Elizabeth J. Feinler
Encyclopedia
Elizabeth Jocelyn "Jake" Feinler is an American
information scientist.
From 1972 until 1989 she was director of the Network Information Systems Center at the Stanford Research Institute
(SRI). Her group operated the Network Information Center
(NIC) for the ARPANET
as it evolved into the Defense Data Network
(DDN) and the Internet
.
, and grew up in Wheeling
.
She received an undergraduate degree from West Liberty State College
, the first from her family to attend college. She was working toward a Ph.D.
in biochemistry
from Purdue University
when she decided to earn some money by working for a year or two before starting on her thesis. Working at the Chemical Abstracts Service
in Columbus, Ohio
, she served as an assistant editor on a huge project to index the world’s chemical compounds. There she became intrigued with the challenges of creating such large data compilations and never returned to biochemistry. Instead, in 1960, she came to California
and joined the Information Research Department at the Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) where she worked to develop the Handbook of Psychopharmacology and the Chemical Process Economics Handbook.
Feinler was leading the Literature Research section of SRI's library when, in 1972, Doug Engelbart recruited her to join his Augmentation Research Center
(ARC), which was sponsored by the Information Processing Techniques Office of the US Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA).
Her first task was to write a Resource Handbook for the first demonstration of the ARPANET
at the International Computer Communication Conference.
By 1974 she was the principal investigator to help plan and run the new Network Information Center (NIC) for the ARPANET.
The NIC provided reference service to users (initially over the phone and by physical mail), maintained and published a directory of people (the "white pages"), a resource handbook (the "yellow pages", a list of services) and the protocol handbook. After the Network Operations Center at Bolt, Bernek and Newman
brought new hosts onto the network, the NIC registered names, provided access control for terminals, audit trail and billing information, and distributed Request for Comments (RFCs).
Feinler, working with Steve Crocker
, Jon Postel
, Joyce Reynolds and other members of the Network Working Group (NWG), developed RFCs into the official set of technical notes for the ARPANET and later the Internet
.
The NIC provided the first links to on-line documents using the NLS
Journal system developed at ARC.
Engelbart continued leading-edge research in the ARC, while the NIC provided a service to all network users. This led to establishing the NIC as a separate project with Feinler as manager.
The NWG and Feinler's team defined a simple text file format for host names in 1974,
and revised the format several times as the networks evolved. The host table itself was continuously updated on almost a daily basis.
In 1975, the Defense Communication Agency
(DCA) took operational control and support, and over time split the ARPANET into research and military networks. DCA used the name Defense Data Network
to refer to the combination, and the NIC served as its information center.
When e-mail
and the File Transfer Protocol
(FTP) became available around 1976, the NIC used them to deliver information to users via the network. In 1977, Postel moved to the Information Sciences Institute
, and the RFC editor and number assignment functions moved with him, while the NIC stayed at SRI.
By 1979, Feinler and her group were working on ways to scale up the name service.
In 1982, an Internet protocol was defined by Ken Harrenstien and Vic White in her group to access the online directory of people, called Whois
.
As the Internet expanded, the Domain Name System
was designed to handle the growth by delegating naming authority to distributed name servers. Her group became the overall naming authority of the Internet, developing and managing the name registries
of the top-level domain
s of .mil, .gov, .edu, .org, and .com.
Even the names of the top-level domains, based on generic categories such as .com were suggestions of the NIC team, approved by the Internet developer community.
After Feinler left SRI, in 1989, she worked as a network requirements manager and helped develop guidelines for managing the NASA Science Internet (NSI) NIC at the NASA Ames Research Center
.
Feinler donated an extensive collection of early Internet papers to the Computer History Museum
in Mountain View, California
and after she retired from NASA in 1996 worked as a volunteer at the museum to organize the material.
She published a history of the NIC in 2010.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
information scientist.
From 1972 until 1989 she was director of the Network Information Systems Center at the Stanford Research Institute
SRI International
SRI International , founded as Stanford Research Institute, is one of the world's largest contract research institutes. Based in Menlo Park, California, the trustees of Stanford University established it in 1946 as a center of innovation to support economic development in the region. It was later...
(SRI). Her group operated the Network Information Center
InterNIC
The Internet Network Information Center, known as InterNIC, was the Internet governing body primarily responsible for domain name and IP address allocations from 1972 until September 18, 1998 when this role was assumed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers...
(NIC) for the ARPANET
ARPANET
The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network , was the world's first operational packet switching network and the core network of a set that came to compose the global Internet...
as it evolved into the Defense Data Network
Defense Data Network
The Defense Data Network was a computer networking effort of the United States Department of Defense from 1983 through 1995.-History:In 1975, the Defense Communication Agency took over operation of the ARPANET as it became an operational tool instead of a research project. In 1983, plans for a...
(DDN) and the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
.
Career
Feinler was born in West VirginiaWest Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
, and grew up in Wheeling
Wheeling, West Virginia
Wheeling is a city in Ohio and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia; it is the county seat of Ohio County. Wheeling is the principal city of the Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area...
.
She received an undergraduate degree from West Liberty State College
West Liberty State College
West Liberty University is a school located in West Liberty, West Virginia, United States, near Wheeling. Formerly known as West Liberty State College, West Liberty University is an institution in northern West Virginia offering a variety of degrees, undergraduate and graduate...
, the first from her family to attend college. She was working toward a Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in biochemistry
Biochemistry
Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...
from Purdue University
Purdue University
Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and...
when she decided to earn some money by working for a year or two before starting on her thesis. Working at the Chemical Abstracts Service
Chemical Abstracts Service
Chemical Abstracts is a periodical index that provides summaries and indexes of disclosures in recently published scientific documents. Approximately 8,000 journals, technical reports, dissertations, conference proceedings, and new books, in any of 50 languages, are monitored yearly, as are patent...
in Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
, she served as an assistant editor on a huge project to index the world’s chemical compounds. There she became intrigued with the challenges of creating such large data compilations and never returned to biochemistry. Instead, in 1960, she came to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
and joined the Information Research Department at the Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) where she worked to develop the Handbook of Psychopharmacology and the Chemical Process Economics Handbook.
Feinler was leading the Literature Research section of SRI's library when, in 1972, Doug Engelbart recruited her to join his Augmentation Research Center
Augmentation Research Center
Stanford Research Institute's Augmentation Research Center was founded in the 1960s by electrical engineer Douglas Engelbart to develop and experiment with new tools and techniques for collaboration and information processing. The main product to come out of ARC was the revolutionary oN-Line...
(ARC), which was sponsored by the Information Processing Techniques Office of the US Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA).
Her first task was to write a Resource Handbook for the first demonstration of the ARPANET
ARPANET
The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network , was the world's first operational packet switching network and the core network of a set that came to compose the global Internet...
at the International Computer Communication Conference.
By 1974 she was the principal investigator to help plan and run the new Network Information Center (NIC) for the ARPANET.
The NIC provided reference service to users (initially over the phone and by physical mail), maintained and published a directory of people (the "white pages"), a resource handbook (the "yellow pages", a list of services) and the protocol handbook. After the Network Operations Center at Bolt, Bernek and Newman
BBN Technologies
BBN Technologies is a high-technology company which provides research and development services. BBN is based next to Fresh Pond in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA...
brought new hosts onto the network, the NIC registered names, provided access control for terminals, audit trail and billing information, and distributed Request for Comments (RFCs).
Feinler, working with Steve Crocker
Steve Crocker
Stephen D. Crocker is the inventor of the Request for Comments series, authoring the very first RFC and many more. He received his bachelor's degree and PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles. Crocker is chair of the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers,...
, Jon Postel
Jon Postel
Jonathan Bruce Postel was an American computer scientist who made many significant contributions to the development of the Internet, particularly with respect to standards...
, Joyce Reynolds and other members of the Network Working Group (NWG), developed RFCs into the official set of technical notes for the ARPANET and later the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
.
The NIC provided the first links to on-line documents using the NLS
NLS (computer system)
NLS, or the "oN-Line System", was a revolutionary computer collaboration system designed by Douglas Engelbart and implemented by researchers at the Augmentation Research Center at the Stanford Research Institute during the 1960s...
Journal system developed at ARC.
Engelbart continued leading-edge research in the ARC, while the NIC provided a service to all network users. This led to establishing the NIC as a separate project with Feinler as manager.
The NWG and Feinler's team defined a simple text file format for host names in 1974,
and revised the format several times as the networks evolved. The host table itself was continuously updated on almost a daily basis.
In 1975, the Defense Communication Agency
Defense Information Systems Agency
The Defense Information Systems Agency is a United States Department of Defense agency that provides information technology and communications support to the President, Vice President, Secretary of Defense, the military Services, and the Combatant Commands.As part of the Base Realignment and...
(DCA) took operational control and support, and over time split the ARPANET into research and military networks. DCA used the name Defense Data Network
Defense Data Network
The Defense Data Network was a computer networking effort of the United States Department of Defense from 1983 through 1995.-History:In 1975, the Defense Communication Agency took over operation of the ARPANET as it became an operational tool instead of a research project. In 1983, plans for a...
to refer to the combination, and the NIC served as its information center.
When e-mail
E-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
and the File Transfer Protocol
File Transfer Protocol
File Transfer Protocol is a standard network protocol used to transfer files from one host to another host over a TCP-based network, such as the Internet. FTP is built on a client-server architecture and utilizes separate control and data connections between the client and server...
(FTP) became available around 1976, the NIC used them to deliver information to users via the network. In 1977, Postel moved to the Information Sciences Institute
Information Sciences Institute
The Information Sciences Institute is a research and development unit of the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering which focuses on computer and communications technology and information processing...
, and the RFC editor and number assignment functions moved with him, while the NIC stayed at SRI.
By 1979, Feinler and her group were working on ways to scale up the name service.
In 1982, an Internet protocol was defined by Ken Harrenstien and Vic White in her group to access the online directory of people, called Whois
WHOIS
WHOIS is a query and response protocol that is widely used for querying databases that store the registered users or assignees of an Internet resource, such as a domain name, an IP address block, or an autonomous system, but is also used for a wider range of other information. The protocol stores...
.
As the Internet expanded, the Domain Name System
Domain name system
The Domain Name System is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities...
was designed to handle the growth by delegating naming authority to distributed name servers. Her group became the overall naming authority of the Internet, developing and managing the name registries
Domain name registry
A domain name registry is a database of all domain names registered in a top-level domain. A registry operator, also called a network information center , is the part of the Domain Name System of the Internet that keeps the database of domain names, and generates the zone files which convert...
of the top-level domain
Top-level domain
A top-level domain is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the domain name, that is, the last label of a...
s of .mil, .gov, .edu, .org, and .com.
Even the names of the top-level domains, based on generic categories such as .com were suggestions of the NIC team, approved by the Internet developer community.
After Feinler left SRI, in 1989, she worked as a network requirements manager and helped develop guidelines for managing the NASA Science Internet (NSI) NIC at the NASA Ames Research Center
NASA Ames Research Center
The Ames Research Center , is one of the United States of America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration 10 major field centers.The centre is located in Moffett Field in California's Silicon Valley, near the high-tech companies, entrepreneurial ventures, universities, and other...
.
Feinler donated an extensive collection of early Internet papers to the Computer History Museum
Computer History Museum
The Computer History Museum is a museum established in 1996 in Mountain View, California, USA. The Museum is dedicated to preserving and presenting the stories and artifacts of the information age, and exploring the computing revolution and its impact on our lives.-History:The museum's origins...
in Mountain View, California
Mountain View, California
-Downtown:Mountain View has a pedestrian-friendly downtown centered on Castro Street. The downtown area consists of the seven blocks of Castro Street from the Downtown Mountain View Station transit center in the north to the intersection with El Camino Real in the south...
and after she retired from NASA in 1996 worked as a volunteer at the museum to organize the material.
She published a history of the NIC in 2010.
Nickname
Jake explains how she got her nickname:When I was born, double nameDouble nameA double name is a name, typically an agnomen, given to a person either at birth or sometime during youth, that works in tandem with the family name. The tradition has more than likely been in practice for centuries, but is most popular today in the American Deep South...
s were popular. My real name is Elizabeth Jocelyn Feinler, and my family was going to call me Betty Jo to match my sister’s name, Mary Lou. Only two at the time, my sister’s version of Betty Jo sounded like Baby Jake. I always say, Thank goodness they dropped the "Baby".
External links
- Elizabeth Feinler's bibliography from dblp: Computer Science Bibliography
- "Internet History 1969", web pages, Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA, USA
- "Elizabeth (Jake) Feinler photos", MouseSite Photo Gallery, Science and Technology in the Making (STIM) web site, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA Video of interview.