OHI interview with Kilnam Chon
OHI project interviewed Kilnam Chon on 25th August 2019 in Los Angles.
It was the second time that we interviewed Kilnam Chon. We met him in Los Angeles where he goes every summer for mountaineering. In fact, he likes climbing so much that he even thought about being a professional mountaineer when he was doing his Ph.D.. The interview lasted 3 hours, yet we still longed for more talks with him.
As one of the earliest Internet pioneers in Asia and one of the most active participants in global internet governance, the story of Kilnam Chon is undoubtedly a treasure.
In 1966, he went to UCLA for his master's and doctor`s degree. On 29 October 1969, while he was doing his Ph.D. studies, the first message ever sent via the ARPAnet at UCLA, which was the predecessor of the Internet. Kilnam took the lectures from one of the fathers of the internet--Leonard Kleinrock, and had the honor to learn the internet knowledge first-handed.
In 1982, he built a network using TCP/IP in Korea, which was the earliest internet exploration in Asia.
In 1988, he attended the European Internet Conference in Germany. He and Qian Tianbai were the first Asian faces ever appear at the Internet international conferences.
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