[IP] Re: good idea Less we forget Whitehouse.gov

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Steve Walker" <steve@stevewalker.com>
Date: January 21, 2009 3:45:39 PM EST
To: <dave@farber.net>, "ip" <ip@v2.listbox.com>
Cc: "Steve Walker" <steve@stevewalker.com>
Subject: RE: [IP] good idea Less we forget Whitehouse.gov


WhiteHouse.gov came up on the Internet on June 1, 1993 with
announcements from Al Gore and promises to reply to you quickly.
Al announced it on the Today show and over 10,000 messages were received
the first day.

It was housed at Trusted Information Systems, Inc in Glenwood, MD on a
temporary basis until the White House got their own link to the
Internet.
This "temporary basis" lasted until January, 1995.

At the end of each day, the messages received were hand delivered to the
White House and volunteers prepared replys.

Many former TIS employees have plaques on their walls from the Secret
Service, thanking them for the help they gave the SS in understanding
this new "opportunity" and threat.

Steve Walker
Former CEO of TIS


Steve Walker
Steve Walker & Associates
3060 Washington Road, (Rt. 97), Suite 200
Glenwood, MD  21738
Phone: 301-854-6851, Fax:  301-854-6235
http://www.stevewalker.com


-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave@farber.net]
Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2009 3:31 PM
To: ip
Subject: [IP] good idea Less we forget Whitehouse.gov



Begin forwarded message:

From: Ross Stapleton-Gray <ross@stapleton-gray.com>
Date: January 21, 2009 12:39:07 PM EST
To: dave@farber.net, Jock Gill <jg45@me.com>
Subject: Re: [IP] Less we forget Whitehouse.gov

At 07:38 AM 1/21/2009, Jock Gill wrote:
> First White House web site, Oct. 1994
>
> Legitimizing IP email addresses, not just X.400

Oh this is bringing back memories... sounds like we actually beat out
the White House, in getting the CIA on the web earlier in 1994 (in the
form of the DCI's office, with ODCI.GOV... there was a thrash for some
time about CIA.GOV, and UCIA.GOV was how that first appeared, due to
CIA.GOV being associated with a classified network).  Those of us who
were Internet evangelists pitched the public relations value of getting
the CIA World Factbook on line (on our own server... it was out there in
other forms), and it worked.  We were hosted at DIGEX (I think this was
after they moved operations from above a Chinese restaurant, but long
before they went public for the first time); amusingly, it was only
after the CIA moved the web site inside that it got defaced by hackers
(c. 1997 or so).  (And ODCI.GOV no longer exists, as the office vanished
with the creation of the Director of National Intelligence.)

And I remember attending a meeting, either in 1994, or perhaps early in
1995, in the Old Executive Office Building, where it was stated that
because the largest plurality of e-mail addresses and directory systems
in government were X.400/X.500, that was going to be the primary
standard to adopt.  Vint Cerf was there, and I think you could have seen
steam coming out of his ears!  (Vint, if you're on the list, you can
confirm, deny, or embellish...)  It was superficially true (owing to the
large number of X.400 addresses living in the DoD), but everything that
wasn't either that or TCP/IP was heading in the latter direction, fast,
and growing... I don't know how the policy debate thrashed out, but we
got to where we are now...

Lastly, I remember talking with a contractor supporting USGS, c. 1995,
who asked me about how they ought to be structuring their deal with
USGS... they were then getting A NICKEL A HIT (!) for web support.  I
told them that they were extremely lucky, and that it probably wouldn't
last.  ;-)

Is someone writing up a history of USG as user of the Internet?  It'd be
great to chronicle such folks as Jock has already mentioned, and others,
like Elliot Christian, who were evangelizing IT in an era where it was
strange and different, in the world of IBM Selectrics.

Ross


----
Ross Stapleton-Gray, Ph.D.
Stapleton-Gray & Associates, Inc.
http://www.stapleton-gray.com






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