Difference between revisions of "Steve Crocker"
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An extremely detailed interview with Steve can be found [http://www.cbi.umn.edu/oh/pdf.phtml?id=96 here]; It is largely technical, but does shed some important light on how the development of the Internet took place. | An extremely detailed interview with Steve can be found [http://www.cbi.umn.edu/oh/pdf.phtml?id=96 here]; It is largely technical, but does shed some important light on how the development of the Internet took place. | ||
| + | ===Other Early Work=== | ||
| + | Dr. Crocker taught classes at UCLA on computer programming for the IBM 7094 mainframe computer; the course was specifically adressed towards high school teachers, with the goal of teaching digital processing and assembly language programming. The teachers would then be able to bring this knowledge back to their classrooms.<ref>[http://www.pir.org/%3Fp%3D287 PIR.org]</ref> | ||
==Current Work== | ==Current Work== | ||
Revision as of 00:20, 1 June 2011
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| Country: | USA |
| Email: | steve [at] stevecrocker.com |
Dr. Crocker is the Co-Founder and CEO of Shinkuro, Inc., the current Vice-Chair of the ICANN Board, an Internet pioneer, an early leader of ISOC and the IETF, and the creator of the RFC document series.[1][2]
Internet Pioneer
RFC
Steve Crocker was a graduate student at UCLA in the late 1960s and early 70s, and along with Vinton Cerf and Jon Postel,[3] was part of the team that developed the protocols for the ARPAnet.[4] Steve was the humble man who wrote the first RFC, or Request For Comments, a document series wherein questions and answers to the pressing technical issues were presented to and by the entire engineering and infrastructural community. Dr. Crocker labeled the first memo as such as he did not want to seem presumptuous or authoritative, but rather facilitate discussion and progress within the community.[5] The first RFC was published April 6th, 1969; and it can be read here, Steve's retrospection on the beginning of the series on its 40th anniversary can be read here.
The RFC series began before the network was actually working, and before email was possible. Thus, they were physically mailed to each research center, and then circulated.[6]
Beginning
Dr. Crocker attended the same high school in southern California as both Jon Postel and Vint Cerf,.[7] and has described Vint as his best friend.[8] In 1965, while at UCLA, Steve an ARPA supported project, which was a precursor to the actual ARPAnet.[9] The project dissolved, and the remaining DARPA funds were transferred to Gerald Estrin in the Computer Science Department; Steve began to work him in 1966. In 1977 he was at MIT working on more graduate studies, but within a year and a half he had returned to UCLA. He was drawn to MIT given their Artificial Intelligence programs. In 1968 he was back at UCLA, and given that his friend Vint was looking to enroll in a graduate program, he introduced him to Estrin; shortly thereafter Vint was a part of the school's graduate program. That summer they were both working on the ARPAnet project. By 1970 he had been given a job with ARPA in Washington, D.C., rather than the previous position as a graduate student engaged mainly at the UCLA campus. He was now managing the protocol of various sites and contractors spread throughout the U.S., and he also required to travel to Europe. Within the next few years he was also working extensively with another well-known Internet Pioneer, Robert Kahn.[10]
The organization and communication work involved in the RFC series and the interoperability of the first network sites led Steve to found the Networking Working Group, and ask Vint to be its first Chairman;[11] the group is the predecessor of the Internet Engineering Task Force.[12]
An extremely detailed interview with Steve can be found here; It is largely technical, but does shed some important light on how the development of the Internet took place.
Other Early Work
Dr. Crocker taught classes at UCLA on computer programming for the IBM 7094 mainframe computer; the course was specifically adressed towards high school teachers, with the goal of teaching digital processing and assembly language programming. The teachers would then be able to bring this knowledge back to their classrooms.[13]
Current Work
Dr. Crocker is CEO and co-founder of Shinkuro, Inc., which is focused on dynamic sharing of information across the Internet.[14]
He has been involved in DNSSEC deployment efforts.[15]
ICANN
Steve Crocker has been involved in both the Internet and ICANN since their beginnings. He has been the chair of ICANN's SSAC since its creation in 2002, and had been serving as the SSAC's non-voting liaison to the ICANN Board until he was selected by the NomCom to serve as a voting member. He was selected by the NomCom in 2008, and his current term concludes at the end of the 2011 annual meeting. Following the annual meeting of 2010, Steve was elected as Vice-Chair of the ICANN Board.[16]
He remained active in the Internet standards work through the IETF and IAB. For this work, Dr. Crocker was awarded the 2002 IEEE Internet Award.
vice president of Trusted Information Systems, and co-founder of CyberCash, Inc. and Longitude Systems, Inc. He is also on the board of The Internet Society and he is a volunteer Senior Counselor in the Office of the Chief Technology Officer in the District of Columbia, focusing on the District's creation of a new technology magnet high school.
Education
Dr. Crocker earned his BA in Math (1968), and PhD in Computer Science at UCLA (1977), and he studied artificial intelligence at MIT.[17]