A star is born

  UCLA Archives Employees converge around the IBM 709
mainframe computer at the Western Data Processing Center, which
marked the partnership between IBM and UCLA in 1957.

By Sharon Kim
Daily Bruin Contributor

Despite popular belief, Al Gore did not invent the Internet, but
he may soon be lecturing at the institution that did.

According to a 1999 New York Times article, “Lo” was
the first message ever transmitted over what was to become the
Internet, which took its first steps at UCLA.

It all began in September 1969 when Computer Science Professor
Leonard Kleinrock’s host computer at UCLA became the first
Internet node, a mechanism in a network that receives and sends
data.

In October 1969, Kleinrock directed the transmission of the
first message ever to pass over the network, attempting to transmit
the word “login” to a computer at Stanford
University.

The system, however, crashed when the letter “g” was
entered, but after some adjustments, the message successfully
transmitted over.

Kleinrock, the “father of the Internet,” began this
journey that would eventually link the entire world.

Nearly a decade before the landmark transmission, Kleinrock,
then a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, invented the principles of packet switching.

“Packet-switching breaks up data and generates pieces that
can be sent over a network,” said Alberto Cerpa, a computer
science graduate student.

This process allows packets from many different locations to be
sorted and directed to different routes.

“A nice analogy to this is how the postal service works
and how a letter may be sent to different central post offices
along the way,” Cerpa said.

Packet switching allowed for the launch of the ARPA network
unveiled at UCLA in 1969, its name taken from the Advanced Research
Projects Agency, a project that encouraged development of computer
technology in the United States.

Today the Internet consists of more than just nodes and
packet-switching, but the basic technology of how information is
relayed remains the same, according to Cerpa.

Starting in the late 1940s, UCLA made pioneering contributions
to the information revolution, leading up to formal establishment
of the department of computer science in 1968.

The initial goals of the department aimed to provide the
necessary courses, offer degrees in computer science, and also
provide a focus for teaching, research and development in computer
science on campus.

Over the years, computer and Internet technology has spread
throughout the campus.

UCLA residence halls became wired for fast-speed Internet access
during the academic year of 1994-95.

“It was unusual at that time to try to complete the entire
installment while the residence halls were fully occupied,”
said Mike Schilling, the director of technology in business and
financial services.

The installation consisted of wiring for the network, cable
television and telephone, amounting to about 15,000 new
connections.

“Today, about 90 percent of residents connect to academic
and Internet resources on a daily basis,” Schilling said.
“This is one of the highest number of users among the
colleges in the nation.”

And Schilling expects this number to grow by 100 percent over
the next few years.

Adding to this burgeoning growth, the College Library
Instructional Computing Commons began operating in September of
1996.

According to Lisa Kemp Jones, CLICC manager, the computer
facility was the collaboration of five different departments
working together for a large computing facility in the middle of
campus.

“CLICC was just a critical part of providing on campus
with Internet access,” Kemp Jones said. “Almost
everything people are doing have to do with the Internet, so it
wasn’t even a question of whether we needed to provide Internet
resources,”

The demand for the use of the computers at CLICC has been
increasing, and the facility only has so much physical space for
computers.

“Over the years, we added about 20 more machines and have
been offering laptops that do not require that much space,”
Kemp Jones said.

According to Andrew Taylor, the lead consultant at CLICC, there
have been no major problems with the computers in the labs besides
the 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. rush for computer use.

“Sometimes you see people doing things that are not of any
educational value when other people are waiting to use the
computers,” Taylor said.

The use of Internet technology has extended to classes as
well.

The Center for Digital Humanities offers support and works with
faculty to develop more computer use in humanities classes.

The center has existed for 10 years, but its name was changed to
its current one about six months ago.

“The name was changed to reflect the refocusing on more of
the academic side of computers and more of the use of technology in
teaching than just support,” said Ivan Clarke, manager of
network services for the Center for Digital Humanities.

The center’s main focus is two-fold, according to
Clarke.

“The specific student focus is to maintain all the
classroom Web sites to assist both the students and professors
teaching the class,” Clarke said. “Faculty are also
trying to develop more content than what general Web pages provide,
using the Internet for direct instruction as well.”

This aim to provide technological help for academic use resulted
from the decision to put more computer technology into use in
teaching through such means as the Instruction Enhancement
Initiative, by which funds are used to maintain technology
necessary for running class Web sites.

“Because of the Instruction Enhancement Initiative, all
classes are required to have a homepage, and various professors use
it for discussion boards and posting homework,” Kemp Jones
said. “Resources like these have contributed to the
increasing necessity of Internet access on campus.”

INTERNET TIMELINE Important events in the
course of Internet history: 1958 President Dwight
D. Eisenhower saw the need for the Advanced Research Projects
Agency to keep the U.S. at the forefront of technology.
1969 First node of the Internet connected at UCLA
on Sept 2 under the direction of Leonard Kleinrock. A month later,
a second node was added at Stanford Research Institute and the
first host-host message was launched form UCLA.
1970 Nodes are added to the ARPANET at the rate of
one per month. The network Working Group led by Steve Crocker
finishes the initial ARPANET host-to-host protocol, called the
Network Control Protocol. 1979 Larry Landwever
inWisconsin holds a meeting with six other universities that
outlines a Computer Science Research Network called CSNET.
1980 A revised proposal of CSNET includes three
tiers; ARPANET, a TELENET-based system and an e-mail only service
called PhoneNet.The National Science Board approves the new plan.
1984 The newly developed DNS is introduced across
the Internet, with the now familiar domains of .gov, .mil, .edu,
.org, .net, and .com. 1986 The 56Kbps backbones
between the NSF centers leads to the creation of a number of
regionals as feeder networks that start to build a hub and spoke
infrastructure. Between the beginning of 1986 and the end of 1987
the number of networks grows from 2000 to nearly 30,000.
1988 Al Gore, then a Tennessee senator, proposes
the National Research and Education Network, which would provide
top computing facilities to research communities and schools.
1990 ARPANET formally shuts down. Several search
tools, such as ARCHIE, Gopher and WAIS start to appear.
1991 NSSF lifts all restrictions on commercial use
of the net. Over 100 countries are now connected with over 600,000
hosts and nearly 5,000 separate networks. 1992 The
World Wide Web is born, introduced by Tim Berners-Lee. The first
audio and video multicasts are broadcast over the Internet.
1996 Telecommunications Act deregulates data
network transmission. 1999 150 million users on
the Internet. More than 800 million Web pages are accessible.
Original graphic by MAGGIE WOO/Daily Bruin Web adaptation by
JENNIFER JAVIER