TCP/IP and Shipping Containers

nate koechley [2005-08-09 02:08 AM]

Does this Wired article from 1999 give make similar points, or did Mr Gall extend the metaphor in interesting ways? I'm not trying to call anyone out, it's just that I enjoyed the initial Wired article and would like to hear more on the same theme.

Only four decades ago, contemporary photos of Singapore's port showed shirtless workers stumbling down wooden gangplanks carrying enormous bundles of bananas on their backs. It was called break-bulk shipping.

This inefficiency irked Malcom McLean, a crusty North Carolina trucker who defied convention to spark a logistics revolution that continues to reverberate today. Dubbed the Father of Containerization, he laid the foundation in the 1950s for what would arguably become the world's first truly packetized transport network.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.10/ports.html

thanks.

Nick Gall [2005-08-15 01:53 PM]

Nate, I think my talk goes WAY beyond what appeared in the Wired article, though I think the Wired article was excellent and cite it in my presentation. Where I go beyond the Wired article is in teasing out the key architectural principles that enabled the success of not only the Internet and containerized shipping, but also the Web, email, and even SIP. The essential challenge is how to artitect a system that is open-ended in both its use and its implementation. I use the concept of IFaPs (Identifiers, Formats, and Protocols) to discuss this. You can read a great description of my talk by Daniel Steinberg at http://www.oreillynet.com/lpt/a/6113. If you read the comments, you can even find a link to my presentation. Let me know what you think.

nate koechley [2005-08-15 02:31 PM]

Thanks for the reply Nick. I wasn't able to make the conference this year, but loved the topic of your talk and the wired article. Will definitely check out the notes you pointed me to. Thanks!