As the first book about the internet to be written and edited by engineers who developed it, this book deals with the history of defining universal protocols and of building a series of global data transfer networks of ever increasing reach and capacity. The result is THE authoritative source on the topic, providing a vast amount of insider knowledge unavailable elsewhere. It is of interest to every scientist and a must-have for all network developers as well as agencies dealing with the Net.

From the Publisher:

The first book written and edited by the people who developed the Internet, this book deals with the history of creating universal protocols and a global data transfer network. The result is THE authoritative source on the topic, providing a vast amount of insider knowledge unavailable elsewhere. Despite the huge number of contributors, the text is uniform in style and level, and of interest to every scientist and a must-have for all network developers as well as agencies dealing with the Net.

About the Author

Howard Davies has a First Class Honours degree in Engineering Science and a DPhil from the University of Oxford. From 1964 to 1977, he worked in the Data Handling Division of CERN (European Organization for Nu-clear Research) in Geneva, initially as a Scientific Programmer, later as a Group Leader and Project Manager for CERNnet, CERN’s first general purpose, internal network. Between 1977 and 1993, he was Director of the Computer Unit at the University of Exeter, responsible not only for the provision of computing services to all academic departments within the university but also for the development of services based on the use of JANET (the national research network in the UK) and its successors. During this period, he spent six months sabbatical leave in 1986 as a Visiting Computer Specialist at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Stanford, California. He acted as (part-time) Director of the Interim COSINE Project Management Unit from 1989 to 1991 and from 1992 to 1994 he was Vice-President of RARE. He was appointed Joint General Manager of DANTE in 1993 and played a prominent role in the implementation across Europe of an increasingly powerful infrastructure to support network-based services. He retired at the end of 2001 having seen the introduction into service of the GÉANT network.

Beatrice Bressan is responsible for the outreach of the TOTEM experiment at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), Geneva, and is also a science writer. She has more than ten years of experience in the field of scientific and technological communication with extensive experience in journalism, media publishing and public relations. She is a member of the European Union of Science Journalists' Associations (EUSJA). After her university studies in mathematical physics and science communication, she completed her PhD research and carried out a postdoctoral fellowship on knowledge management and knowledge transfer inside CERN for the Department of Physical Sciences at Helsinki University. She has worked with-in the Technology Transfer Group at CERN, taking care of the production of promotional material, at SIB (Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics) as Head of Communications, and at the Department of Physics at Geneva University, being responsible for their communications. Through her work, she aims to give a better understanding of complex scientific and technological topics for politicians, industrialists and the general public.

Our book has been signed by and very kindly donated by the editor Howard Davies