The Jargon File

The Jargon File defines various technology and Internet related terms.

The first Jargon File is an interesting living historical document. It was first collated in 1975 by Raphael Finkel at Stanford University from a collection of hacker jargon dating back to the early 1960's, mainly from a community of artificial intelligence research centers on the ARPANET who used DEC PDP-10 computers, including the MIT AI Lab, the Stanford AI lab (SAIL), Bolt, Beranek, and Newman, Carnegie-Mellon University, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Improvements to the Jargon File were later made by Mark Crispin, Don Woods, Richard Stallman, Charles Spurgeon, Guy Steele, Geoff Goodfellow, and Eric S. Raymond. A book version of the Jargon File was released in 1983. In 1990, Eric S. Raymond revived the file and has updated it regularly since in consultation with the original editors.

The section on Internet Terminology also provides references to resources with information about technology and Internet related terms.