The Hitchhikers Guide to the Internet

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Internet

Author	Ed Krol
Language	English
Genre	Computer Science
Publisher	National Science Foundation
Publication date	1987
Publication place	United States

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Internet, by Ed Krol, was published in 1987 through funding by the National Science Foundation. It was the first popular user's guide to the history and use of the Internet. The title was a reference to the popular The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Background

In 1985, Ed Krol began working at the University of Illinois, became network manager for the National Center for Supercomputing Applications when it was formed and was involved in the establishment of the NSFNET. During this time, in August 1987, he published (through funding by the National Science Foundation), the online text document, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Internet^[1] "because he had so much trouble getting information and was sick of telling the same story to everyone".^[2] Two years later this was republished as RFC 1118.^[3]

The text attracted Tim O'Reilly's attention. Krol reworked and extended it into book form and it was published by O'Reilly in 1992 as the Whole Internet User's Guide and Catalog., though the additional digital catalog related to the text was made freely available online.^[4]

See also

• History of the Internet
• Scientific American Special Issue on Communications, Computers, and Networks

References

1. Krol, Ed (25 August 1987). "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Internet". Retrieved 29 December 2006.
2. "Ed Krol". O'Reilly. Retrieved 29 December 2006.
3. Krol, Ed (September 1989). Hitchhiker's Guide to the Internet. IETF. doi:10.17487/RFC1118. RFC 1118. Retrieved 27 April 2010.
4. Levy, Steven (October 2005). "The Trend Spotter". Wired. Vol. 13, no. 10. Retrieved 29 December 2006.

External links

• The Hitchhikers Guide to the Internet. at Project Gutenberg