View, Calif., as part of its Odysseys In Technology Speaker Series,
sponsored by Sun Microsystems Laboratories, will present Paul Baran, the
inventor of the packet switching concept, and a 2005 Computer History
Museum Fellow Award recipient, 7 p.m., Wednesday, December 7, at the
Computer History Museum's Hahn Auditorium, 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd. For
reservations, please visit, www.computerhistory.org/events.
Baran, who received the Computer History Museum Fellow Award October 18, in
honor of his contributions to the architecture of the Internet and for a
lifetime of entrepreneurial activity, is the author of 150 papers and 40
patents, creator of five start-ups and creator of packet switching -- a
fundamental infrastructure component of the Internet that enables, among
other activities, e-mail correspondence.
Baran's research was motivated by the Cold War demand for an invincible
network that would survive a "second strike," theoretically discouraging a
possible attack by the Soviet Union. His solution was to eliminate
dependence upon the United States' highly centralized telephone facilities
by using a series of computers to route packets from one to another -- a
system that had no central stations and required no fixed route. Messages
would be broken into little pieces, or packets, and each would follow
whatever electronic route that existed, being reassembled at the end into a
coherent message. Thus, Baran's packet switching idea was born. This
served as a foundation upon which others later built the ARPANET, which,
over time, evolved into the early Internet.
Baran's foresight was heralded in a speech, commemorating the 50th
anniversary of the RAND Corporation, given by James Q. Wilson, professor of
management at UCLA. Wilson said, "When you use a computer to send an
e-mail, you are using a method created by Paul Baran over three decades
ago."
Born in Poland in 1926, Baran at the age of two emigrated to the United
States with his parents. He received a B.S. in electrical engineering from
Drexel University in 1949. He then joined the Eckert-Mauchly Computer
Company where he was a technician on the Univac I computer. In 1959, Baran
received an M.S. degree in engineering from UCLA and joined the RAND
Corporation, where he developed the concept of packet switching to make
distributed networks feasible. At RAND, he wrote a 13-volume set of reports
defining in detail an all-digital nationally distributed network for
digital voice and data. Baran left RAND in 1968 to co-found the Institute
for the Future, a not-for-profit research group specializing in long-range
forecasting. In 1972, he started a number of for-profit companies based on
technologies he developed. These include Cabledata Associates, Equatorial
Communications, Telebit, and Packet Technologies/Stratacom. In 1986, he
co-founded Metricom and Ricochet wireless and in 1989, InterFax. He
co-founded Com21 in 1995 and co-founded GoBackTV in 2003.
In addition to his Computer History Fellow induction, his many other awards
are the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal in 1990 for his work on packet
switching, and the Franklin Institute's Bower Award and Prize in Science in
2001.
Baran is joined on stage by Henry Lowood, curator of the Science and
Technology Collections of the Stanford Libraries, to discuss how his
accomplishments came about and how they continue to have an impact on
government, security and our everyday lives.
About Odysseys in Technology
Odysseys in Technology, The Computer History Museum Speaker Series
Sponsored by Sun Microsystems Laboratories, presents people and
perspectives behind extraordinary innovations and advancements in the
computer technology-related world. Each event in the Series provides
stimulating interaction with authentic experts whose achievements have
transformed how things are done or viewed, and examines how their personal
stories might inform the present and future. These programs occasionally
feature technologies or point events, with the objective to apply lessons
of history to present day understanding and inspiration. Reservations are
recommended to attend the Odysseys In Technology events. Admission is free,
with a suggested donation of $10. The Odysseys In Technology lectures start
promptly at 7:00 p.m. A reception is held at 6:00 p.m. for Computer History
Museum members. For more information, please visit
www.computerhistory.org/events.
About the Computer History Museum
The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, a public benefit
organization with a 25-year history as part of the former Boston Computer
Museum, preserves and presents for posterity the artifacts and stories
of the information age. The Museum is dedicated to exploring the social
impact of computing and is home to the world's largest collection of
computing-related items -- from hardware (mainframes, PCs, handhelds,
integrated circuits), to software, to computer graphics systems, to the
Internet and
networking -- and contains many rare objects such as the
Cray-1 supercomputer, the Apple I, the WWII ENIGMA, the PalmPilot
prototype, and the 1969 Honeywell "Kitchen Computer." The collection also
includes photos, films, videos, documents, publications, and advertising
and marketing materials. Currently in its first phase, the Museum brings
computing history to life through its popular speaker series, seminars,
oral histories and workshops. The Museum also offers self-guided and
docent-led tours of Visible Storage, where nearly 600 objects from the
collection are on display. A new exhibit, "Mastering The Game: A History of
Computer Chess," opened in September 2005. Please check the Web site for
open hours. Future phases will feature full museum exhibits and
educational programs, including a timeline of computing history, theme
galleries, a research center, and much more. For more information, please
visit www.computerhistory.org or call 650.810.1010.
For more information, contact Karen Tucker, (650) 810-1011, or
tucker@computerhistory.org.
Contact:
Karen Tucker
(650) 810-1011
Email Contact.
SOURCE: Computer History Museum