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
Stanford University.
Background The seminal paper on
internetworking, "A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication"
, published in 1974 by Vint Cerf, at
Stanford University, and Bob Kahn, at
ARPA, acknowledges a number of early members of the
International Network Working Group (INWG): "The authors wish to thank a number of colleagues for helpful comments during early discussions of international network protocols, especially R. Metcalfe, R. Scantlebury, D. Walden, and H. Zimmerman; D. Davies and L. Pouzin who constructively commented on the fragmentation and accounting issues; and S. Crocker who commented on the creation and destruction of associations".'' Subsequently, ARPA funded another working group to develop TCP for use for internetworking. Over two hundred
Internet Experiment Notes (IEN) were produced, documenting the group's work. Only a few of the people who authored notes, or who participated in the work or whose work was referenced in the notes are named on the "Birth of the Internet" plaque. Robert Metclafe, Yogen Dalal and John Shoch contributed to discussions leading up to the splitting of TCP, At that time, the "Final Report of the Internetwork TCP Project" was to be written by: Cerf, who led the work at Stanford University and had moved to ARPA to manage the program with Kahn;
Peter T. Kirstein, who led the work at
University College London (UCL); and
Paal Spilling, who led the work at the
Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (NDRE); and, in addition, three of their team members who were Stephen Edge and Andrew Hinchley at UCL, who authored the first IEN (along with their colleague Chris Bennett who authored several other IENs), and Richard Karp at Stanford. Postel published version 4 later that year, in which TCP and IP were split into separate protocols, the preface of which notes "This revised edition of the version 4 specification was influenced by the comments of the following: Vint Cerf, Dick Watson, Carl Sunshine, Danny Cohen, Dave Clark, John Day, Gary Grossman, Jim Mathis, Bill Plummer, Jack Haverty, and the whole TCP Working Group." The bibliography of each of the TCP versions references papers published by many more researchers active in the field at the time. Cerf has discussed the role of some of the participants in his oral history, including Roger Scantlebury and Donald Davies; his graduate students at Stanford,
Judy Estrin, Richard Karp, Yogan Dalal, and Carl Sunshine; and visiting researchers Gérard Le Lann, Dag Belsnes, James Mathis, Darryl Rubin, and
Ronald Crane.
Inscription The text printed and embossed in black into the brushed bronze surface of the Stanford plaque reads:
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 KIRSTEIN •
ADRIAN 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 == J. C. R. Licklider ==