[Air-L] 'MEN Invented the Internet'?

[Burcu Bakioglu]

Oddly... I just came across something that relates to what Charlie below is
saying. Just started reading Tim Wu's The Master Switch (something that I
hadn't gotten around to till now). He says that most startling inventions
are arrived at by several individuals, around the same time. Invention
happens once a technology's development reaches the point where the next
step becomes available to many people. So no single inventor of the
telephone, telegraph, or even things like the theory of origin of species.

Here's a point that I really like: "The inventors we remember are
significant not so much as inventors, but as founders of 'disruptive'
industries, ones that shake up  the technological status quo." While
several people had invented the telephone, Bell founded a disruptive
industry, hence we remember Bell as the inventor of telephones. This could,
of course, be said of the Internet too.

Sorry, i hadn't been followed the thread since it began so I have no other
insightful comments to offer...

Cheers!

BsB

On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 2:45 PM, Charlie Breindahl <
charlie.breindahl at gmail.com> wrote:

> The "invention" of the internet is - as Jeremy says - a fabrication.
> We also have a Washington Post article pronouncing V. A. Shiva
> Ayyadurai the "inventor" of email:
>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-innovations/va-shivaayyadurai-inventor-of-e-mail-honored-by-smithsonian/2012/02/17/gIQA8gQhKR_print.html
>
> One of the most annoying errors that gets kicked about is the "fact"
> that the internet was constructed to withstand the impact of atomic
> war. Supposedly this led to the use of a packet switching protocol.
>
> Paul Baran of the RAND Corporation did in fact sort of "invent" the
> concept, but so did Donald Davies in the UK. Both published
> extensively on the subject. Larry Roberts has more detaills here:
> http://www.packet.cc/files/ev-packet-sw.html
>
> However, Len Kleinrock's work as a graduate student at MIT preceded
> both and he did not have atomic war in mind. The development of the
> internet was based on Kleinrock's work with packet switching:
> http://www.packet.cc/internet.html
>
> Just sayin'
>
> > Thanks to all for an interesting and thoughtful thread to read today...
> >
> > Steve
>
> Ditto here.
>
> Best,
> Charlie
>
> --
> Charlie Breindahl
> External Lecturer
> University of Copenhagen + Copenhagen Business School
>
> Co-editor, Artifact, http://www.informaworld.com/artifact
>
> Communication Manager, Danish Centre for Design Research,
> http://www.dcdr.dk/
>
> "For the modern Don Quixote, the windmills have been preprogrammed to
> turn into knights"
>         - Janet H. Murray
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-- 
Thanks,

Burcu S. Bakioglu, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow in New Media
Lawrence University

http://www.palefirer.com
http://palefirer.com/blog/

--
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~Anonymous