NLnet
Encyclopedia
NLnet's history started in April 1982 with the announcement of a major initiative to develop and provide network services in Europe under the name EUnet
.
Stichting NLnet was formally established as a "stichting" (Dutch for foundation) in February 1989. In November 1994 Stichting NLnet created NLnet BV (a Dutch Limited liability corporation) as a commercial operating subsidiary and so incorporated the first internet service provider in The Netherlands. In 1996 the internet provision services company was acquired by UUnet
, which had just became a subsidiary of MFS
. MFS was acquired shortly thereafter by Worldcom, which then initiated a takeover bid on MCI
.
The acquisition provided NLnet's former shareholder, Stichting NLnet, the means to transform into an endowment, and fund the development of Internet network technology and associated Computer Sciences research and development. It makes the results freely available to the community in its broadest sense.
One of the initial managing directors of NLnet, Ted Lindgreen, became the founder and CEO of NLnet Labs, financed from the NLnet endowment. The current CEO of NLnet Labs, Olaf Kolkman, is also the Chairman of the IAB
, the Internet Architecture Board.
NLnet is known for sponsoring Open Source events for developers (hackathons), DNS
security development, GPL
V3 license drafting process, the Parrot virtual machine
for Perl 6
, etc.
EUnet
The roots of EUnet go back to 1982 and the first international UUCP connections. From a very loose collaboration of individual sites under the auspices of the EUUG , it evolved to the fully commercial entity EUnet International Ltd.In April 1998 the company was sold to Qwest Communications...
.
Stichting NLnet was formally established as a "stichting" (Dutch for foundation) in February 1989. In November 1994 Stichting NLnet created NLnet BV (a Dutch Limited liability corporation) as a commercial operating subsidiary and so incorporated the first internet service provider in The Netherlands. In 1996 the internet provision services company was acquired by UUnet
UUNET
UUNET founded in 1987, was one of the largest Internet service providers and one of the nine Tier 1 networks. It was based in Northern Virginia and was the first commercial Internet service provider...
, which had just became a subsidiary of MFS
Metropolitan Fiber Systems
Metropolitan Fiber Systems Inc, later known as MFS Communications Company, was a last mile provider of business grade telecommunication products such as long distance, and Internet access through its own fiber rings in major central business districts throughout North America and Europe...
. MFS was acquired shortly thereafter by Worldcom, which then initiated a takeover bid on MCI
MCI Communications
MCI Communications Corp. was an American telecommunications company that was instrumental in legal and regulatory changes that led to the breakup of the AT&T monopoly of American telephony and ushered in the competitive long-distance telephone industry. It was headquartered in Washington,...
.
The acquisition provided NLnet's former shareholder, Stichting NLnet, the means to transform into an endowment, and fund the development of Internet network technology and associated Computer Sciences research and development. It makes the results freely available to the community in its broadest sense.
One of the initial managing directors of NLnet, Ted Lindgreen, became the founder and CEO of NLnet Labs, financed from the NLnet endowment. The current CEO of NLnet Labs, Olaf Kolkman, is also the Chairman of the IAB
Internet Architecture Board
The Internet Architecture Board is the committee charged with oversight of the technical and engineering development of the Internet by the Internet Society ....
, the Internet Architecture Board.
NLnet is known for sponsoring Open Source events for developers (hackathons), DNS
Domain name system
The Domain Name System is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities...
security development, GPL
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
V3 license drafting process, the Parrot virtual machine
Parrot virtual machine
Parrot is a register-based process virtual machine designed to run dynamic languages efficiently. It uses just-in-time compilation for speed to reduce the interpretation overhead. It is currently possible to compile Parrot assembly language and PIR to Parrot bytecode and execute it...
for Perl 6
Perl 6
Perl 6 is a major revision to the Perl programming language. It is still in development, as a specification from which several interpreter and compiler implementations are being written. It is introducing elements of many modern and historical languages. Perl 6 is intended to have many...
, etc.