Computer Networks: The Heralds of Resource Sharing is a short documentary film from 1972, produced by Steven King and directed/edited by Peter Chvany, about ARPANET, an early packet-switching network and one of the first networks to implement the protocol suite TCP/IP.
The 30 minute film features many of the most important names in computer networking, especially J. C. R. Licklider and others from MIT's Project MAC who had connected a computer to ARPANET the year before. [1] According to a history of computing equipment by Columbia University it "begins with a montage of equipment ... and then has interviews with ARPANET creators." [2] The film discusses "the potential that this network has for revolutionizing so many industries and institutions". [3] Bob Kahn presents concepts originally published by Donald Davies at the inaugural Symposium on Operating Systems Principles, which were being implemented in the ARPANET. [4] [5] [6]
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Cory Doctorow called the documentary a "fantastic 30 minutes of paleo-nerd memorabilia". [9] Matt Novak of Gizmodo said "When you hear a man like J.C.R. Licklider describe the information age before it had even begun to trickle into the public consciousness, we understand how forward-thinking these people developing the ARPANET in the late 1960s and early 1970s truly were." [3] Mark Liberman described it as "amazing". [8]
The NPL group influenced a number of American computer scientists in favor of the new technique, and they adopted Davies's term "packet switching" to refer to this type of network. Roberts also adopted some specific aspects of the NPL design.
Davies's invention of packet switching and design of computer communication networks ... were a cornerstone of the development which led to the Internet