Call Number: OH 182
Interviewee: Baran, Paul
Interviewer: Judy E. O'Neill
Repository: Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
Description: Transcript, 44 pp.
Abstract: After a brief review of his education and work experience at the Eckert-Mauchly company, Raymond Rosen Engineering, and Hughes Aircraft, Baran describes his working environment at RAND, as well as his initial interest in survivable communications. He then goes on to describe the evolution of his plan for distributed networks, the objections he received, the writing and distribution of his eleven-volume work, "On Distributed Communications," and his decision against implementation of the network in 1966. Baran also touches on his interaction with the later group at ARPA who were responsible for the development of the ARPANET, and the cumulative nature of the inventive process. Baran refers to seven supporting documents during the interview. These documents are not included with the interview transcript, but photocopies are available from CBI. This interview was recorded as part of a research project on the influence of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) on the development of computer science in the United States.
Subject(s):
United States. -- Advanced Research Projects Agency ; Rand Corporation. ; Federal aid to research -- United States ; Computer science -- United States -- Research ; Computer networks -- United States -- Research ; Baran, Paul. On distributed communications ; Baran, Paul ; ARPANET (Computer network)
Citation: Paul Baran, OH 182. Oral history interview by Judy O'Neil, 5 March 1990, Menlo Park, California. Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
Note: Baran refers to seven attachments in this interview. Photocopies of these attachments are available from CBI.
Copyright: Copyright to this oral history is held by the Charles Babbage Institute. Distribution in any format of the transcript in its entirety is prohibited. Permission to quote from the transcript under the fair use provision of the copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code) is granted provided that this source is cited.
Transcript: Link to transcript