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The origins of this project are two earlier
activities. The first was an initiative by Charles Brownstein to collect,
archive, and make available for research historical federal records. The Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA)
had previously provided support for developing a technical approach that
included an archival architecture and working tools. The second was an initiative by Doug Gale, to
document, archive, and commemorate the contributions of the academic community
to the development of the Internet.
Brownstein and Gale, colleagues at the
National Science Foundation during the NSFNET period, joined forces and under
the auspices of the Corporation for National Research Initiatives the National
Science Foundation awarded them a grant to plan an archive and a symposium to
commemorate the historic contributions of the university, government, and
industrial partnership that created the Internet. The project’s final report is available here.
The planning grant included an advisory committee that included:
Guy Almes, Internet2 and Sesquinet PI; Scott Bradner, Harvard University and
IETF pioneer; Steve Crocker, Internet and computer security consultant and ARPA
pioneer; Dave Farber, University of Pennsylvania and networking pioneer; Ira
Fuchs, Melon Foundation and a BITNET founder; Robert Kahn, Internet pioneer and
co-developer of the TCP/IP protocol; Ken King, retired President EDUCOM and
Director CREN; Larry Landweber, University of Wisconsin and a CSNET founder;
John Toole, Computer History Museum and former Director National Coordination
Office for Computing, Information, and Communications; and Steve Wolff, Cisco
and architect of the NSFNET.
The results of the planning grant were: 1) the identification
and location the key people during the period; 2) the identification,
characterization, and location of materials to be archived; 3) the development
and documentation of policies and processes needed to create the archive; and 4)
the design of methods of implementation, including planning the potential
contracting and participation partnerships which will be needed to complete the
project.
Based upon the results of the planning grant
Gale submitted a proposal to the National Science Foundation in 2005, which was
not funded, largely because of the cost associated with full
implementation.
Substantial progress, however, has been
towards reaching the goals of the project.
A volunteer effort led by Gale has already taken over 25 oral histories
of individuals who played key roles in the creation of the Internet. In addition, as part of the NSFNET 20-Year
Anniversary funding was obtained to
engage four professional oral historians and four film crews to record eight
group oral histories, involving almost 50 participants, the day before the
Anniversary event began. The materials
collected are being placed in the public domain and will be made available on
the web under a Creative Commons “Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike” license.
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