Cassidy: Internet pioneer Paul Baran gets richly deserved honor

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

I first met Paul at the RAND Corp in 1968 and from the time we met  
Paul became a friend and advisor. Paul taught me a lot during these  
years. I have been asked by Paul to be on the Advisory Board of  
several of his startups and always said yes so I could spend more time  
with him. When I get to California, we go off to the local Japanese  
eating place. A richly deserved honor.

Dave


Cassidy: Internet pioneer Paul Baran gets richly deserved honor

By Mike Cassidy
Mercury News
Article Launched: 09/25/2008 01:00:00 PM PDT
<http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_10548833?nclick_check=1>

This is a column to brag about Paul Baran, because Lord knows he's not  
going to do it himself.

The guy is a brilliant innovator and a successful Silicon Valley  
entrepreneur. He's on his way to the White House to be honored Monday  
for giving us some of the key building blocks of the Internet.

And what does Baran think about it all? What will it be like to have  
the president of the United States present him with a National Medal  
of Technology and Innovation?
"Beats the hell out of me,'' Baran says.

None of this is to say that Baran is too big to be bothered. It's more  
that he wishes others wouldn't bother with the fuss. Technology is a  
team sport, he says, with each innovator building on what others  
accomplished before him or her.

"Each of us does a little piece," Baran, 82, says. "I've done one  
thing. So then you get credit for doing the whole damn thing and  
that's not so."
That's what makes Baran special. Talking to him in the kitchen of his  
Atherton ranch house, listening to his self-deprecating asides and  
seeing his eyes sparkle as he talks about the wonder of stumbling upon  
something new, it's clear he embodies the best of the spirit of  
Silicon Valley.

Forget the awards. Baran is a man with an abiding optimism who'd  
rather talk about how the Internet still has tremendous potential to  
change the world for the better.
"He's very much of the old school,'' says Paul Saffo, a valley  
essayist, futurist and friend of Baran's. "You serve. You innovate.  
And you don't flash your toys to your friends. Frankly, the current  
generation of entrepreneurs could learn a thing or two from the  
culture of his generation.''

[snip]



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