Archive for May, 2005

(If you don’t know who they are, let’s just say that without these two computer scientists, the Internet as we know it today might not have been born).

Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn, photographed by Warner Sterling at the event

It’s already hard to remember what life was like before the World Wide Web, only a decade or so ago. The Web couldn’t have come to life without the worldwide network that began as ARPANET in the 60s and evolved into the Internet over a few short decades.

Receiving the Turing Award

Vint and Bob are about to receive the Turing Award, the most prestigious award in the computing world for their pioneering work on the design and implementation of the Internet’s basic communications protocols, including tcp/ip. See A Brief History of the Internet and Hobbes Internet Timeline v8.0 for more detailed histories of the Internet.

DC Internet Society celebration

Yesterday evening the DC Internet Society (DCISOC) held an celebration for Vint and Bob on the occasion of their receiving the Turing Award. It was a wonderful time to hear their reminiscences, to reflect back on the history of the Internet, and to look forward to the future and what we would like it to bring.

Why care?

I’ve seen graphic design move from a completely manual art to a computer-based one, from an often isolated endeavor to a networked one due to the Internet. The impact of the Internet on design is inestimable. Thanks you guys!