Andreessen, Metcalfe, Stallman and Swartz added to Internet Hall of Fame
Now to find an award's venue that isn't rioting
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The Internet Society has announced the latest inductees into the Internet Hall of Fame, and is including a posthumous entry for internet activist Aaron Swartz.
The Internet Hall of Fame was founded last year, and this second round adds 32 appointees in three categories: Pioneers, Innovators, and Connectors.
The new inductees in the first category – for those that helped design the technology to make the internet possible – include Ethernet creator Bob Metcalfe; Bob Taylor, who both managed the creation of ARPAnet and later Xerox PARC; and a posthumous award for J.C.R. Licklider – aka Lick – whose seminal paper "Man-Computer Symbiosis" predicted interactive computing.
New Innovators to be honored include Netscape cofounder Marc Andreessen, King of Wikipedia Jimmy Wales, Free Software Foundation founder and former fearsome folk dancer Richard Stallman, and former Grateful Dead lyricist and EFF cofounder John Perry Barlow. A posthumous entry for RSS and Reddit co-creator Aaron Swartz, who killed himself after being hounded by federal prosecutors, is also included.
This year's new Hall of Fame Connectors – those who have worked to spread the internet's reach – include Qiheng Hu, who led the team that took China online in 1994, and George Sadowsky who has helped connect 50 developing nations to the TCP/IP backbone. Posthumous awards go to Barry Leiner for creating the Internet Activities Board, and Haruhisa Ishida for introducing UNIX to Japan.
"This year's inductees represent a group of people as diverse and dynamic as the Internet itself," said Internet Society president Lynn St. Amour. "As some of the world's leading thinkers, these individuals have pushed the boundaries of technological and social innovation to connect the world and make it a better place. We all benefit today from their dedication and foresight."
The award ceremony was due to have been held this week in Istanbul, but with the ongoing protests the Internet Society shifted the venue to the more peaceful city of Berlin – peaceful these days, that is. The full event will be streamed live here beginning at 11:00am EDT, August 3. ®
