History of The Internet

Examining The Web and The Internet & Who Created & Shaped Them & Who Brought Them To Ireland

Using Various Sources We Present An Interactive Timeline Of "The Internet" and the Introduction of Computing and The Internet to Ireland.
Through a mix of text, linked material and linked videos. This timeline of over 600 curated items represents Ireland's computing history through the birth of the Internet, it's introduction to the country and the birth of the Web while continuing through to the present day.
Clicking on a headline will expand that entry.

1956

First Feasibility Studies...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Some of the bigger organisations in Ireland began to evaluate electronic computing in the mid-1950s. Among these were the Guinness brewery, which decided in October 1956 that the available technology was too expensive and unreliable, and Aer Lingus, which conducted its first feasibility study in the following year and reached the same conclusion.

IBM Ireland opens ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

IBM established an Irish subsidiary at 24 Fitzwilliam Place. The companys products included electronic data processing machines, but its main business was the promotion and sale of unit record equipment & electro-mechanical accounting machines that stored information on punched cards. IBM Irelands original staff (from left to right): Raymond Girault, Margaret Fitzgerald and Derek Overend (1920-2016). The fourth person to join IBM Ireland was John Moriarty, who became the companys first customer engineer in June 1957. In 1968 he took charge of the computer laboratory in Trinity College Dublin.

1957

USSR Launches Sputnik......: Click here for more...

USSR launches Sputnik, first artificial earth satellite. In response, US forms the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), the following year, within the Department of Defense (DoD) to establish US lead in science and technology applicable to the military

First computer in Ireland ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Irish Sugar Company took delivery of a British Tabulating Machine Company (BTM) computer and housed it in a seed store at the companys factory in Thurles. Originally developed by Hollerith Electronic Computers (HEC), this model was known at different times as the HEC 1201, BTM 1201 and ICT 1201. BTMs agent in Ireland, Calculating & Statistical Services, made the sale. BTM had a direct presence in Northern Ireland. A factory in Castlereagh that started operations in 1949. The Sugar Company bought its system, at a cost of 33,000 punts in order to calculate the payments that it made once a year to 28,000 beet farmers. At the time of purchase it expected the computer to start producing statements for these growers before the end of 1958.

1958

Slow progress at Sugar Company ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Irish Sugar Company auditors and accountants made tentative, but unsuccessful attempts to program the BTM 1201 computer to process payments to farmers. BTM provided assistance in the form of Norman Frances from its Liverpool office. He wrote the first version of a beet payments program. This involved one set of punched cards with sugar beet details and a second set with farmers contact data. The Sugar Company had not yet acquired the card handling and management skills that a system like this would require. ICT assigned Brian Pardoe (1931-1993), an experienced operator of punch card machinery from its bureau in Dublin, to the installation. According to Gordon Clarke, the software was capable of running under the control of Brian Pardoe in late 1958, but the Sugar Company chose not to use its computer during the beet collection season that year.

First computing professional ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The British Tabulating Machine (BTM) Company recruited Trinity College Dublin graduate Gordon Clarke, following its decision to employ computer specialists in Ireland to support its system at the Irish Sugar Company. Other Irish people already worked in computer installations abroad. Through this appointment Gordon became the first computing professional to be based inside the country. He received extensive technical training in Britain on BTMs products. When ICT superseded BTM, he became a key member of its organisation in Dublin.

Freelance pioneer ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Mathematician Christine Willies, a former BTM Company employee living in Ireland, wrote a regression analysis program for the Irish Sugar Company. Working freelance, she produced a least squares fit program on the BTM 1201 system, achieving a specific calculation that the Sugar Company required. This project was the first scientific computing activity in Ireland. When the ESB was considering the acquisition of a BTM computer in early 1959, it engaged Christine to deliver an introductory course on programming to two officials from its accounting machine group. She thus became the first Ireland-based computing trainer as well. Christine Willies was married to Alec Willies. BTM had sent him from Britain to provide technical support on the computer in Thurles.

1959

Physicists try programming ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Cosmic physicists from the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies (DIAS) visited Thurles to evaluate the suitability of the BTM computer for their research. Using the system they succeeded in fitting experimental results to a theoretical curve. The researchers experience on the only electronic computer in the country made them aware that scientific computing involved a demanding data preparation effort. They therefore focused on alternative methods and approaches. For example, DIAS developed a much simpler device for the analysis of microscope readings.

More delays at Sugar Company ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Irish Sugar Company moved its computer and ancillary equipment into a prefabricated building in a field beside the Thurles factory. ICTs Brian Pardoe prepared the equipment so that it could process information during the 1959 beet collection season but, as in 1958, the company decided against using the computer. By now, moreover, some Sugar Company managers wanted to abandon the computing project completely.

Formation of ICT ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The British Tabulating Machine Company (BTM) combined with former rival Powers-Samas to create International Computers and Tabulators (ICT). Summing up its achievements at the time of the merger, BTM boasted that it had over 40 computer installations now in action.

1960

First full-time programmers ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Irish Sugar decided to employ its own programmers. The company selected Niall Buckley, Peadar ODonnell, Dermot Sheehan and Tim Walsh by aptitude test and sent them to England in spring 1960 for training by ICT.

First computer manager ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

In 1960 Irish Sugar Company appointed a manager to take overall charge of its computing project. Commerce graduate Eoghan Busteed became manager, central accounts, but the role was effectively IT management. His staff included the companys four programmers, ten punch card machine operators and a mailroom team.

ICT 1301 launch ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

ICT announced its 1301 as the successor to the ICT 1201. Targeted at business users, the system used core memory, drum storage and punched cards and offered magnetic tape drives as optional peripherals. A version with lower specifications was subsequently designated the ICT 1300.

First IBM computer ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Electricity Supply Board (ESB) took delivery of the first IBM computer in Ireland: an IBM 650. The company, which had begun to use punched card equipment in 1932, also installed six new IBM accounting machines. An accounting machine group in the ESB department of the chief accountant was responsible for operating the new IBM system. This photograph shows IBM employees Ehud Rubenstein, John Moriarty and George Connolly at the arrival of the aircraft that transported the computer.

Sugar Company succeeds ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Sugar Company achieved the original objective of its computing investment at last. Its staff used the ICT system to calculate payments to individual beet growers for the 1960 season. ICT supported this effort by assigning Gordon Clarke as an adviser to the Sugar Company programmers, along with two on-site engineers and a punch card specialist. There was more downtime than operational time and re-runs were frequent. But the system was finally able to perform its intended task.

1961

Airline reservations plan ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Aer Lingus formed a team, led by sales manager Finbar Donovan, to implement a real-time flight reservation system. This was closely modelled on a US project, in which IBM and American Airlines were building the Sabre reservations system.

1962

Galactic Network concept encompassi...: Click here for more...

J.C.R. Licklider & W. Clark, MIT: On-Line Man Computer Communication(August) Galactic Network concept encompassing distributed social interactions

First computer at UCD ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

University College Dublin installed an IBM 1620 & a model that IBM marketed internationally as an inexpensive scientific computer. UCDs computing strategy was initiated and led by its science faculty.

ICT innovations ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

ICT started to ship its 1300 series to customers. This new generation of computers featured technologies like germanium transistors and core memory. Another innovation in the ICT 1300 and 1301 was their ability to perform British currency calculations in hardware. The systems arithmetic unit had no binary mode. Users could choose to make decimal calculations or to work with pounds, shillings and pence.

First computer at TCD ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Computing at Trinity College Dublin started in, and was subsequently led by, the universitys engineering school. Its first system, an IBM 1620, was delivered by lifting the hardware through a first floor window at 21 Lincoln Place on 16 June 1962. Brendan Scaife recorded the arrival of the computer in a series of colour photographs. In 1967 this IBM 1620 was transferred to Dunsink Observatory for use by the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies. In 1974 it was moved again and installed at Dundalk Regional Technological College.

Agricultural research computer ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

An Foras Taluntais installed an Elliott 803B computer at its statistics department in Sandymount. The agricultural research organisation acquired this machine for the analysis of field crop experiments and for agricultural statistics. The systems manufacturer, Elliott Automation, was a British firm that subsequently merged with English Electric in 1967.

First bureau service ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

ICT set up a computing bureau in Dublin, equipped with a second-hand ICT 1202. Its customers included Easons and Tynagh Mines. Calculating & Statistical Services (C&SS), which had previously acted as the companys agency in Ireland, had a long history of bureau services based on unit record equipment. When ICT assumed direct control over this business, it saw a computing service as a logical addition. Bureau manager Charlie OBrien had previously worked on payroll processing services at LEO Computers in England, which had set up a computing bureau in 1956.

New system at Irish Sugar ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Sugar Company replaced its four-year-old ICT 1201 with an ICT 1300. The new computer proved to be much more reliable than its predecessor.

PERT projects ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The ICT bureau, whose services usually involved accounts and payroll processing, undertook technical computing projects for two construction companies... ONeills and Cramptons. These applied the recently developed program evaluation and review technique (PERT) to project management. PERT assisted users to identify and analyse the various tasks required for the completion of a specific building project.

Computer Exposition ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Business Equipment Suppliers Association held a computer exposition in the RDS. This photograph shows the ICT stand, where Pat Rafter (left) and Charles Cooke (third from left) are presenting the companys technologies to visitors. The equipment in the foreground is a tabulator with input and output slots for punched cards. The machine behind this is an electronic calculator. (Photograph by Gordon Clarke, reproduced with permission)

1963

First Irish-made computer ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Qeleq was established in Dundalk to develop and manufacture linear programming analogue computers. It developed and patented a technique for calculating the least expensive formulations for animal feed production. Qeleq sold about 200 analogue computers into this target industry before the company was wound down in 1978.

First computer at Gouldings ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Goulding Fertilisers introduced an IBM 1401.

IBM 1440 launch ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

IBM Ireland ran a launch event in the Shelbourne Hotel for the IBM 1440 computer. This model, which its parent corporation had announced in October 1962, was a member of the IBM 1400 series, configured to suit smaller businesses. It was sold with the IBM 1311 disk storage drive, whose removable disk packs could each hold 2 Mb. Aer Lingus subsequently installed two IBM 1440s.

ICT premises ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

International Computers and Tabulators moved to the newly acquired ICT House in Adelaide Road, Dublin. This move brought together a workforce that was previously divided between offices in Harcourt Street and Leeson Street.

First government installation ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Revenue Commissioners installed an ICT 1301 mainframe in the central Dublin office of the Collector-General. Computing operations started three months later. The system, including punched card peripherals and printers, was leased at an annual cost of 25,134 punts Revenue selected and trained six of its staff as programmers. Seamus Clince, Kay Deasy, Maura Healy, Mary Nealon, Martha OBrien and Dermot Treacy became the first programmers in the Irish civil service. The ICT machine supported the introduction of a new turnover tax in November 1963 and was used to pilot applications for the assessment and collection of income tax. This photograph shows Donal Shanahan and Elizabeth English with the ICT 1301 in 1964.

Computing education begins ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Trinity College Dublin introduced an MSc course in computer applications and selected an initial group of six students.

Airline project team ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

IBM formed a development group for the proposed reservation system at Aer Lingus, bringing in engineers with international experience. Fred Kennedy, who previously worked for IBM World Trade in New York, moved to Dublin as the technical manager for this project. He selected Brendan Byrne, Tom McGovern and Kris Padmanabhan as the design and analysis team. The Aer Lingus project initially aimed to produce software for the IBM 7010, a mainframe based on the architecture of the IBM 1400 series.

First computer at Esso ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Irish subsidiary of oil company Esso took delivery of an ICT 1301 and became the first user in the country of ICTs new generation of computers. Jim Donovan was the companys computing manager. Esso also employed Kevin ODonnell, who had personal experience of scientific computing. He had worked in the 1950s on EDSAC, an early electronic computer at the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory in England.

First computer at Jacobs ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Jacobs biscuit factory in Bishop Street, Dublin installed an ICT 1300 system to manage its accounts and payroll. The company also introduced a specially developed application for van loading. This enabled the factory to plan routes for its vehicles at a time when its products were usually shipped in square tins.

Scientific & Technical Exhibition ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Royal Dublin Society (RDS) hosted a four-day exhibition to show, particularly to the younger people, the nature and scope of scientific and technical research and investigation in Ireland. This exhibition was influenced by a series of similar events that the RDS had run in the 1930s and included presentations of technological activity in Irish universities. Trinity College lent its IBM 1620 computer to the RDS for one of the displays.

Computing as Gaeilge ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Department of Education commissioned IBM Ireland to provide processing services for a study of the most frequently used words in the Irish language. This project aimed to compile a basic vocabulary for language courses.

First system for PJ Carroll ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Cigarette manufacturer PJ Carroll implemented an ICT 1300 at its head office in Dublin.

1964

System/360 launch ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

IBM introduced the System/360 its first family of compatible computers which initially offered five types of CPU with a common architecture. Before the System/360 it was always necessary to rewrite the code for a computer application in order to run it on a second machine. The new computer used the Cobol programming language which simplified the instructions for data input and output. Experienced programmers felt that Cobol took much of the thrill and challenge out of their work. IBM studied the potential market for the System/360 in Ireland and concluded that just fourteen organisations were large enough to target. These included four universities and the two major banks. All the other candidates were in the public sector with commercial state companies offering the best prospects.

First computer at UCC ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

University College Cork installed an IBM 1620 model 2 in its electrical engineering building.

Twin systems at ESB ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Two IBM 1401s went live at the ESBs computer centre at East James Street in Dublin. The electricity provider, which used the IBM machines for accounts management, boasted that it was now operating the largest computer installation in Ireland. Speaking at an official switch-on ceremony for these systems, IBM Ireland managing director Raymond Girault reported that the total number of computers in the country had increased to 20.

Technical computing at ESB ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The engineering section of the ESB acquired an IBM 1620 scientific computer. This system was used to simulate future demand for electricity and thus support the companys plans to increase its generating capacity. The introduction of this system marked the beginning of an autonomous technical computing service for ESB engineers. Its separation from the group that ran accounts and billing systems became an entrenched feature of the organisations culture.

ICT 1900 launch ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

ICT announced its 1900 series, which supported multiprogramming, the ability to run more than one program at a time and thus reduce the delays associated with accessing peripherals. This enabled ICT to position the new range to compete against the IBM System/360. The flagship of this series, the ICT 1904, was based on a design created by Ferranti-Packard in Canada. ICT itself developed the less powerful members of the 1900 family in England. The company shipped the first systems to customers in early 1965.

First computer at Clondalkin Paper ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Clondalkin Paper Mills ordered an ICT 1300 system, following an evaluation of computing by accountant Des Tannam, who had taken a personal interest in the technology since the mid-1950s. The companys priority was to computerise its accounts and payroll. In addition to these operations, the paper supplier subsequently used the ICT 1300 to process data for other businesses that it had acquired. In the late 1960s, however, the companys senior management rejected a proposal by its computer department to expand these activities into a bureau service for a wider range of customers. Des Tannam and two of his former colleagues, Derek Breen and Hugh OSullivan, recall these events in audio recordings made by Irish Life and Lore.

First computer at Aer Lingus ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Aer Lingus scrapped the project to develop a reservations system on the IBM 7010, following IBMs launch of the more advanced System/360 platform. As a stopgap solution the airline installed a second-hand Bunker-Ramo Teleregister airline reservation system, which handled numerical data only. This machine managed the companys seat inventory but could not support passenger name records. The airline therefore acquired an IBM 1440 to hold alphabetic information. It went on to install a second 1440 for accounts management and for maintaining age records for all the replaceable parts on its aircraft. Aer Lingus always saw the Bunker-Ramo equipment as a temporary strategy until it could introduce a reservations system based on the System/360.

1965

Network Scheduling......

ARPA sponsors study on cooperative network of time-sharing computers

TX-2 at MIT Lincoln Lab and AN/FSQ-32 at System Development Corporation (Santa Monica, CA) are directly linked (without packet switches) via a dedicated 1200bps phone line; Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) computer at ARPA later added to form "The Experimental Network"

Packet-switching networks; no singl...: Click here for more...

Packet-switching networks; no single outage point

TX-2 at MIT Lincoln Lab and AN/FSQ-...: TX-2 at MIT Lincoln Lab and AN/FSQ-32 at System Development Corporation (Santa Monica, CA) are directly linked (without packet switches) via a dedicated 1200bps phone line; Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) computer at ARPA later added to form "The Expperimental Network"

First computer at Gateaux ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Gateaux bakery in Finglas installed an IBM 1130, the vendors least expensive computer at that time. The bakery specialised in cake production during an era when bread was price controlled. It grew to become a major exporter. Gateauxs factory processes were largely automated and it was a long-standing user of IBMs older data processing technologies. The IBM 1130 could perform floating point arithmetic and was usually targeted at technical users. Gateaux ran its accounting operations on the system.

First system at Sunbeam Wolsey ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Cork-based textile manufacturer Sunbeam Wolsey installed an ICT 1300 computer for order processing and production control. Sean Kelly, an accountant at the company, oversaw the introduction of this system.

Computer Bureau Shannon ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Computer Bureau Service started to offer data processing services to foreign corporations. The new business was established with the assistance of Shannon Free Airport Development Company. It was headed by Michael McMahon who had previously worked for ICT in Dublin. The bureau ran its services on a Honeywell computer.

ICT 1902 at Player Wills ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Player Wills factory in Dublin installed an ICT 1902, the first appearance in Ireland of a system from the new ICT 1900 series. ICTs Dublin office had not, however, sold this system. The cigarette makers parent organisation in Britain placed the order. The deal was worth 135,000 punts and, in addition to the equipment for the installation, included the development of sales accounting software. Brendan Supple subsequently joined Player & Wills Ireland as data processing manager.

Medical records study ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

A group of medical professionals formed the Dublin Hospital Medical Records Committee and conducted a feasibility study on computerised records. Professor Wilson of Trinity College Dublin chaired this committee.

ICT 1901 in Irish Shell ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Irish Shell & BP installed an ICT 1901 with punched card peripherals and magnetic tape drives. Its programmers wrote applications with Plan, ICTs equivalent to IBM Assembler.

1966

Land Commission leads civil service...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Land Commission, a government body responsible for acquiring agricultural land and allocating it to local farmers, ordered an IBM System/360 model 20 to process the collection of farmers payments. This computer replaced an ICT tabulator and the department retrained three of its officials as programmers. Gerry Colgan at the Department of Finance played a key role in the selection of this system and its installation in 1967. The project aimed to make half of the computers capacity available to other civil service departments. Accordingly the Land Commission established a management services unit that acted as a technology consulting service for government offices. The Land Commission and Gerry Colgan thus paved the way for the public service computing on a broader scale in later years.

First army computer ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Department of Defence ordered an IBM System/360 model 20 to run the army payroll. Delivered by IBM in the following year, the system was the first data processing equipment of any type inside this government department.

First computer at Guinness ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Guinness brewery in Dublin installed an ICT 1902. The system was initially used for trade sales accounting and a payroll application. Both went live in 1967. This photograph shows the specially refurbished and air conditioned computer room in the accountants department at the brewery. Systems analyst Clive Brownlee is seated in the foreground. Michael Ward, the head of operations, is standing at the printer. (Photograph courtesy of Diageo) Read Paper-based computing comes to Guinness

Teachers run demonstrations ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

A five-day science exhibition in Dublin provided evidence that the teaching profession was starting to take an interest in computing. The exhibition, which aimed to raise awareness of science and technology among school and university students, was organised by the RDS in collaboration with government departments, state agencies, educational institutions and professional associations. Some private companies participated, but none from the computer industry. The Irish Mathematics Teachers Associations stand presented: Simple switching circuits, logic circuits and Boolean Algebra demonstrating the elements of digital computers. Simple demonstration on an educational analogue computer and apparatus for teaching mathematics in primary schools. Use of desk calculators.

1967

First ARPANET plan......: Click here for more...

First ARPANET plan

First design paper on ARPANET publi...: Click here for more...

First design paper on ARPANET published by Larry Roberts: "Multiple Computer Networks and Intercomputer Communication

First meeting of the three independ...: First meeting of the three independent packet network teams (RAND, NPL, ARPA)

Vendor-independent bureau ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Peter McGrath, Matt Farrelly, Paddy Maguire and Darragh McArdle, who had worked together at the ICT bureau in Dublin & set up Independent Computer Bureau Services (ICBS). As a vendor-independent service business, ICBS was subject to fewer constraints than a bureau owned by a computer manufacturer, especially when it came to declining deals with a low profit margin. ICBS was subsequently acquired by Aer Lingus and became part of the airlines Cara computer services subsidiary in November 1972.

IBM management ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

IBM Ireland named Des MacMorrow as its new managing director. He had previously headed the companys data processing sales division. Raymond Girault, who had managed IBMs operations in Ireland for more than a decade, moved to a new position at the corporations European headquarters in Paris.

Irish Computer Society ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

A group of computing professionals met in the RAF Club on Earlsfort Terrace and agreed to form the Irish Computer Society. Paddy Little (ICT), John Hourihane (Craig Gardner), Bruce Lyster (Craig Gardner), Aidan OMeara (P J Carroll), Eddie Clarke (P J Carroll) and Dudley Dolan (Irish Cement) took part in this discussion. The initial meeting of the professional association was held in P J Carroll and members were invited to join. Paddy Doyle (ex-IBM) and Joe Daly (CIE) became involved at this stage.

System/360 at CIE ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

CIE installed an IBM System/360 model 40, the first System/360 to be delivered in Ireland, to run payroll, billing and stores management software. Including data preparation staff, it took around 200 people to build and operate these first applications.

First computer at Cadbury ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

IBM supplied a System/360 model 20 with disk drives to confectionery manufacturer Cadbury Ireland. The company previously used IBM unit record equipment. Its parent organisation in Britain had chosen ICT as its computer vendor.

Bureau at Player Wills ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The board of Player & Wills Ireland approved a proposal to sell spare capacity on the companys ICT computer. This facilitated the launch of a new bureau service managed by Brendan Supple. The Mass Radiography Board, which ran a national scheme for the diagnosis of tuberculosis, was the first customer for this service.

IBM 1130 at ESB ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The ESB technical computing group replaced its IBM 1620 with an IBM 1130 computer. This model was the least expensive IBM computer at the time, but was suitable for compute-intensive engineering applications. Over the next couple of years this system assisted ESB engineers to analyse customer demand for electricity and hence to improve its infrastructure planning and tariff designs.

New system at TCD ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Trinity College Dublin installed an IBM 1130 as a stopgap replacement for its IBM 1620. This computer served the college while it waited for IBM to deliver a System/360.

Revenue moves to Honeywell ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Revenue Commissioners replaced its ICT 1301 with a dual-processor H-200 model 1200. Unlike the earlier system, on which all software had to be written in machine code, this new computer ran Cobol programs. It used paper tape for input and magnetic tapes for data storage. Honeywell had recruited Pat Rafter, who previously worked on the ICT sales team, to bid for the Revenue contract. The Honeywell computer took over the existing tax assessment applications and also enabled Revenue to automate its pay-as-you-earn income tax processes.

First computer at UCG ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

University College Galway installed an IBM 1800 data acquisition and control system.

Olivetti Programma 101 ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Office equipment supplier Bryan S Ryan introduced the Olivetti Programma 101 desktop computer into Ireland. First unveiled by its manufacturer in 1964, this programmable calculator was classified as a computer because it contained internal memory and was programmed in an alphanumeric assembler language. Its delay line memory could store 240 bytes of information. The cost of a Programma 101, about 2,000 punts, was a fraction of the price of a mainframe computer.

First system at Irish Cement ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Cement Limited (later known as Irish Cement) acquired an IBM System/360 Model 20. The company hired IBM Ireland systems engineer Dudley Dolan as its first data processing manager.

First computer at Glen Abbey ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Glen Abbey clothing factory in Tallaght acquired an IBM System/360 model 20 with an IBM 2560 Multi-Function Card Machine that combined the functions of a card reader, card punch, collator, interpreter and card document printer. This input-output device was later supplemented with two hard disk drives. Glen Abbey used the System/360 to manage its accounts and billing.

System/360 at Irish Life ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

IBM delivered a System/360 model 30 to insurance company Irish Life. Joe Daly was the executive in charge of the computer, which featured tape drives and hard disks. It was used for policy administration. Irish Life also ran an NCR computer in the late 1960s. Among other things, this machine processed the companys payroll.

1968

National Physical Laboratory (NPL) ...: National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in Middlesex, England develops NPL Data Network under Donald Watts Davies who coins the term packet. The NPL network, an experiment in packet-switching, used 768kbps lines

PS-network presented to the Advance...: PS-network presented to the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA)

Network Working Group (NWG), headed...: Network Working Group (NWG), headed by Steve Crocker, loosely organized to develop host level protocols for communication over the ARPANET. (:vgc:)

New system at Irish Biscuits ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

ICT announced an order from Irish Biscuits (formerly known as Jacobs) for an ICT 1901 computer. Its production management software would support the operation of automated conveyor systems. The computer would also run payroll and accounting applications and ICTs Vantran package for vehicle scheduling and routing. The new system was not scheduled for delivery to the companys factory in Dublin until May 1969.

First minicomputers ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Air/Ground Communications Station at Ballygirreeen near Shannon Airport became Irelands first minicomputer user. Engineers from the Department of Posts and Telegraphs, which was responsible for aviation radio services, installed a message switching system based on dual PDP-8 computers. The communications station thus became the earliest Digital Equipment customer in the country. The system provided real-time teletype communications between the Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunication Network and aircraft on the North Atlantic

First Programma ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The statistical department at the British and Irish Steam Packet Company installed the first Olivetti Programma 101 in Ireland. Reseller Bryan S Ryan won more Programma orders during 1968, one every six weeks, on average.

First system in May Roberts ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Pharmaceutical distributor May Roberts installed an ICT 1901 at its premises in Dublin. The company outsourced operations management to Irish Computer Bureau Services. By the standards of the time this was seen as a very rapid implementation project. ICT delivered the computer just over five months after May Roberts placed the order.

First computer for Hely Group ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Hely Group, a publishing and office supplies business that had diversified into a wide range of distribution activities, installed an ICT 1901 at its premises in Santry. The company recruited Malachi Doherty from ICT to manage its new system. Jefferson Smurfit Group acquired the Hely Group in 1970.

Process control project ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

De Beers Industrial Diamonds in Shannon installed an IBM 1800 data acquisition and control system to monitor its production process. The 1800 was based on the IBM 1130 with extra capabilities for process control and ruggedised features for industrial environments.

IBMCUA ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

IBM Irelands computer users formed their own association. In 1968 the IBM customer base was still dominated by unit record equipment installations rather than computing operations. But the number of System/360 users was rising. And, in the absence of alternative sources of systems and support, they not only depended on IBM Ireland to deliver the products but also to provide training and maintenance services. The IBM Computer Users Association in Ireland followed precedents set by user groups that already existed in other countries, a phenomenon that originated in the US in the mid-1950s.

First software company ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

System Dynamics was registered at the Companies Registration Office. The new venture opened its first office at 62 Northumberland Road on 02 August 1968. The firm offered technical consulting and computer implementation services. Because these services included the development of bespoke applications it was, in effect, Irelands first software company. The founders of System Dynamics had previously worked together at IBM. They included Paddy Doyle, who became its first managing director, and Tom McGovern, who took over the role in 1970 and ran the business until his death in 1994. Brendan Byrne and Nick Spalding were also on the staff when the company started operations. Read A stimulating environment in which to exercise the highest professional competence

First computer at Dunlop ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Irish Dunlop tyre factory in Cork installed an IBM System/360 model 25.

Posts and Telegraphs strategy ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Department of Posts and Telegraphs appointed Phil Coburn to develop an administrative computing strategy. He had previously been responsible for managing unit record equipment at the Post Office Savings Bank. The engineering branch of the department, meanwhile, formed a group headed by Des Victor-Byrne to work on software related to the telephone network. Both of these units trained staff for computing projects, but depended on bureau services for data processing. In 1971 they were combined into a single computing organisation that became one of the largest in the country. The department equipped and opened its own computer centre two years later.

Formation of ICL ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

International Computers Limited (ICL) was created through the and combination of ICT with EEC, itself a recent merger of Elliott Automation and English Electric Leo Marconi. The British government facilitated the creation of ICL through its industrial rationalisation programme and held a ten per cent stake in the amalgamated company. Shortly before this restructuring, an ICT publication reported that the company had installed, or received orders for, 24 computers in the Republic of Ireland. Elliott Automation had just one installation: the six-year-old computer at An Foras Taluntais.

Bureau acquired ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Dallas-based University Computing Company (UCC) bought Computer Bureau Shannon. This company was an early implementer of online computing services. UCC equipped customers with its Cope terminals, which included a high-speed punched card reader, a printer and a modem. This terminal communicated with one of UCCs mainframes. Irish customers were offered links to a Univac 1108 in London.

First computer at Independent Newsp...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Independent Newspapers took delivery of an ICL 1901, the first time that a newspaper publisher in Ireland had introduced a computer. The company installed the machine to run commercial and administrative applications, starting with a payroll system. It recruited two senior staff with computing experience: data processing manager Paul McCarthy and systems analyst Derek Sneddon-Kaye. All the other positions in the new department were filled by members of the existing workforce, selected by aptitude test. This photograph shows Dennis Moore, the companys first computer operator, at work on the new system in 1968.

Sunbeam Wolsey upgrades ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Sunbeam Wolsey installed an ICL 1901A at its premises in Cork. Unlike the earlier ICT 1300 in this installation, the new machine provided disk-based data storage.

University Computing Company ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

University Computing Company (UCC) set up a Dublin office on the grounds of An Foras Taluntais (AFT) in Sandymount. Brendan Supple, who had developed a bureau service in the ICL installation at Player Wills, had recently joined UCC and signed up AFT as a new customer. UCC installed communication terminals on its clients premises and linked these over a leased lines to its Univac computer in London. The customers that adopted this service included Bord Failte, AnCO (the national training authority) and the Irish Agricultural Wholesale Society.

First computer at New Ireland ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

ICL delivered a 1901 computer to New Ireland Assurance, a long-term user of punched card technologies supplied by its predecessor companies. The New Ireland Group included the Irish National Insurance Company, which offered general insurance policies.

Airline reservations live ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Astral reservations system went live at Aer Lingus, following a complex two-year development project. Astral was based on the IPARS application, which had originated inside IBM. Its display screens could show up to 1960 characters of green text. Aer Lingus was the third airline to implement IPARS.

System/360 at TCD ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Trinity College Dublin installed an IBM System/360 model 44 in a prefabricated building in the Fellows Garden. IBM sold this model as a system for scientific and real-time computing and for process control. For the university, however, its arrival introduced computing outside the engineering school for the first time. The broader academic community, the library service and central administration could now request processing services. Most of the academic demand for computing time came from the colleges engineers and scientists and from the department of statistics.

First NCR installations ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

NCR logged its first computer shipments into Ireland, delivering NCR 500 systems to Irish Permanent Building Society, Chase and Bank of Ireland, Chivers and Irish Life.

Revenue upgrades ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Office of the Revenue Commissioners increased its processing capacity by replacing its first Honeywell system with two independent H-200 model 2200s.

Aer Lingus bureau ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Aer Lingus entered the computer bureau business by establishing a systems services division. This unit was later renamed Cara Data Processing. The new division offered data processing services at the airlines computer centre in Dublin airport, which had now installed two IBM System/360 model 50s in preparation for its forthcoming reservations system. The bureaus customers included the Department of Posts and Telegraphs, which implemented telephone billing and savings bank applications on one of the model 50s. The government department subsequently installed an IBM mainframe of its own in 1973.

1969

Tymnet built as part of Tymshare se...: Tymnet built as part of Tymshare service (:vgc:)

US Senator Edward Kennedy sends a c...: Click here for more...

US Senator Edward Kennedy sends a congratulatory telegram to BBN for its million-dollar ARPA contract to build the "Interfaith" Message Processor, and thanking them for their ecumenical efforts

ARPANET commissioned by DoD for res...: Click here for more...

ARPANET commissioned by DoD for research into networking

Nodes are stood up as BBN builds ea...: Nodes are stood up as BBN builds each IMP [Honeywell DDP-516 mini computer with 12K of memory]; AT&T provides lines bundled to 50kbps

Node 1: UCLA (30 August, hooked up ...: Node 1: UCLA (30 August, hooked up 2 September)

Diagram of the first host to IMP co...: Click here for more...

Diagram of the first host to IMP connection

Node 2: Stanford Research Institute...: Node 2: Stanford Research Institute (SRI) (1 October)

Network Information Center (NIC)......: Click here for more...

Network Information Center (NIC)

Node 3: University of California Sa...: Node 3: University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) (1 November)

Node 4: University of Utah (Decembe...: Node 4: University of Utah (December)

Diagram of the 4-node ARPAnet......: Click here for more...

Diagram of the 4-node ARPAnet

First Request for Comment (RFC): "H...: First Request for Comment (RFC): "Host Software" by Steve Crocker (7 April)

RFC 4: Network Timetable......: Click here for more...

RFC 4: Network Timetable

First packets sent by Charley Kline...: Click to Play

First packets sent by Charley Kline at UCLA as he tried logging into SRI. The first attempt resulted in the system crashing as the letter G of LOGIN was entered. (October 29) [ Log entry ]

IBM replaces ICL ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

PJ Carroll acquired an IBM System/360 model 30. The companys decision to change its computer supplier from ICL to IBM was an exceptional move, but showed that it was possible for users to cross the technical and operational barriers that separated the major vendors.

ESB engineering upgrade ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The ESB technical computing service acquired a new IBM 1130 system.

MSCS ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Robert McLaughlin, James Magowan and Fabian Monds, all based at Queens University Belfast, set up Medical & Scientific Computer Services (MSCS) to deliver technical processing services on a commercial basis. The company provided laboratory result digitisation and reporting to the Royal Victoria Hospital Belfast, developing its own software and running an IBM 1130 computer.

IBM unbundling ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

IBM had come under increasing pressure to end a corporate pricing strategy that treated software and support services as free giveaways for the purchasers of its computer hardware. After lobbying by rival vendors, the US Justice Department filed an antitrust suit against IBM in January 1969. Five months later the corporation announced an unbundling of its fees, setting separate prices for the first time for software products, systems engineering, equipment maintenance, customer education and custom programming services. Independent software vendors and technical service providers could now bid for business that IBM had previously reserved for itself by making it uneconomic for customers to choose alternatives.

Computing education advances ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

TCD established its Department of Computer Science with three staff, John Byrne, Neville Harris and Francis Neelamkavil.

New system at Revenue ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Honeywell computer at the Revenue Commissioners was upgraded to a twin H2200 system.

IBM System/3 ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

IBM announced the System/3 range, which it had designed to run business applications in companies that were smaller than its System/360 customers. The new hardware was accompanied by the introduction of the RPG II programming language. This emulated the card management functions of unit record equipment, facilitating the transfer of transaction records from mechanical data processing systems to electronic computers. The launch of the System/3 introduced IBMs midrange computer dynasty, which soon became the backbone of the corporations activity in this country. It was notably successful in foreign-owned assembly facilities whose parent firms ran IBM mainframes elsewhere. The less expensive minicomputers were more suitable for their operations in Ireland.

VHI contract ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Aer Lingus Systems Services Division, the companys computing services unit, signed a contract with the Voluntary Health Insurance Board to develop applications and to supply data processing services. The airlines bureau designed new systems for the insurers registrations and renewals and for the analysis of its claims statistics.

IBM headquarters ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

IBM Ireland moved its base from a group of buildings in Fitzwilliam Place to new headquarters on Burlington Road. The company now ran a regional office in Cork as well.

System/360 at UCD ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

IBM supplied a System/360 model 50 to University College Dublin. Read George Morgans testimony

HP presentation ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Hewlett-Packard participated in the Science Exhibition in the RDS, whose primary purpose was to stimulate the interest of young people in science and technology. The company was represented by its office in Slough, England. HP had already entered the minicomputer trade at this date, but its presentation in Dublin focused on a programmable electronic calculator. According to the exhibition catalogue, this device wasdesigned for the manipulation of complex numbers and the processing of data in all the sciences and in engineering. The company subsequently shipped its calculators to commercial, government and academic customers in Ireland. These machines ran application specific software, stored data on magnetic cards and supported a variety of data input and output peripherals.

Sugar Company moves ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Irish Sugar Company transferred all of its computing operations from a facility in Thurles to its group head office at Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin. The company installed a new ICL 1903A mainframe on these premises. This move marked the closure of the countrys first computer installation. The Sugar Company had chosen Thurles as its data processing location when it acquired a BTM machine twelve years earlier.

System Ten for UCD ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

University College Dublin installed a Singer System Ten for use by its commerce students.

1970

First publication of the original A...: First publication of the original ARPANET Host-Host protocol: C.S. Carr, S. Crocker, V.G. Cerf, "HOST-HOST Communication Protocol in the ARPA Network," in AFIPS Proceedings of SJCC (:vgc:)

First report on ARPANET at AFIPS: "...: Click here for more...

First report on ARPANET at AFIPS: "Computer Network Development to Achieve Resource Sharing" (March)

ALOHAnet, the first packet radio ne...: Click to Play

ALOHAnet, the first packet radio network, developed by Norman Abramson, Univ of Hawaii, becomes operational (July) (:sk2:)

ARPANET hosts start using Network C...: ARPANET hosts start using Network Control Protocol (NCP), first host-to-host protocol

1971

First cross-country link installed ...: First cross-country link installed by AT&T between UCLA and BBN at 56kbps. This line is later replaced by another between BBN and RAND. A second line is added between MIT and Utah

15 nodes (23 hosts): UCLA, SRI, UCS...: 15 nodes (23 hosts): UCLA, SRI, UCSB, Univ of Utah, BBN, MIT, RAND, SDC, Harvard, Lincoln Lab, Stanford, UIU(C), CWRU, CMU, NASA/Ames

Ray Tomlinson of BBN invents email ...: Click to Play

Ray Tomlinson of BBN invents email program to send messages across a distributed network. The original program was derived from two others: an intra-machine email program (SENDMSG) and an experimental file transfer program (CPYNET) (:amk:irh:)

Project Gutenberg is started by Mic...: Click here for more...

Project Gutenberg is started by Michael Hart with the purpose of making copyright-free works, including books, electronically available. The first text is the US Declaration of Independence (:dhr,msh:)

1972

Ray Tomlinson (BBN) modifies email ...: Click to Play

Ray Tomlinson (BBN) modifies email program for ARPANET where it becomes a quick hit. The @ sign was chosen from the punctuation keys on Tomlinson's Model 33 Teletype for its "at" meaning (March)

Larry Roberts writes first email ma...: Larry Roberts writes first email management program (RD) to list, selectively read, file, forward, and respond to messages (July)

International Conference on Compute...: International Conference on Computer Communications (ICCC) at the Washington D.C. Hilton with demonstration of ARPANET between 40 machines and the Terminal Interface Processor (TIP) organized by Bob Kahn. (October)

First computer-to-computer chat tak...: Click here for more...

First computer-to-computer chat takes place at UCLA, and is repeated during ICCC, as psychotic PARRY (at Stanford) discusses its problems with the Doctor (at BBN).

International Network Working Group...: International Network Working Group (INWG) formed in October as a result of a meeting at ICCC identifying the need for a combined effort in advancing networking technologies. Vint Cerf appointed first Chair. By 1974, INWG became IFIP WG 6.1 (:vgc:)

Louis Pouzin leads the French effor...: Click here for more...

Louis Pouzin leads the French effort to build its own ARPANET - CYCLADES

1973

First international connections to ...: Click here for more...

First international connections to the ARPANET: University College of London (England) via NORSAR (Norway)

Bob Metcalfes Harvard PhD Thesis o....: Click to Play

Bob Metcalfes Harvard PhD Thesis outlines idea for Ethernet. The concept was tested on Xerox PARC's Alto computers, and the first Ethernet network called the Alto Aloha System (May) (:amk:)

Bob Kahn poses Internet problem, st...: Bob Kahn poses Internet problem, starts Internetting research program at ARPA. Vinton Cerf sketches gateway architecture in March on back of envelope in a San Francisco hotel lobby (:vgc:)

Cerf and Kahn present basic Interne...: Cerf and Kahn present basic Internet ideas at INWG in September at Univ of Sussex, Brighton, UK (:vgc:)

Network Voice Protocol (NVP) specif...: Click here for more...

Network Voice Protocol (NVP) specification (RFC 741) and implementation enabling conference calls over ARPAnet. (:bb1:)

SRI (NIC) begins publishing ARPANET...: SRI (NIC) begins publishing ARPANET News in March; number of ARPANET users estimated at 2,000

ARPA study shows email composing 75...: Click here for more...

ARPA study shows email composing 75% of all ARPANET traffic

Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn publish "A P...: Click to Play

Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn publish "A Protocol for Packet Network Interconnection" which specified in detail the design of a Transmission Control Program (TCP). [IEEE Trans Comm] (:amk:)

1975

BBN opens Telenet, the first public...: BBN opens Telenet, the first public packet data service (a commercial version of ARPANET) (:sk2:)

First ARPANET mailing list, MsgGrou...: Click here for more...

First ARPANET mailing list, MsgGroup, is created by Steve Walker. Einar Stefferud soon took over as moderator as the list was not automated at first. A science fiction list, SF-Lovers, was to become the most popular unofficial list in the early days

John Vittal develops MSG, the first...: Click here for more...

John Vittal develops MSG, the first all-inclusive email program providing replying, forwarding, and filing capabilities.

Satellite links cross two oceans (t...: Satellite links cross two oceans (to Hawaii and UK) as the first TCP tests are run over them by Stanford, BBN, and UCL

1977

THEORYNET created by Larry Landwebe...: Click here for more...

THEORYNET created by Larry Landweber at Univ of Wisconsin providing electronic mail to over 100 researchers in computer science (using a locally developed email system over TELENET)

Tymshare spins out Tymnet under pre...: Tymshare spins out Tymnet under pressure from TELENET. Both go on to develop X.25 protocol standard for virtual circuit style packet switching (:vgc:)

1978

First demonstration of ARPANET/SF B...: First demonstration of ARPANET/SF Bay Packet Radio Net/Atlantic SATNET operation of Internet protocols with BBN-supplied gateways in July (:vgc:)

Possibly the first commercial spam ...: Click here for more...

Possibly the first commercial spam message is sent on 1 May by a DEC marketer advertising an upcoming presentation of its new DECSYSTEM-20 computers

1979

Meeting between Univ of Wisconsin, ...: Click here for more...

Meeting between Univ of Wisconsin, DARPA, National Science Foundation (NSF), and computer scientists from many universities to establish a Computer Science Department research computer network (organized by Larry Landweber).

First MUD, MUD1, by Richard Bartle ...: Click to Play

First MUD, MUD1, by Richard Bartle and Roy Trubshaw at U of Essex

ARPA establishes the Internet Confi...: ARPA establishes the Internet Configuration Control Board (ICCB)

On April 12, Kevin MacKenzie emails...: On April 12, Kevin MacKenzie emails the MsgGroup a suggestion of adding some emotion back into the dry text medium of email, such as -) for indicating a sentence was tongue-in-cheek. Though flamed by many at the time, emoticons became widely used after Scott Fahlman suggested the use of :-) and :-( in a CMU BBS on 19 September 1982

1981

Minitel (Teletel) is deployed acros...: Click here for more...

Minitel (Teletel) is deployed across France by France Telecom.

1982

DCA and ARPA establish the Transmis...: Click to Play

DCA and ARPA establish the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP), as the protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, for ARPANET. This leads to one of the first definitions of an "internet" as a connected set of networks, specifically those using TCP/IP, and "Internet" as connected TCP/IP internets. (:vgc:)

DoD declares TCP/IP suite to be sta...: DoD declares TCP/IP suite to be standard for DoD (:vgc:)

EUnet (European UNIX Network) is cr...: Click here for more...

EUnet (European UNIX Network) is created by EUUG to provide email and USENET services. (:glg:)

1983

Name server developed at Univ of Wi...: Name server developed at Univ of Wisconsin, no longer requiring users to know the exact path to other systems

Cutover from NCP to TCP/IP (1 Janua...: Click to Play

Cutover from NCP to TCP/IP (1 January)

CSNET / ARPANET gateway put in plac...: CSNET / ARPANET gateway put in place

ARPANET split into ARPANET and MILN...: ARPANET split into ARPANET and MILNET; the latter became integrated with the Defense Data Network created the previous year. 68 of the 113 existing nodes went to MILNET

Desktop workstations come into bein...: Click here for more...

Desktop workstations come into being, many with Berkeley UNIX (4.2 BSD) which includes IP networking software (:mpc:)

Networking needs switch from having...: Click here for more...

Networking needs switch from having a single, large time sharing computer connected to the Internet at each site, to instead connecting entire local networks

Internet Activities Board (IAB) est...: Click here for more...

Internet Activities Board (IAB) established, replacing ICCB

EARN (European Academic and Researc...: Click here for more...

EARN (European Academic and Research Network) established. Very similar to the way BITNET works with a gateway funded by IBM-Europe

1984

Domain Name System (DNS) introduced...: Click here for more...

Domain Name System (DNS) introduced

Number of hosts breaks 1,000......: Click here for more...

Number of hosts breaks 1,000

Canada begins a one-year effort to ...: Click here for more...

Canada begins a one-year effort to network its universities. The NetNorth Network is connected to BITNET in Ithaca from Toronto (:kf1:)

1985

Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link (WELL) ...: Click here for more...

Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link (WELL) started

Symbolics.com is assigned on 15 Mar...: Click here for more...

Symbolics.com is assigned on 15 March to become the first registered domain. Other firsts: cmu.edu, purdue.edu, rice.edu, berkeley.edu, ucla.edu, rutgers.edu, bbn.com (24 Apr); mit.edu (23 May); think.com (24 may); css.gov (June); mitre.org, .uk (July)

1986

NSFNET created (backbone speed of 5...: NSFNET created (backbone speed of 56Kbps)

NSF establishes 5 super-computing c...: NSF establishes 5 super-computing centers to provide high-computing power for all (JVNC@Princeton, PSC@Pittsburgh, SDSC@UCSD, NCSA@UIUC, Theory Center@Cornell).

Internet Engineering Task Force (IE...: Click here for more...

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) comes into existence under the IAB. First IETF meeting held in January at Linkabit in San Diego

The first Freenet (Cleveland) comes...: The first Freenet (Cleveland) comes on-line 16 July under the auspices of the Society for Public Access Computing (SoPAC). Later Freenet program management assumed by the National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN) in 1989 (:sk2,rab:)

Network News Transfer Protocol (NNT...: Click here for more...

Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) designed to enhance Usenet news performance over TCP/IP.

Mail Exchanger (MX) records develop...: Mail Exchanger (MX) records developed by Craig Partridge allow non-IP network hosts to have domain addresses.

The great USENET name change; moder...: Click here for more...

The great USENET name change; moderated newsgroups changed in 1987.

1987

NSF signs a cooperative agreement t...: NSF signs a cooperative agreement to manage the NSFNET backbone with Merit Network, Inc. (IBM and MCI involvement was through an agreement with Merit). Merit, IBM, and MCI later founded ANS.

Email link established between Germ...: Email link established between Germany and China using CSNET protocols, with the first message from China sent on 20 September. (:wz1:)

The concept and plan for a national...: The concept and plan for a national US research and education network is proposed by Gordon Bell et al in a report to the Office of Science and Technology, written in response to a congressional request by Al Gore. (Nov) It would take four years until the establishment of this network by Congress (:gb1:)

1000th RFC: "Request For Comments r...: 1000th RFC: "Request For Comments reference guide"

Number of hosts breaks 10,000......: Number of hosts breaks 10,000

Star programme ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

A National Board for Science and Technology (NBST) seminar outlined plans for Irelands strand of the Special Telecommunications Action for Regional development (Star) programme, a five-year European Commission initiative to address communications deficiencies in Europes less favoured regions. One strand of the programme aimed to stimulate the adoption of advanced telecommunications services such as e-mail, voice messaging, PC networks, videotex, videoconferencing and cellular radio. The NBST became an implementing agency for Star in Ireland, channelling 7.5 million punts from the European regional development fund into feasibility studies, demonstrations and promotional activities.

Broadcom established ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Broadcom Eireann Research was formed to undertake research and development in broadband communications. A joint venture between Ericsson and Telecom Eireann with collaboration from Trinity College Dublin, Broadcom focused on winning contracts in pre-competitive EU research programmes.

UUNET begins ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

UUNET (standing for Unix to Unix NETwork) started operations. The first organisation to sell access to services based on the UUCP data communications suite, it offered e-mail exchange, feeds from the Usenet distributed discussion system and access to a large repository of software source code and related information. UUNET founder Rick Adams had been a system administrator at the US Geological Survey Center for Seismic Studies. The company dropped its non-profit status in 1989.

Cognotecs Clientlink ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Cognotec launched its Clientlink service for insurance intermediaries, providing videotex connections into Irish Life and Shield Life. The company supplied free terminals to brokers as a way of encouraging them to obtain quotations or process claims through its system. Cognotec had been established in 1983 inside the Confederation of Irish Industry (CII). It was the brainchild of CII economist Brian MacCaba, who had previously represented the group in a public videotex trial and become an enthusiast for the medium. It introduced services for electronic banking and financial information access in 1985, but was hampered by the limited capabilities of videotex and by its own financial difficulties. Cognotec had passed through a succession of investment rounds and ownership changes by 1987.

Timas ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Travel Industry Multi Access System (Timas), which had offered online reservations options to travel agents since 1982, entered a new era with a series of management appointments. Aer Lingus had built up the service in partnership with the Irish Travel Agents Association. By 1987 Timas connected 136 agencies with fifteen airlines, two sea ferry companies and three packaged tour operators. From now on Timas employed its own workforce, led by general manager Dick Brennan, instead of relying on staff seconded by the airline. It began to build a country-wide X.25 network that supported multiple communications protocols, including videotex, reducing the use of older protocols that were specific to the aviation industry.

Toppsi BBS ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

People Active Through Community Help (Patch) launched the To Operate by Providing People with Services and Information (Toppsi) bulletin board system. Patch employed homeless and displaced people in Dublin. Its first online database was a list of organisations relevant to voluntary groups. The service expanded into a set of seven online databases that included lists of politicians, funding providers and training courses.

Cosine chooses Baltimore ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Cooperation for Open Systems Interconnection Networking in Europe (Cosine) project commissioned Dublin-based Baltimore Technologies to examine network and system security and authentication issues. The telecommunications software specialist was already engaged in the development of X.400 messaging and network management systems. Baltimore was led by managing director Jim Mountjoy and chairman Michael Purser, a member of the computer science department at Trinity College Dublin. The Cosine project, a major component in the industry-led Eureka research and development programme, was then at the specification phase.

Cognotec buys Patric ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Cognotec acquired online service pioneer Patric Videotex. Established in 1980, Patric hosted databases for public institutions such as libraries and educational establishments. Both companies were prominent in the first generation of Irish videotex services that preceded the Minitel initiative.

AgriLine ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

An Foras Taluntais (forerunner of Teagasc) launched the AgriLine information service for farmers and agribusiness as a commercial operation. This videotex service was now funded by subscriptions, following two years of trials subsidised by the European Commission. The most frequently accessed pages featured problem clinics, price information and agri-weather.

UUCP gateway ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

HEAnet obtained a UUCP gateway via the University of Kent at Canterbury to the European Unix Network (EUnet) in Amsterdam. This dial-up connection used a specially modified version of UUCP that ran over the X.25 network. The Irish Unix Users Group also offered network services to its members via EUnet. HEAnet was officially launched in 1986 to provide computer networking among Irelands seven universities.

Retix office ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

California-based Retix announced a software development centre in Dun Laoghaire to create communication products based on Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) standards. Retix, which was just two years old, had risen rapidly to prominence as a supplier of OSI-compliant software, including X.400 e-mail applications. It was perhaps best known among software developers for disseminating colour-coded charts that explained the complicated structure of the seven-layer OSI model.

E-mail interworking ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Nine service providers and twelve IT vendors ran proof-of-concept demonstrations of X.400 interworking across e-mail switches around the world. The focal point of this exercise was a multi-vendor exhibit at the Telecom 87 event in Geneva.

DEC backs EARN ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) announced a programme to support the implementation of OSI protocols by the European Academic Research Network (EARN), which had hitherto been facilitated by IBM. Dennis Jennings from UCD was president of EARN, which was initiated in 1984 and linked institutions in 21 countries.

Star strategy ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The NBST announced its implementation strategy for the advanced telecommunications strand of the Star programme in Ireland. The agency proposed the establishment of two online gateways that would offer easy access to multiple information providers. A Business Information Network would provide comprehensive information to Irish industry on the services available from, and information accessible in, state agencies. A Tourist Information Network would link tourists, travel agents and the providers of tourist services.

Address scheme ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

HEAnets technical group decided to cease using a UK scheme for network addresses that placed the country code at the start of each address. Irish addresses would henceforth use the two letter .ie country code and would not include second level endings like co.ie or ac.ie to differentiate among user categories. The technical group also reversed the previous order of address components. These decisions established the format hostname.organisation.ie . Tom Wade produced the new model by adopting the RFC-822 standard for ARPA internet text messages.

Eirpac Information Services ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Telecom Eireann launched Eirpac Information Services, enabling users of its two-year-old packet switched network to access international videotex services. The new option was free of charge for dial-up Eirpac users.

1988

Number of BITNET hosts breaks 1,000...: Number of BITNET hosts breaks 1,000

NSFNET backbone upgraded to T1 (1.5...: NSFNET backbone upgraded to T1 (1.544Mbps)

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) developed...: Click here for more...

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) developed by Jarkko Oikarinen (:zby:)

FidoNet gets connected to the Net, ...: Click here for more...

FidoNet gets connected to the Net, enabling the exchange of email and news (:tp1:)

Telecommunications R&D ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The first projects commenced in the main body of the European Unions Research and Development on Advanced Communications for Europe (Race) programme. By 1992 the participants included 28 organisations in Ireland.

Cosines grand plan ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Cooperation for Open Systems Interconnection Networking in Europe (Cosine), EARN, EUnet and Roseaux Associates pour la Recherche Europeanne (RARE) issued a joint statement of direction on the creation of an open, integrated networking infrastructure for all European researchers. The existing networks undertook to migrate to OSI-based services and to implement technical specifications that Cosine planned to release in mid-1988. This agreement discouraged discussion of the TCP/IP alternatives. Cosine was a project in the industry-led Eureka research and development programme. Irish representatives joined several Cosine working groups.

Officially .ie ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Network Information Center at SRI International, a research institute in California, approved the allocation of .ie as a top-level domain for Ireland.

National research network ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

A seminar at Eolas, the agency that superseded the NBST, proposed building a national research network for Ireland based on the OSI model. This led HEAnet to consider migrating to OSI and implementing an X.400 e-mail system.

Unix gateway moves ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The closure of the National Software Centre necessitated a relocation of the Irish Unix User Groups dial-up gateway to the EUnet network. First established in 1983, this UUCP-based connection was mainly used to access a store-and-forward e-mail service that required users to specify the routing for each message. The ICL Information Technology Centre in Leopardstown took over responsibility for the gateway. The introduction of addresses in the .uucp top level domain subsequently made its e-mail service more reliable.

First in-house TCP/IP ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Engineers at Silicon and Software Systems, a Dublin-based chip design company, used TCP/IP routers to transfer data between a network of Apollo workstations and a Digital Equipment VAX system. This is the earliest known implementation of TCP/IP in an Irish computer installation.

CCS consortium ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Formation of Cargo Community Systems (CCS), a consortium of airlines and cargo agents, in order to pilot EDI services based on Edifact, a standard sponsored by the UN as a replacement for proprietary protocols. The International Organization for Standardization had recently approved Edifacts syntax rules as part of the ISO model. Michael Giblin from Aer Lingus was the project manager for CCS.

Transport industry EDI ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The European Co-Operation in the field of Scientific and Technical research (Cost) programme, which had developed an EDI system, announced a series of pilot projects to encourage data exchange among transport companies in Europe.

DECUS connections ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Irish section of the Digital Equipment Corporation Users Society (DECUS) introduced Dinet, a dial-up service that linked the e-mail systems in different member organisations. This project, led by Tom Wade at UCD Computer Centre and Joan Murphy in Bord Failte, employed the PMDF e-mail suite from Innosoft International. DECUS members that used Dinet subsequently featured among the countrys earliest internet adopters.

Videotel begins ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Allied Irish Bank, Bank of Ireland, Independent Newspapers and Quinnsworth formed the Videotel Eireann consortium to research the feasibility of creating an Irish version of Teletel, the France Telecom network that supported the Minitel infrastructure. The founders expected that the tried-and-tested Minitel videotex standard could support the information service gateways envisaged in the Star programme. They formed working groups to study the technical, marketing and financial aspects of the scheme and planned to start pilot trials in 1990. The Videotel initiative was fronted by Mel Healy, who left Eolas to lead it, and by broadcaster Mike Murphy.

Posvan study ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Telecom Eireann and Digital Equipment launched Posvan, a project to evaluate the market potential for electronic value added transaction services in Ireland and overseas. Pat Kirby, a former a payment systems specialist at the Department of Social Welfare, led the research.

1989

Tim Berners-Lee first WWW proposal...: Click here for more...

In March 1989, Berners-Lee laid out his vision for what would become the web in a document called Information Management: A Proposal . But Berners-Lee's initial proposal was not immediately accepted. In fact, his boss at the time, Mike Sendall, wrote 'vague but exciting' on its cover. The web was never an official CERN project, but Sendall managed to give Berners-Lee time to work on it in September 1990. Berners-Lee started the work on a NeXT computer , one of Steve Jobs' early products.

Number of hosts breaks 100,000......: Number of hosts breaks 100,000

First relays between a commercial e...: First relays between a commercial electronic mail carrier and the Internet: MCI Mail through the Corporation for the National Research Initiative (CNRI), and CompuServe through Ohio State Univ (:jg1,ph1:)

Corporation for Research and Educat...: Click here for more...

Corporation for Research and Education Networking (CREN) is formed by merging CSNET into BITNET (August)

First link between Australia and NS...: First link between Australia and NSFNET via Hawaii on 23 June. Australia had been limited to USENET access since the early 1980s

UCLA sponsors the Act One symposium...: UCLA sponsors the Act One symposium to celebrate ARPANET's 20th anniversary and its decommissioning (August)

Internet host count ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Mark Lottor, the US-based creator of an internet domain survey, reported that the number of hosts on the internet had risen to 80,000.

Acceptable use ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The US National Science Foundation (NSF) specified in its acceptable use policy that the Internet Backbone should only be used for research or education, or in support of research or education. This ruling stated only that a specific backbone network must remain non-commercial. The policy announcement was soon followed by the appearance of other internet backbones that were not subject to the same constraints.

Demonstration centre ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Videotel Eireann opened a demonstration centre for prospective Minitel service providers in Dublins College Green. It featured Minitel terminals displaying English-language services from France Telecoms Teletel and simulated versions of newspaper article retrieval, teleshopping and home banking services that indicated how future services might look. Videotel also demonstrated existing online services based on videotex technologies other than Minitel. These included Teagascs Agriline and the Hookline information service for anglers.

EuroKom restructures ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

UCD Computer Centre formed EuroKom as a subsidiary company to run the EuroContact e-mail and computer conferencing service. The service had originated in 1983 as a pilot project in the Esprit programme. It enabled prospective participants to find partners and draw up project proposals for Esprit and other European Commission research programmes.

First RIPE meeting ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Reseaux IP Europeens (RIPE) was established as a coordinating body for IP networks in Europe at a meeting in Amsterdam. Fourteen representatives of six countries and eleven networks attended. They agreed to take initiatives to set up, co-ordinate and support IP connectivity within Europe. Their initial priority was to assess the level and size of existing and planned IP networks. This event marked the inauguration of the series of RIPE meetings that anyone can attend to discuss internet issues, developments and policies.

Edifact trial ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Article Number Association of Ireland ran a pilot scheme for retailers and their suppliers to exchange documents like invoices and purchase orders electronically. The trials were facilitated by An Post and utilised the Edifact standard.

Icarus switch ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Cargo Community Systems commissioned Philips to develop a message switch, the Irish Community Air Cargo Real-time Users System (Icarus).

Gateway moves again ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The TCD Department of Computer Science took over the Irish Unix User Groups dial-up gateway to the EUnet network. This ended a period during which users could connect to the UUCP infrastructure through the user groups access point in ICL or through a UUCP-over-X.25 gateway developed inside Trinity. EUnet wanted each country to run a single access point. Michael Nowlan and Cormac Callanan undertook to manage the connection on a semi-commercial basis, starting with about a dozen customers.

Star projects ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Eolas reported that 43 projects were underway in the service promotion strand of the Star programme. Nine more were in the pipeline.

More telex than e-mail ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Telecom Eireanns customer statistics revealed that the company had 4,890 telex users, 164 users of Pactex (a computer-to-telex service) and 594 users of its Eirmail electronic mail product. These figures showed that inter-organisation e-mail usage in Ireland continued to lag far behind the older, and much slower, telex service. The Eirpac data network supported 264 customer organisations with direct connections and another 1825 with dial-up access.

PostGem appears ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Official launch of PostGem, led by David OMeara, previously head of communications business development at An Post. PostGem also announced its first three services: PostEDI (using software and expertise from Istel), TelePost (hard copy e-mail) and PostNET (its national packet switched network).

First TCP/IP integrator ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Multi-system connectivity specialist Wollongong Group appointed Dublin-based start-up Sysnet as its distributor in Ireland. Wollongongs TCP/IP stack enabled private networks to link systems built on different processors. Sysnet thus became the countrys first TCP/IP integration firm. The company was founded by Tom Moynagh and Robert Baker, who had been systems and networks manager at TCP/IP user Silicon and Software Systems. They initially expected that they would sell the Wollongong software to support customers implementations of the OSI model as well as TCP/IP networking.

EDI stimulus ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Baltimore Technologies won a European Commission contract to stimulate EDI activity in Ireland under the Tedis programme. The pilot phase involved providing technical and management consultancy to air cargo companies so that they could connect to the Icarus system.

EDIAI launch ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The first annual general meeting of the EDI Association of Ireland (EDIAI) was attended by representatives of 42 organisations. This meeting elected Michael Giblin from Aer Lingus to chair the EDIAI council, while Howard Bell from Philips Electronics became its secretary.

Videotex count ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The International Telecommunication Union reported that 6.8 million videotex terminals (including PCs equipped with an emulation card) were installed worldwide. It also noted that this total was below previous expectations, due to the multiplicity of standards and national tariff structures.

Customs data collection ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Board of the Revenue Commissioners approved the automation of customs import/export procedures through an Automated Entry Processing (AEP) system, slated for nationwide launch in January 1991. Access would be provided through a new data communication network and the minister for finance would appoint a third party to manage it.

Birth of PSINet ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Performance Systems International was incorporated in the US. Subsequently known as PSINet, it became one of the worlds first commercial ISPs.

1990

ARPANET ceases to exist......: ARPANET ceases to exist

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF...: Click here for more...

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is founded by Mitch Kapor

The World comes on-line (world.std....: The World comes on-line (world.std.com), becoming the first commercial provider of Internet dial-up access

The first remotely operated machine...: Click here for more...

The first remotely operated machine to be hooked up to the Internet, the Internet Toaster by John Romkey, (controlled via SNMP) makes its debut at Interop.

INET begins ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Telecom Eireann and PostGem formed the Irish National Electronic Trading Agency (INET) in order to provide access to the Revenue Commissioners AEP system for the clearance of customs documentation. This service was to be established on an X.400 e-mail platform. The Minister for Finance initially nominated International Communications and Information Systems as a third partner in the consortium. The company wanted to incorporate cargo management applications into the system. Industry bodies objected to this proposal because it could result in a monopoly service. INET therefore emerged as a 50:50 joint venture between two state-owned online service providers.

Launch of AlterNet ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

UUNET launched its AlterNet service, a privately owned IP backbone network where users were not subject to the constraints that existed on backbones operated by the US government. It thus emerged as a commercial ISP at around the same time as PSINet.

Framework for openness ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The European Commission directive on Open Network Provision introduced a framework to break down telecommunications monopolies, privileges and discriminatory tariffs and to facilitate pan-European technical standards.

Timas-Galileo partnership ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Travel trade communications company Timas, which now operated the largest private X.25 network in Ireland, announced a major expansion of its information and reservation services by becoming a distributor for the Galileo international system.

Eirtrade emerges ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Telecom Eireann launched Eirtrade, its electronic trading services business, as a subsidiary company. Eirtrade introduced an EDI service based on proprietary technology from INS, a joint venture between ICL and General Electric. All of its customers transactions were initially processed by INS computers in Britain.

Killarney conference ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The two major European research networks (RARE and EARN) held a joint conference in Killarney. Delegates discussed proposals to bring all the national networks together and to meet the growing demand from academics for TCP/IP connections.

Eirtrade appointment ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Eirtrade appointed John Thompson as general manager. He joined the EDI service provider from mobile network operator Eircell, another Telecom Eireann subsidiary, where he had been the business manager.

Lawlink formed ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

A group of solicitors set up a company to introduce online access to databases relevant to the legal profession. This company, Lawlink, subsequently evolved into a joint venture between IFG Group and the Law Society of Ireland.

Minitel Communications ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

AIB Group, Credit Lyonnais, France Telecom Intelmatique and Telecom Eireann launched Minitel Communications Ltd as a joint venture that would market and promote third party videotex services under a national umbrella. Minitel Communications was also responsible for supplying special-purpose terminals to Minitel users and planned to charge monthly rental fees for these devices. The new company superseded the Videotel Eireann consortium and introduced a new group of shareholders. It proceeded to hire a management team that did not include Videotel founder Mel Healy. He set up a consultancy business, Star Telematics.

PostGem-Infonet partnership ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

International value added network services provider Infonet signed an agreement that made PostGem its representative in Ireland.

Istel acquired ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

AT&T bought e-mail and EDI pioneer Istel, one of the technology suppliers to PostGem.

First search engine ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Developers at McGill University in Montreal produced the Archie tool for indexing FTP archives. Now considered to be the first internet search engine, Archie made it possible for people who did not have personal login accounts on more than one machine to find and retrieve files.

Teltec Ireland ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Eolas board approved the establishment of Teltec Ireland, a national programme in advanced telecommunications technology. The agency aimed to harness expertise in higher education and to transfer new technologies into industry.

EMTel Solutions ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

AIB Group, Cara Data Processing and French technology developer Meta International established a Dublin-based joint venture, EMTel Solutions, to develop and support services on the new Minitel Communications system. EMTel planned to host Minitel services, but gave priority to consulting work that enabled other companies to participate in the Minitel infrastructure.

BBS guide ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

David Doyle, developer of the Toppsi database series for community organisations, began to publish the Definitive Irish BBS Listing. This service became a significant support for bulletin board system operators.

Minitel chief ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Minitel Communications named John Fitzpatrick, a former director of the National Lottery, as its chief executive.

Sitric ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Baltimore Technologies launched its Sitric electronic mail software, an X,400-based system that the company had originally developed for the Jutland Telephone Company in Denmark. Telecom Eireann participated in the design of Sitric, but never implemented the product for the management of its own services.

1991

First World Wide Web server in Ire...: When we started the first web server at UCC, it wasnt long before other departments and individuals saw what we were doing and asked if they could have space for their own pages. We agreed, and allowed them to write their own pages, without initially considering the effect this would have on support and especially on the demand for learning how to write HTML, compose web pages and manage a site. To start with, the requests tended to come from disciplines with a strong computing background; later on they could come from any department or from students wanting pages for clubs and societies.... Peter Flynn

The first World Wide Web server in Ireland was created in UCC by Peter Flynn, it is also ninth in the world.

Commercial Internet eXchange (CIX) ...: Click here for more...

Commercial Internet eXchange (CIX) Association, Inc. formed by General Atomics (CERFnet), Performance Systems International, Inc. (PSInet), and UUNET Technologies, Inc. (AlterNet), as NSF lifts restrictions on the commercial use of the Net (March) (:glg:

World-Wide Web (WWW) released by CE...: Click here for more...

World-Wide Web (WWW) released by CERN; Tim Berners-Lee developer (:pb1:). First Web server is nxoc01.cern.ch, launched in Nov 1990 and later renamed info.cern.ch.

US High Performance Computing Act (...: Click here for more...

US High Performance Computing Act (Gore 1) establishes the National Research and Education Network (NREN)

NSFNET backbone upgraded to T3 (44....: NSFNET backbone upgraded to T3 (44.736Mbps)

NSFNET traffic passes 1 trillion by...: NSFNET traffic passes 1 trillion bytes/month and 10 billion packets/month

EUnet embraces internet ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

EUnet decided to commercialise, expanding beyond its traditional focus on UUCP-based online services and promoting internet connectivity. The group set up a new company, EUnet bv, in the Netherlands to run its central network as a commercial service. Michael Nowlan became its chairman. EUnet subsequently became Europes largest internet service provider, offering access through partner organisations in a dozen countries.

European directive ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The European Commissions Article 90 telecoms services directive abolished special rights on online services held by state-owned network operators, opening up the markets for value added network services.

EuroKoms new mandate ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

UCD campus company EuroKom was restructured as a self-supporting business. It would continue to provide online collaboration services to researchers in European programmes, but was now permitted to diversify into other activities.

Cosine review ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Cosine awarded a contract to Baltimore Technologies to update its overall project plan. This review came halfway through the three-year specification phase of Cosine, which involved a range of pilot sub-projects and services based on the OSI model. Dublin-based Baltimore had previously worked on Cosines security and authentication requirements.

Third level proposal ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

HEAnet, whose service connected Irelands seven universities, floated a proposal to build a national network for all third level institutions. It held discussions with the regional technical colleges, Dublin Institute of Technology and Eolas.

Telematique begins ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The information technologies division at Eolas issued a call for outline project proposals for the Irish section of Telematique, the successor to the Star programme, which would run from late 1991 to 1993. The agency received a much greater response than it had expected more than 400 proposals from 174 organisations. Telematique would concentrate on supporting online services that stood a reasonable chance of becoming commercially viable, in contrast with Star which also subsidised awareness schemes and demonstration exercises.

Isocors inception ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

E-mail system developer Isocor was established by executives from Retix. The new company was headquartered in California, but initially concentrated all of its R+D activity in Dublin.

Europes internet ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

A four-fold increase in the number of hosts on the internet in Europe provided evidence that users were growing tired of waiting for OSI protocols to be specified and implemented and were turning to TCP/IP instead.

Minitel live ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Minitel Communications national videotex system went live. More than 20 different providers offered an initial selection of 35 services. Five bureau operations offered to develop and manage additional services. The first batch of Minitel services targeted business users, including industry-specific groups like publicans, petrol stations and transport companies. The launch of consumer-oriented services was deferred until the autumn. Minitel Communications aimed to attract 10,000 users over the following twelve months.

Insurance consortium ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

A consortium of insurance firms set up a steering group to establish an industry-specific network for EDI, e-mail and online sales. Eirtrade was subsequently chosen as the preferred service provider.

HEAnet plans ahead ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

HEAnets Futures committee, led by Michael Nowlan and Dennis Jennings, proposed a router-based network carrying several protocols, but mostly TCP/IP, over X.25 connections. The committee commissioned Euristix to recommend a design for this new network.

First ISP: IEunet ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Irelands first commercial internet service provider, IEunet, was established as a limited company. It was the first campus company in Trinity College Dublin, which owned 15% of the shares. IEunets founders, Cormac Callanan and Michael Nowlan, had previously managed the Irish Unix Users Groups information network on a voluntary basis.

INET live ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

INETs customs clearance service went into operation. The EDIAI objected to INET having a monopoly right to carry data into the Customs and Excise system.

Eirtrades e-mail ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Eirtrade took over responsibility for Eirmail, Telecom Eireanns X.400-based e-mail service. Eirmail was introduced in 1985 and six years later had around 400 users.

EDI in banking ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Irish Banks Standing Committee set up a working party to recommend an EDI strategy for financial institutions. Industry estimates at this time indicated that just 70-80 organisations were submitting creditor and trade payments electronically to their banks.

Synaptics starts ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Three former Retix managers founded Blackrock-based OSI software applications specialist Synaptics.

Gopher released ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

University of Minnesota developers released the first Gopher protocol for distributing, searching, and retrieving documents over the internet. The Gopher ecosystem has been described as the effective predecessor of the World Wide Web.

IUUG-IEunet agreement ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Irish Unix Users Group (IUUG) and IEunet signed a formal agreement under which the ISP would provide a professional network service to the group. Internet e-mail and newsgroup access would be its core offerings. This document stated that all IEunet subscribers must be current members of the IUUG. The installation of the internet line at TCD enabled the ISP to commence operations. IEunet completed the commissioning of its connection about two weeks after the agreement.

First internet line ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

A new 19.2 Kbps line connected the OReilly Institute at TCD to the internet through EUnets new connectivity service for Europe. The link from Dublin to Amsterdam went via the University of Kent at Canterbury and depended on three infrastructure providers: Telecom Eireann, BT and Mercury, which supplied the local loop in Canterbury. The costs of this first line were shared for one year by campus company IEunet and TCD Computer Laboratory. Both invested in networking equipment. The university installed a Cisco MGS router, while IEunet purchased suitable boards for this and other connections.

Internet access at TCD ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The TCD Department of Computer Science completed the commissioning of its internet connection. Two days later the departments internal IT unit invited staff to test the new connection, but warned that it could not yet guarantee a reliable service.

Internet access at UCD ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

UCD connected to the internet via Cosines International X.25 Infrastructure (IXI) backbone. The university obtained separate connections to IXI for its HEAnet operations and for EuroKom. At first it used X.25, X.29 and other OSI protocols on these lines. It became possible to support the internet protocol as well after the IXI access point in Amsterdam introduced an X.25-encapsulated IP connection for IXI participants.

First internet customer ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The first invoice that IEunet issued to a paying customer went to another start-up company inside Trinity College Dublin. Middleware developer Iona Technologies thus became the first organisation in Ireland to receive a bill from an internet service provider.

Open source searching ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Supercomputer maker Thinking Machines released a free open source version of the Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS) client, server system that was able to search index databases on remote computers. WAIS was often used as a full text search engine for individual Gopher servers.

World Wide Web ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The World Wide Web made its debut as a publicly available service on the internet, following the publication by Tim Berners-Lee of a summary report on recent development work at CERN in Geneva. This project had created the first web browser, produced the first web pages and turned a NeXT computer into the first web server.

.ie comes home ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

A UCD Computing Services team took over administration of the .ie top level domain from Harvard University. The new administrators regarded their task as a form of public service This transfer paved the way for the subsequent creation of the IE Domain Registry (IEDR).

People finder ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

A University of Colorado team led by Mike Schwartz developed the Netfind system, an early attempt to locate people on the internet.

Ebone consortium ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Ebone consortium was established at a RIPE meeting and drew up plans for a pan-European internet backbone for academic and research users.

Esat Telecom ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Esat Telecom was established as a subsidiary of the Communicorp Group.

DNS Registry ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The US Defense Information Systems Agency contracted Virginia-based Network Solutions to operate a domain name system registry. The company gave out names free of charge in the .com, .org, .mil, .gov, .edu and .net top level domains.

Web server at UCC ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

A Sun workstation at University College Cork (UCC) became the first World Wide Web server in Ireland and only the ninth in the world. This early implementation of web technology was achieved by Peter Flynn, who represented UCC at HEAnet and represented Ireland on the RARE working group responsible for directories. Tim Berners-Lee from CERN was a member of this group and demonstrated HTML to his colleagues at a meeting in late 1991. Shortly afterwards Peter Flynn downloaded the software from CERN and set up a web server to hold information for the Corpus of ELectronic Texts (CELT) project, a collection of multilingual documents on Irish literature and history.

National X.400 platform ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The installation of a Digital Equipment VAX computer in Cork represented a move by Telecom Eireann towards hosting its online data services instead of reselling services that were operated by others. Telecom referred to this new system as the national X.400 platform. The VAX was assigned to run Eirtrades e-mail and EDI services and the customs data transfer service operated by INET.

Toppsi on Minitel ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Toppsi obtained funding from the Star programme so that it could offer access to its community-related databases through the Minitel infrastructure.

BakerRyan launch ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Robert Baker and Mike Ryan founded TCP/IP integration company BakerRyan, offering products from TGV Software. BakerRyan subsequently became an IEunet reseller.

Telematique approved ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The European Commission gave its formal approval to the Irish operational programme for Telematique. Ireland secured 20.1 million punts or 5.5% of the total Telematique budget. The European regional development fund allocated 11 million punts, the Irish government provided 0.9 million punts and 8.2 million punts came from the private sector. Eolas issued its first call for full project proposals in the following month.

Clientlink closes ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Cognotec shut down Clientlink, its five-year-old videotex service that connected insurance firms and brokers.

Star statistics ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Star programme concluded at the end of 1991. Eolas reported that its advanced telecommunications strand had supported 57 projects over its five year duration. The agency noted that Star had facilitated the introduction of thirteen commercial services and that all of these were still operational in December 1991. It described Minitel, Gulliver and PostGem as flagship services. Another of the programmes outcomes was the establishment of fourteen telecommunications service centres in small towns and rural areas.

1992

Internet Society (ISOC) is chartere...: Click here for more...

Internet Society (ISOC) is chartered (January)

Number of hosts breaks 1,000,000......: Number of hosts breaks 1,000,000

RIPE Network Coordination Center (N...: RIPE Network Coordination Center (NCC) created in April to provide address registration and coordination services to the European Internet community (:dk1:)

Veronica, a gopherspace search tool...: Click here for more...

Veronica, a gopherspace search tool, is released by Univ of Nevada

World Bank comes on-line......: World Bank comes on-line

The term "surfing the Internet" is ...: The term "surfing the Internet" is coined by Jean Armour Polly (:jap:); Brendan Kehoe uses the term "net-surfing" as early as 6 June 1991 in a USENET post (:bt1:)

EDI users ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Rory Power at the Eolas science and technology agency estimated that the number of EDI users in Ireland was between 200 and 250.

Eirmail 400 ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Eirtrade launched Eirmail 400, which the company described as the first locally based public X.400 e-mail service in Ireland.

Isocors software ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Isocor launched its first EDI and e-mail software products, all based on OSI specifications.

Gulliver online ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Gulliver, a Minitel-based tourist information and reservation service supported by Star and Telematique, went live in regional tourist offices operated by Bord Failte and Northern Ireland Tourist Board. Phase one of this project distributed online information such as transport schedules, accommodation listings and event guides. It also supported initial testing of the reservations service, which the tourism authorities wanted to expand into a common booking system for all sections of their industry. Digital Equipment Ireland developed Gullivers software, employing an Rdb relational database on a VAX computer.

RIPE centre ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The RIPE Network Coordination Centre (NCC) began operations in Amsterdam, assuming responsibility for a certain number of tasks that are indispensable for the proper management of IP networks on a European scale. Structured as a not-for-profit membership organisation, the RIPE NCC was separate from the RIPE forum, but would provide technical and administrative support to the forum.

Ebone in operation ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Ebone commenced operations as a cooperative venture, combining existing academic resources into a unified structure and establishing its European IP backbone.

Animo contract ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

EuroKom announced that it had won a three-year contract to develop and operate an EDI-style service for 5,000 veterinary health units across the European Union. The new service, Animo, would record and report animal shipments between countries in the Single European Market, following the removal of border checkpoints that had previously collected such information.

IEunet customers ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

IEunet claimed a customer base of 45 organisations. Software and networking companies predominated.

Ireland On-Line opens ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

ISP Ireland On-Line was set up by Barry Flanagan, initially as a Galway-based bulletin board system.

Cork bulletin board ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Cork-based Infonet launched a local bulletin board system, offering international connections through the Fidonet network The Cork company, which was headed by Diarmaid O Cadhla, was unrelated to the international value added network services provider of the same name.

Minitel services ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Minitel claimed that 100 different Irish services were now available through its system.

IEDR in operation ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The IE Domain Registry (IEDR) started operating at University College Dublin. The staff of UCD Computing Services performed administrative tasks for IEDR and Niall OReilly became the responsible manager.

Alltravel ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Travel trade network company Timas launched the Alltravel flight information and seat availability application on Minitel.

Licence for IEunet ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Department of Communications issued a value added network service providers licence to IEunet, as the government began to implement a liberalisation policy for telecommunications services. The internet service provider was the fourth recipient of such a licence. The first had been awarded to Telecom Eireann in May.

X.500 directory ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

A consortium to develop an X.500 directory was formed as part of the Irish National Cosine Implementation Phase. IEunet took on project management responsibilities. TCD Computer Science, Telecom Eireann R&D section and UCD Computer Laboratory participated. This group collected lists of e-mail users in Ireland, added photographs where available, and loaded this information into the Paradise database, a Europe-wide pilot system funded by Cosine.

EUnet Limited ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Netherlands-based EUnet bv set up an Irish-registered company, EUnet Limited, as its vehicle for marketing international network services to commercial clients. This for-profit company was jointly owned by the EUnet service providers in each country (including IEunet) and by EurOpen, the European Forum for Open Systems. EUnets international operations centre stayed in Amsterdam.

HEAnet co-ordinator ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

HEAnet appointed Mike Norris as its network co-ordinator with responsibility for implementing a leased line infrastructure for Irelands seven universities. As this academic network expanded, HEAnet subsequently became the countrys largest internet service provider.

1993

InterNIC created by NSF to provide ...: Click here for more...

InterNIC created by NSF to provide specific Internet services: (:sc1:)

US White House email comes on-line ...: Click here for more...

US White House email comes on-line at whitehouse.gov; web site launches in 1994

Internet Talk Radio begins broadcas...: Internet Talk Radio begins broadcasting (:sk2:)

United Nations (UN) comes on-line (...: Click here for more...

United Nations (UN) comes on-line (:vgc:)

InterCon International KK (IIKK) pr...: Click here for more...

InterCon International KK (IIKK) provides Japan's first commercial Internet connection in September. TWICS, though an IIKK leased line, begins offering dial-up accounts the following month (:tb1:)

Mosaic takes the Internet by storm ...: Click to Play

Mosaic takes the Internet by storm (22 Apr); WWW proliferates at a 341,634% annual growth rate of service traffic. Gopher's growth is 997%.

Insurance problems ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The insurance industrys network project with Eirtrade was abandoned after some insurers started to develop alternative online services on their own.

EuropaNet ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Cosine awarded a three-year contract to PTT Telecom in the Netherlands to provide a backbone data network for the European research community. The contract included associated services to support multiple communications protocols. This backbone would be known as EuropaNet.

LAN Communications ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Network integration company LAN Communications was formed after its founders left the Typetec/Odyssey Group.

Agri-business EDI ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Eirtrade launched Agrinet, a customised EDI service for agri-business companies to exchange business documents with their national and international trading partners.

Changes at PostGem ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

David OMeara left PostGem and became director of business development at Unisource. PostGem named Michael Kelly as acting general manager.

Minitel users ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Minitel claimed that 140 different Irish services were available. Some 7,500 users were generating around 6,000 hours of traffic each month. Popular services included AIBs banking service and Telecom Eireanns electronic directory.

INS launched ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Tom Coade, previously network manager at Timas, opened International Network Systems (INS) The company became a reseller for Euro Datacom and Sprint. INS also supplied communications products, consulting and technical support to clients in the travel trade.

Mosaic browser ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The US National Center for Supercomputing Applications released its NCSA Mosaic web browser. Marc Andreesen led the development team.

Telematique projects ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Eolas issued its second call for online service proposals in the Irish strand of the Telematique programme. In total, the programme supported 79 projects, most of which catered for specific industries or professions. Many of the resulting services subsequently migrated to the internet.

CERN policy ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

CERN declared that its HTML-based World Wide Web technology would be freely usable by anyone.

Entropy opens ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Network integration company Entropy was launched, promoting TCP/IP software for minicomputers and LANs. NetManage appointed the start-up as the distributor of its Chameleon TCP/IP for Windows software.

INET diversifies ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Irish National Electronic Trading Agency (INET), the Eirtrade-PostGem joint venture, launched its INET-TRANS range of value added network services for the transport industry. INET-TRANS offered EDI and consignment tracking applications for air, sea and road transport companies. The new services could be accessed through connections originally established for freight companies and traders to communicate with customs and excise computers.

Lawlink online ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Lawlink introduced a service for data retrieval from the Land Registry, using Eirtrades Eirmail 400 system and client software from EDI Factory to support document examinations for property transactions.

IEunet-IOL partnership ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Ireland On-Line became IEunets first reseller. The companies did not establish a formal agreement until January 1994.

HEAnet NOC ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Academic internet service provider HEAnet opened a network operations centre (NOC) at University College Dublin. This followed a tendering process to select the location. HEAnet established the NOC as part of its migration from the Eirpac public packet switched network to leased lines. A new set of circuits in a star configuration gave each of the countrys universities a direct connection with the centre. The new infrastructure was run by three HEAnet employees and overseen by a voluntary committee of systems and network managers from the seven universities.

First government connection ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Valuation Office became the first civil service workplace with an internet connection. BakerRyan set up an internet access account with IEunet on its behalf. IT staff at the Valuation Office initially saw this new resource as an aid to software management rather than as a communications medium.

SSEs OpenPath ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Dublin-based Siemens subsidiary SSE launched the OpenPath suite of OSI applications and an advanced EDI server product.

Gulliver off-target ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Gulliver tourism information and reservation project invited international tour operators to access its central system, but quickly learned that pilot users would prefer a PC-based information service. Shortly afterwards Bord Failte concluded that the original Gulliver specification, based on a large central computer, would not deliver the planned functions at a sustainable cost.

V.34 modems ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The V.34 Rapporteur forum met in Dublin to fine-tune its latest modem standard under the auspices of the International Telecommunication Union. V.34 was a milestone in dial-up data communications. It supported transfer rates of up to 28.8 Kbps, or double the previous norm, and was backwards compatible with the earlier V.32 standard.

Electronic filing ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Companies Registration Office ran pilot demonstrations of a Telematique-supported electronic filing project, enabling accountants and solicitors to submit statutory reports on Irish companies via Eirtrades EDI service. This project employed applications software from two Irish developers, Datacare and EDI Factory.

Changes at Minitel ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Minitel Communications announced a shift of strategy to prioritise services for professional associations and closed user groups. This followed the adoption of a new five-year development plan by its four shareholders. The national videotex system now claimed 8,500 registered users.

1994

RTE To Everywhere...: RTE To Everywhere is a service set up by Irish ex-pats alongside TCD and UL colleagues who distributed ten minute snippets of RTE radio broadcasts via web servers around the world.

W3C Consortium is founded...: Click to Play

"The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international community that develops open standards to ensure the long-term growth of the Web."

ARPANET/Internet celebrates 25th an...: ARPANET/Internet celebrates 25th anniversary

US Senate and House provide informa...: US Senate and House provide information servers

Shopping malls arrive on the Intern...: Click here for more...

Shopping malls arrive on the Internet

NSFNET traffic passes 10 trillion b...: NSFNET traffic passes 10 trillion bytes/month

Yes, it's true - you can now order ...: Click here for more...

Yes, it's true - you can now order pizza from the Hut online

WWW edges out telnet to become 2nd ...: Click here for more...

WWW edges out telnet to become 2nd most popular service on the Net (behind ftp-data) based on % of packets and bytes traffic distribution on NSFNET

First Virtual, the first cyberbank,...: Click here for more...

First Virtual, the first cyberbank, open up for business

The first banner ads appear on hotw...: Click here for more...

The first banner ads appear on hotwired.com in October. They were for Zima (a beverage) and AT&T

Trans-European Research and Educati...: Click here for more...

Trans-European Research and Education Network Association (TERENA) is formed by the merger of RARE and EARN, with representatives from 38 countries as well as CERN and ECMWF. TERENA's aim is to "promote and participate in the development of a high quality international information and telecommunications infrastructure for the benefit of research and education" (October)

Yahoo! ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Stanford University students Jerry Yang and David Filo founded Jerry and Davids Guide to the World Wide Web, a directory with a hierarchical structure. In April they changed the title of their web guide to Yahoo!

Eirpac users ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Telecom Eireann revealed that the user base for its Eirpac packet switched network stood at more than 500 X.25 customers and some 2,500 registered X.28 installations.

ISDN arrives ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Telecom Eireann announced the commercial introduction of ISDN in Ireland, two months after a Europe-wide launch of this new generation of digital communications networks. The subsequent roll-out of ISDN across the country proceeded more slowly than intended. Within a few years, however, the network proved attractive to users as an easy and relatively fast option for dial-up internet access.

Multimedia mail ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Isocor partnered with Innosoft to support Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) and to enable the transfer of multimedia attachments between X.400 and MIME users.

PostGem appointment ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

An Post executive Jim Treacy became the general manager at PostGem.

First ISP in Northern Ireland ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Belfast-based Genesis Project, whose name was a Star Trek reference, went live as the first internet service provider in Northern Ireland. The company catered for both business customers and personal users and offered a choice of dial-up or leased line connectivity from the beginning. Genesis accessed the outside world through a link to Pipex in Cambridge, England.

Library catalogues online ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Committee on Library Co-operation in Ireland launched its Telematique-backed IRIS information retrieval and document supply service. IRIS subscribers had online access to the library catalogues inside five universities and Forbairt. IEunet managed the server.

Easy Call ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Esat Telecom launched its Easy Call service, collaborating with Sprint International to offer reductions in international telephony costs to Dublin-based businesses. Esat routed voice traffic via leased lines from each customers PBX into Sprints global network. This was Esats first service for Irish customers and set the company on the course that eventually led it into internet services.

RTE To Everywhere ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

A group of Irish expatriates, assisted by colleagues in TCD and UL, began to distribute small snippets from RTE radio broadcasts via web servers around the world. This demonstration project started long before anyone thought about streaming audio (or video) on the internet. The service was known as RTE To Everywhere. By August 1994 it was recording and forwarding five to seven minutes of news each day from the Morning Ireland programme and another three minutes of nuacht in the Irish language. In the early stages the project team used the .au audio file format from Sun Microsystems, but later switched to RealAudio. RTE To Everywhere established five mirror sites on three continents. The service ceased in October 1998.

Mosaic Communications ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Jim Clark, who had previously founded Silicon Graphics, and Marc Andreessen, who had worked on web browser technology at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, set up Mosaic Communications Corporation. The company changed its name to Netscape Communications in November 1994.

Shannon Internet Services ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

IEunet and Shannon Development formed a joint venture, Shannon Internet Services, to set up and manage a regional internet node in Limerick. Companies in the midwest could now dial into the internet for the price of a local call.

Cork BBS diversifies ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

BBS operator Infonet introduced an internet service, offering e-mail, file transfers, network news and online access to databases in the Companies Registration Office. The Cork company had previously focused on private and casual users. The new internet capabilities enabled it to target accountants and solicitors across the Munster region.

Bangemann report ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The report on Europe and the Global Information Society (better known as the Bangemann report) presented a set of policy recommendations to European Union leaders.

Amazon appears ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Jeff Bezos established Amazon.com in Seattle, Washington.

EuropaNet access ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

HEAnet connected to EuropaNet, the new multi-protocol backbone network for European research.

IEunet customers ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

IEunet claimed a customer base of 140 organisations.

From Minitel to internet ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Ireland On-Line formed a partnership with three Minitel services (Business and Finance Business Information, CFI Online and Kompass Ireland) in order to offer their trade data and company intelligence over the internet.

Genesis in Cork ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Belfast-based ISP Genesis Project opened a node in Cork. This was managed by Ron Hahn, who had previously worked at Neutron Technology Systems in Cobh.

Internet Eireann ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

ISP Internet Eireann was launched with links to Canada supplied by SM Communications. Steve OHara-Smith was managing director. This was the first service provider in Ireland to introduce a flat monthly charge for dial-up internet access.

Apples eWorld ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Apple installed an access node in Dublin for its eWorld electronic information service, whiose options included internet e-mail. In the US eWorld competed with America Online, CompuServe, Prodigy and the Interchange Online Network. None of these other services had a presence in Ireland at that time.

W3C launch ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Tim Berners-Lee in CERN and Michael Dertouzos at the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science founded the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). W3C produced technical recommendations for web standards and developed policies and practices for web accessibility, internationalisation and intellectual property rights.

Team 400 live ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Dublin-based Digital Equipment reseller Trinity Group introduced its Team 400 messaging service. Developed by Eoin Meehan, Team 400 offered both X.400 and internet e-mail and highlighted its ability to bridge the two standards. The company routed messages through its own VAX platform, partnering with Eirtrade and IEunet as gateways for X.400 and internet e-mail respectively. Team 400 subsequently added a low-cost option for small suppliers to link into EDI services through its system.

Ebone Association ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Ebone consortium remodelled the legal structure behind its European internet backbone by forming the Ebone Association under French law. The first executive committee of the association included Dennis Jennings as secretary.

Web used for marketing ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Middleware developer Iona Technologies began marketing its Orbix Object Request Broker from the companys own web site.

Connect Ireland ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

ISP Connect Ireland was formed as an offshoot of the Toppsi bulletin board system, which was run by the People Active Through Community Help (Patch) agency. MCI supplied its international connectivity. Artist Paddy Graham designed the companys distinctive logo (shown here).

Cork Internet Services ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Launch of Cork Internet Services, a joint venture between Access Technology and IEunet, as a regional internet service provider. Mark McGloughlin headed this business.

Navigator browser ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Netscape Communications released version 1.0 of its Navigator browser, providing a common feature set and graphical user interface for the Microsoft Windows, Macintosh and X Window System operating environments.

BT Northern Ireland ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

BT introduced a wholesale connectivity offering to Northern Ireland, enabling ISPs to deliver dial-up internet access through its infrastructure. These resellers would not be able to offer a leased line option. New service providers availed of this connectivity in 1995 and the network operator subsequently became an ISP in its own right.

1995

NSFNET reverts back to a research n...: NSFNET reverts back to a research network. Main US backbone traffic now routed through interconnected network providers

The new NSFNET is born as NSF estab...: The new NSFNET is born as NSF establishes the very high speed Backbone Network Service (vBNS) linking super-computing centers: NCAR, NCSA, SDSC, CTC, PSC

Sun launches JAVA on May 23......: Click here for more...

Sun launches JAVA on May 23

WWW surpasses ftp-data in March as ...: WWW surpasses ftp-data in March as the service with greatest traffic on NSFNet based on packet count, and in April based on byte count

Traditional online dial-up systems ...: Click here for more...

Traditional online dial-up systems (CompuServe, America Online, Prodigy) begin to provide Internet access

Chris Lamprecht (aka "Minor Threat"...: Click here for more...

Chris Lamprecht (aka "Minor Threat") becomes the first person banned from accessing the Internet by a US District Court judge in Texas

Registration of domain names is no ...: Click here for more...

Registration of domain names is no longer free. Beginning 14 September, a $50 annual fee has been imposed, which up until now was subsidized by NSF. NSF continues to pay for .edu registration, and on an interim basis for .gov

Operation Home Front connects, for ...: Click here for more...

Operation Home Front connects, for the first time, soldiers in the field with their families back home via the Internet.

Technologies of the Year: WWW, Sear...: Click here for more...

Technologies of the Year: WWW, Search engines

Emerging Technologies: Mobile code ...: Click here for more...

Emerging Technologies: Mobile code (JAVA, JAVAscript), Virtual environments (VRML), Collaborative tools

Microsoft backs UUNET ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Microsoft bought shares in internet service provider UUNET Technologies and announced that UUNET would provide internet access to its forthcoming Microsoft Network (MSN) online service.

INFO.Net ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Infonet Services Corporation introduced secure internet access and applications for transnational customers through a new division named INFO.Net. This initiative enabled PostGem, as Infonets Irish partner, to add internet service provision to its portfolio.

IOL-Pipex link ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Ireland On-Line sourced international connectivity from Pipex, ending its previous arrangement with IEunet. The ISP now claimed to have 1900 customer organisations.

Eirenet ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Genesis Project Ireland severed all links with its Belfast-based parent and changed its name to Eirenet.

Banks on the web ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

AIB and Bank of Ireland launched their first web sites. In both cases the banks treasury divisions led the way online, using the web to publish financial information and economic commentaries.

First government announcement ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

A government announcement was sighted on the web for the first time, courtesy of the computer applications department at Dublin City University. DCU staff placed the Irish and British governments joint framework document on Northern Ireland online.

Teri Hatcher incident ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

HEAnet discovered how the World Wide Web was disrupting the financial model behind its internet service. A postgraduate student at Dublin City University uploaded pictures of American actress Teri Hatcher to the web, attracting an unprecedented volume of internet traffic and an unexpected spike in network charges. This incident led HEAnets network management committee to formulate policies on user access and traffic control, alerting the wider internet community to the need for new approaches to service administration.

Eirtrade absorbs Minitel ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Telecom Eireann assumed 100% ownership of Minitel Communications. It subsequently merged the videotex business into Eirtrade. Minitels outgoing chief executive John Fitzpatrick took charge of Eirtrade.

PostGem-Digital partnership ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Digital Equipment Ireland appointed PostGem as a non-exclusive reseller of a new portfolio of server hardware, software tools and consulting services for electronic commerce over the internet.

Airline on the web ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

IBM built and operated a web-based information system for Aer Lingus.

Paradise lost ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Paradise X.500 directory project ground to a halt, when Cosine funding ended. Not only had the X.500 standard run out of steam, but the project had also struggled with data privacy issues and data quality problems.

Multicast ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The networks and telecommunications research group at Trinity College Dublin obtained a high-speed link into the Multicast Backbone, which was capable of delivering live audio and video streams over the internet.

Netscape products ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Netscape Communications announced a broad portfolio of server software, internet applications and security options that enabled information exchange and electronic commerce, not only on the internet but also on corporate IP networks.

Nua founded ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Gerry McGovern launched internet consultancy firm Nua.

First internet cafeopened...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Barry Breslin opened the Internet Exchange at Lower Stephen Street, Dublin. This was Irelands first internet cafe and was initially supported by a 64 Kbps connection into PostGem.

Eirtrade strategy ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Eirtrade announced its intention to introduce an internet service shortly, targeting business customers and offering international links to other internet service providers The Telecom Eireann subsidiary eventually started to provide internet connections in 1996.

Marketing agency ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Dublin-based Webfactory opened as a marketing agency that specialised in web site design and programming. Software developer Kindle Banking Systems was among its first customers.

WWW handbook ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

International Thomson Computer Press published The World Wide Web Handbook: A Guide for Users, Authors, and Publishers by Peter Flynn from University College Cork.

PostGem-IOL partnership ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

An alliance between Ireland On-Line and PostGem extended IOLs internet services to the PostGem customer base. The companies also began to share facilities. Within a year An Post was discussing an outright acquisition of IOL.

Lawlink on internet ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

IFG Group acquired a majority shareholding in Lawlink. It subsequently engaged PostGem and Ireland On-Line to redesign Lawlinks secure e-mail and database access applications as internet-based services.

National information server ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Higher Education Authority awarded a contract to the Business and Technology Information Service at the University of Limerick to manage the contents of a web-based national information server. HEAnet would handle the networking requirements. The project proved to be too ambitious and failed to take off.

Sprint supports ISP ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Internet Eireann obtained international bandwidth from Sprint.

Ombudsman online ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Another Irish government document appeared on the web. UCD Department of Library and Information Studies placed the Ombudsmans Offices annual report online.

Team 400 expands ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Team 400 extended its X.400 and internet e-mail services into London through a local partner company called Advantage. It now claimed 40 Irish customers with around 3,000 end users.

EMTel unravels ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Pat Nolan, the head of IT consultancy Framework Technology, became the majority owner of EMTel Solutions, acquiring 65% of the joint venture. Meta International increased its shareholding from 20% to 35%, while AIB Group and Cara Data Processing withdrew from the joint venture. EMTel originally focused on Minitel services. The company had adapted its services and its clients applications to run in other environments before this restructuring announcement.

ICLs encryption ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

ICLs information technology centre in Leopardstown demonstrated new encryption software for location codes on the World Wide Web. This technology offered access controls and billing mechanisms for electronic publishing and retailing.

Kerna launch ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

UCDs computing services group launched a new campus company Kerna Communications, aiming to commercialise its expertise in network operations, internet connectivity and user training. Kerna initially highlighted its experience in web publishing and online presentations.

Irish Operators Forum ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Representatives from ten internet companies attended the inaugural meeting of the Irish Operators Forum. The event was convened by HEAnet. The participants discussed the potential benefits of a neutral interconnection point for internet traffic. A request for proposals for a managed switch followed in August.

Synaptics shuts ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

OSI software specialist Synaptics closed down following an unsuccessful bid to participate in the development of a new US defence messaging system.

World Wide Web Institute ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The World Wide Web Institute was established in Geneva to devise and award internet-related qualifications.

Microsoft browser ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Microsoft introduced the Internet Explorer browser, which it had designed specifically for Windows 95.

Web-based training ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

A team from UCD computer science department founded a new company, Web Educational Support Tools (WEST) with Dennis Jennings as chairman. This group had developed software that delivered multimedia training material over the web. It created WEST after this application won first place in its category at the Apple Enterprise Awards in New York.

DNS fees ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The National Science Foundation authorised Network Solutions to charge for domain name registrations in the US. The company introduced an annual fee of $50 for second level names in the .edu, .gov, .com, .net and .org top level domains.

Internet appliances ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Oracle chief Larry Ellison predicted that low-cost internet appliances would supersede PCs by making them appear too complex and over-priced.

Northwest connection ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Ireland On-Line partnered with Screenphones, a software and communications company in Sligo, to introduce internet access at local dial-up rates in the northwest region. Before the introduction of this service, internet users in the region were required to connect via nodes in Dublin or Galway, thus incurring long distance phone charges.

Internet Services Ireland ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Internet Services Ireland (ISI) launched its HomeNet service. The new internet service provider also reported that it was running trials for a business-oriented service called WorkNet. Horizon Computer Group was the majority owner of ISI. David Mee became its managing director.

INET absorbed ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Telecom Eireann assumed 100% ownership of INET.

Lifetime membership ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

An Internet Eireann promotion offered lifetime membership of the internet to new customers.

Telecom strategy ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Telecom Eireann outlined a strategy to become an internet wholesaler, managing national and international connectivity on behalf of multiple ISPs.

Commerce Ireland ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

W3 Services and Shannon Development launched Commerce Ireland, which they described as a commercial space where Irish companies and organisations could develop their businesses online. The web-based system featured a directory of over 850 organisations in the midwest region.

Virtual tourist office ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Dublin Tourism opened a virtual tourist office on Microsofts MSN online service, enabling its subscribers to make enquiries, book accommodation and download tourist information. UCD campus company Tour-IT, developed the application.

Assurelink contract ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Assurelink, a consortium of eight life assurance companies, awarded a contract to Vision Group to devise the technical architecture for an online system that would enable brokers to access their clients policy information. Unlike previous attempts to establish an insurance industry network, this project produced a web-based model.

IEunet name change ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

IEunet changed its name to EUnet Ireland.

DINX switch ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Irish Operators Forum decided to award the management contract for its Dublin Internet Exchange (DINX) switch to PostGem, following advice on the selection process from Euristix. The choice of an ISP to run DINX proved controversial.

Indigo arrives ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Indigo launched with Michael Branagan as managing director. In contrast with its predecessors, this new arrival presented itself as an internet service provider to a mass market. Indigo ran a high-profile promotional campaign that aimed to attract individual users, rather than business customers.

Irish service providers ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

More than 20 Irish-based companies had now launched internet access services or announced plans to join the industry. These included Telecom Eireann, MCI and Sprint, which provided wholesale connectivity within the industry but were not selling internet services directly to users.

AltaVista ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Digital Equipment released the beta edition of its AltaVista web search and indexing software.

InterWeb ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Internet Services Ireland launched its InterWeb web site hosting service.

HEAnet customers ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

HEAnet reported that 24 customer organisations were connected to its network. In addition to seven universities that had created the service, it now supported eleven regional technical colleges, the Dublin Institute of Technology, Forbairt, The National College of Industrial Relations, The Central Applications Office and Teagasc The Royal Irish Academy was about to become HEAnets twenty-fifth customer.

Tax information web site ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Revenue Commissioners launched a tax and customs information site at http://www.revenue.ie. According to an official announcement, the contents of this web site included key points on personal tax rates, incentives for investors, how to pay vehicle registration tax and a charter of rights for taxpayers.

Web-enabled Viper ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Dublin-based software developer IT Design enabled customers to access its Viper information retrieval system from a web browser.

Womex extranet ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Connecticut-based World Merchandise Exchange (Womex) opened its main operations base in Dublin. Womex built an extranet on the BT-MCI Concert infrastructure for global communications between large retail chains and merchandise suppliers.

1996

The controversial US Communications...: Click here for more...

The controversial US Communications Decency Act (CDA) becomes law in the US in order to prohibit distribution of indecent materials over the Net. A few months later a three-judge panel imposes an injunction against its enforcement. Supreme Court unanimously rules most of it unconstitutional in 1997.

MCI upgrades Internet backbone addi...: Click here for more...

MCI upgrades Internet backbone adding ~13,000 ports, bringing the effective speed from 155Mbps to 622Mbps.

The Internet Ad Hoc Committee annou...: Click here for more...

The Internet Ad Hoc Committee announces plans to add 7 new generic Top Level Domains (gTLD): .firm, .store, .web, .arts, .rec, .info, .nom. The IAHC plan also calls for a competing group of domain registrars worldwide.

The WWW browser war, fought primari...: Click here for more...

The WWW browser war, fought primarily between Netscape and Microsoft, has rushed in a new age in software development, whereby new releases are made quarterly with the help of Internet users eager to test upcoming (beta) versions.

Internet2 project is kicked off by ...: Click here for more...

Internet2 project is kicked off by representatives from 34 universities on 1 Oct (:msb:)

New Zealand: classifies computer di...: Click here for more...

New Zealand: classifies computer disks as "publications" that can be censored and seized

Technologies of the Year: Search en...: Click to Play

Technologies of the Year: Search engines, JAVA, Internet Phone

Gulliver for sale ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The boards of Bord Failte and the Northern Irish Tourist Board decided to sell off a majority stake in the Gulliver system, following recommendations from consultants that it would best be run as a standalone commercial operation.

Java 1.0 ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Sun Microsystems opened its Javasoft business unit and shipped release 1.0 of the Java programming language as a free web download.

Club Internet ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Internet service provider Medianet launched its Club Internet service. The company was owned by the Aubrey Fogarty Associates advertising agency and Tom Kelly was managing director. Medianets main servers and communications hardware were installed inside Sprints Dublin premises and were maintained by Timas. Medianet also marketed internet access and web presence services to travel trade companies in collaboration with Timas.

Push technology ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Members of the original Java development team at Sun Microsystems founded a new venture, Marimba. This company envisaged the future of the internet as a push medium that would automatically distribute and update software applications and content. Marimbas Java-based Castanet technology enabled users to select and subscribe to multiple distribution channels.

Civil service connects ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Department of Finance selected HEAnet to provide internet connectivity throughout the civil service, reversing its previous policy of discouraging internet use in government offices. The department leased a 128 Kbps line to HEAnets network operations centre in UCD. By this time the higher education service provider had embarked on a process to restructure itself as a limited liability company.

Discussion document ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Forbairt published a discussion document on Ireland: the digital age and the internet, written by Nua founder Gerry McGovern, and invited suggestions on national strategy.

Internet Eireanns demise ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Internet Eireann ceased operations after losing a Circuit Court lawsuit taken by SM Communications for unpaid bills. Indigo expanded its customer base by offering to honour Internet Eireanns commitments to all dial-up users.

Government task force ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The government established a 20-member task force for the information society, charged with the preparation of a national strategic plan by early 1997. Vivienne Jupp, a partner in Andersen Consulting, chaired the task force.

Netscapes suite ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Netscape introduced the SuiteSpot collection of cross-platform server applications, supporting communications and content management over private intranets.

INEX inception ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Four internet service providers, EUnet, Indigo, MCI and Telecom Eireann, issued a joint statement of intent to establish a neutral exchange for internet traffic within Ireland. These ISPs did not want to use the DINX inter-service switch at PostGem. The group subsequently formed the Internet Neutral Exchange (INEX) association.

Schools online ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The National Information Technology in Education Centre (NITEC) announced an initiative to link 3,800 Irish schools into the internet at no cost. Indigo would provide connectivity and Microsoft would donate software to NITEC.

Isocor N-Plex ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Isocor introduced its N-Plex portfolio of internet and intranet backbone server software. The suite shared many components with the companys X.400 products.

Eirenet closes ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Cork-based ISP Eirenet ceased trading. It had run into financial difficulties when its competitors grew more aggressive, admitting that Indigos drive to build market share had damaged it.

Internet Ireland launch ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

ISP Internet Ireland was launched with Global One providing its international connectivity and facilities management. Six months later a rift between co-founders George Hellis and Barry Breslin led to hearings in the High Court and Helliss departure from the company.

Virtual reality ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

A group of virtual reality modelling language architects announced the VRML 2.0 specification -an industry standard for three dimensional internet environments. Silicon Graphics had developed the base technology.

Eirtrade messaging ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Eirtrade announced details of an internet service for its business customers. It suggested that these organisations should use separate services for confidential and general messaging, X.400 for secure communications and internet e-mail for the remainder.

Cable TV access ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Sligo-based Screenphones became the first Irish service provider to demonstrate internet access via cable TV.

EDIAI name change ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The EDI Association of Ireland (EDIAI) changed its name to the Electronic Commerce Association of Ireland, signalling its engagement with a wider spectrum of business-to-business communication.

Government on the web ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

An official government web site went live under the supervision of the Centre for Management Organization and Development in the Department of Finance. Ireland On-Line provided site design and development services.

First video broadcast ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

RTE delivered its first live video broadcast over the web: an edition of the Late Late Show.

ISPs merge ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The consortium behind Internet Services Ireland acquired EUnet Ireland. The two ISPs merged under the EUnet Ireland name with David Mee as managing director.

V.70 modems ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The International Telecommunication Union finalised its V.70 modem specification, supporting simultaneous 30.6 Kbps data connections and voice telephony over analogue phone lines

Indigo chief resigns ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Michael Branagan resigned as managing director of Indigo. Several of his colleagues followed him out of the internet company. Branagan subsequently took charge of another internet service provider, Internet Ireland.

Baltimore sold ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Baltimore Technologies founder Michael Purser sold his network security software firm to a team financed by Dermot Desmond. The Dublin-based companys new leadership placed more emphasis on software products, offering encryption and certification tools for internet communications and electronic commerce.

Not-for-profit INEX ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The INEX association agreed to form a not-for-profit company that would establish a neutral interconnection facility.

Domain count ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

An internet domain survey by Network Wizards counted 21,464 hosts with .ie suffixes and ranked Ireland at number 30 in a global league table of national domain name totals.

Insurance e-mail ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Team 400 provided a closed user group e-mail service to around 40 life assurance brokers on behalf of Assurelink. This initiative marked the first practical offering for insurance intermediaries by the Assurelink consortium.

Moran buys Indigo ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Indigo was acquired by family interests of Mr Shay Moran from Edenbrook Investments, which was owned by the Moyna family. Shay Moran had previously been the managing director of Itec Security Products, which was acquired by Aritech in 1990. He took on the chief executives role at Indigo and Tom Fingleton, who previously worked for Samsung Semiconductor, became managing director.

AltaVista Internet Software ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Digital Equipment reorganised its growing portfolio of internet products and services into a subsidiary named AltaVista Internet Software and announced its intention to sell a minority stake in AltaVista through an initial public offering.

Slingshot ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

CSK Quay Financial Software launched its Slingshot product, described as the first system specifically designed for distributing real-time market data over the internet.

INEX seeks proposals ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Internet Neutral Exchange (INEX) elected its first set of company officers, chaired by David Mee from EUnet Ireland. INEX also issued a request for proposals. It sought a neutral facility and management service for routers and network termination units that would be owned by multiple ISPs. Cara subsequently won the contract.

Banking suite ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Eon Technologies unveiled the first components in a web-based software suite for retail banks.

Indigos design deal ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Indigo acquired web site design firm Business Network Ireland.

Swiftguide ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

UCD campus company Kerna Communications produced the Swiftguide to Ireland, a directory of Irish web sites.

Trintech integrates ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Trintech Group and Microsoft announced an agreement to integrate Trintechs payment processing software with Microsoft Merchant Server. This combination supported the authorisation and management of purchases through the internet. Bank of Ireland became the first financial institution to implement Trintechs technology for web commerce.

PostGem-Microsoft partnership ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

PostGem established points of presence in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway for Microsofts MSN online service.

Tinet launch ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Telecom Eireann launched its Telecom Internet (Tinet) business unit, following a decision that it should become an ISP in its own right. Led by Noel Herity. Tinet partnered with Nua to launch an internet access service for residential customers and a framework for developing community-oriented web content.

Gulliver restructured ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Bord Failte and the Northern Irish Tourist Board accepted a proposal from Fexco to buy a majority stake in Gulliver. The two state agencies would hold 26% of the shares in a new entity, Gulliver Infores Services.

Esats EasyNet ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Esat Telecom announced its first internet service, EasyNet, initially catering for its existing client base. The company reported that 1,990 corporate customers were already using its long distance and international voice and fax services.

PostGem acquires IOL ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

PostGem and its parent company An Post completed the acquisition of Ireland On-Line. IOL now claimed over 20,000 subscribers. The iol.ie domain had a long afterlife. Some former customers were still using it in their e-mail addresses 20 years later.

Bandwidth statistics ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The combined international bandwidth obtained by ISPs in Ireland stood at around 18 Mbps. HEAnet held the largest share, accounting for 4 Mbps of this capacity. The industry total at the beginning of 1996 had been just over 5 Mbps.

1997

Netflix Inc Founded...: Click to Play

Netflix Inc. was founded. Began as DVD rental site and grew into the streaming service we know today.

Emerging Technologies: Virtual envi...: Emerging Technologies: Virtual environments (VRML), Collaborative tools, Internet appliance (Network Computer)

71,618 mailing lists registered at ...: 71,618 mailing lists registered at Liszt, a mailing list directory

The American Registry for Internet ...: The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) is established to handle administration and registration of IP numbers to the geographical areas currently handled by Network Solutions (InterNIC), starting March 1998.

Technologies of the Year: Push, Mul...: Technologies of the Year: Push, Multicasting

Trinity Commerce ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Trinity Group, the operator of the Team 400 messaging service, acquired a majority stake in Solutions Group, a web development and design company founded by Norman Crowley, Mark Russell and Brian Bardin. Team 400 had recently diversified into web content development and had outsourced some of this work to Solutions Group. Its parent organisation now proceeded to expand its activities in this area. The combination with Solutions Group resulted in a new company that subsequently traded as Trinity Commerce.

Nuas digests ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Launch of Nua Internet Surveys: an Irish-produced digest of global research and commentaries on internet use.

IIA established ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Irish Internet Association (IIA) was born at a meeting that initially considered the establishment of a more narrowly focused Irish Internet Developers Association. The IIA was initially chaired by magazine publisher Frank Quinn. Conall Lavery headed a subcommittee for technical and security issues.

Online banking begins ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Bank of Ireland became the first bank in the country to provide secure online banking services to personal customers. It started with a three month pilot trial, using message queuing techniques from an existing telephone-based information service.

WEST name change ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

UCD campus company WEST changed its name to WBT Systems and retitled its delivery and administration system for educational courses as TopClass. The company also obtained its first round of venture capital funding from Delta Partners and software industry veteran Tony Kilduff.

Dell on the web ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Dell launched its first web-based sales quotation service for Irish customers. Only a small selection of bundles based on its desktop PCs were initially offered through this channel. In the US, meanwhile, the computer maker was now generating revenues of over $1 million a day through the internet.

Crossware ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Netscape chairman Jim Clark introduced his companys strategy for crossware: a new category of internet software applications for connecting businesses with their customers and partners.

TrustedWeb ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Siemens launched TrustedWeb, an access rights management system for web servers that had been developed at its Dublin-based subsidiary SSE.

Information Society Commission ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Government ministers approved the establishment of an Information Society Commission under the Department of the Taoiseach.

ISP Association ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Telecom Internet, EUnet Ireland, Club Internet, Indigo and Ireland On-Line established the Internet Service Providers Association of Ireland to channel the ISPs views and concerns to government bodies and to represent them at international level. EUnets Cormac Callanan chaired this group.

Assurelink integrator ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Assurelink consortium appointed ICL Ireland as the systems integrator for its web-based service for the life assurance industry. Each participating insurance firm would install a Sun Netra server running an Oracle database and Netscape Enterprise Server.

Registration reforms ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

A meeting hosted by the International Telecommunication Union produced a memorandum of understanding to reform the governance of generic top level internet domains. This agreement ended the monopoly held by Network Solutions on registration services for the three .com, .org and .net domains and made provision for the establishment of new name registrars.

Pebblesoft ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Network-based training company Pebblesoft Learning launched a web-based courseware library that had been developed at Amdahl Irelands centre in Swords.

INEX commissioning ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The Internet Neutral Exchange (INEX), commenced operations with Cara providing managemens services. INEX initially routed national internet traffic among EUnet Ireland, HEAnet, Indigo and Telecom Internet. PostGem joined later that summer, resolving the split between INEX and DINX.

RIPE in Dublin ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

RIPE held its biggest meeting to date, RIPE 27, at Dublin City University. One outcome of this event was the formation of a top level domain (TLD) working group chaired by Niall OReilly from the IEDR. The European Commission participated in this RIPE project, which culminated in the creation of CENTR, the association of European country code TLD registries, in 1999.

Irelands regulator ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

The regulatory functions of the communications minister were transferred to the new, independent Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation. Before the transfer date 45 companies had been licensed to provide telecommunications services other than mobile telephony. The incoming director, Etain Doyle, had a civil service background and no previous involvement with the communications industry.

Tinet incentive ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Telecom Eireanns Tinet offered free line installation as part of an incentive bundle for new dial-up internet customers.

Default browser ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Microsoft claimed that its Internet Explorer software was now supplied as the default browser by every ISP in Ireland.

Wireless standards ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia and Unwired Planet launched an information forum to establish common standards for web-based services on wireless networks. Four months later this group formed the Wireless Application Protocol Forum as a non-profit company.

Stentor Communications ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Stentor Communications, a provider of virtual private network services to call centres and large enterprises, registered as an ISP and began to offer internet access to its customer base.

Council of Registrars ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

An 86-member Internet Council of Registrars, drawn from 23 countries, was formed to allocate names in seven new top level domains.

UniCert framework ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Baltimore Technologies shipped the UniCert Certification Authority system, providing a security framework for services like internet shopping, web banking and online trading.

Travel trade e-commerce ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Stuart Coulson and Gerry Samuels co-founded and incorporated travel e-commerce specialist Gradient Solutions. The company subsequently developed and hosted online services for airlines and travel agents, extracting data from their legacy reservations systems and then processing their bookings and payments.

TrustedMime ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

SSE released TrustedMime, a secure internet mail product that applied 128-bit encryption to confidential messages.

Telecom acquires Indigo ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Telecom Eireann completed the acquisition of Indigo, having outbid Esat for the company some months earlier. The new owner retained Indigos separate identity and ran the ISP in parallel with its Telecom Internet unit.

HEAnet incorporated ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

A limited liability company, HEAnet Ltd, was incorporated to run the national academic and research network, completing the long transition of the service from a voluntary undertaking to a registered company. John Boland, who had previously represented Dublin City University on the HEAnet network management committee, took up the post of chief executive.

Esat buys EUnet ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Esat Telecom Group bought EUnet Ireland, describing the acquired company as the largest provider of internet solutions to the corporate market in Ireland.

ADSL trials ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Telecom Eireann embarked on its first ADSL technology trials, installing high-speed internet connections to the homes of 40 employees. It was a three month trial, and it took some time to get used to not having the service afterwards recalls John Atkinson, one of the participants. The setup was a line from the socket beside the telephone table in our hall (no cordless phones in our house!) run into the sitting room to a DSL router and then into a white box about the size 12 inches by 6 inches by 2 inches. We also had a wireless keyboard. This ran to one of the AV channels on the TV. When you started up the service, it took quite a while to load. You then met a screen that had tiles. One of the choices was VOD (Video on Demand). This was like a very early version of Netflix. The movies available, whilst limited, were fairly current. The service rarely buffered, but often it would not launch. Separately there was an internet browser, but this was rather clunky, much like a browser on a games console. However it did load pages very quickly, as opposed to 56k modems at the time.

e-Christmas ...: Irish TechArchives Project...

Ten merchants in Ireland participated in e-Christmas, an international demonstration project for internet commerce led by Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and UPS.

1998

Google Inc Founded...: Click here for more...

Google Inc. was founded, the world's most used web search engine.

Electronic postal stamps become a r...: Click to Play

Electronic postal stamps become a reality, with the US Postal Service allowing stamps to be purchased and downloaded for printing from the Web.

Open source software comes of age.....: Open source software comes of age

Technologies of the Year: E-Commerc...: Technologies of the Year: E-Commerce, E-Auctions, Portals

1999

RTE goes Online...: Click here for more...

RTE News is now available online

RSS Launched...: Click here for more...

Launch of RSS (Rich Site Summaries), created by Dan Libby.

Emerging Technologies: E-Trade, XML...: Emerging Technologies: E-Trade, XML, Intrusion Detection

IBM becomes the first Corporate par...: IBM becomes the first Corporate partner to be approved for Internet2 access

European Parliament proposes bannin...: European Parliament proposes banning the caching of Web pages by ISPs

First large-scale Cyberwar takes pl...: First large-scale Cyberwar takes place simultaneously with the war in Serbia/Kosovo

ISOC approves the formation of the ...: Click here for more...

ISOC approves the formation of the Internet Societal Task Force (ISTF). Vint Cerf serves as first chair

Technologies of the Year: E-Trade, ...: Click here for more...

Technologies of the Year: E-Trade, Online Banking, MP3

Emerging Technologies: Net-Cell Pho...: Emerging Technologies: Net-Cell Phones, Thin Computing, Embedded Computing

2000

First DDOS...: Click here for more...

The first large Denial of Service attack occured. Companies such as Yahoo and Ebay were targeted.

Web size estimates by NEC-RI and In...: Web size estimates by NEC-RI and Inktomi surpass 1 billion indexable pages

Internet2 backbone network deploys ...: Internet2 backbone network deploys IPv6 (16 May)

A testbed allowing the registration...: A testbed allowing the registration of domain names in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean begins operation on 9 November. This testbed, created by VeriSign without IETF authorization, only allows the second-level domain to be non-English, still forcing use of

Technologies of the Year: ASP, Naps...: Technologies of the Year: ASP, Napster

Emerging Technologies: Wireless dev...: Click to Play

Emerging Technologies: Wireless devices, IPv6

2001

Creative Commons...: Click here for more...

Under Lawrence Lessig's leadership, Aaron Swartz helps build Creative Commons.

Wikipedia Launched...: Click to Play

Launch of Wikepedia, created by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger.

Google invents surveillance capital...: Click to Play

Surveillance Captalism is invented at Google.

The first live distributed musical ...: Click here for more...

The first live distributed musical -- The Technophobe & The Madman -- over Internet2 networks debuts on 20 Feb

VeriSign extends its multilingual d...: VeriSign extends its multilingual domain testbed to encompass various European languages (26 Feb), and later the full Unicode character set (5 Apr) opening up most of the world's languages

European Council finalizes an inter...: European Council finalizes an international cybercrime treaty on 22 June and adopts it on 9 November. This is the first treaty addressing criminal offenses committed over the Internet.

Afghanistan's Taliban bans Internet...: Afghanistan's Taliban bans Internet access country-wide, including from Government offices, in an attempt to control content (13 Jul)

First uncompressed real-time gigabi...: First uncompressed real-time gigabit HDTV transmission across a wide-area IP network takes place on Internet2 (12 Nov).

2002

Xbox Live goes Live...: Click here for more...

Microsoft launches Xbox Live, the first successful online multiplayer service for video game consoles.

Emerging Technologies: Grid Computi...: Click here for more...

Emerging Technologies: Grid Computing, P2P

US ISP Association (USISPA) is crea...: US ISP Association (USISPA) is created from the former CIX (11 Jan)

Abilene (Internet2) backbone deploy...: Abilene (Internet2) backbone deploys native IPv6 (5 Aug)

Internet2 now has 200 university, 6...: Internet2 now has 200 university, 60 corporate, and 40 affiliate members (2 Sep)

Having your own Blog becomes hip......: Click to Play

Having your own Blog becomes hip

Hundreds of Spain-based web sites t...: Hundreds of Spain-based web sites take their content offline in protest of a new law that took effect on 12 Oct requiring all commercial Web sites to register with the government

2003

4Chan launches...: Click here for more...

4chan, an anonymous imageboard website is created and launched by Christopher "moot" Poole.

MySpace is Founded...: Click here for more...

MySpace is founded, the first true social media.

Public Interest Registry (PIR) take...: Public Interest Registry (PIR) takes over as .org registry operator on 1 Jan. Transition is completed on 27 Jan. By giving up .org, VeriSign is able to retain control over .com domains

The first official Swiss online ele...: The first official Swiss online election takes place in Ani?res (7 Jan)

Taxes make headlines as: larger US ...: Taxes make headlines as: larger US Internet retailers begin collecting taxes on all purchases; some US states tax Internet bandwidth; and the EU requires all Internet companies to collect value added tax (VAT) on digital downloads starting 1 July

The Recording Industry Association ...: Click here for more...

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sues 261 individuals on 8 Sep for allegedly distributing copyright music files over peer-to-peer networks

Little GLORIAD (Global Ring Network...: Little GLORIAD (Global Ring Network for Advanced Application Development) starts operations (22 Dec), consisting of a networked ring across the northern hemisphere with connections in Chicago, Amsterdam, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Zabajkal'sk, Manzhouli, Beiji

ng, and Hong Kong. This is the firs...: ng, and Hong Kong. This is the first-ever fiber network connections across the Russia-China border

2004

Facebook is created...: Click to Play

Harvard Psychology Student Mark Zuckerberg creates thefacebook.com for fellow Harvard students. Within 24 hours, 1,200 students signed up to the website.

WoW Launches...: Click here for more...

World of Warcraft, one of the largest massively multiplayer online (MMO) games, is created by Blizard Inc.

Abiline, the Internet2 backbone, up...: Abiline, the Internet2 backbone, upgrade from 2.5Gbps to 10Gbps is completed (4 Feb)

CERNET2, the first backbone IPv6 ne...: CERNET2, the first backbone IPv6 network in China, is launched by the China Education and Research Network (CERN) connecting 25 universities in 20 cities at speeds of 1-10Gbps (27 Dec)

Emerging Technologies: Social netwo...: Click to Play

Emerging Technologies: Social networking, Web mashups

2005

Facebook Launches...: Click here for more...

Facebook is launched after the address is bought for $200,000. Its primary use was still academia-focused.

Reddit is Founded...: Click here for more...

Reddit is founded by Aaron Swartz, Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian.

First YouTube Video Uploaded...: Click to Play

First video ever uploaded to YouTube (Me at the zoo)

Estonia offers Internet voting nati...: Click to Play

Estonia offers Internet voting nationally for local elections

2006

OLPC Launches...: Click here for more...

One Laptop Per Child initiative begins - the United Nations Development Programe (UNDP) announces to create a programme delivering technology to targeted schools in the least developed countries.

Facebook allows over 13's to regist...: Facebook allows anyone over 13 with an email to register for a Facebook account.

Google is a verb...: Defined as: "intr. To use the Google search engine to find information on the Internet. trans. To search for information about (a person or thing) using the Google search engine."

The verb "Google" is officially in the Oxford English Dictionary

Google buys YouTube...: Click here for more...

YouTube is bought by Google for $1.65 billion.

First Tweet...: Click here for more...

The first tweet was posted on Twitter by creator Jack Dorsey.

RFC 4042: UTF-9 and UTF-18 Efficien...: RFC 4042: UTF-9 and UTF-18 Efficient Transformation Formats of Unicode

The 6bone, an IPv6 testbed, is phas...: The 6bone, an IPv6 testbed, is phased out after 10 years operation (6 Jun)

Internet2 connectivity begins switc...: Internet2 connectivity begins switching from Abilene to its new network (Nov)

2007

First 1 Terabyte Drive...: Click here for more...

The Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 was the first 1 TB hard disk drive ever created, by Hitachi Global Storage Technologies.

Kindle is Launched...: Click here for more...

Amazon releases the Kindle 1, which is the first electronic reading system that became popular. It began selling at $399.

YouTube begins Parter Program...: Click here for more...

In December, YouTube launches the YouTube Partner Program which would allow for users to earn money from their video content.

iPhone is Launched...: Click to Play

First iPhone is released by Apple, changing completely how the Web is accessed.

Emerging Technologies: Cloud comput...: Click to Play

Emerging Technologies: Cloud computing

Estonia offers the first online nat...: Estonia offers the first online national parliamentary elections on 26-28 Feb

Internet2 completes US East to West...: Internet2 completes US East to West coast span of its 100GB/s network on 13 Oct

2008

Chrome is Launched...: Click here for more...

Google's own web browser, Google Chrome is released.

HTML5 is introduced...: HTML5 is introduced by Ian Hickson and David Hyatt.

BitCoin is invented...: Click here for more...

BitCoin is a cryptocurrency invented by an anonymous group under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto

NASA successfully tests the first d...: NASA successfully tests the first deep space communications network modeled on the Internet, using the Disruption-Tolerant Networking (DTN) software to transmit images to/fron a science spacecraft ~20 million miles above Earth

Google's crawler reaches 1 trillion...: Google's crawler reaches 1 trillion pages, although only a fraction are indexed by the search engine. For comparison, Google's original index had 26 million pages in 1998, and reached 1 billion in 2000

IPv6 addresses are added for the fi...: IPv6 addresses are added for the first time to 6 of the root zone servers (4 Feb)

2009

YouTube hits 1 Billion views a day...: From October, YouTube gained more than one billion video views per day.

BitCoin is Released...: Click here for more...

BitCoin's implementation released as an open-source software.

40th Anniversary of the Internet...: 40th Anniversary of the Internet

US Department of Commerce relaxes c...: US Department of Commerce relaxes control over ICANN, in favor of a multi-national oversight group

Twitter is asked by the US Governme...: Click here for more...

Twitter is asked by the US Government to delay planned maintenance of its service on 15 June as a result of heavy use by Iranian users during unrest in that country

Emerging Technologies: Location awa...: Click here for more...

Emerging Technologies: Location awareness

2010

Instagram is Launched...: Click here for more...

October 6th marks the creation of Instagram by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger

25% of the World have Internet...: Nearly 25% of the world's population have access to the Web

iPad is Launched...: Click here for more...

Apple's iPad is released.

Facebook hits 400m...: Facebook reaches 400 million active users

2011

Chinese smartphones reach 900m...: In China, the number of smartphone users reach over 900 million.

Hashtags organise Arab Spring...: https://youtu.be/juWvuNEZx1A?t=98

Instagram hashtags used by young Egyptians to organise protests again their then-president, Hosni Mubarak's 30 year rule in the country. Internet access was shut down in Egypt in response to the online movement.

2012

Internet Hall of Fame...: Click to Play

The Internet Society founds the Internet Hall of Fame, celebrating people who "bring the Internet to life"

Facebook hits 1Bn...: Facebook reaches 1 billion active users. As of January 1st, 2020 it has reached 2.74 billion active users.

Chinese IM users hits 1.21Bn...: In China, Instant Messaging users reach 1.21 billion.

SOPA introduced...: Click here for more...

Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was a bill introduced by Lamar S. Smith which intended to allow US law enforcement to tackle copyright infringement and online trafficking of illegal goods. Protect IP Act (PIPA) was SOPA's companion bill in the US Senate.

Snowden Leaks...: I can't in good conscience allow the U.S government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building.

Edward Snowden releases classified documents, exposing the American government's secret data surveillance programme.

2013

Silk Road shut down...: Click here for more...

The FBI shut down the darknet market site Silk Road and arrested owner Ross Ulbricht.

Patreon Launches...: Click here for more...

Patreon is founded by Sam Yam and Jack Conte, which allows internet users to support artists and content creators through a subscription platform.

React is invented...: React (Web Framework) was invented at Facebook.

2014

HTML5 is W3C...: "Today we think nothing of watching video and audio natively in the browser, and nothing of running a browser on a phone" said Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director. "We expect to be able to share photos, shop, read the news, and look up information anywhere, on any device. Though they remain invisible to most users, HTML5 and the Open Web Platform are driving these growing user expectations."

HTML5 become a W3C recommendation.

2015

US Net Neutrality Act Repealed...: Click here for more...

Federal Communications Commission Chairperson Ajit Pai repeals Net Neutrality Rules

2016

Google Assistant Launched...: Click to Play

Google reveals Google Assistant, a voice-activated personal assistant AI.

2017

Inrupt Solid Developed...: Click to Play

Inrupts Solid (social linked data) technology is developed as a for-profit company by Tim Berners-Lee and a team of computer scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to create means to users control their own data.

Flash to end in 2020...: Adobe annouces that Flash will end in 2020.

2018

Facebook entangled by scandal...: Click here for more...

Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal went public.

World Wide Web access disparity...: Click here for more...

While 80% of Europeans have access to the Web, only 22% of Africans do.

2019

Unesco shows global growth slowdown...: Click here for more...

Unesco annual report shows that 45% of the world's population still don't have access to the Internet confirming that global growth is slowing.

WWW Foundation Launched...: Click to Play

The World Wide Web Foundation is established by Tim Berners-Lee and Rosemary Leith to fight for digital equality.

2020

Flash is EOL...: Click here for more...

Flash is no longer supported by Adobe as announced in 2017.

(This may take a couple of seconds)

Irish TechArchives Project	https://techarchives.irish/
Hobbes' Internet Timeline	https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2235
Contributors to Hobbes' Internet Timeline have their initials next
to the contributed items in the form (:zzz:) and are:
ad1	Arnaud Dufour (arnaud.dufour@hec.unil.ch)
amk	Alex McKenzie (mckenzie@bbn.com)
dk1	Daniel Karrenberg (Daniel.Karrenberg@ripe.net)
ec1	Eric Carroll (eric@enfm.utcc.utoronto.ca)
esr	Eric S. Raymond (esr@locke.ccil.org)
feg	Farrell E. Gerbode (farrell@is.rice.edu)
gck	Gary C. Kessler (kumquat@hill.com)
glg	Gail L. Grant (grant@glgc.com)
gmc	Grant McCall (g.mccall@unsw.edu.au)
gst	Graham Thomas (G.S.Thomas@uel.ac.uk)
irh	Ian R Hardy (hardy@uclink2.berkeley.edu)
jap	Jean Armour Polly (mom@netmom.com)
jg1	Jim Gaynor (gaynor@agvax.ag.ohio.state.edu)
kf1	Ken Fockler (fockler@hq.canet.ca)
lhl	Larry H. Landweber (lhl@cs.wisc.edu)
mpc	Mellisa P. Chase (pc@mitre.org)
pb1	Paul Burchard (burchard@cs.princeton.edu)
pds	Peter da Silva (peter@baileynm.com)
ph1	Peter Hoffman (hoffman@ece.nps.navy.mil)
rab	Roger A. Bielefeld (rab@hal.cwru.edu)
sc1	Susan Calcari (susanc@is.internic.net)
sk2	Stan Kulikowski (stankuli@uwf.bitnet)
sw1	Stephen Wolff (swolff@cisco.com)
tp1	Tim Pozar (pozar@kumr.lns.com)
twc	Thomas W. Creedon - K'o Wei Li (tcreedon@mitre.org)
vgc	Vinton Cerf (vcerf@isoc.org)
wzl	W. Zorn (zorn@ira.uka.de)
zby	Zenel Batagelj (zenel.batagelj@uni-lj.si)
Other sources:	As linked to by the team
Timeline is JQuery Based from:	https://github.com/technotarek/timeliner