In this episode of PING, instead of a conversation with APNIC’s Chief Scientist Geoff Huston we’ve got a panel session from APNIC56 he facilitated, where Geoff and six guests got to discuss the 30 year history of APNIC.

With Geoff on the panel were:

• Professor Jun Murai known as the ‘father of the Internet’ in Japan. In 1984, he developed the Japan University UNIX Network (JUNET), the first-ever inter-university network in that nation. In 1988, he founded the Widely Integrated Distributed Environment (WIDE) Project, a Japanese Internet research consortium, for which he continues to serve as a board member. Along with Geoff, Jun was one of the main progenitors of what became APNIC.
• Elise Gerich, a 31 year veteran of Internet networking, is recognised globally for her significant contributions to the Internet. Before retiring, Elise was President of PTI and prior to that, Vice President of IANA at ICANN. Elise served as the Associate Director National Networking at Merit Network in Michigan. While at Merit she was also a Principal Investigator for NSFNET’s T3 Backbone Project and the Routing Arbiter Project and was responsible for much of the early address management Impetus which led to the creation of the RIR system.
• David Conrad Previously the Chief Technology Officer of ICANN, who was involved in the creation of APNIC as its first full-time employee and founding Director-General.
• Akinori Maemura the JPNICChief Policy Officer, and a member of the APNIC EC for 16 years, 13 of which he was Chair of the EC.
• Gaurab Raj Upadhaya Head of WWW Video Delivery Strategy, Prime Video at Amazon. Gaurab has been active in the Internet community for more than a decade and like Akinori served on the APNIC EC for 12 years, 7 of these as Chair of the EC.
• Paul Wilson has more than thirty years’ involvement with the Internet, including 25 years’ experience as the Director General of APNIC.

The Panel discussed the early years of the Internet and the processes which led to the creation of APNIC along with some significant moments in the life of the registry.