By EurekAlert
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
More than 50 computer pioneers and leaders key to the Internet's
ongoing development over the past 40 years will gather Friday,
March 19 to recognize the role of the University of Southern
California (USC) Information Sciences Institute in the Internet's
success.
For the past 32 years, the Information Sciences Institute (ISI)
has served as the steward of the Internet "Requests for Comments"
(RFCs)—the documents that both describe and shape the
Internet's inner workings.
When the RFCs were born in 1969, the World Wide Web was more
than 20 years short of a twinkle in Tim Berners-Lee's eye. However,
it is fitting that ISI is being recognized in Los Angeles for its
role in helping to foster these documents.Three of the first four
universities connected to what was then seen as highly advanced -
but now as rudimentary -- Internet in 1969 were located in
California.
The event is being held under the auspices of a coalition of
Internet organizations, including the Internet Society, the
Internet Engineering Task Force, the Internet Architecture Board,
and the Internet Research Task Force.
Among those scheduled to attend:
- Vint Cerf, widely recognized as one of the Internet's "founding
fathers"
- Stephen Crocker, author of the very first RFC
- Bob Kahn, widely recognized as one of the Internet's "founding
fathers"
- Max Nikias, Provost and President-designate of the University
of Southern California
- Herbert Schorr, Executive Director of ISI and Senior Associate
Dean of the Viterbi School of Engineering
- Russ Housley, Chair of the Internet Engineering Task Force
- Lynn St. Amour, President and CEO of the Internet Society
There are now more than 5,500 RFCs for such essential standards
as email, file transfers, voice over the Internet, web transfers,
and device addressing.
A detailed recent history "40 Years of RFCs," is available
at:
http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc5540/
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