ITWire

Innovator Ray Tomlinson was responsible for the use of the @ in email addresses. According to a press release from his employer, BBN, "In 1971, Tomlinson developed Arpanet's first application for network email by combining the SNDMSG and CPYNET programs, allowing messages to be sent to users on other computers. He chose the @ sign to separate local from global emails in the mailing address. Person-to-person network email was born and user@host became the standard for email addresses."

Commenting on Geoff Huston's induction into the Hall of Fame, ISOC-AU president, Narelle Clark, said: "Since its inception Geoff has been part of the Internet's growth within Australia, both in the university and private sector, as well as leading research and network monitoring activities that are acknowledged for their impact worldwide. We, in the Australian Chapter of the Internet Society, are truly proud of and thankful for his many contributions."

All members are profiled on the Hall of Fame web site. According to Huston's profile "Geoff Huston played a critical role in bringing the Internet to Australia in the 1990s. While the Internet was still in its infancy in the US, he was able to complete the construction of a new and rapidly growing network within a few months.

"In 1989 Huston began work at the Australian Vice Chancellor's Committee with the direction to build a national academic and research network. In just over one year, every Australian university and major research institution was connected to the country's first ISP, the Australian Academic and Research Network.

"The project quickly expanded to support the entire national Internet sector, and within five years this network became Australia's largest private data network."

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