You may have seen banners "In memory of Jon Postel" on quite a few Web sites, and wondered why. Thus, we thought we might explain why we added this banner to the Myricom home page.
When Jon Postel died on October 16th, 1998, the Internet lost one of its cornerstones and pillars. All of us at Myricom greatly admire Jon's technical work, but for three of us at Myricom, we also lost a friend.
At USC/ISI, Jon worked as a project leader while Danny Cohen (now VP of Myricom) was division director, and later Danny worked as a project leader while Jon was division director. Chuck Seitz (now President of Myricom) got to know Jon initially due to his ISI office being adjacent to Danny's, but later in other contexts, including Los Nettos and the ATOMIC projects. Bob Felderman (now MTS and Director of Software Development for Myricom) got to know Jon while he was working on the USC/ISI ATOMIC-1 project, and later with the use of Myrinet components and software in the ATOMIC-2 project. Jon spoke softly, but he had a big pipe -- a Myrinet connection -- to his workstation.
How many people have you known or worked with in which every interaction was pleasant and positive? Jon was such a person. He was also full of mischief, adventure, humor, and caring, and had an absolute passion for his work and his world. We will miss Jon. The Internet will miss him, too.
Jon started working on networking when the ARPAnet had only one node.
One of Jon's main contributions to the ARPAnet initially, and later to the Internet, was his early realization about the importance of a rigorous process of documentation and standardization. In the early days of the ARPAnet there was no need for rigorous documentation because everyone knew everyone else, and every detail could be found by one phone call.
Jon understood very early how important it was to properly track the crucial information about the network. He was instrumental in identifying that information, and in keeping track of it. That information included first the RFCs, and later the standards; it also included many numbers (such as addresses, protocol identifiers, sockets, and ports) and later various names. For keeping track of all these numbers, Jon earned the title of the numbers czar, and later the IANA (Internet Assigned Number Authority).
Jon, single-handedly, was IANA. With time, as the volume of information exploded exponentially, Jon assembled a staff to help him. As a part of the commercialization of the Internet, IANA will change soon and be controlled by a non-profit organization with an international board of directors, having many members, staff, bylaws, subject to international agreements... all to replace what Jon used to do so well, by himself.
Another of Jon's key contributions was setting the standards for setting Internet standards. Jon not only set these standards, but also verified that they were properly followed. Unlike the tradition of other well known standard bodies (such as CCITT and IEEE), Internet standards are implemented and proven before becoming standards, allowing early experience to influence the final standards - and it shows
The exponential growth of the Internet could have never occurred without the standardization infrastructure that Jon created.
Jon was also the corporate memory of the Internet. He remembered and understood past successes and failures (which are rarely published), and gladly shared his experience with those who needed it. Jon was always ready to help anyone around the Internet who needed his help. He was an authority without bureaucracy. Jon was a problem solver.