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The Internet, As It Was - A Story of Dave Farber and the IP List
From: "Dave Farber" <dave () farber net>
Date: Fri, 01 Apr 2005 10:06:23 -0500
------- Original message ------- From: Jonathan B Spira <jspira () basex com> Sent: 1/4/'05, 9:48 Dave, a recent exchange of e-mails following a posting on the IP list resulted in my column this week, which I think you and other IPers may find of interest. If I haven't said it in a while, thanks for the IP list. It is truly a gift. /s/ Jonathan ********************************************************************** Basex:TechWatch A Weekly Monitor and Digest of Technology News Basex BusinessEdge and Basex MarketEdge Reports and Industry Intelligence Get the whole picture. Visit http://www.basex.com/wholepicture ********************************************************************** BASEX:COMMENTARY-OF-THE-WEEK BY JONATHAN B. SPIRA THE INTERNET, AS IT WAS For a moment - and it was just a moment in the passage of time - I was transported back to the early days of the Internet, when a pioneering spirit of friendlin ess and cooperation was the norm. Let me explain how this happened. The last section to be written for my book, Managing the Knowledge Workforce: Understanding the Information Revolution That's Changing the Business World, is a timeline on knowledge and information work. David Goldes (Basex' president) and I had actually started researching this in 1990, and we published it that year. The original 1990 timeline had 20 entries, starting with the invention of paper (105) and the pencil (1465), continuing with the typewriter (1808), the comput er (ENIAC, 1946), and the floppy disk (1970). I decided to include it - with additional entries - in the book. My augmented timeline has ca. 70 entries, start ing with ink (2697 B.C.E.) and continuing with the alphabet (ca. 1600 B.C.E.), including the codex (first century C.E.), the wireless telegraph (1792, Chappe Se maphore), and the graphical user interface (1975). My criteria for inclusion included its significance to knowledge and information work, and whether it qualif ied as a "first" [e.g. the FIRST fountain pen (1702) made it in, but Lewis Waterman's commercially successful version a century later did not]. What I didn't have was a firm fix on the first office telephone system, or Private Branch eXchange (PBX). I had a vague recollection about a Midwestern retirem ent home having the first PBX but none of my searches proved fruitful. Not the type to give up, I e-mailed my friend Dave Farber, a founding father of the Inte rnet and proprietor of the IP redistribution and commentary mailing list, asking him to send my enquiry on to the 30,000 or so IP readers (IP stands for Interes ting Persons). (Wired magazine once called Dave the "Paul Revere" of the Internet.) No sooner had I clicked on send, than my in box started to fill up. First, Katie Hafner, who writes for the New York Times, promised to look this up in her cop y of John Brooks' "Telephone: The First 100 Years" when she got home. Mark Seiden pointed me to two possible "firsts" - one of which was the Old Soldiers' Home in Dayton Ohio (1878). Half a dozen other IPers also e-mailed me, some asking questions to narrow the scope of my enquiry; others recommending places to look for further info. Esther Dyson chimed in and introduced me via e-mail to Tom Malone, a professor at MIT who she felt would know the answer. For a moment - and it really was just a moment - I thought of a few mailing lists of the early 1990s where pioneering Internet users were doling out their exper tise left and right. No banner adverts, no commercialization, just people helping people. But it was just a moment. Jonathan B. Spira is CEO and Chief Analyst at Basex. He can be reached at jspira () basex com /=================== http://www.basex.com/advance ===================\ "The right book at the right time by the right author" - KMWorld Managing the Knowledge Workforce Understanding the Information Revolution That's Changing the Business World by Jonathan B. Spira Preface by Amy D. Wohl Includes 13 case studies including Britannia Airways, LogicaCMG, Unisys, IBM, American Management Systems, Reuters, and Duane Morris Special pre-publication pricing $29.99 including free shipping Click on http://www.basex.com/advance for a peek inside \=================== http://www.basex.com/advance ===================/ ********************************************************************** THIS PUBLICATION IS A COMPLIMENTARY SERVICE TO TECHNOLOGY EXECUTIVES. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO PASS THIS ON TO A COLLEAGUE. You are subscribed to Basex:TechWatch. To unsubscribe, send an email to BTWADMIN () BASEX COM from the same email account that receives this newsletter with the subject line "UNSUBSCRIBE". To subscribe to this publication, visit http://www.basex.com/btw. To send us your company news for possible inclusion in Basex:TechWatch, visit http://www.basex.com/news. ********************************************************************** Basex:TechWatch Chief Analyst: Jonathan B. Spira Editorial Director: Basilio Alferow Contributors: David M. Goldes, Mariko Kato, John R. Kessling, and Ellen Pearlman. ********************************************************************** (c) Copyright 2005 Basex, Inc. All rights reserved. Basex, the Basex logo, Knowledge. Analysis. The Right Decisions For Your Business, Collaborative Business Knowledge, Collaborative Business Environments, KWIQ and Knowledge Worker Impact Quotient are all trademarks or registered trademarks of Basex, Inc. 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