Yugoslavia and the Internet That Never Was

At the close of the first day of the SEE 10 regional meeting in Ljubljana, Slobodan Markovic and I had the honour of giving a presentation that served as an introduction to a panel discussion on the Internet in Yugoslavia. Our aim was to provide a technical perspective on some of those historical events that make the story of the Yugoslavian Internet such a complex and interesting one - e.g. the early development of the Internet against the backdrop of the protocol wars, initial efforts to make cross-regional connections, and the massive upheaval that came with the outbreak of war and the eventual breakup of Yugoslavia.

With that background in place, attendees at the meeting then got the opportunity to hear first hand from five Internet pioneers about how they built the Internet in Yugoslavia. During the course of the session, we learned about the roles these five people played in creating the first Yugoslavian networks, how they coordinated with researchers and engineers across Europe and beyond to connect with the wider Internet, and how they continued their work even after the onset of a war. It was a truly fascinating discussion and for that reason, we wanted to share it more widely so that others could listen and learn from the conversation that took place.

Here's Mira Tasić (RNIDS, Serbia), Avgust Jauk (ARNES, Slovenia), Darko Bulat (First Croat Internaut, Croatia), Željko Drašković (MIXP, Montenegro), Wam Kat (ZaMir), and Daniel Karrenberg (RIPE NCC) on the history of the Internet in Yugoslavia: