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Abstract
This paper studies the role that Europeans have taken in the governance of the Web and the factors influencing the emergence of a new governing body within Europe by means of an analysis of the transfer of the European branch of the new World Wide Web Consortium from the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) to the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA) during the 1990s. In order to understand how INRIA came to hold this responsibility, it is necessary to consider the issue on many levels, examining national, European, and transnational ambitions with regard to Internet governance. The historical view taken in this article demonstrates the crucial importance of the initiatives undertaken by individual players, in addition to the technical and political issues. These issues are particularly critical at a time when Internet governance is more often the focus of researchers involved in defining it than of the institutions to which they belong.
Notes
1. Berners-Lee, Weaving the Web, 74.
2. Ibid., 101–2. Pestre et al., History of CERN, vols 1 and 2.
3. Guzzetti, Science and Power; Laborie, ‘La France, l’Europe et l’ordre international des communications (1865–1959)’; Krige and Guzzetti, History of European Scientific and Technological Cooperation; Misa and Schot, ‘Introduction: Inventing Europe’; Robertson, European Institutions; Sutton and Zacher, Governing Global Networks; Van Der Vleuten and Kaijser, ‘Networking Europe.’
4. Beltran and Griset, Histoire d’un pionnier de l’informatique.
5. Griset, Informatique, politique industrielle, Europe.
6. Ibid.
7. Schafer, ‘Datagrammes et circuits virtuels.’
8. CRI memo dated 14 May 1971, INRIA archives.
9. Interview with Louis Pouzin by V. Schafer, 12 November 2002.
10. O’Neill, ‘The Evolution of Interactive Computing through Time-Sharing and Networking.’
11. On this occasion, Louis Pouzin worked with Fernando Corbató. Cerruzi, A History of Modern Computing, 155.
12. IRIA 1972 activity report.
13. Interview with Louis Pouzin by V. Schafer, 12 November 2002.
14. Campbell-Kelly, ‘Data Communications at the National Physical Laboratory (1965–1975).’
15. Schafer, ‘Des réseaux et des hommes,’ 546–50.
16. Pouzin, The Cyclades Computer Network.
17. Griset, ‘Du “temps réel” aux premiers réseaux.’
18. Sandoval, Les autoroutes de l’information, 163.
19. Schafer, ‘L’Europe des réseaux dans les années 1970.’
20. Abbate, Inventing the Internet, 64. In 1971, Larry Roberts wished to enlarge the network in order to include centers which did not have a host computer linked to Arpa and asked BBN to develop TIPs (‘Terminal IMPs’).
21. INRIA, 88. 16. 014, Louis Pouzin, report on visit to BBN on 20 June 1975, LP/CB 75 281, 22 July 1975.
22. Verbal archives of the Charles Babbage Institute, interview with Vinton Cerf by Judy O’Neill, 24 April 1990.
24. Griset, ‘Entre logique d’opérateur et système national d’innovation.’
25. Schafer, ‘Datagrammes et circuits virtuels.’
26. Schafer, ‘Histoire de courbe, Evolution du nombre d’accès directs commerciaux à Transpac (1979–1985).’
27. Griset, ‘Entre monopole et haute technologie, les mutations d’une entreprise dans la longue durée.’
28. Management office, 43.
29. Fluckiger, ‘Le réseau des chercheurs européens.’
30. Ibid., 29.
31. Interview with Vincent Quint by V. Schafer, 29 March 2010. Grif is a structured document editor based on the generic structure concept: each document is represented in the system by its logical structure, which is an instance of a generic structure. This notion of logical structure encompasses both hierarchical structures (as is usual in structured documents) and non-hierarchical links (as is usual in hypertexts). It is shown that the approaches of electronic documents and hypertext, which are often opposed to each other, can be combined for building more powerful integrated systems. http://en.scientificcommons.org/55153514
32. Amaya is an open source Web browser editor from W3C used to push leading-edge ideas in Web client design.
33. Archives INRIA, 1988.07.08, Berners-Lee, Launch of the European Branch, 2 November 1995.
34. Berners-Lee, Weaving the Web, 92.
35. Ibid., viii.
36. Ibid., 89.
37. Correspondence via email between V. Schafer and Håkon Wium Lie, 16 April 2010.
38. Berners-Lee, Weaving the Web, 101.
39. Beltran and Griset, Histoire d’un pionnier de l’informatique, 211.
40. Interview with Jean-Yves Babonneau by V. Schafer, 16 March 2011.
41. Report presented to the Administrative Council of INRIA on 24 June 1997.
42. Interview with J.-F. Abramatic by V. Schafer, 27 April 2010.
43. O1 Informatique (Computer Science), May 1996.
44. ERCIM News, no. 25, April 1996.
46. Correspondence via email between V. Schafer and Håkon Wium Lie, 16 April 2010.
47. Para. 2 of the INRIA MIT Agreement, INRIA archives, 97-32-057.
48. Para. 3 of the INRIA MIT Agreement, INRIA archives, 97-32-057.
50. Interview with Jean-François Abramatic by V. Schafer, 27 April 2010.
51. Georges Metakides established and headed the department for Basic Research and International Scientific Relations in Information Technologies at the European Commission from 1988 to 1993. He was the director of the 2 billion Euro ESPRIT Program in the European Commission’s Industry Directorate General from 1993 until its completion in 1998. http://www.metakides.net/business.htm
52. INRIA archives, 1988.07.08, Berners-Lee, The W3C, Launch of the European Branch, 2 November 1995.
54. INRIA, 88. 16. 007, CCRI no. 22, ‘Les hommes dans la recherche et le développement’ (People in Research and Development), 9 June 1975.