Internet History Archive

With funding support from Advanced Network and Services, Inc, Cisco System, IBM, Internet2, Juniper Networks, Merit Network, and the National Science Foundation, a two-day NSFNET celebration event was held in Washington DC on November 29 and 30, 2007.

The event recognized the impact and achievements of the NSFNET program through presentations and panel discussions featuring individuals who worked directly on NSFNET and those whose work it benefited. The program examined many important aspects and contributions of NSFNET, including:

• The life cycle of the NSFNET program, from the ideas that influenced NSF’s decision to support the deployment of a national network for research and education; the subsequent decision to transition operational responsibility for the core network to the private sector commercial Internet service providers and telecom carriers; and the decision following that to support the vBNS and related activities after 1995.
• The technological advances that NSFNET facilitated.
• The effects of NSFNET during its lifetime, including how it influenced norms of connectivity at supercomputer centers, campuses, and elsewhere; how it enhanced and altered scholarship; and how the issues confronted by network community during this massive growth period were managed and resolved.
• The long-term contributions of the NSFNET to networking science on national and international scales.
• The individual and group achievements of the people and organizations that participated in the NSFNET program.
• The concept of collaborative effort between public, private, and academic institutions, which was a defining characteristic of the NSFNET program and a significant contributor to its success.
• The future of high-performance networking for education, research, and industry.

The complete agenda and speaker biographies can be found here.