Larry Roberts
loreThe ARPA programme manager who decided in 1967 that the network would be packet switched, then funded, designed and managed it into existence.
The decision is the contribution. Two people had proposed the technique and neither could deploy it; Roberts chose it over circuit switching, coordinated the contractors who built the hardware and the university that hosted the first node, and revised the design to take from both proposals rather than picking a camp. This is the role that rarely gets a monument: not the person who has the idea, and not the person who writes the code, but the one who selects among ideas and then carries the consequences of the choice.
Also known as: lawrence roberts
Sources
- Heidelberg Laureate Foundation - packet switching and the first ARPANET message
- History of Information: in October 1967 Roberts published 'Multiple computer networks and intercomputer communication' at the ACM Symposium on Operating System Principles in Gatlinburg, the first paper on the design of the ARPANET