Agile insights from the birth of the internet

Reflection and storytelling are key parts of agility. We use retrospectives and share case studies to learn from our work. This session takes us back to a formative period in modern computing when computers changed from being isolated silos to the network of networks we know today.

The ARPANET was made possible because of a belief by the US government that it should be ‘supporting the nation’s most advanced computer research-and-development projects’. This vision begat the purpose of allowing the hitherto isolated computers to talk to each other, and so allow scientists to share their work and resources.

For the ARPANET to become a reality, its proponents had to overcome the resistance of incumbent experts to outsiders with new ideas. It also required a division of the problem space into smaller separate problems.

The ARPANET was built with testing and measurement as first class citizens. As the network grew, the technology evolved - it created communities of practice and enabled the sought-after sharing of knowledge, but in a way that its founders had not anticipated.

Whilst the technology has changed since the 1960s, there is still much to learn and apply from this compelling origin story.

This session draws heavily on Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon’s book, Where Wizards Stay Up Late - The Origins of the Internet.

Transcript

1. Agile Lessons from the birth of the Internet LASCOT 2018 Chris Young @worldofchris
2. VP Engineering @linius_tech
3. Katie Hafner @katiehafner Matthew Lyon Photo: https://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases /2002/02/17_mlyon.html Photo: https://twitter.com/katiehafner
4. 2018 1965 - 1971 2001 Agile Manifesto Period covered by this talk Now
5. “There's the story, then there's the real story, then there's the story of how the story came to be told. Then there's what you leave out of the story. Which is part of the story too.” ― Margaret Atwood, MaddAddam https://calendar.buffalo.edu/event/humanities-to-the-rescue-an-evening-with-margaret-atwood/
7. Lead with vision and purpose @worldofchris
8. J.C.R. Licklider https://hcipioneers.wordpress.com/portfolio/jcr-licklider/ Jack P. Rubina https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jack_P._Ruina.jpeg @worldofchris
9. http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-computer-as-a-communication-device J.C.R. Licklider Bob Taylor In a few years, men will be able to communicate more effectively through a machine than face to face. That is a rather startling thing to say, but it is our conclusion. As if in confirmation of it, we participated a few weeks ago in a technical meeting held through a computer. In two days, the group accomplished with the aid of a computer what normally might have taken a week. Originally published in Science and Technology, April 1968. Published on KurzweilAI.net November 9, 2001.
10. ARPA Bob Taylor https://www.wired.com/2017/04/youve-never-heard-tech-legend-bob-taylor-invented-almost-everything/ 1965 @worldofchris
11. MIT ARPA Bob Taylor 1965 Q32 UC Berkeley @worldofchris
12. http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/pdp10.html
13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SDS_Sigma_series
14. https://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2338478/ibm-celebrates-50-years-of-its-system-360-mainframe
15. Peggy A. Kidwell, mathematics curator at the National Museum of American History, demonstrates a salesman's model of an IBM System 360 computer from about 1965 Personal photo. https://www.maa.org/book/export/html/589591
16. MIT ARPA Bob Taylor 1965 Q32 UC Berkeley @worldofchris
17. MIT ARPA Bob Taylor 1965 Q32 UC Berkeley @worldofchris
18. MIT ARPA Bob Taylor 1965 Q32 UC Berkeley @worldofchris
19. MIT ARPA Bob Taylor 1965 Q32 UC Berkeley @worldofchris
20. Enable Autonomy @worldofchris
22. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_switching#/media/File:Packet_Switching.gif
23. @worldofchris
24. Ann Arbor Michigan 1967 @worldofchris
25. UCLA UCSB SRI UTAH @worldofchris Ann Arbor Michigan 1967
26. Peggy A. Kidwell, mathematics curator at the National Museum of American History, demonstrates a salesman's model of an IBM System 360 computer from about 1965 Personal photo. https://www.maa.org/book/export/html/589591
33. Start small
34. https://www.evoluted.net/thinktank/web-development/postcard-from-the-seaside Linda Rising www.fearlesschangepatterns.com
36. “You’ve got the network inside out” Wes Clark, 1967 Photo: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/business/wesley-a-clark- made-computing-personal-dies-at-88.html
42. Bounded Contexts
43. Bolt Beranek & Newman Cambridge Mass @worldofchris
44. Bolt Beranek & Newman Cambridge Mass UCLA UCSB SRI UTAH @worldofchris
45. Measure and Test from the get go @worldofchris
46. UCLA @worldofchris
47. https://www.instagram.com/p/BiSgUu1gukk/?taken-by=nyctvchick https://bavatuesdays.com/imps-of-internet-history-at-ucla/
48. September 1969 Sigma-7 UCLA @worldofchris
49. September 1969 IMP No. 1 Sigma-7 UCLA @worldofchris
50. October 1969 Data line IMP No. 2 IMP No. 1 SDS-940 Sigma-7 SRI UCLA @worldofchris
51. >
52. >L
53. >LO
54. >LO!
55. November 1969 Data line IMP No. 2 IMP No. 1 SDS-940 Sigma-7 SRI UCLA UCSB IBM System/360 @worldofchris
56. “This is UCSB computer science professor Dick Kemmerer with his ARPANET directory which contained the contact info of everyone on the network at that time. He came and spoke to my engineering team at AppFolio about the history of the internet back around 2008” Heidi Helfand – via Twitter DM @heidihelfand
57. December 1969 Data line IMP No. 2 IMP No. 1 SDS-940 Sigma-7 SRI UCLA UTAH UCSB IBM System/360 PDP 10 @worldofchris
58. Enable Feedback @worldofchris
59. December 1969 SRI UCLA UTAH UCSB @worldofchris
60. December 1969 SRI UCLA UTAH UCSB SDC RAND @worldofchris
61. Spring 1970 SRI UCLA UTAH UCSB BBN @worldofchris
62. SRI UCLA UTAH UCSB BBN @worldofchris http://walden-family.com/bbn/arpanet-completion-report.pdf
63. June 1970 SRI UCLA UTAH UCSB BBN MIT HARVARD @worldofchris
64. September 1971 SRI UCLA UTAH UCSB BBN MIT HARVARD BBN LINCOLN BURROUGHS MITRE AMES STANFORD SDC RAND CASE CARNEGIE ILLIONIS @worldofchris https://www.scientificamerican.com/gallery/early-sketch-of-arpanets-first-four-nodes/
65. Iterate and Refector @worldofchris
66. https://www.planoly.com/blog/portfolio/planoly-power-chats-x-guy-kawasaki/ @GuyKawasaki https://guykawasaki.com/the_art_of_inno/ @worldofchris
67. https://www.planoly.com/blog/portfolio/planoly-power-chats-x-guy-kawasaki/ @GuyKawasaki https://guykawasaki.com/the_art_of_inno/ @worldofchris Don’t Worry be Crappy...
68. https://www.planoly.com/blog/portfolio/planoly-power-chats-x-guy-kawasaki/ @GuyKawasaki https://guykawasaki.com/the_art_of_inno/ @worldofchris Don’t Worry be Crappy... ...as long as you Churn, Baby, Churn
69. My favourite Refactoring
72. (.arpa) worldofchris:arpanet worldofchris$ nosetests arpanet .................................... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ran 36 tests in 0.064s OK (.arpa) worldofchris:arpanet worldofchris$ git rm arpanet/display/wired.py rm 'arpanet/display/wired.py' (.arpa) worldofchris:arpanet worldofchris$ git rm arpanet/test/test_wired_display.py rm 'arpanet/test/test_wired_display.py' (.arpa) worldofchris:arpanet worldofchris$ nosetests arpanet ................................. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ran 33 tests in 0.056s OK (.arpa) worldofchris:arpanet worldofchris$
73. Embrace exaptation @worldofchris
74. “You know, everyone really uses this thing for electronic mail.” Bob Kahn, 1972 Photo: http://inthistory4u.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/1973.html
75. SNDMSG copy messages (as files) over the network
76. @worldofchris
77. @worldofchris
78. • Lead with vision and purpose • Enable autonomy • Start small • Measure and test from the get go • Enable feedback • Iterate and Refactor • Embrace exaptation Recap: learnings from the origins of the Internet @worldofchris