Web guru Farber noted for 'network'ing

Computer and Information Science Professor David Farber is a man of many accomplishments -- and now he has one more to add to the list. This month, Network World recognizes Farber as one of the 25 most powerful people in networked computing. The magazine ranks Farber -- the only honoree from the world of education -- among such figures as Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Bill Gates, Michael Dell of Dell Computers and Steve Case of America Online. Farber, 64, has spent the last 25 years creating ways to link computers together. And while he is a force in the industry, he said that his primary commitment remains to academia. "The thing that keeps you young and your mind in gear is getting a new crop of students with new ideas every year," Farber said. "It's a remarkable thing that you don't have in industry." A member of President Clinton's Advisory Committee on Information Technology, Farber is also researching and implementing Internet II -- a part of the White House's 1996 Next Generation Internet initiative that aims to combine the network, computing and storage aspects of the Internet. One of Farber's latest projects is his Interesting People mailing list -- an electronic newspaper that targets people interested in technology and its implications. Farber, who teaches in the University's new Telecommunications and Networking master's degree program, said that most technical reporters and many government officials subscribe to the e-mail service. "It also ends up in the hands of some rather ordinary people," he added. This is not the first time Farber has been honored on a national level. In 1995, he received the Sigcomm Award, which recognizes lifetime achievement in data communications. And the following year, the John Scott Award Advisory Committee honored Farber for his role as a pioneer in the field of networked computing. In the early 1970s at the University of California-Irvine and in the 1980s at the University of Delaware, Farber encouraged computer use in non-computing-based departments and also to facilitate communication between different colleges. Sanjay Udani, a sixth-year doctoral student in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, is working with Farber to create a global "virtual campus" that would allow students from all over the world to talk to each other and to professors about their studies. Udani said Farber is "great for communicating with high-level people, and many other professors have gained from his presence." Farber is a member of the Board of Directors of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Board of Trustees of the Internet Society and the Advisory Board of the Center for Democracy and Technology. His name was also in the news across the nation last month when he testified extensively as a key prosecution witness in the government antitrust trial against Microsoft.

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