Robert Gehl is publishing a book about the dark web in a few months on MIT Press called "Weaving the Dark Web". I don't know how far back he goes but it's definitely worth checking out, his previous book was fantastic. My own work focuses, among other things, on the history of spam beyond the internet. Usually whatever is considered 'dark', 'deviant', 'evil' goes hand in hand with its more legitimate form. It's usually about who has the authority and credentials to call a network like this and the politics behind that. Dr. Elinor Carmi, www.pinkeee.com Twitter: @Elinor_Carmi ________________________________ From: Members <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org> on behalf of John Lowry <jhlowry@mac.com> Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2018 3:42:44 AM To: Matthew Kirschenbaum Cc: members Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] History of Dark Web? Well, Dark Web and Dark Net are two different things. Dark Web is where various kinds of quasi-legal and illegal activities go on, Dark Net has its origins in unused (not unallocated, mind), address space. IARPA currently has a program focused on predicting attacks that has a significant interest in understanding the Dark Web. Note that the Dark Web is a highly agile and evolving space. What you knew six months ago is likely to be diffferent from what you see now. Asking about ‘history’ may be premature. John Lowry Principal Scientist, Cyber Security BBN On Apr 9, 2018, at 6:32 PM, Matthew Kirschenbaum <mkirschenbaum@gmail.com<mailto:mkirschenbaum@gmail.com>> wrote: Not suggesting this is the origin of the term in popular parlance, but the net art writer Alan Sondheim has been using the term darknet since the 1990s. He had in mind command-line clients and shells, as opposed to the graphical browsers then taking over. On Mon, Apr 9, 2018 at 6:23 PM Marc Weber <marc@webhistory.org<mailto:marc@webhistory.org>> wrote: I’m happy to introduce the journalist to a couple of the security/crypto pioneers who are advisors to the Internet History Program; these are the folks I’d go to for more detail. There’s also the author of The Dark Net, Jamie Bartlett, which is a really nice book though I honestly don’t remember how extensive his early history section was. Best, Marc On Apr 9, 2018, at 14:20, Janet Abbate <abbate@vt.edu<mailto:abbate@vt.edu>> wrote: I got a query from a journalist about the origins of the Dark Web. I don’t really know what was going on before Sealand and Tor in the early 2000s. Anyone working on this? thanks, Janet Dr. Janet Abbate Professor, Science, Technology and Society Virginia Tech Co-director, VT National Capital Region STS program www.sts.vt.edu/ncr<http://www.sts.vt.edu/ncr> www.linkedin.com/groups/STS-Virginia-Tech-4565055<http://www.linkedin.com/groups/STS-Virginia-Tech-4565055> www.facebook.com/VirginiaTechSTS<http://www.facebook.com/VirginiaTechSTS> _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org<http://sigcis.org>, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org Marc Weber<http://www.computerhistory.org/staff/Marc,Weber/> | marc@webhistory.org<mailto:marc@webhistory.org> | +1 415 282 6868 Internet History Program Curatorial Director, Computer History Museum 1401 N Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View CA 94043 computerhistory.org/nethistory<http://computerhistory.org/nethistory> Co-founder, Web History Center and Project, webhistory.org<http://webhistory.org> _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org<http://sigcis.org>, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org -- Matthew Kirschenbaum Professor of English Director, Graduate Certificate in Digital Studies University of Maryland mkirschenbaum.net<http://mkirschenbaum.net> _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org<http://sigcis.org>, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org