This article was published on November 18, 2008

Happy birthday for the European Internet


Happy birthday for the European Internet

We’ve something to celebrate here: the Internet in Europe has been around for twenty years and one day. At 2:30 pm, on November 17th, 1988, system supervisor Piet Beertema from the Amsterdam Centre for Maths and Information received an email saying his organization was now connected with the National Science Foundation Network (NSFnet).

Flickr: SearchAs you might know, NSFnet was the successor of CSNET, a network that linked academic computer science departments, in 1981, the NSF aimed to create an open network allowing academic researchers access to supercomputers (cited rom Wikipedia).

After the connection in Amsterdam, the Internet out to the whole of Europe. Amsterdam always remained the central connection point with AMS-IX.

In 1993, the Internet became available for everybody. And now, fifteen years later, I’m sitting in a Nepalese coffee bar, typing this post and sending it through the air by using the wireless network. Quite a digital revolution, right? (though I still wrote this article one day too late)

[Via Webwereld (Dutch)]

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