Dr. Andrew Russell, SUNY Poly Officer-in-Charge, collaborated with Loring G. Robbins and the late James L. Pelkey on an article published in IEEE Spectrum, “The Do-or-Die Moments That Determined the Fate of the Internet.”

The publication is centered around the concept of “five meetings that created the internet,” and it focuses on public demonstrations of new networking and internetworking equipment that has shaped the technologies we rely on to communicate instantly around the world.

The article states, “Several of these events, such as the first public demo of the ARPANET in 1972, or the mid-1980s conferences now known as Interop, alerted experts to new technologies, and, in some cases, altered the balance between competing approaches.

“Although many of these gatherings have escaped the attention of historians, our view is that these events should be recognized more fully as moments where experts could glimpse possible futures and judge for themselves what was most likely to happen. Here we describe a few of these do-or-die moments. You may not have heard of any of these events—but if you were there, you will never forget them.”

The article, based on the authors’ most recent book, Circuits, Packets, and Protocols: Entrepreneurs and Computer Communications, 1968-1988, published by ACM Books, will also be included as part of a special upcoming issue marking the 50^th anniversary of the invention of  Ethernet.

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