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[ih] Early Internet history
On 7/5/18 4:36 PM, Jack Haverty wrote:
> AFAIK, the Internet is the first implementation of a "network" (i.e., a
> data communications system using lots of distributed processors to move
> bits) that is done with the components being designed, manufactured,
> installed, and operated independently but cooperatively by more than one
> organization. Earlier networks of computers, e.g., the ARPANET, IBM's
> multi-drop networks, et al, were all under control of one entity. Some
> such networks got to be pretty large, but were always under single
> management. The Internet changed that, and IMHO that facilitate its
> growth. Somebody will correct me if I'm wrong...
>
Kind of sounds like the international postal system.? Or shipping
packages internationally.? (For a very loose definition of "data
communications.")? I seem to recall folks referring to to packets as
"mailgrams" every once in a while.
And, I believe that both USENET (or at least UUCP) and BITNET predated
the TCP/IP cutover by a couple of years.? They were both decentralized
and "operated independently but cooperatively by more than one
organization."
Miles Fidelman
--
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is. .... Yogi Berra