CSNET receives 2009 ISOC POSTEL AWARD

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Jon Postel was my second PhD

CSNET RECEIVES 2009 ISOC POSTEL AWARD

July 29, 2009.  At its meeting in Stockholm, Sweden, the Internet  
Society conferred its 2009 Postel Award on CSNET, the Computer Science  
Network.  The Postel Award is named after Jonathan B. Postel, a  
prominent Internet pioneer, and is intended to recognize an individual  
or organization that made outstanding contributions in service to the  
data communications community.

The citation reads: “CSNET began in 1981 with a five-year grant from  
the U.S. National Science Foundation.  Five years later, CSNET  
connected more than 165 academic, government, and industrial computer  
research groups across the U.S. and around the world.  It had  
concluded a seminal resource sharing agreement with the ARPANET and  
was self-governing and self-supporting.  Open to all computer  
researchers, it demonstrated that researchers valued the kind of  
informal collaboration it made possible.  Its success and acceptance  
encouraged the NSF to undertake the NSFNET program which brought open  
networking to an even larger academic community and presaged the  
emergence of the Internet.”

CSNET mobilized the Computer Science research and education community  
in the US into a major international experiment in large-scale  
collaborative networking.  By 1986, its 165 member institutions served  
upwards of 50,000 researchers, educators, and students.  CSNET  
supplied gateways and software that enabled similar networks in other  
countries.

The CSNET architecture supported the Internet standards,
SMTP and TCP/IP, and a
variety of connection protocols including telephone dialup, X.25, and  
ARPANET.  This architecture, along with strong technical support,  
enabled participants of differing means and skill levels to all join  
the community.  CSNET pioneered the model of university, industry,  
government partnerships that were key to the pre-commercial Internet.

CSNET’s success was critical to the decision by NSF in 1986 to adopt  
the Internet technology for NSFNET, the network backbone to connect  
its supercomputing centers and their research communities.  CSNET  
provided software, policies, and experienced alumni to the NSFNET  
teams.  NSFNET became the first backbone of the modern Internet.

The CSNET proposal was assembled by a lengthy community consensus  
process that began in 1979.  The four principal investigators, who led  
this effort and served as the project’s management committee, were:
Peter Denning, head of the computer science department at Purdue  
University.  His team included professor Douglas Comer, who was  
responsible for the software that ran TCP/IP over the GTE Telnet X.25  
commercial packet network.

David Farber, professor of electrical engineering at University of  
Delaware.  His team included then graduate student David Crocker, who  
was responsible for Phonenet, dialin telephone connections to relay  
servers for email exchange.
Anthony Hearn, head of the information sciences department at RAND.   
His team included Michael O’Brien, who was responsible for the relays  
connecting CSNET and ARPANET.

Lawrence Landweber, professor of computer science, University of  
Wisconsin.  His team included professor Marvin Solomon and Michael  
Litzkow who were responsible for the name server, a precursor of  
modern Directory Services.

At NSF, Kent Curtis helped conceive the entire effort and saw it  
through its formative years.  He was recognized for his pivotal role  
by the Computing Research Association’s first distinguished service  
award in 1988.  He was assisted by the able program management of Bill  
Kern, a chemist with a big interest in networking.

CSNET commissioned the BBN Corporation to serve as its Coordination  
and Information Center, a role presaging the modern ISP.  A team led  
by Dick Edmiston included Laura Breeden (community development and  
funding), and Craig Partridge and Dan Long (technical support).

CSNET was intended to be a self-supporting community effort.  The  
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research was chosen to assist  
with the formation and management of this community consortium.  At  
UCAR, Leonard Romney and president Cliff Morino provided support.

The $20,000 prize accompanying the award will be donated to charities  
that support the Internet.

Lawrence Landweber said,  “When CSNET was conceived in 1979, there  
was little appreciation of the value of the Internet.  It took two  
years and significant community consensus building before funding was  
secured.  CSNET’s most important contribution was its demonstration  
of the centrality of network services to a large distributed  
industrial and academic community, thereby spurring the Internet’s  
global spread and providing an essential link between early Internet  
research and today’s global Internet.”

Tony Hearn said, “As a user of the ARPANET since 1969, I was  
convinced of the
importance of this development for scientific research.  CSNET
provided a vehicle for extending ARPANET capabilities to a worldwide
group of scientists, and foreshadowed the global
Internet we have today. My own research was certainly enhanced by
these developments.”

Dave Farber said, “CSNET was instrumental in binding together the  
computer science community first in the United States and soon world  
wide as clones of CSNET were created in many counties and connected.  
It also triggered the joining of the industrial and academic research  
communities as industry joined CSNET.”

Peter Denning, said, “CSNET took a tremendous effort.  Our community  
struggled mightily to come together around a network and overcame many  
obstacles during the first two years of getting organized.  A huge  
number of people were involved and contributed to the technical and  
organizational aspects.  To this day, it amazes me that the community  
saw so much value they actually paid dues to belong and receive the  
service.”




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