Oddly... I just came across something that relates to what Charlie below is saying. Just started reading Tim Wu's The Master Switch (something that I hadn't gotten around to till now). He says that most startling inventions are arrived at by several individuals, around the same time. Invention happens once a technology's development reaches the point where the next step becomes available to many people. So no single inventor of the telephone, telegraph, or even things like the theory of origin of species. Here's a point that I really like: "The inventors we remember are significant not so much as inventors, but as founders of 'disruptive' industries, ones that shake up the technological status quo." While several people had invented the telephone, Bell founded a disruptive industry, hence we remember Bell as the inventor of telephones. This could, of course, be said of the Internet too. Sorry, i hadn't been followed the thread since it began so I have no other insightful comments to offer... Cheers! BsB On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 2:45 PM, Charlie Breindahl < charlie.breindahl@gmail.com> wrote:

The "invention" of the internet is - as Jeremy says - a fabrication. We also have a Washington Post article pronouncing V. A. Shiva Ayyadurai the "inventor" of email:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-innovations/va-shivaayyadurai-inve...

One of the most annoying errors that gets kicked about is the "fact" that the internet was constructed to withstand the impact of atomic war. Supposedly this led to the use of a packet switching protocol.

Paul Baran of the RAND Corporation did in fact sort of "invent" the concept, but so did Donald Davies in the UK. Both published extensively on the subject. Larry Roberts has more detaills here: http://www.packet.cc/files/ev-packet-sw.html

However, Len Kleinrock's work as a graduate student at MIT preceded both and he did not have atomic war in mind. The development of the internet was based on Kleinrock's work with packet switching: http://www.packet.cc/internet.html

Just sayin'

...

Thanks to all for an interesting and thoughtful thread to read today...

Steve

Ditto here.

Best, Charlie

-- Charlie Breindahl External Lecturer University of Copenhagen + Copenhagen Business School

Co-editor, Artifact, http://www.informaworld.com/artifact

Communication Manager, Danish Centre for Design Research, http://www.dcdr.dk/

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