Steve Crocker

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Stephen D. Crocker
Headshot of Internet pioneer Steve Crocker.
Crocker in 2007
Born (1944-10-15) October 15, 1944 (age 79)
NationalityAmerican
OccupationInternet engineer

Stephen D. Crocker (born October 15, 1944) is an Internet pioneer. In 1969, he created the ARPA "Networking Working Group" and the Request for Comments series. He served as chair of the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) from 2011 through 2017.[1][2][3]

Education[edit]

Steve Crocker attended Van Nuys High School, as did Vint Cerf and Jon Postel. Crocker received his bachelor's degree (1968) and PhD (1977) from the University of California, Los Angeles.[4]

Career[edit]

He has worked in the Internet community since its inception. He was instrumental in creating the ARPA "Network Working Group" and the instigator of the Request for Comment (RFC) series,[5] authoring the first RFC[6] and many more.[7] As a UCLA graduate student in the 1960s, he was part of the team that developed the protocols for the ARPANET which were the foundation for today's Internet.[8]

While at UCLA Crocker taught an extension course on computer programming (for the IBM 7094 mainframe computer). The class was intended to teach digital processing and assembly language programming to high school teachers, so that they could offer such courses in their high schools. A number of high school students were also admitted to the course, to ensure that they would be able to understand this new discipline. Crocker was also active in the newly formed UCLA Computer Club.

Crocker has been a program manager at Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a senior researcher at USC's Information Sciences Institute, founder and director of the Computer Science Laboratory at The Aerospace Corporation and a vice president at Trusted Information Systems. In 1994, Crocker was one of the founders and chief technology officer of CyberCash, Inc.[9][10] In 1998, he founded and ran Executive DSL, a DSL-based ISP. In 1999 he cofounded and was CEO of Longitude Systems. He is currently CEO of Shinkuro,[11] a research and development company.

The Networking Working Group RFC's provided the context in which the IETF was created in 1986. He has been an IETF security area director, a member of the Internet Architecture Board, chair of the ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committee, board member and chairman of ICANN, a board member of the Internet Society and numerous other Internet-related volunteer positions.

Awards[edit]

For his work on the Internet, Crocker was awarded the 2002 IEEE Internet Award.[12] In 2012, Crocker was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame by the Internet Society.[13]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "ICANN news release". June 2011.
  2. ^ Crocker, Steve (October 20, 2017). "About the Board". ICANN Blogs. ICANN.
  3. ^ White, Brad (November 2017). "Wrap-Up Interview with Cherine Chalaby and Steve Crocker" (PDF). ICANN60 Newsletter. ICANN.
  4. ^ Matthew Lyon (Fall 1997). "Wired!". UCLA Magazine.
  5. ^ "I Remember IANA", V. Cerf, RFC 2468, October 17, 1998.
  6. ^ S. Crocker, ed. (April 7, 1969). Host Software. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC0001. RFC 1. Unknown.
  7. ^ "RFC Index", Internet Engineering Task Force. Retrieved September 14, 2013.
  8. ^ "Official Biography: Steve Crocker", Internet Hall of Fame, Internet Society, retrieved September 14, 2013.
  9. ^ Parallelus. "Steve Crocker, Ph.D." Retrieved March 13, 2021.
  10. ^ "hjp: doc: RFC 1898: CyberCash Credit Card Protocol Version 0.8". www.hjp.at. Retrieved March 13, 2021.
  11. ^ "Shinkuro". July 23, 2002. Archived from the original on July 23, 2002.
  12. ^ "IEEE Internet Award Recipients". IEEE. Retrieved August 23, 2013.
  13. ^ 2012 Inductees, Internet Hall of Fame website. Last accessed April 24, 2012

External links[edit]

Media related to Steve Crocker at Wikimedia Commons