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Re: good idea Less we forget Whitehouse.gov
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 18:06:41 -0500
Begin forwarded message: From: "Steve Walker" <steve () stevewalker com> Date: January 21, 2009 3:45:39 PM EST To: <dave () farber net>, "ip" <ip () v2 listbox com> Cc: "Steve Walker" <steve () stevewalker com> Subject: RE: [IP] good idea Less we forget Whitehouse.gov WhiteHouse.gov came up on the Internet on June 1, 1993 with announcements from Al Gore and promises to reply to you quickly. Al announced it on the Today show and over 10,000 messages were received the first day. It was housed at Trusted Information Systems, Inc in Glenwood, MD on a temporary basis until the White House got their own link to the Internet. This "temporary basis" lasted until January, 1995. At the end of each day, the messages received were hand delivered to the White House and volunteers prepared replys. Many former TIS employees have plaques on their walls from the Secret Service, thanking them for the help they gave the SS in understanding this new "opportunity" and threat. Steve Walker Former CEO of TIS Steve Walker Steve Walker & Associates 3060 Washington Road, (Rt. 97), Suite 200 Glenwood, MD 21738 Phone: 301-854-6851, Fax: 301-854-6235 http://www.stevewalker.com -----Original Message----- From: David Farber [mailto:dave () farber net] Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2009 3:31 PM To: ip Subject: [IP] good idea Less we forget Whitehouse.gov Begin forwarded message: From: Ross Stapleton-Gray <ross () stapleton-gray com> Date: January 21, 2009 12:39:07 PM EST To: dave () farber net, Jock Gill <jg45 () me com> Subject: Re: [IP] Less we forget Whitehouse.gov At 07:38 AM 1/21/2009, Jock Gill wrote:
First White House web site, Oct. 1994 Legitimizing IP email addresses, not just X.400
Oh this is bringing back memories... sounds like we actually beat out the White House, in getting the CIA on the web earlier in 1994 (in the form of the DCI's office, with ODCI.GOV... there was a thrash for some time about CIA.GOV, and UCIA.GOV was how that first appeared, due to CIA.GOV being associated with a classified network). Those of us who were Internet evangelists pitched the public relations value of getting the CIA World Factbook on line (on our own server... it was out there in other forms), and it worked. We were hosted at DIGEX (I think this was after they moved operations from above a Chinese restaurant, but long before they went public for the first time); amusingly, it was only after the CIA moved the web site inside that it got defaced by hackers (c. 1997 or so). (And ODCI.GOV no longer exists, as the office vanished with the creation of the Director of National Intelligence.) And I remember attending a meeting, either in 1994, or perhaps early in 1995, in the Old Executive Office Building, where it was stated that because the largest plurality of e-mail addresses and directory systems in government were X.400/X.500, that was going to be the primary standard to adopt. Vint Cerf was there, and I think you could have seen steam coming out of his ears! (Vint, if you're on the list, you can confirm, deny, or embellish...) It was superficially true (owing to the large number of X.400 addresses living in the DoD), but everything that wasn't either that or TCP/IP was heading in the latter direction, fast, and growing... I don't know how the policy debate thrashed out, but we got to where we are now... Lastly, I remember talking with a contractor supporting USGS, c. 1995, who asked me about how they ought to be structuring their deal with USGS... they were then getting A NICKEL A HIT (!) for web support. I told them that they were extremely lucky, and that it probably wouldn't last. ;-) Is someone writing up a history of USG as user of the Internet? It'd be great to chronicle such folks as Jock has already mentioned, and others, like Elliot Christian, who were evangelizing IT in an era where it was strange and different, in the world of IBM Selectrics. Ross ---- Ross Stapleton-Gray, Ph.D. Stapleton-Gray & Associates, Inc. http://www.stapleton-gray.com ------------------------------------------- Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com ------------------------------------------- Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
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