Editing Steve Crocker

{{Short description|American computer scientist and Internet pioneer (born 1944)}}
{{For|the Newfoundland and Labrador politician|Steve Crocker (politician)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = Stephen D. Crocker
| image         = SteveCrockerJI1 (cropped).jpg
| alt           = Headshot of Internet pioneer Steve Crocker.
| caption       = Crocker in 2007
| birth_date    =  {{birth date and age|1944|10|15}}
| birth_place   = 
| death_date    = <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} (death date then birth date)  -->
| death_place   =
| nationality   = American
| other_names   = 
| occupation    = Internet engineer
| years_active  = 
| known_for     = 
| notable_works = 
}}

'''Stephen D. Crocker''' (born October 15, 1944) is an American [[List of Internet pioneers|Internet pioneer]]. In 1969, he created the ARPA "Network Working Group" and the [[Request for Comments]] series. He served as chair of the board of the [[ICANN|Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)]] from 2011 through 2017.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-1-24jun11-en.htm|title=ICANN news release|date=June 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Crocker |first1=Steve |title=About the Board |url=https://www.icann.org/en/blogs/details/about-the-board-20-10-2017-en |website=ICANN Blogs |publisher=ICANN |date=20 October 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=White |first1=Brad |title=Wrap-Up Interview with Cherine Chalaby and Steve Crocker |url=https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/newsletter-icann60-wrap-up-22nov17-en.pdf |website=ICANN60 Newsletter |publisher=ICANN |date=November 2017}}</ref>

== Education ==
Steve Crocker attended [[Van Nuys High School]], as did [[Vint Cerf]] and [[Jon Postel]]. Crocker received his [[bachelor's degree]] (1968) and [[PhD]] (1977) from the [[University of California, Los Angeles]].<ref>{{cite web |author=Matthew Lyon |date=Fall 1997 |title=Wired! |url=https://newsroom.ucla.edu/magazine/wired-internet-computer-networking |publisher=UCLA Magazine}}</ref> 

== Career ==
As a graduate student at the [[University of California, Los Angeles|University of California Los Angeles]] (UCLA) in the 1960s, he was part of the team that developed the protocols for the [[ARPANET]] which were the foundation for today's [[Internet]].<ref>[http://internethalloffame.org/inductees/steve-crocker "Official Biography: Steve Crocker"], Internet Hall of Fame, Internet Society, retrieved September 14, 2013.</ref>  He said "While much of the development proceeded according to a grand plan, the design of the protocols and the creation of the RFCs was largely accidental."{{Refn|RFCs began as informal technical notes, "requests for comments", of the Networking Working Group (NWG).|group=nb}} He was instrumental in forming a Network Working Group (NWG) in 1969 and was the instigator of the [[Request for Comments|Request for Comment]] (RFC) series,<ref>"I Remember IANA", V. Cerf, RFC 2468, October 17, 1998.</ref> authoring the first RFC{{Ref RFC|1}} and many more.<ref>[http://www.ietf.org/download/rfc-index.txt "RFC Index"], Internet Engineering Task Force. Retrieved September 14, 2013.</ref> Crocker led other graduate students, including [[Jon Postel]] and [[Vint Cerf]], in designing a host-host protocol known as the [[Network Control Program (ARPANET)|Network Control Program]] (NCP).{{Refn|Crocker said "NCP" later came to be used as the name for the protocol, but it originally meant the program within the operating system that managed connections. The protocol itself was known blandly only as the host-host protocol.'|group=nb}} They planned to use separate protocols, [[Telnet]] and the [[File Transfer Protocol]] (FTP), to run functions across the ARPANET.{{Refn|The [[NPL network]] team also envisaged the need for levels of data transmission in 1968. Both were early examples of the protocol layering concept incorporated in the OSI model.|group=nb}}<ref name=":26">{{cite journal |last=Hauben |first=Ronda |year=2004 |title=The Internet: On its International Origins and Collaborative Vision |url=http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/ACn12-2.a03.txt |journal=Amateur Computerist |volume=12 |issue=2 |access-date=May 29, 2009}}</ref><ref name=":17">{{Cite IETF|rfc=1000|title=The Request For Comments Reference Guide|date=1987|last1=Reynolds|first1=J.|last2=Postel|first2=J.}}</ref> NCP codified the ARPANET network interface, making it easier to establish, and enabling more sites to join the network.<ref>{{Cite web |title=NCP, Network Control Program |url=https://www.livinginternet.com/i/ii_ncp.htm |access-date=2022-12-26 |website=LivingInternet |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dRRDDwAAQBAJ&q=NCP |title=UGC -NET/JRF/SET PTP & Guide Teaching and Research Aptitude |publisher=High Definition Books |page=319 |language=en}}</ref>

He formed the [[International Network Working Group]] (INWG) in 1972,<ref name="Pelkey8.3">{{cite book |last=Pelkey |first=James |title=Entrepreneurial Capitalism and Innovation: A History of Computer Communications 1968–1988 |chapter=8.3 CYCLADES Network and Louis Pouzin 1971–1972 |chapter-url=https://historyofcomputercommunications.info/section/8.3/CYCLADES-Network-and-Louis-Pouzin-1971-1972/}}</ref><ref name="Hafnerp222">{{harvnb|Hafner|Lyon|1999|p=[https://archive.org/details/wherewizardsstay00haf_vgj/page/222/mode/2up 222]}}</ref> then his research interests shifted to [[artificial intelligence]]. He was acknowledged by Cerf and Kahn in their seminal 1974 paper on internetworking''.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last1=Cerf |first1=V. |last2=Kahn |first2=R. |date=1974 |title=A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication |url=https://www.cs.princeton.edu/courses/archive/fall06/cos561/papers/cerf74.pdf |journal=IEEE Transactions on Communications |volume=22 |issue=5 |pages=637–648 |doi=10.1109/TCOM.1974.1092259 |issn=1558-0857 |quote=The authors wish to thank a number of colleagues for helpful comments during early discussions of international network protocols, especially R. Metcalfe, R. Scantlebury, D. Walden, and H. Zimmerman; D. Davies and L. Pouzin who constructively commented on the fragmentation and accounting issues; and S. Crocker who commented on the creation and destruction of associations.}}</ref>'' 

While at UCLA Crocker taught an extension course on computer programming (for the [[IBM 7094]] [[mainframe computer]]).  The class was intended to teach digital processing and assembly language programming to high school teachers, so that they could offer such courses in their high schools.  A number of high school students were also admitted to the course, to ensure that they would be able to understand this new discipline.  Crocker was also active in the newly formed UCLA Computer Club.

Crocker has been a program manager at [[Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency]] (DARPA), a senior researcher at [[University of Southern California|USC]]'s [[Information Sciences Institute]], founder and director of the Computer Science Laboratory at [[The Aerospace Corporation]] and a vice president at [[Trusted Information Systems]]. In 1994, Crocker was one of the founders and chief technology officer of [[CyberCash]], Inc.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Parallelus|title=Steve Crocker, Ph.D.|url=https://krasnow.gmu.edu/trustees/steve-crocker-ph-d/|access-date=March 13, 2021|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=hjp: doc: RFC 1898: CyberCash Credit Card Protocol Version 0.8|url=https://www.hjp.at/doc/rfc/rfc1898.html|access-date=March 13, 2021|website=www.hjp.at}}</ref> In 1998, he founded and ran Executive DSL, a [[Digital subscriber line|DSL-based]] ISP. In 1999 he cofounded and was CEO of Longitude Systems. He is currently CEO of Shinkuro,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shinkuro.com/|title=Shinkuro|date=July 23, 2002|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020723010257/http://www.shinkuro.com/|archive-date=July 23, 2002}}</ref> a research and development company.

The Networking Working Group RFC's provided the context in which the [[IETF]] was created in 1986. He has been an [[IETF]] security area director, a member of the [[Internet Architecture Board]], chair of the [[ICANN]] Security and Stability Advisory Committee, board member and chairman of ICANN, a board member of the [[Internet Society]] and numerous other Internet-related volunteer positions.

== Awards ==
He has worked in the Internet community since its inception. For his work on the Internet, Crocker was awarded the 2002 [[IEEE Internet Award]].<ref name="IEEE Internet Award Recipients">{{cite web |title=IEEE Internet Award Recipients |url=http://www.ieee.org/about/awards/bios/internet_recipients.html#sect12 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130415024634/http://www.ieee.org/about/awards/bios/internet_recipients.html#sect12 |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 15, 2013 |access-date=August 23, 2013 |publisher=[[IEEE]]}}</ref> In 2012, Crocker was inducted into the [[Internet Hall of Fame]] by the [[Internet Society]].<ref>[http://www.internethalloffame.org/inductees/year/2012 2012 Inductees], [[Internet Hall of Fame]] website. Last accessed April 24, 2012</ref>

On November 6th, 2024 Dr. Crocker received the Jonathan B. Postel Award<ref>[https://www.internetsociety.org/news/press-releases/2024/internet-society-announces-recipients-of-25th-annual-jonathan-b-postel-award/ Internet Society Announces Recipients of 25th Annual Jonathan B. Postel Award], [[Internet Society]] website.</ref> during the 121th IETF meeting in Dublin, Ireland. He was named as an [[ACM Fellow]], in the 2024 class of fellows, "for pioneering leadership in the design of the Arpanet Host-Host Protocols and applications".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.acm.org/media-center/2025/january/fellows-2024|title= 2024 ACM Fellows Honored for Contributions to Computing That Are Transforming Science and Society|publisher=Association for Computing Machinery|date=January 22, 2025|access-date=2025-01-22}}</ref>

== See also ==

* [[List of Internet pioneers]]

== Notes ==
{{Reflist|group=nb}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{Cite book |last1=Hafner |first1=Katie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RLKxSvCBQZcC |title=Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins Of The Internet |last2=Lyon |first2=Matthew |date=1999-08-19 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-0-684-87216-2 |language=en |orig-date=1996}}

==External links==
{{Commons category-inline}}

*{{Ref RFC|1|ref=no}}
*{{Ref RFC|1776|ref=no}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060105044126/http://www.shinkuro.com/about.php Shinkuro.com executive team info]
* [http://purl.umn.edu/107234 Oral history interview with Stephen Crocker], [[Charles Babbage Institute]], University of Minnesota.  Crocker discusses computer networks, artificial intelligence research, and his work at the [[Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency]] (DARPA); interactions with other DARPA personnel including [[Cordell Green]], [[Barry Wessler]], [[Lawrence Roberts (scientist)|Larry Roberts]], [[Bob Kahn]], and David Russell. He discusses his work as a program manager in the [[Information Processing Techniques Office]] (IPTO).

{{Internet Hall of Fame}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Crocker, Steve}}
[[Category:Computer systems researchers]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:1944 births]]
[[Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni]]
[[Category:Request for Comments]]
[[Category:Internet pioneers]]
[[Category:Van Nuys High School alumni]]
[[Category:2024 fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery]]