Pioneer of Internet leaves the U of M

Mark McCahill
After 27 years, Mark McCahill is leaving the U, to take a position at Duke University in North Carolina.
MPR Photo/Tom Crann

We take it for granted. Many of us check and send e-mail dozens of times a day. We surf the 'net and don't think twice.

But think back to the early 1990s. Before there was Outlook and Explorer, there were utilities like Internet Gopher. Remember, on a glowing green screen, you could actually log onto other servers, and search and read the text there. It wasn't that long ago that it all seemed like a brave new world.

As the name implies, Internet Gopher was developed at the University of Minnesota. Mark McCahill was one of the researchers behind that, and he's even credited with coining the term "surfing the 'net." He also worked on an early e-mail client called POPmail.

After 27 years, Mark McCahill is leaving the U, to take a position at Duke University in North Carolina.

We've invited him into talk more about his work, and his decision to leave the U.

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