Some Context for the Spread of CSNET to the Peoples Republic of China

1945-1985

Jay Haubenhauben@columbia.edu

DATE: MON, 14 SEP 87 21:07 CHINA TIME FROM: "MAIL ADMINISTRATION FOR CHINA" <MAIL@ZE1> TO: ZORN@GERMANY, ROTERT@GERMANY, WACKER@GERMANY, FINKEN@UNIKA1 CC: LHL@PARMESAN.WISC.EDU, FARBER@UDEL.EDU, JENNINGS%IRLEAN.BITNET@GERMANY, CIC%RELAY.CS.NET@GERMANY, WANG@ZE1, RZLI@ZE1 SUBJECT: FIRST ELECTRONIC MAIL FROM CHINA TO GERMANY "UEBER DIE GROSSE MAUER ERREICHEN WIE ALLE ECKEN DER WELT" "ACROSS THE GREAT WALL WE CAN REACH EVERY CORNER IN THE WORLD" DIES IST DIE ERSTE ELECTRONIC MAIL, DIE VON CHINA AUS UEBER RECHNERKOPPLUNG IN DIE INTERNATIONALEN WISSENSCHAFTSNETZE GESCHICKT WIRD. THIS IS THE FIRST ELECTRONIC MAIL SUPPOSED TO BE SENT FROM CHINA INTO THE INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC NETWORKS VIA COMPUTER INTERCONNECTION BETWEEN BEIJING AND KARLSRUHE, WEST GERMANY (USING CSNET/PMDF BS2000 VERSION). UNIVERSITY OF KARLSRUHE INSTITUTE FOR COMPUTER APPLICATION OF -INFORMATIK RECHNERABTEILUNG- STATE COMMISSION OF MACHINE INDUSTRY (IRA) (ICA) PROF. WERNER ZORN PROF. WANG YUN FENG MICHAEL FINKEN DR. LI CHENG CHIUNG STEFAN PAULISCH QIU LEI NAN MICHAEL ROTERT RUAN REN CHENG GERHARD WACKER WEI BAO XIAN HANS LACKNER ZHU JIANG ZHAO LI HUA

John von Neumann28 December 1903 - 8 February 1957

June 1945: First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC

April 1947: Affidavit putting all IAS computer contributions in public domain 175 copies of reports on IAS computer development sent by land and sea mail around the world

1946-1953: Electronic Computer Project -- IAS Computer

John vov Neumann and the IAS computer

22-23 October 1955First international conference in Germany

on electronic digital computing. 560 attendees60 speakers

Technische Hochschule, Darmstadt

Alwin Walther

1950s

• USA: Joint Computer Conferences (started in 1951), leading to a desire for an international conference

• Germany: 1955 - Electronic Computers and Information Processing (Elektronische Rechenmaschinen und Informations-verarbeitung) International Conference in Darmstadt (530 attendees and 60 speakers)

• China: 1956 - Twelve Year Plan for the Development of

Sciences and Technology included computer technology as one of the 57 priority fields

Suggested an international meeting to exchange information about the state of the computer art. Such a conference would be a “major contribution to a more stable world.”

Isaac Auerbach

“By far, the most important success of the conference was the co-mingling of people from all parts of the world, their making new acquaintances, and their willingness to share their knowledge with one another.” Isaac Auerbach

June 1959

First World Computer Conference

Paris France

Nearly 1800 participants from 38 countries

International Federationfor

Information Processing (IFIP)

(1960 to present)

Mission: To be an apolitical world organization to encourage and assist in the development,

exploitation and application of Information Technology for the benefit of all people.

(IFIP Charter 1960)

Time-Sharing Mode of Computer Operation

simultaneous use of a single computer by many users(one computer with many terminals attached)

Timesharing

computer

Terminals Terminals

sharing among researchers now being built directly into the computer technology itself

JCR Licklider

in 1960 foresaw

interconnection of human-computer thinking centers

into an

“intergalactic network”

“It seems reasonable to envision, for a time 10 or 15 years hence, a 'thinking center' that will incorporate the functions of present-day libraries together with anticipated advances in information storage and retrieval.”

- J.C.R. Licklider, Man-Computer Symbiosis, 1960.

Donald Davies

mid 1960sPacket Switching

communication lines could be shared by all users if the messages were broken up into packets

“For the society, the impact will be good or bad, depending mainly on the question:

Will ‘to be on line’ be a privilege or a right?

If only a favored segment of the population gets a chance … the network may exaggerate the discontinuity in … opportunity.”

J.C.R. Licklider and Robert Taylor, The Computer as a Communication Device, 1968

UNIXtime-sharing operating system

simple and powerfulentire software code available

open for change and improvement by its users

UNIX spread around the world

ARPANETAdvanced Research Project Agency (ARPA) Network

first large scale network of dissimilar computers. based on packet switching technology

The goal of the ARPANET project“to facilitate resource sharing”

biggest surprise was that the ARPANET was used mostly for

EMAIL

Bob Kahn Vint CerfUS US

Peter Kirstein Yngvar Lundh Paal Spilling Hubert Zimmerman UK Norway Norway France

Louis PouzinFrance

Some of the Active participants in creating TCP/IP 1973-1978

Computing in China: A Travel Report (Covering 3 weeks in July 1972)Science Magazine, 1973, Volume 182, Issue 4108, pp. 134-140

China sent a computer<- scientist, Li Fu-sheng, on its first team of scientists to tour the US in 1972.

One version of the planned European Informatics Network (Source “Cost 11 Project”)

EIN

November 23, 1971 Agreement to establish a European Informatics Network

||------------| | -----------------------|| Vienna | | Bratislava |\| T.U. | | | \|=----------| | -----------------------| \

Austrian | / | \ /Universities | / | \ /

\ | / | |--------------------| /\ | / ______| __________| Moscow | \ USSR |------------------------| ____/ | |--------/-----------| \| | | / \| PDP 11/20 | | |-----/-------| /| |\ | | Kiev |

/ -------------------------| \ | |-------------|/ | \ | /

EIN | \ | / | \ | /

|--------------| |----------------------------| /| | | | / | IIASA | | Budapest | / | | | | / |--------------| | | /

|---/-------------\---------| / \

A Proposed IIASANET Configuration, September 1975 (Source, IIASA, 1975, p.142)

Larry Landweber

COMPUTER SCIENCE RESEARCH NETWORK GOALS

* Open to all computer researchers throughout the United States (later the world)

* Logical net comprising physical subnets (initially ARPANET, Telenet, Phonenet)

* Advanced network services (initially mail, file transfer remote login, name server)

* Self-governing, -sustaining, and –supporting

* Low entry fee

Michael Hebgen, Werner Zorn, Michael Rotert with VAX 11/750 (CSNET-HOST) and the SIEMENS 7561 (DFN-HOST) in the Univ of Karlsruhe Computer

Center (IRA) 1985

John von Neumann

John von Neumann Alwin Walther Isaac Auerbach

John von Neumann Alwin Walther Isaac Auerbach JCR Licklider

John von Neumann Alwin Walther Isaac Auerbach JCR Licklider Donald Davies

John von Neumann Alwin Walther Isaac Auerbach JCR Licklider Donald Davies

Louis Pouzin Bob Kahn

John von Neumann Alwin Walther Isaac Auerbach JCR Licklider Donald Davies

Louis Pouzin Bob Kahn Tom Truscott

John von Neumann Alwin Walther Isaac Auerbach JCR Licklider Donald Davies

Louis Pouzin Bob Kahn Tom Truscott Larry Landweber

John von Neumann Alwin Walther Isaac Auerbach JCR Licklider Donald Davies

Louis Pouzin Bob Kahn Tom Truscott Larry Landweber Werner Zorn

Yufeng WangTHANK YOU