“The unknown history of the internet” engineering the worldwide WiWiW project

This paper reports on a large-scale project to document the origins of the ARPANET, Packet Radio Net, SATnet, Ethernet, the NSFnet and most recently the Internet. The main objective is to create and collect, source material and preserve it for the future. Traditional oral history interviews are used along with new research methods and tools, such as distributed editing, or “collective memory experiments.” The paper addresses the challenges in contemporary history through the multidecade WiWiW.org program: "Who is Who in the Internet World: a perpetual archive devoted to Internet pioneers worldwide," which involves a series of new techniques applied to oral history developed during a period of more than 16 years. In a very practical way the tools, tips, and tricks behind this international and multicultural project are presented. WiWiW is an International, Highly Multilingual, Not for Profit, Volunteering Based Project with support from the Internet Society (ISOC), private donors, and an extensive network of contacts (more than 6,000 active so far). Its main goal is to create a "perpetual archive" with first-hand materials based on primary-sourced oral histories, together with additional documents and resources gathered in conducting them. This project has conducted 250+ personal interviews with a wide range of leading figures of the Internet world.