Model A: The BBN teans poses with the rst message processor: Team
leader Heart is in the center, with tie.
The Birth of
the Internet
Technology: The builders of the Net talk
about how they changed the world
BY BARBARA KANTROWITZ
..\ND :.DAM ROGERS
N ]'HE. SUMMER OF 1:)15). NOT
was at Woodstock, In laboratories on
either side of the continent, a small
group of computer scientists were qui-
etly changing the future of communica-
tions. Their goal: to build a computer net-
work that would enable researchers around
the count to share ideas. That network
beeroe the foundaOon of the Interact. the
vast intemation computer network that
today has become one pm buford, one
pm popd obsession. But its bih re-
quired a leap of the manation. Instead of
seeg computers as mt, ploddg num-
'ber-cmnchers, they had to be ewed as
ble tls that cod t to each other.
er that pa s, the rest was just
doing the cations.
That sounds deceptively easy today. in
tMs time of modems that spit out whole
to-books at what can seem like the speed
't. But it took a lbw visionabes, along
.... teams of engineers d proammers,
to bhng the Net to Me. Next month in Bos-
ton. many of those pioneers
plan to gnther thr a reunmn
sponsored by Bolt Beranek and
Newman, Inc. (BBN). an m-
portant contractor on the 1.969
project. For scientists who have
spent their careers looking
ahead, it's a rare chance to re-
flect on the past. "It's a bit like
climbing a mountain," says Vint
Cerf, then a UCLA graduate student and
now president of the nonprofit Internet So-
ciety and a senior vice president at MCI,
"You don't know how far you've come until
you stop and look back."
The project was called ^a,^E'r, aer
the agency that paid for it--AltPA, the De-
partment of Defense's Advanced Itesearch
Project Agency. The scientists "tackled the
job with a passion, the passion of getting
something important done." says author
Katie Hafner, who is writing a book on the
^m,^N:'r, "The technical foundations they
built in 1,969 are still in place today," At the
time, there was no standard computer op-
erating system: machines generally could
,OR
not communicate with each other. The re-
suit: a technological Tower of Babel. Even
with machines that were compatible, the
best way to get data from one to another
usually was to physically carry magnetic
tapes or punched cards and insert them into
the other machine.
Such clumsiness frustrated some of
the most talented computer scientists,
including J.C.R. Licklider and Robert Tay-
lor, both o[' whom served stints running
ABPA's computer research program in the
early and mid-1960s. Like colleagues scat-
toted around the nation. they were thinking
of \rays to make computers more efficient
by connectin them in networks. And they
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DIaN
had access to the mother's milk of science:
grant money. Taylor recalls walking into
the AllPA director's office in February
1966 and asking ibr money. "The conversa-
tion lasted about 15 or 20 minutes." he says.
"He immediately liked the idea and took a
million dollars out of some ABPA project--
I never did know which one-to get me
started." In 1968, Licklider and Taylor pub-
[ished a particularly prescient paper sug-
gesting that computers could serve as com-
munications devices. They pushed ti0r an
experimental network, one that would cre-
ate new communities of' sciem ists separat-
ed by geography but united by technology.
The initial plan was to link Ibm' sites:
Ploneer: Postel, Crocker and
Cerf use zucchini, tin cans
and drawings to represent
the primitive Net they helped
create. (And you thought
computer jocks had no humor!)
Engelbart. top. u'ith a
modern mouse: his lab t Stll
was the site o}'an early 'iodc.'
Heart. above. ut BBNi
UCLA, the University of Cal. itbrnia, Santa
Barbara. the Stanford Research Institute
and the University of Utah. The first
"node," as the network sites are called, was
at UCLA. Graduate students Cerf. Steve
Crocker and .Ion Postel. among others,
were enlisted to build hardware and soft-
ware that would hook up to devices BBN
xvas building for each site. These devices
were called IMPs, tbr Interface Message
Processors, and their job was to route data
between nodes. making sure the intbrma-
lion got to the right destination.
UCL:\'s node was set up in September
and. hy working round the clock, the scien-
tists were ready for the first official demon-
stration on Nov. 21. Around
midday, Crocker says. a hf-
dozen scientists gathered at
UCL,Ys Boelter Hall. home of
the computer-science depart-
ment. and watched as one com-
puter hooked up with ano:her
hundreds of miles away at
Doug Engelbart's lab at the
Stanford Research Institute. It
was a historic event, but the
only visual record is in the
memories of those who were
there. "There wasn't a photog-
rapher present," says Crocker.
"and it didn't occur to us that
we should have one."
What did the first message
say? What was the equivalent of
"Mr. Watson, come here. I want
you"? Hardly anyone remem-
bers, "The connection worked,"
says Crocker. "That was all that
mattered."
More sites: By 1971 there
were nearly two dozen sites, in-
cluding machines at MIT and
Harvard. Three years later
there were t32 and, bv 1,981.
more than 200. Lawrence Bob-
errs, who succeeded Taylor at
AltPA, is credited by many of
his colleagues with being the
true guiding tbrce behind the
network's development. "As far
as I am concerned. he is the star
of the show." says Engelbart.
who is himself a legend in the
computer world tbr inventing
(among other things) the mouse.
One of lloberts's hurdles
was getting resistant scientists
around the country to cooper-
ate. "I told all of the people who
were getting computer money
from ARPA ... that they were
going to partic.ipate in this."
Boberrs recalls. "They hated it.
They had their own computers.
their own thing... They wanted
to keep it to themselves.,. But
I encouraged them to do it because we had
the money. I told them they had to do it."
Within a year, says lloberts. "they loved
it... They got much more sharing of infor-
mation. They were writing papers together
even in the first days." Taylor remembers
that. early on, the network also began
evoMng into more than just a scientif-
ic tool. Their computers may have
been very different in size and speed, but
now they could all talk to each other. Elec-
tronic mail caught on quickly. There were
heated online political debates, especially
over the Vietnam War. and intense conver-
sations about Space War, one of the first
computer games.
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'ilk i ! '
Bv the early 1970s other count/des want-
ed t join in. That meant a new technical
chlh.,,,e: 1-' to I,nk t½ network-
the world. Cerf. then a pro/bsbr a Stal-
rd University. and Robe Kn. who was
,t .XllPA. developed a et of tcdmical
tandards. called protoct)ls. that multiple
networks cod use. TMt paved the way br
the Intemet. Over the ne decade dozens
of new networks were born, including the
USENET nexvs goups, an electronic ibmm
now used by ons 3f people ound the
world to discuss evening om particle
physics to Barney the dinosaur.
.-ks personal computers beeme cheaper
and easier to use in the late 1980s, anyone
th a modem could get onne. By that time
NSFN. a network established by the Na-
tional Science Foundation, seed as the
techc ba&bone of the Interact in this
eount. aapas. its job complete. went
out of eossion in 1990.
'omrati sMt': TecMologicly, the
Intemet is a urnverse away from ARPANET,
but there's a nsp of puose. The
founders "rely wted to shoe computer
resources." says Hafner. "It was a ve
demcratic spirit, The spirit in which the
network was built you can still see in the
network toda?" In cyberspace. where ev-
e?'one's words look the same. national
boundaries and social distinctions become
less impoant, "I like the one-woddness
that the Internet brings to people."
'%'lr. now an executi'e with I)igital
.qtipmenl Ctn'p., "the iktct that people can
get more doseIv connected based on com-
mon interests. mutual objectives. mutual
need." Frank Heart. who worked on the
-x,.,xt-7r at BBN. compares the experience
to early atomic research. space exploration
or cncng genetic codes.
Sometimes Steve Crocker, now vice
president at Trusted Information Systems,
inc.. in Morn'land. watches in amazement
a two guys hunch over computers linked
by a cable m'ung across an aidlane aisle.
'And you know the most likely brand name
on those computers'? It's Nintendo. and the
twt) guys are usually 10-year-old boys. The
communication be}ween those two
chines is even' bit as complicated-if not
more so-than what we were envisioning
25 years ago."
fhspite their achievements. the net-
work pioneers remain unknown out-
ide the computer world. Often. Kahn
sav. he will talk about the Internet with
a new acquaintance who doesn't know his
hisroD'. "ter I answer two or three
questions, they alvays ask: 'What book
did you read?'" But hn doesn't like
to dwell on the past. "Those were ve'
exciting days. but there are new frontiers
:, every direction I can look these' days."
qua2er centurn' later. the [ktut' still
ooks bght,
In This Game It's Hard
to Root for Either Side
Sports: A strike may abort a grand baseball season
F SHAKESPEARE WERE STILL WORKING.
he could do worse than writing about
sports. He'd have his tragedies (Jennifer
Capriati. Tonya and Nancy, O. J. Simpson)
and his comedies (George Foreman's ump-
teenth comeback, Michael Jordan's second
career). And now, with basebali's impend-
ing players' strike, he'd examine both sides,
measure their comparative villainy and re-
peat one of his famous phrases: "A plague
o' both your houses."
The two houses of baseball met last week
,.,., ,..
I"*'Broken Records
aseball has been fun again this season,
in part because so many of the game's
records have been under sustained assault.
A strike will end all that. Here's a look at
what's at stake.
in Nexv York and set what appears to be an
irrevocable course toward basebali's eighth
work stoppage in just 22 seasons. The play-
ers rejected the owners' proposal to com-
bine revenue-sharing with a salary cap, an
artificial lid similar to ones in the Nation-
al Basketball Association and the Natiof
TRIPLE GROWN: Frank Thomas of the White Sex
would be the first player since 1967 to lead his
leaSue in averaBe, home runs and RBI
AT THE TABLE
FOR THE OWNERS: As a public servant,
Rayitch earned a fine rep, Will that surAve
his work for the belllgerant owners?
UNION MAN: Fehr and
the players have the
Ionpst winnini streak
in sports. Will It end over
a salary cap?
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