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

[Charlie Breindahl]

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