Stockholm, 5 June 2001 — Internet Society Chairman Brian Carpenter presented the 2001 Jonathan Postel Service Award to Mr. Daniel Karrenberg, one of the pioneers of the Internet’s development in Europe, during the opening ceremony of the 2001 INET Conference.
The presentation was witnessed by delegates from around the world gathered at the magnificent Stockholm City Hall, in the same room in which the Nobel Prizes are awarded.
In a similar setting and after welcoming speeches by Hans-Göran Olsson, Deputy Lord Mayor of the City of Stockholm, succeeded by Ms. Lynn St. Amour, Internet Society President and CEO, and Richard Perlman, Internet Society Vice President of Conferences, the award was presented by Mr. Carpenter, with following recognition:
“Daniel Karrenberg receives the 2001 Jon Postel Service Award of the Internet Society for two decades of extraordinary dedication to the development of networking in Europe and around the world. His early work was at the University of Dortmund creating a basic networked email and usenet service. The success of this initiative was the seed on which the first pre-commercial network, EUnet, was built.
“In 1988 Mr. Karrenberg moved to Amsterdam, worked at the CWI, hosting the European central machine for EUnet operations. As the Internet came to Europe in the late 1980s, Mr. Karrenberg was active in organizing the first RIPE meeting and in creating the RIPE NCC to serve as secretariat for the Internet community in Europe. The RIPE NCC became the first Regional Internet Registry as we know them, taking on address allocation as one of its core services. Daniel headed the effort from the start, working hard to maximise the benefit for the community.
“In recent years, Daniel has been a leader in the efforts to create a new IANA to meet the needs of a larger and more complex global Internet. Always anchored in the wise precepts of Jon Postel, Daniel traveled worldwide, meeting, strategizing, and contributing his personal insights and the resources of his organisation. Daniel at this time is leading the New Projects group at the RIPE NCC, where he senses for the needs of the Internet community, continuing what was at the core of his professional life for the last two decades. It is clear that Daniel Karrenberg has consistently proven his insight, vision, and capability to implement that vision. What he is doing, he is typically doing without regard for any personal glory; indeed, personal benefit and glamour do not appear on his priority list at all. Sometimes this on the contrary has led to personal sacrifice, gladly taken for the benefit of all. Without Daniel Karrenberg’s work, the Internet in the European region would be a different place today.”
Mr. Karrenberg humbly accepted the award, thanking the Internet community for this recognition and pledging to continue my work guided by the spirit of Jon Postel.
About the Jonathan B. Postel Service Award
The Jonathan B. Postel Service Award was established by the Internet Society to honour a person who has made outstanding contributions in service to the data communications community. It is named for Dr. Jonathan B. Postel to recognize and commemorate the extraordinary stewardship exercised by Jon over the course of a thirty year career in networking. He served as the editor of the RFC series of notes from its inception in 1969 until 1998. He also served as the ARPANET “numbers Czar” and Internet Assigned Numbers Authority over the same period of time. He was a founding member of the Internet Architecture (nee Activities) Board and the first individual member of the Internet Society, where he also served as a Trustee.
The Award consists of an engraved crystal globe and US $20,000.00. The Award is presented at the Internet Society’s annual INET Conference.
The first award was presented posthumously to Jon Postel himself, accepted by his mother, Lois Postel at INET’99. Scott Bradner received the second award during INET 2000. Future awards will be presented in 2002 and every other year thereafter.
About ISOC
The Internet Society is a non-profit, non-governmental, open membership organization whose worldwide individual and organization members make up a veritable “who’s who” of the Internet industry. It provides leadership in technical and operational standards, policy issues, and education. Internet Society hosts two annual Internet conferences, trains people from all over the world in networking technologies, conducts workshops for educators, and publishes an award-winning magazine, OnTheInternet.
Internet Society provides an international forum to address the most important economic, political, social, ethical and legal initiatives influencing the evolution of the Internet. This includes facilitating discussions on key policy decisions such as taxation, copyright protection, privacy and confidentiality, and initiatives towards self-governance of the Internet. Internet Society created the Internet Societal Task Force as an on-going forum for discussion, debate, and development of position papers, white papers, and statements on Internet related societal issues.
Internet Society is the organizational home of the International Engineering Task Force, the Internet Architecture Board, the Internet Engineering Steering Group, and the Internet Research Task Force – the standards setting and research arms of the Internet community. These organizations operate in an environment of bottom-up consensus building made possible through the participation of thousands of people from throughout the world.