mockapetris was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame by the Internet Society.


David Clark

David D. Clark (born 1944) is an American
computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...
. During the period of tremendous growth and expansion of the Internet from 1981 to 1989, he acted as chief protocol architect in the development of the Internet, and chaired the Internet Activities Board, which later became the Internet Architecture Board. He is currently a senior research scientist at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. In 1990 Clark was awarded the ACM SIGCOMM Award "in recognition of his major contributions to Internet protocol and architecture." In 1998 he received the
IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal The IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal is presented annually to up to three persons, for outstanding achievements in information sciences, information systems and information technology. The recipients receive a gold medal, together with a replica in ...
"for leadership and major contributions to the architecture of the Internet as a universal information medium". In 2001 he was inducted as a Fellow of the
Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional member ...
for "his preeminent role in the development of computer communication and the Internet, including architecture, protocols, security, and telecommunications policy". In 2001, he was awarded the Telluride Tech Festival Award of Technology in Telluride, Colorado, and in 2011 the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford "in recognition of his intellectual and institutional contributions to the advance of the Internet."


Susan Estrada

Susan Estrada founded
CERFnet The California Education and Research Federation Network (CERFnet) is a mid-level network service provider based in California. CERFnet was one of the NSFNET regional networks and a co-founder of the Commercial Internet eXchange (CIX). The CERFnet n ...
, one of the original regional IP networks, in 1988. Through her leadership and collaboration with PSINet and UUnet, Estrada helped form the interconnection enabling the first commercial Internet traffic via the Commercial Internet Exchange. She wrote ''Connecting to the Internet'' in 1993 and she was inducted to the Internet Hall of Fame in 2014. She is on the Board of Trustees of the Internet Society.


Dave Mills

David L. Mills (born 1938) is an American computer engineer. Mills earned his
PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...
in Computer and Communication Sciences from the University of Michigan in 1971. While at Michigan he worked on the ARPA sponsored Conversational Use of Computers (CONCOMP) project and developed
DEC PDP-8 The PDP-8 is a 12-bit minicomputer that was produced by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). It was the first commercially successful minicomputer, with over 50,000 units being sold over the model's lifetime. Its basic design follows the pionee ...
based hardware and software to allow terminals to be connected over phone lines to an
IBM System/360 The IBM System/360 (S/360) is a family of mainframe computer systems that was announced by IBM on April 7, 1964, and delivered between 1965 and 1978. It was the first family of computers designed to cover both commercial and scientific applica ...
mainframe computer A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterpris ...
. Mills was the chairman of the Gateway Algorithms and Data Structures Task Force (GADS) and the first chairman of the Internet Architecture Task Force. He invented the
Network Time Protocol The Network Time Protocol (NTP) is a networking protocol for clock synchronization between computer systems over packet-switched, variable- latency data networks. In operation since before 1985, NTP is one of the oldest Internet protocols in c ...
(1981), the DEC LSI-11 based
fuzzball router Fuzzball routers were the first modern routers on the Internet. They were DEC PDP-11 computers (usually LSI-11 personal workstations) loaded with the Fuzzball software written by David L. Mills (of the University of Delaware). The name "Fuzzball ...
that was used for the 56 kbit/s NSFNET (1985), the Exterior Gateway Protocol (1984), and inspired the author of ping (1983). He is an emeritus professor at the University of Delaware. In 1999 he was inducted as a Fellow of the
Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional member ...
, and in 2002, as a Fellow of the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...
(IEEE). In 2008, Mills was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). In 2013 he received the IEEE Internet Award "For significant leadership and sustained contributions in the research, development, standardization, and deployment of quality time synchronization capabilities for the Internet."


Radia Perlman

Radia Joy Perlman (born 1951) is the software designer and network engineer who developed the spanning-tree protocol which is fundamental to the operation of network bridges. She also played an important role in the development of
link-state routing protocols Link-state routing protocols are one of the two main classes of routing protocols used in packet switching networks for computer communications, the others being distance-vector routing protocols. Examples of link-state routing protocols include ...
such as IS-IS (which had a significant influence on OSPF). In 2010 she received the ACM SIGCOMM Award "for her fundamental contributions to the Internet routing and bridging protocols that we all use and take for granted every day."


Dennis M. Jennings

Dennis M. Jennings is an Irish physicist, academic, Internet pioneer, and venture capitalist. In 1984, the National Science Foundation (NSF) began construction of several regional
supercomputing A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instructions ...
centers to provide very high-speed computing resources for the US research community. In 1985 NSF hired Jennings to lead the establishment of the
National Science Foundation Network The National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET) was a program of coordinated, evolving projects sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) from 1985 to 1995 to promote advanced research and education networking in the United States. The p ...
(NSFNET) to link five of the super-computing centers to enable sharing of resources and information. Jennings made three critical decisions that shaped the subsequent development of NSFNET: * that it would be a general-purpose research network, not limited to connection of the supercomputers; * it would act as the backbone for connection of regional networks at each supercomputing site; and * it would use the ARPANET's TCP/IP protocols. Jennings was also actively involved in the start-up of research networks in Europe ( European Academic Research Network, EARN - President;
EBONE Ebone may refer to: * Ebone, Cameroon, a town and commune in Cameroon * EBONE Ebone may refer to: * Ebone, Cameroon, a town and commune in Cameroon * EBONE, a pan-European Internet backbone {{disambig ...
, a pan-European Internet backbone ...
- Board member) and Ireland (
HEAnet HEAnet is the national education and research network of Ireland. HEAnet's e-infrastructure services support approximately 210,000 students and staff (third-level) in Ireland, and approximately 800,000 students and staff (first and second-level ...
- initial proposal and later board member). He chaired the Board and General Assembly of the
Council of European National Top Level Domain Registries The Council of European National Top-Level Domain Registries (CENTR) is an organization established to act as a peak body of top-level domain name registries. The organisation was formed in 1998, created as a project of the RIPE Top-level D ...
(CENTR) from 1999 to early 2001 and was actively involved in the start-up of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). He was a member of the ICANN Board from 2007 to 2010, serving as vice-chair in 2009–2010."Ireland's real net pioneer"
''Independent.ie'', 4 October 2007
In April 2014 Jennings was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame.


Steve Wolff

Stephen "Steve" Wolff participated in the development of ARPANET while working for the U.S. Army."Stephen Wolff–Hustling for Innovation"
, Charles Waltner, ''News@Cisco'', 30 July 2002
In 1986 he became Division Director for Networking and Communications Research and Infrastructure at the National Science Foundation (NSF) where he managed the development of NSFNET. He also conceived the Gigabit Testbed, a joint NSF- DARPA project to prove the feasibility of IP networking at gigabit speeds. His work at NSF transformed the fledgling internet from a narrowly focused U.S. government project into the modern Internet with scholarly and commercial interest for the entire world. In 1994 he left NSF to join Cisco as a technical manager in Corporate Consulting Engineering. In 2011 he became the CTO at Internet2. In 2002 the Internet Society recognized Wolff with its Postel Award. When presenting the award, Internet Society (ISOC) President and CEO Lynn St. Amour said "…Steve helped transform the Internet from an activity that served the specific goals of the research community to a worldwide enterprise which has energized scholarship and commerce throughout the world.""Stephen Wolff Receives the Internet Society's Postel Service Award for 2002"
Internet Society, 24 June 2002
The Internet Society also recognized Wolff in 1994 for his courage and leadership in advancing the Internet.


Sally Floyd

Sally Floyd (1950–2019) was an American engineer recognized for her extensive contributions to Internet architecture and her work in identifying practical ways to control and stabilize Internet congestion."Sally Floyd Wins 2007 SIGCOMM Award"
ICSI, Sept. 2007 (last visited 7 October 2012).
She invented the random early detection active queue management scheme, which has been implemented in nearly all commercially available routers, and devised the now-common method of adding
delay jitter In computer networking, packet delay variation (PDV) is the difference in End-to-end principle, end-to-end one-way delay between selected packets in a Flow (computer networking), flow with any Packet loss, lost packets being ignored.RFC 3393 The ...
to message timers to avoid synchronization collisions.IEEE
"Sally Floyd"
IEEE Global History Network (last visited 7 October 2012).
Floyd, with Vern Paxson, in 1997 identified the lack of knowledge of network topology as the major obstacle in understanding how the Internet works. This paper, "Why We Don't Know How to Simulate the Internet", was re-published as "Difficulties in Simulating the Internet" in 2001 and won the IEEE Communication Society's William R. Bennett Prize Paper Award. Floyd was also a co-author on the standard for TCP Selective acknowledgement (SACK),
Explicit Congestion Notification Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) is an extension to the Internet Protocol and to the Transmission Control Protocol and is defined in RFC 3168 (2001). ECN allows end-to-end notification of network congestion without dropping packets. ECN is ...
(ECN), the
Datagram Congestion Control Protocol In computer networking, the Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP) is a message-oriented transport layer protocol. DCCP implements reliable connection setup, teardown, Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN), congestion control, and feature ne ...
(DCCP) and TCP Friendly Rate Control (TFRC). She received the IEEE Internet Award in 2005 and the ACM SIGCOMM Award in 2007 for her contributions to congestion control. She has been involved in the
Internet Advisory Board The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) is "a committee of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and an advisory body of the Internet Society (ISOC). Its responsibilities include architectural oversight of IETF activities, Internet Standards ...
, and, as of 2007, was one of the top-ten most cited researchers in computer science.


Van Jacobson

Van Jacobson is an American
computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...
, best known for his work on TCP/IP network performance and scaling. His work redesigning TCP/IP's flow control algorithms (
Jacobson's algorithm Jacobson's was an American regional department store chain. Based in Jackson, Michigan, the chain operated primarily in Michigan and Florida, but also had stores in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Kansas. Jacobson's focused on apparel, fine jewelry a ...
) to better handle congestion is said to have saved the Internet from collapsing in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He is also known for the TCP/IP Header Compression protocol described in RFC 1144: ''Compressing TCP/IP Headers for Low-Speed Serial Links'', popularly known as
Van Jacobson TCP/IP Header Compression Van Jacobson TCP/IP Header Compression is a data compression protocol described in , specifically designed by Van Jacobson to improve TCP/IP performance over slow serial links. Van Jacobson compression reduces the normal 40 byte The byte is ...
. He is co-author of several widely used network diagnostic tools, including traceroute, tcpdump, and pathchar. He was a leader in the development of the multicast backbone (MBone) and the multimedia tools vic, vat, and wb. For his work, Jacobson received the 2001
ACM ACM or A.C.M. may refer to: Aviation * AGM-129 ACM, 1990–2012 USAF cruise missile * Air chief marshal * Air combat manoeuvring or dogfighting * Air cycle machine * Arica Airport (Colombia) (IATA: ACM), in Arica, Amazonas, Colombia Computing * ...
SIGCOMM Award for Lifetime Achievement,2001 SIGCOMM Award for Lifetime Achievement
to Van Jacobson "for contributions to protocol architecture and congestion control."
the 2003 IEEE Koji Kobayashi Computers and Communications Award,"Van Jacobson: 2002 IEEE Koji Kobayashi Computers and Communications Award Recipient"
IEEE web site
and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2006. In 2012, Jacobson was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame by the Internet Society.


Ted Nelson

Theodor Holm "Ted" Nelson (born 1937) is an American sociologist and
philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
. In 1960 he founded Project Xanadu with the goal of creating a computer network with a simple user interface. Project Xanadu was to be a worldwide
electronic publishing Electronic publishing (also referred to as publishing, digital publishing, or online publishing) includes the digital publication of e-books, Online magazine, digital magazines, and the development of digital library, digital libraries and catalo ...
system using
hypertext Hypertext is E-text, text displayed on a computer display or other electronic devices with references (hyperlinks) to other text that the reader can immediately access. Hypertext documents are interconnected by hyperlinks, which are typi ...
linking that would have created a universal library. In 1963 he coined the terms "
hypertext Hypertext is E-text, text displayed on a computer display or other electronic devices with references (hyperlinks) to other text that the reader can immediately access. Hypertext documents are interconnected by hyperlinks, which are typi ...
" and "
hypermedia Hypermedia, an extension of the term hypertext, is a nonlinear medium of information that includes graphics, audio, video, plain text and hyperlinks. This designation contrasts with the broader term ''multimedia'', which may include non-interac ...
". In 1974 he wrote and published two books in one,
Computer Lib/Dream Machines ''Computer Lib/Dream Machines'' is a 1974 book by Ted Nelson, printed as a two-front-cover paperback to indicate its " intertwingled" nature. Originally self-published by Nelson, it was republished with a foreword by Stewart Brand in 1987 by Micr ...
, that has been hailed as "the most important book in the history of new media." His grand ideas from the 1960s and 1970s never became completed projects.


Tim Berners-Lee

Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee (born 1955) is a British physicist and
computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...
. In 1980, while working at
CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...
, he proposed a project using
hypertext Hypertext is E-text, text displayed on a computer display or other electronic devices with references (hyperlinks) to other text that the reader can immediately access. Hypertext documents are interconnected by hyperlinks, which are typi ...
to facilitate sharing and updating information among researchers. While there, he built a prototype system named ENQUIRE. Back at CERN in 1989 he conceived of and, in 1990, together with Robert Cailliau, created the first client and server implementations for what became the World Wide Web. Berners-Lee is the director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), a standards organization which oversees and encourages the Web's continued development, co-director of the
Web Science Trust The Web Science Trust (WST) is a UK Charitable Trust with the aim of supporting the global development of Web science. It was originally started in 2006 as a joint effort between MIT and University of Southampton to formalise the social and te ...
, and founder of the World Wide Web Foundation. In 1994, Berners-Lee became one of only six members of the
World Wide Web Hall of Fame In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...
. In 2004, Berners-Lee was
knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...
by Queen Elizabeth II for his pioneering work. In April 2009, he was elected a foreign associate of the United States National Academy of Sciences, based in Washington, D.C. In 2012, Berners-Lee was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame by the Internet Society.


Robert Cailliau

Robert Cailliau (, born 1947), is a Belgian informatics engineer and
computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...
who, working with
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 profess ...
and Nicola Pellow at
CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...
, developed the World Wide Web. In 2012 he was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame by the Internet Society.


Nicola Pellow

Nicola Pellow, one of the nineteen members of the ''WWW Project'' at
CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...
working with
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 profess ...
, is recognized for developing the first cross-platform internet browser, Line Mode Browser, that displayed web-pages on dumb terminals and was released in May 1991. She joined the project in November 1990, while an undergraduate math student enrolled in a sandwich course at Leicester Polytechnic (now De Montfort University). She left CERN at the end of August 1991, but returned after graduating in 1992, and worked with Robert Cailliau on
MacWWW MacWWW, also known as Samba, is an early minimalist web browser from 1992 meant to run on Macintosh computers. It was the first web browser for the classic Mac OS platform, and the first for any non-Unix operating system. MacWWW tries to emulate t ...
, the first web browser for the
classic Mac OS Mac OS (originally System Software; retronym: Classic Mac OS) is the series of operating systems developed for the Macintosh family of personal computers by Apple Computer from 1984 to 2001, starting with System 1 and ending with Mac OS 9. The ...
.


Mark P. McCahill

Mark P. McCahill (born 1956) is an American programmer and systems architect. While working at the University of Minnesota he led the development of the Gopher protocol (1991), the effective predecessor of the World Wide Web, and contributed to the development and popularization of a number of other Internet technologies from the 1980s.


Marc Andreessen

Marc L. Andreessen (born 1971) is an American software engineer, entrepreneur, and investor. Working with Eric Bina while at NCSA, he co-authored Mosaic, the first widely used web browser. He is also co-founder of Netscape Communications Corporation.


Eric Bina

Eric J. Bina (born 1964) is an American
computer programmer A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...
. In 1993, together with
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 Silicon ...
, he authored the first version of Mosaic while working at NCSA at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Mosaic is famed as the first killer application that popularized the Internet. He is also a co-founder of Netscape Communications Corporation.


Birth of the Internet plaque

A plaque commemorating the "Birth of the Internet" was dedicated at a conference on the history and future of the internet on 28 July 2005 and is displayed at the Gates Computer Science Building, Stanford University. The text printed and embossed in black into the brushed bronze surface of the plaque reads:"Stanford University 'Birth of the Internet' Plaque"
web page, J. Noel Chiappa, Laboratory for Computer Science, MIT
BIRTH OF THE INTERNET THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE INTERNET AND THE DESIGN OF THE CORE NETWORKING PROTOCOL TCP (WHICH LATER BECAME TCP/IP) WERE CONCEIVED BY VINTON G. CERF AND ROBERT E. KAHN DURING 1973 WHILE CERF WAS AT STANFORD'S DIGITAL SYSTEMS LABORATORY AND KAHN WAS AT ARPA (LATER DARPA). IN THE SUMMER OF 1976, CERF LEFT STANFORD TO MANAGE THE PROGRAM WITH KAHN AT ARPA. THEIR WORK BECAME KNOWN IN SEPTEMBER 1973 AT A NETWORKING CONFERENCE IN ENGLAND. CERF AND KAHN'S SEMINAL PAPER WAS PUBLISHED IN MAY 1974. CERF, YOGEN K. DALAL, AND CARL SUNSHINE WROTE THE FIRST FULL TCP SPECIFICATION IN DECEMBER 1974. WITH THE SUPPORT OF DARPA, EARLY IMPLEMENTATIONS OF TCP (AND IP LATER) WERE TESTED BY BOLT BERANEK AND NEWMAN (BBN), STANFORD, AND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON DURING 1975. BBN BUILT THE FIRST INTERNET GATEWAY, NOW KNOWN AS A ROUTER, TO LINK NETWORKS TOGETHER. IN SUBSEQUENT YEARS, RESEARCHERS AT MIT AND USC-ISI, AMONG MANY OTHERS, PLAYED KEY ROLES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SET OF INTERNET PROTOCOLS. KEY STANFORD RESEARCH ASSOCIATES AND FOREIGN VISITORS VINTON CERF DAG BELSNES JAMES MATHIS RONALD CRANE JUNIOR BOB METCALFE YOGEN DALAL DARRYL RUBIN JUDITH ESTRIN JOHN SHOCH RICHARD KARP CARL SUNSHINE GERARD LE LANN KUNINOBU TANNO DARPA ROBERT KAHN COLLABORATING GROUPS BOLT BERANEK AND NEWMAN WILLIAM PLUMMER • GINNY STRAZISAR • RAY TOMLINSON MIT NOEL CHIAPPA • DAVID CLARK • STEPHEN KENT • DAVID P. REED NDRE YNGVAR LUNDH • PAAL SPILLING UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON FRANK DEIGNAN • MARTINE GALLAND • PETER HIGGINSON ANDREW HINCHLEY • PETER KIRSTEINADRIAN STOKES USC-ISI ROBERT BRADEN • DANNY COHEN • DANIEL LYNCH • JON POSTEL ULTIMATELY, THOUSANDS IF NOT TENS TO HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS HAVE CONTRIBUTED THEIR EXPERTISE TO THE EVOLUTION OF THE INTERNET. DEDICATED 28 July 2005


See also

* History of the Internet *
History of hypertext Hypertext is text displayed on a computer or other electronic device with references (hyperlinks) to other text that the reader can immediately access, usually by a mouse click or keypress sequence. Early conceptions of hypertext defined it as ...
* History of the World Wide Web * IEEE Internet Award * Internet Hall of Fame


References


External links


Internet Hall of Fame
established by the Internet Society in April 2012.
RFC 1336
''Who's Who in the Internet: Biographies of Internet Activities Board (IAB), Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG), and the Internet Research Steering Group (IRSG) of the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) Members'', G. Malkin, IETF, May 1992.
"Past IESG Members and IETF Chairs"
IETF web site

from the IAB web site includes historical lists of IAB Members, IAB Chairs, IAB Ex-Officio and Liaison Members (IETF Chairs), IRTF Chairs, RFC Editors, and much more historical information.
"Internet Pioneers"
web pages a
ibiblio.org
a collaboration of the School of Information and Library Science and the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
"Pioneers Gallery"
from the Who Is Who in the Internet World (WiWiW) web site.
"The Greatest Internet Pioneers You Never Heard Of: The Story of Erwise and Four Finns Who Showed the Way to the Web Browser"
Juha-Pekka Tikka, 3 March 2009, Xconomy web page.


Oral histories

* Focuses on Kahn's role in the development of computer networking from 1967 through the early 1980s. Beginning with his work at Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN), Kahn discusses his involvement as the ARPANET proposal was being written and then implemented, and his role in the public demonstration of the ARPANET. The interview continues into Kahn's involvement with networking when he moves to IPTO in 1972, where he was responsible for the administrative and technical evolution of the ARPANET, including programs in packet radio, the development of a new network protocol (TCP/IP), and the switch to TCP/IP to connect multiple networks. * Cerf describes his involvement with the ARPA network, and his relationships with Bolt Beranek and Newman, Robert Kahn, Lawrence Roberts, and the Network Working Group. * Baran describes his work at RAND, and discusses his interaction with the group at ARPA who were responsible for the later development of the ARPANET. * Kleinrock discusses his work on the ARPANET. * The interview focuses on Robert's work at the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) at ARPA including discussion of ARPA and IPTO support of research in computer science, computer networks, and artificial intelligence, the ARPANET, the involvement of universities with ARPA and IPTO, J. C. R. Licklider, Ivan Sutherland, Steve Lukasik, Wesley Clark, as well as the development of computing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Lincoln Laboratory. * Focuses on McCahill's work at the University of Minnesota where he led the team that created Gopher, the popular client/server software for organizing and sharing information on the Internet as well as his work on development of Pop Mail, Gopher VR, Forms Nirvana, the Electronic Grants Management System, and the University of Minnesota Portal. {{DEFAULTSORT:Internet Pioneers History of the Internet Lists of computer scientists People in information technology