UPEI.ca celebrates 25 years as the first .ca address

UPEI was one of ten founding university members that founded what would become The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), the non-profit Canadian corporation that is responsible for operating the .ca Internet country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) today. The top-grossing films were Rambo 3, Rainman, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? The top selling album was George Michael’s Faith.

Oliver North was indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States. Microsoft released Windows 2.1.

1988 doesn’t seem like all that long ago, but in Internet terms it is literally generations removed from today.

Early that year, without any fanfare, the first .ca domain name was issued to UPEI.ca.

Dave Cormier, Manager, Web Communications and Innovations at the university said they had planned a virtual trip back to 1988 to celebrate the occasion, but there was one problem.

“We were going to replace the current UPEI home page and send you all back in time to the Web in 1988… except there wasn’t any Web in 1988. The World Wide Web didn’t start until 1991.”

The university has posted a look back page that includes a funny note from Tuneyoshi KAMAE, Chair of the Department of Physics at the University of Tokyo.

“Dear Colleagues on the island of Red-Haired (Akage-no) Anne” it begins, “I wish to welcome you to the global computer network system for basic research.”

UPEI was one of ten founding university members that founded what would become The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), the non-profit Canadian corporation that is responsible for operating the .ca Internet country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) today.

As of August 2011 there were more than 1.7 million registered .ca domains.

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