The early days of Networks

In many ways, the early days of the international journal Networks mirror and presage the development of the field of networks over the past 30 years. Therefore, its history may hold some lessons for the future. (Throughout, I will use the initial capital and italicized “Networks” and lower case “networks” to differentiate between the journal and the field.) To set the picture, in 1969, there was the phone company, AT&T (although some people knew about GTE and even fewer about mom-and-pop phone companies.) In 1969, there was the computer company, IBM. There was also the, so-called, BUNCH—Burroughs, Univac, NCR, Control Data, and Honeywell. In 1969, there was the copier company, Xerox. In 1969, there was the telegram company, Western Union, and there were international carriers using Telex or Teletype for 75–150-baud transmission services. In this environment, two theoretical developments occurred which went largely unnoticed at that time by many people in industry. By the time they noticed them, these developments had helped to create a revolution.