DJK (John) Robinson
djkr at msn.com
Wed Jul 25 11:48:42 CDT 2012
Dangling *prepositions* are one thing up with which we will not put! ;-) John -----Original Message----- From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Tina Norris Fields Sent: 25 July 2012 17:23 To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Who Invented the Internet? Thanks for that fascinating and revealing story. The Xerox blindness resembles a blindness I see all around me, and fear I am also sometimes subject to. (Sorry about the dangling participle.) T Tina Norris Fields tinanfields at torchlake.com 231-322-2787 On 7/25/2012 8:37 AM, Arthur Fuller wrote: > Gordon Crovitz: Who Really Invented the Internet?Contrary to legend, > it wasn't the federal government, and the Internet had nothing to do > with maintaining communications during a war. > > A telling moment in the presidential race came recently when Barack > Obama > said: "If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made > that happen." He justified elevating bureaucrats over entrepreneurs by > referring to bridges and roads, adding: "The Internet didn't get invented > on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all companies > could make money off the Internet." > > It's an urban legend that the government launched the Internet. The > myth is that the Pentagon created the Internet to keep its > communications lines up even in a nuclear strike. The truth is a more > interesting story about how innovation happens-and about how hard it > is to build successful technology companies even once the government > gets out of the way. > > For many technologists, the idea of the Internet traces to Vannevar > Bush, the presidential science adviser during World War II who oversaw > the development of radar and the Manhattan Project. In a 1946 article > in The Atlantic titled "As We May Think," Bush defined an ambitious > peacetime goal for technologists: Build what he called a "memex" > through which "wholly new forms of encyclopedias will appear, ready > made with a mesh of associative trails running through them, ready to > be dropped into the memex and there amplified." > > That fired imaginations, and by the 1960s technologists were trying to > connect separate physical communications networks into one global > network-a "world-wide web." The federal government was involved, > modestly, via the Pentagon's Advanced Research Projects Agency > Network. Its goal was not maintaining communications during a nuclear > attack, and it didn't build the Internet. Robert Taylor, who ran the > ARPA program in the 1960s, sent an email to fellow technologists in > 2004 setting the record straight: "The creation of the Arpanet was not > motivated by considerations of war. The Arpanet was not an Internet. > An Internet is a connection between two or more computer networks." > > If the government didn't invent the Internet, who did? Vinton Cerf > developed the TCP/IP protocol, the Internet's backbone, and Tim > Berners-Lee gets credit for hyperlinks. > > Enlarge Image > [image: image] > [image: image] > Xerox PARC > > Xerox PARC headquarters. > > But full credit goes to the company where Mr. Taylor worked after > leaving > ARPA: Xerox. It was at the Xerox PARC labs in Silicon Valley in the 1970s > that the Ethernet was developed to link different computer networks. > Researchers there also developed the first personal computer (the Xerox > Alto) and the graphical user interface that still drives computer usage > today. > > According to a book about Xerox PARC, "Dealers of Lightning" (by > Michael Hiltzik), its top researchers realized they couldn't wait for > the government to connect different networks, so would have to do it > themselves. "We have a more immediate problem than they do," Robert > Metcalfe told his colleague John Shoch in 1973. "We have more networks > than they do." Mr. Shoch later recalled that ARPA staffers "were > working under government funding and university contracts. They had > contract administrators . . . and all that slow, lugubrious behavior > to contend with." > > So having created the Internet, why didn't Xerox become the biggest > company in the world? The answer explains the disconnect between a > government-led view of business and how innovation actually happens. > > Executives at Xerox headquarters in Rochester, N.Y., were focused on > selling copiers. From their standpoint, the Ethernet was important > only so that people in an office could link computers to share a > copier. Then, in 1979, Steve Jobs negotiated an agreement whereby > Xerox's venture-capital division invested $1 million in Apple, with > the requirement that Jobs get a full briefing on all the Xerox PARC > innovations. "They just had no idea what they had," Jobs later said, > after launching hugely profitable Apple computers using concepts > developed by Xerox. > > Xerox's copier business was lucrative for decades, but the company > eventually had years of losses during the digital revolution. Xerox > managers can console themselves that it's rare for a company to make > the transition from one technology era to another. > > As for the government's role, the Internet was fully privatized in > 1995, when a remaining piece of the network run by the National > Science Foundation was closed-just as the commercial Web began to > boom. Blogger Brian Carnell wrote in 1999: "The Internet, in fact, > reaffirms the basic free market critique of large government. Here for > 30 years the government had an immensely useful protocol for > transferring information, TCP/IP, but it languished. . . . In less > than a decade, private concerns have taken that protocol and created > one of the most important technological revolutions of the millennia." > > It's important to understand the history of the Internet because it's > too often wrongly cited to justify big government. It's also important > to recognize that building great technology businesses requires both > innovation and the skills to bring innovations to market. As the > contrast between Xerox and Apple shows, few business leaders succeed > in this challenge. Those who do-not the government-deserve the credit > for making it happen. > > *(Note: This column has been altered to correct the misattribution of > Brian Carnell's quote.)* > > A version of this article appeared July 23, 2012, on page A11 in the > U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Who Really > Invented the Internet?. > _______________________________________________ dba-Tech mailing list dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com