Arlington Honors the Creators of the Internet

While former Vice President Gore was nowhere in sight, the Arlington County Board honored the creation of the Internet with a pair of plaques, which will soon be placed at 1400 Wilson Blvd., where the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was located during the creation of ARPANET.

ARPA was established in 1958 after the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik satellite in 1957. The agency was tasked with keeping the U.S. military technologically ahead of the Soviet Union. In the early 1960s, ARPA identified the threat of a Soviet nuclear strike destroying the military's capacity to communicate and respond and began the search for “Survivable Strategic Communication.”

Steve Lukasik, a former ARPA director, said that there were two major problems to overcome. First, there was the technological issue of getting computers to talk to each other. The computers of the 1960s were massive machines that were far different from even the primitive personal computers of the late 1970s. Second, there was the behavioral science issue of how to get people to use the computers correctly and efficiently.

In 1968, ARPA, working with universities, requested the creation of a four-node network. A network was built by the end of 1969, connecting UCLA, Stanford, the University of Utah and UC-Santa Barbara, which would become the genesis of ARPANET. On Oct. 29, 1969, the first computer-to-computer transmission occurred between Stanford and UCLA. Predictably, the connection died shortly thereafter. From that first seconds-long communication between room-sized computers would eventually grow the ARPANET and later, the Internet that we can access today from a mobile phone smaller than our hands.

The two plaques to be placed at 1400 Wilson Blvd. will memorialize Arlington's place in history, where the idea of linking people electronically over long distances developed. The first plaque reads:

The ARPANET, a project of the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of Defense, developed the technology that became the foundation for the internet at this site from 1970 to 1975. Originally intended to support military needs, ARPANET technology was soon applied to civilian uses, allowing information to be rapidly and widely available. The internet, and services such as e-mail, e-commerce and the World Wide Web, continues to grow as the under-lying technologies evolve. The innovations inspired by the ARPANET have provided great benefits for society.

The second plaque is the word ARPANET, written in binary language. As Board Chairman Chris Zimmerman commented in his opening remarks, he wasn't aware that binary was one of the 163 languages used in Arlington.

During its meeting on Tuesday, the county board also heard the presentation of the Community Energy and Sustainability Task Force (CESTF) report. The CESTF advocates reducing Arlington's current per capita greenhouse gas emissions from 13.4 metric tons per year to 3.0 metric tons by 2050.

This goal would be met by increased energy efficiency, better use of heat recovery, more renewable energy and better energy distribution. Much of Arlington's energy use comes from buildings, and the CESTF recommends getting ahead of the trend in increased efficiency in building design by pushing for more aggressive efficiency targets.

In public commentary that followed the presentation, a number of architects and builders who use the passive house standard advocated that the county board look at encouraging and adopting passive house standards. Passive house standards exceed even those of the United States Green Building Council's LEED standards.

Another recommendation is the establishment of District Energy Companies for more efficient use of water and energy in high density areas. The board adopted the resolution, accepting the Community Energy and Sustainability Task Force report, and the county manager will now work toward turning the report into a realistic plan of action.

For more information on passive house guidelines, see:

http://www.passivehouse.us