Alan Kay
A unique opportunity to hear personal computer pioneer Alan Kay talk about the culture within the ARPA community and Xerox PARC that fostered so many technological breakthroughs, in such a short space of time.
Plexal Innovation Centre
Here East
Queen Elizabeth
Olympic Park
London, E20 3BS
At 10.30pm on 29 October 1969, a team led by Professor Leonard Kleinrock sent a message from a computer at the University of California (UCLA) to a computer at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI).
The internet had taken its first breath.
Fifty years later, we revisit the original principles of the internet and hear first-hand testimonies from two of the people who were there at the very beginning. Namely, personal computing pioneer Alan Kay, and “father of the UK internet”, Peter Kirstein.
Joined by serial digital entrepreneur, Eva Pascoe, and Plexal’s cyber innovation lead, Saj Huq, this is one birthday party you won’t want to miss...
A unique opportunity to hear personal computer pioneer Alan Kay talk about the culture within the ARPA community and Xerox PARC that fostered so many technological breakthroughs, in such a short space of time.
Known as the “Father of the UK Internet’, Peter Kirstein put the first computer on the ARPANET outside the US in 1973. In 1976, he gave HRH Queen Elizabeth an email address and the following year he worked with Vint Cerf and Bob Khan to define and implement TCP/IP.
In 1994 Eva Pascoe co-founded Cyberia, the first Internet cafe in the world. She helped launched Easynet, an early ISP, the same year, and in 1998 became the first ecommerce director of the Arcadia Group. Eva has run the digital think tank CyberSalon since 1997 and currently runs digital consultancy The Retail Practice, specialising in Shopify.
Saj Huq is the Cyber Innovation Lead at Plexal and Program Director at LORCA - The London Office for Rapid Cybersecurity Advancement. Saj will be talking about the challenges and opportunities which total connectivity brings to society, and why we must narrow the digital divide.
Following the discussion, there will be a viewing of a 30-minute interview with Leonard Kleinrock, who led the team that sent the first message over the Internet on October 29th 1969.
Hosted by digital archaeologist Jim Boulton, who spends his time digging up, restoring and documenting lost and forgotten digital artifacts. Based at Here East in the Olympic Park, his work has gained support from The British Library, The Library of Congress, The Barbican and Google.