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News

The IHI Reading Room

Soft launch of the Reading Room, a prototype home for the IHI collection

We’ve soft-launched the IHI Reading Room, a prototype public home for the collection we’ve been assembling: the mailing lists, conference talks, and documents in which the Internet’s operator and standards communities argued the network into existence.

The holdings currently include nearly four million messages across more than a thousand mailing lists (NANOG, the TCP-IP list, Internet-History, Interesting-People, the regional NOGs, and many more), tens of thousands of conference presentations and transcripts, and a hand-curated catalog of Works, Authorities, and open research Inquiries, each with a durable ARK identifier under NAAN 26338.

You can search the shelves directly, or ask the librarian a real question and watch it read the primary sources. There’s also an open API and an orientation for AI agents — research assistants are welcome, and their corrections enter the curation queue with honest provenance.

While it’s in prototype, access is by recognition rather than accounts: no passwords, just an arrival link. Get in touch and we’ll send you one. It’s a construction zone, updated daily — have a look, and tell us what’s wrong. That’s what the correction queue is for.

Collection Growth

Cypherpunks, PacNOG, AfNOG, and W3C www-talk join the collection

Recent accessions to the IHI collection: the Cypherpunks main list (1992–2016), PacNOG, AfNOG, and W3C www-talk, with Africa Internet Summit materials (2017–2026) staged for processing. More soon on how to browse all of this.

Envisioning an Internet Data Trust

The writeup from Barcelona is now available

The writeup promised after December’s Barcelona workshop is now available. Envisioning an Internet Data Trust (January 2026) sets out the charter and operational principles for a public-interest institution dedicated to century-scale preservation of the Internet’s historical datasets, and defines the priority tiers that now organize the IHI catalog. Published under CC BY 4.0; comments welcome.

PingER Rescue, Continued

First tranche of historical PingER data received and verified

An update on the PingER rescue: a first tranche of historical PingER measurement data has been transferred from SLAC into IHI custody, verified, and accessioned into the IHI catalog (ark:/26338/w/pinger). The project’s servers have since been shut down, and there is no longer anyone at SLAC to ask about the rest — so what we recovered may be all that survives. Decades of end-to-end measurements to and from the Global South, no longer at risk of disappearing entirely.

IHI in The Register

Press coverage of the preservation mission

The Register covered the initiative this week: Internet history is vanishing. Researchers want to save it, by Simon Sharwood — the APRICOT keynote, the replica-hosting model, and the PingER recovery. Nice to see the story reaching a wider audience.

APRICOT 2026 Keynote

Preserving our Collective Data Legacy, in Jakarta

Jim delivered a keynote at APRICOT 2026 in Jakarta: Internet History Initiative: Preserving our Collective Data Legacy (slides). The Internet’s operational exhaust — routing tables, measurements, mailing lists, meeting archives — is disappearing faster than we are preserving it, and the fix is institutional as much as technical. The concrete ask to the room: IXPs, NRENs, and universities willing to host replicas. Get in touch if that could be you.

Internet Data Trust Workshop in Barcelona

A planning convening at the Internet Society’s inaugural Pulse Research Week

As part of the Internet Society’s inaugural Pulse Research Week in Barcelona (December 8–11), ISOC Pulse and IHI co-organized a hybrid workshop on December 10: Internet Data Trust: Preserving the Internet’s Historical Data Legacy. More than sixty members of the global Internet measurement community, joined by professional librarians and archivists, shared their institutional experiences and gave feedback on an initial set of community principles. The afternoon covered institutional perspectives on preservation, how to support the custodians we have, and the research horizons that open up if the record survives — working toward a public-interest institution dedicated to century-scale preservation of the Internet’s historical datasets. Thanks to the Internet Society Pulse team for hosting the conversation. A writeup of the ideas is in progress; more soon.

CAPIF 4 in Almaty

DNS Without Borders, presented in Kazakhstan

At CAPIF 4 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Jim presented DNS Without Borders: Uncovering Regional Hubs and Dependencies in K-Root Traffic (slides), work with the RIPE NCC continuing the DNS watersheds theme: where Central Asia’s root-server queries actually flow, and what that says about regional interdependence. A recap of the meeting is on RIPE Labs.

Spring Meetings

Talks at RIPE SEE 13 in Sofia and ZANOG25 in Durban

Two talks this spring. At RIPE SEE 13 in Sofia: Assessing the Internet in the SEE Region (slides). And at ZANOG25 in Durban: Contemplating Internet History: Where Do We Go Next? (slides) — the preservation story, told for the operator communities whose mailing lists and meeting archives are the history in question.

Baltic Sea Cable Cuts

A RIPE Labs deep dive into November’s submarine cable cuts

Together with Emile Aben of the RIPE NCC, Jim co-authored a RIPE Labs analysis of November’s Baltic Sea submarine cable cuts: A Deep Dive Into the Baltic Sea Cable Cuts. A reminder that today’s measurements are tomorrow’s history: reconstructing events like these depends on the survival of the measurement archives.

Fall Talks

Slides from RIPE 89 and IETF 121

Slides from two fall presentations are now available. At the RIPE 89 MAT Working Group in Prague: Measuring and Visualizing DNS Watersheds, on how geography and network proximity shape where DNS queries flow. And at the IRTF GAIA session at IETF 121 in Dublin: Internet History Initiative: Overview and Exhortation, a tour of endangered and extinct measurement projects, and a plea to preserve what remains.

Meetings

Opportunities to Meet IHI in Europe this Fall

Jim Cowie will be attending DNS-OARC43 and RIPE89 in Prague the week of October 25th, and IETF121 in Dublin the first week in November. Have a story to tell about preserving (or failing to preserve) the Internet’s historical datasets? Stop by and say hi!

PingER Rescue

Currently evaluating status of SLAC PingER data

After the shutdown of the PingER project at SLAC, decades of measurement data dating back to the late 1990s were feared lost. We’ve contacted SLAC IT and are in the process of recovering and archiving this collection for posterity. PingER was notable for its emphasis on creating measurements both
to and from institutions in the Global South, and for its early exploration of possible relationships between national development and quality of Internet connectivity. More details to follow!

Internet Exchange Point History Collection

Added link to the IXP History Collection

New link to the IXP History Collection, an ongoing project which seeks to record and document global histories of computer networking and internet exchange points (IXPs).

Berkman Klein Fellowship

Jim Cowie joins Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center and Library Innovation Lab as a 2024-2025 Fellow.

Jim Cowie will be joining Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center as a 2024-2025 Fellow, working with the Harvard Law Library Innovation Lab (LIL) to pursue the Internet History Initiative research themes. Read more here.

IHI Joins DNS-OARC

IHI is now a DNS-OARC member

The Internet History Initiative has officially joined DNS-OARC . The history of DNS operations is, in a real sense, the history of the Internet. We’re looking forward to connecting with the DNS-OARC community to explore and celebrate this legacy in coming years!

Mirroring RIPE RIS

Now mirroring RIPE RIS

We’ve completed our first offsite preservation mirror of the RIPE RIS historical BGP datasets, all collectors, from inception, and continue to mirror with a 1 day lag. More sources available under Sources.

Initial resource index

Created a first rough index of external related projects

First sets of links to public data repositories are now available under Sources. Please
suggest additional public data resources that you’d like to see linked here.

IHI assigned NAAN 26338

The ARK Alliance has assigned the Internet History Initiative a unique Name Assigning Authority Number (NAAN) for use in its issuance of unique ARKs,
joining more than 1200 participating institutions in the ARK Alliance.

Welcome to InternetHistoryInitiative.org

Created a placeholder for the IHI website.

Feel free to get in touch if you or your institution would like to learn more about participating in the preservation and curation of the Internet infrastructure’s historical datasets.