BBN and Internet History Books
John S. Quarterman
[email protected]
Copyright © 1997
Matrix Information and Directory Services (MIDS)
[email protected]
Copyright © 1997
Matrix Information and Directory Services (MIDS)
From Matrix News, 7(10), October 1997 [email protected], http://www.mids.org A version of this article also appeared in SunExpert Magazine.
Someone remarked:
``I just saw an ad in the LA Times yesterday for BBN, whose name I don't know,...''I suppose it's not surprising that even knowledgeable Internet users (or reporters, in this particular case) don't know much about the origins of the Internet. When BBN was big in the Internet there were only tens of thousands of Internet users, not tens of millions like today. Only one in a thousand of today's Internet users was on any network back then. Fewer, considering that many people have retired in the intervening 20 years. For more on network growth, see http://www.mids.org/growth/internet/index.html and for user growth, see the MIDS Internet Market Report http://www.mids.org/market/.But I do have to admit being surprised that someone has never even heard of BBN. I'll get to that in a moment. First, about a million words of network history.
For those who aren't familiar with the early history of the ARPANET and the Internet, there exist at least three history books:
The third concentrates on personalities and politics, and the earliest ARPANET pre-history and history as a story.
All three mention BBN prominently; read any of them and you'll see why. In brief, BBN was the prime contractor for the ARPANET, and it developed numerous key networking technologies, ranging from the first geographically distributed packet switching nodes, the Interface Message Processors (IMPs) to the @ sign (see ``The @ Sign Nobel'' in this issue).
Among networks BBN helped developed were not only the ARPANET, but also CSNET, NEARNET, and BBN Planet. BBN ran the ARPANET Network Operations Center (NOC) and was a key organization in the early Network Working Group, which was the predecessor of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF, URL:http://www.ietf.org).
BBN cultivated a unique corporate culture that encouraged creative thought and innovation; if bigger organizations had said it couldn't be done, BBN often ended up doing it. It employed more Ph.D.s than the average college, and it used paid staff instead of graduate students. Of course, many of them were also graduate students, since BBN encouraged further study. For that matter, the company probably graduated more people who moved on to other organizations than did the average college. Ex-BBNers tend to stick together, having their own mailing list and otherwise communicating with each other. (In case you're wondering, yes, I used to work there, 1977-1980.)
If BBN had been able to capitalize on its inventions, it would be huge today. For only one example, BBN invented the modem. Yes, the modem. Unfortunately, packaging and marketing were never its strong points. Much of its funding came from government grants, which often precluded selling the immediate results of the research so supported.
Another example is time-sharing. Yes, time-sharing, on a Digital PDP-1, with the first public demonstration in September 1962. This was the beginnings of interactive (as opposed to batch) use of computers, and the beginnings of simultaneous use of computers by several people. In this era of PCs, that latter may seem old-fashioned, but remember that today's interactive network servers are outgrowths of timesharing.
There are those who argue that BBN's glory days preceded the ARPANET. The company began in 1948, when its founders developed the acoustics for the United Nations building. For 30 years of BBN science and technology, see URL:http://www.InternationalOnline.com/san/bbn/BBN.htm.
The name BBN now lives only in memory, history books, and advertisements, since BBN was recently bought by GTE.
Someone remarked:
``I just saw an ad in the LA Times yesterday for BBN, whose name I don't know,...''I suppose it's not surprising that even knowledgeable Internet users (or reporters, in this particular case) don't know much about the origins of the Internet. When BBN was big in the Internet there were only tens of thousands of Internet users, not tens of millions like today. Only one in a thousand of today's Internet users was on any network back then. Fewer, considering that many people have retired in the intervening 20 years. For more on network growth, see http://www.mids.org/growth/internet/index.html and for user growth, see the MIDS Internet Market Report http://www.mids.org/market/.But I do have to admit being surprised that someone has never even heard of BBN. I'll get to that in a moment. First, about a million words of network history.
For those who aren't familiar with the early history of the ARPANET and the Internet, there exist at least three history books:
- The Matrix, by John S. Quarterman, Digital Press, 1990, 746 pages.
- Casting the Net, by Peter Salus, Addison-Wesley, 1995, 300 pages.
- Where Wizards Stay Up Late, by Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon, 304 pages, Simon & Schuster, 1996.
The third concentrates on personalities and politics, and the earliest ARPANET pre-history and history as a story.
All three mention BBN prominently; read any of them and you'll see why. In brief, BBN was the prime contractor for the ARPANET, and it developed numerous key networking technologies, ranging from the first geographically distributed packet switching nodes, the Interface Message Processors (IMPs) to the @ sign (see ``The @ Sign Nobel'' in this issue).
Among networks BBN helped developed were not only the ARPANET, but also CSNET, NEARNET, and BBN Planet. BBN ran the ARPANET Network Operations Center (NOC) and was a key organization in the early Network Working Group, which was the predecessor of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF, URL:http://www.ietf.org).
BBN cultivated a unique corporate culture that encouraged creative thought and innovation; if bigger organizations had said it couldn't be done, BBN often ended up doing it. It employed more Ph.D.s than the average college, and it used paid staff instead of graduate students. Of course, many of them were also graduate students, since BBN encouraged further study. For that matter, the company probably graduated more people who moved on to other organizations than did the average college. Ex-BBNers tend to stick together, having their own mailing list and otherwise communicating with each other. (In case you're wondering, yes, I used to work there, 1977-1980.)
If BBN had been able to capitalize on its inventions, it would be huge today. For only one example, BBN invented the modem. Yes, the modem. Unfortunately, packaging and marketing were never its strong points. Much of its funding came from government grants, which often precluded selling the immediate results of the research so supported.
Another example is time-sharing. Yes, time-sharing, on a Digital PDP-1, with the first public demonstration in September 1962. This was the beginnings of interactive (as opposed to batch) use of computers, and the beginnings of simultaneous use of computers by several people. In this era of PCs, that latter may seem old-fashioned, but remember that today's interactive network servers are outgrowths of timesharing.
There are those who argue that BBN's glory days preceded the ARPANET. The company began in 1948, when its founders developed the acoustics for the United Nations building. For 30 years of BBN science and technology, see URL:http://www.InternationalOnline.com/san/bbn/BBN.htm.
The name BBN now lives only in memory, history books, and advertisements, since BBN was recently bought by GTE.