Franz - Four thoughts jump to mind: 1. Although he's not European, JCR Licklider seems like a main guy you would want to talk about - he was an MIT psychologist who co-wrote a 1968 paper, "The Computer as a Communication Device." M. Mitchell Waldrop's book "The Dream Machine" (especially Chapter 5) has a good discussion of these issues, as does Howard Rheingold's "Tools for Thought." A short bio of Licklider (with a link to that paper) is at http://memex.org/licklider.html. 2. Tim Berners-Lee created the Web at CERN in order to provide a better system for communication and documentation of scientific ideas among physicists. His book "Weaving the Web" has a good description of this, as does the Gillies and Cailliau book, "How the Web Was Born." For a paper on European science I think this would be most helpful. See also http://www.w3.org/History/1989/proposal.html. 3. It's worth thinking about Doug Engelbart's work in this context, as well. Thierry Bardini wrote a wonderful book called "Bootstrapping" (Stanford Press, 2000) that is a sustained analysis of Engelbart, his lab, and his scientific and technical ideas. 4. Janet Abbate's discussion of CSNET and NSFNET in the United States is right on point as well, of course her book is "Inventing the Internet." I don't know if a similar historical treatment of European internetworking exists, say for example in the development of the ISO reference model or national networks in Europe (I'd love to hear from others about this). Sounds like an interesting paper, I hope this helps. Good luck! Andy Andrew Russell Department of the History of Science and Technology The Johns Hopkins University http://www.jhu.edu/host/ On May 19, 2004, at 5:23 AM, Barjak Franz wrote:
Dear Internet historians on the list,
I am finalising a paper on the Internet use in European science. I would like to include a reference to whether/how the search for new computer-based communication tools in science was influencing the development of the Internet. Can anybody help?
Thanks and regards Franz ********************************************* Franz Barjak University of Applied Sciences Northwest Switzerland Solothurn Riggenbachstrasse 16 CH-4600 Olten Switzerland E-mail: franz.barjak@fhso.ch Web: http://www.fhso.ch/_e/kont_e/pers_hp/doz_wirtschaft/barjak_e.htm p. +41 62 287 7825, fax: +41 62 287 7845 *********************************************
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