Tagged with Inductee Profiles & Insights
Responding to a Challenge with a World-Changing Invention
Blog entry
In 1973, Robert Metcalfe was “the networking guy” at Xerox PARC in California, and PARC had a problem. In Metcalfe’s building there in Palo Alto, scientists were busily carrying out their own individual activities, but they clearly needed to be connected to one another, and to the great research...
MoreChinese Internet Pioneer Predicts ‘Wearable Terminals’ & Growing ‘Digital Divide’
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In 1994, a modest but determined and brilliant engineer named Madam Qiheng Hu led a delegation to the U.S. for discussions with the National Science Foundation, which led to a consensus on setting up the first direct TCP/IP connection in mainland China. In 1997,...
MoreGeorge Sadowsky: Helping the Whole World Get Networked
Blog entry
Some people do what they love; others love what they do. George Sadowsky, a 2013 inductee in the Internet Hall of Fame, has spent 40 years doing both. The love affair began in 1973 when, as a consultant to the UN, he started working in developing nations. Sadowsky seemed to have a passion for...
MoreNii Quaynor, the Baobab Tree of the Internet
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Nii Quaynor believes education is the key to spurring a new generation of Internet entrepreneurs. And in Africa right now, the top priority for this educator is producing such businesspeople. “It’s great to know how to get connected to the Internet, but then you have to know what to do with it,”...
MoreProfessor Beats Daunting Odds, Upheaval to Link Thailand to Internet
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Olympic divers get extra points for taking on a tougher degree of difficulty. If that standard were applied to computer networking, Dr. Kanchana Kanchanasut, the modest professor whose efforts in the mid-1980s led to the connection of Thailand to the Internet, would be a gold medalist. Over the...
MoreField General of the Protocol Wars
Blog entry
In July 1983 in Oslo, a dozen computer scientists sat discussing how to interconnect the isolated academic and research networks then operating in the U.S. and Europe. Francois Flückiger was there representing CERN, the European Nuclear Research Agency....
MoreAaron Swartz: An Open Source Life
Blog entry
“Aaron is one of us.” That’s how Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle feels about his fellow Internet Hall of Fame inductee, Aaron Swartz. Note: Not, “was” one of us, but “is” one of us. Even though Aaron had been gone for half a year at the time...
MoreHistoric First Email From U.S. to Germany Arrives in 1984
Blog entry
It was Aug. 3, 1984, when the very first email arrived in Germany. “Willkommen to CSNET,” it began. Direct, efficient … and historic. The message simply listed for the staff at the University of Karlsruhe the information they’d need to fulfill their contract with the U.S.-based Computer Science...
MoreWired 2012 Editorial Series Results in 31 Inductee Interviews
Blog entry
In April 2012, shortly after the inaugural induction of over 30 Internet luminaries into of the Internet Hall of Fame, Wired launched a special editorial series to cover the event. The result: A collection of 31 exclusive interviews that capture each inductee’s historic contribution to the Internet...
MoreSay Bonjour to the Internet’s Long-Lost French Uncle
Blog entry
The Internet was built on TCP/IP, networking protocols originally created by American computer scientists Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn. But Cerf and Kahn were building on the work of Louis Pouzin. In the early 1970s, working as a researcher for the French government,...
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