[Air-l] Science communication and the development of the Internet

[Andrew Russell]

Franz -

Four thoughts jump to mind:

1. Although he's not European, JCR Licklider seems like a main guy you 
would want to talk about - he was an MIT psychologist who co-wrote a 
1968 paper, "The Computer as a Communication Device."  M. Mitchell 
Waldrop's book "The Dream Machine" (especially Chapter 5) has a good 
discussion of these issues, as does Howard Rheingold's "Tools for 
Thought."  A short bio of Licklider (with a link to that paper) is at 
http://memex.org/licklider.html.

2. Tim Berners-Lee created the Web at CERN in order to provide a better 
system for communication and documentation of scientific ideas among 
physicists.  His book "Weaving the Web" has a good description of this, 
as does the Gillies and Cailliau book, "How the Web Was Born." For a 
paper on European science I think this would be most helpful. See also 
http://www.w3.org/History/1989/proposal.html.

3. It's worth thinking about Doug Engelbart's work in this context, as 
well.  Thierry Bardini wrote a wonderful book called "Bootstrapping" 
(Stanford Press, 2000) that is a sustained analysis of Engelbart, his 
lab, and his scientific and technical ideas.

4. Janet Abbate's discussion of CSNET and NSFNET in the United States 
is right on point as well, of course her book is "Inventing the 
Internet."  I don't know if a similar historical treatment of European 
internetworking exists, say for example in the development of the ISO 
reference model or national networks in Europe (I'd love to hear from 
others about this).

Sounds like an interesting paper, I hope this helps. Good luck!

Andy

Andrew Russell
Department of the History of Science and Technology
The Johns Hopkins University
http://www.jhu.edu/host/


On May 19, 2004, at 5:23 AM, Barjak Franz wrote:

> Dear Internet historians on the list,
>
> I am finalising a paper on the Internet use in European science. I 
> would
> like to include a reference to whether/how the search for new 
> computer-based
> communication tools in science was influencing the development of the
> Internet. Can anybody help?
>
> Thanks and regards
> Franz
> *********************************************
> Franz Barjak
> University of Applied Sciences
> Northwest Switzerland Solothurn
> Riggenbachstrasse 16
> CH-4600 Olten
> Switzerland
> E-mail: franz.barjak at fhso.ch
> Web: http://www.fhso.ch/_e/kont_e/pers_hp/doz_wirtschaft/barjak_e.htm
> p. +41 62 287 7825, fax: +41 62 287 7845
> *********************************************
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