History of the Internet
Vanity Fair comes out with a really interesting (and long to read) history of the Internet: "How the Web Was Won".
[ 'Web 2.0', CC licensed picture by gualtiero ]
After the jump some quotes I liked.
Leonard Kleinrock [Page 2] : The culture [in the ARPA's Project] was one of: You find a good scientist. Fund him. Leave him alone. Don’t over-manage. Don’t tell him how to do something. You may tell him what you’re interested in: I want artificial intelligence. I want a network. I want time-sharing. Don’t tell him how to do it.
Steve Case [Page 3] : We always believed that people talking to each other was the killer app. And so whether it was instant messaging or chat rooms, which we launched in 1985, or message boards, it was always the community that was front and center. Everything else—commerce and entertainment and financial services—was secondary. We thought community trumped content.
Rich Karlgaard [Page 7] : [Talking about the dot.com's bubble] And after it all, there was a bumper sticker you’d see in Palo Alto: “Dear God, one more bubble before I die.”
Paul Baran [Page 9] : At the beginning there was a different attitude than today. Now everyone is concerned about making money, or reputation. It was different then. We all wanted to help one another. There was no competition, really, on most things. It was a total open flow of information. There were no games. There are so many others who did equally good work, and their names are just forgotten. We were all a bunch of young whippersnappers.
Bob Metcalfe [Page 9] : [Talking about internet at the beginning] It was nerd city.