David J. Farber, bekannt als „Großvater des Internets“, stirbt im Alter von 91 Jahren

Gift link. Excerpt:

> For the internet to become what we think of as the internet, you also needed people like Paul Mockapetris, who created the domain name system that is known as the phone book of the internet. And Dave Crocker, who created many of the standards used in email today.

> And then there was David Farber, the jovial computer scientist who knew everyone, was at the center of many of its foundational projects and had a special talent for connecting problems with the people who could solve them.

> […]

> Farber entered academia in 1970, starting with a post at the University of California, Irvine, and spent the rest of his career rooted at various academic institutions—including Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pennsylvania—while taking additional posts, assignments and leadership roles on projects related to the internet and technology. At UC Irvine, Farber and his team built what’s widely considered to be the first operational distributed computer system—separate computers connected, communicating and working toward a common goal.

> While he was at the University of Delaware in the 1970s and 1980s, he was a leader on the teams that created CSNET and NSFnet, precursors to the commercial internet that connected academic institutions and corporations around the world. Farber brought Crocker into CSNET to work on email.

His baby died before him.