ESNET Celebrates 30 Years: An Exhibition at the National Technical Museum Chronicles Three Decades of Technological Progress

On March 6 of this year, the CESNET Association marked the 30th anniversary of its founding. To commemorate this milestone, an exhibition is currently on display at the National Technical Museum in Prague, tracing the journey from the first internet connection to today’s infrastructure for science, research, and education.

What began as an academic initiative has gradually evolved into an environment that today connects nearly 250 institutions across the Czech Republic. CESNET enables collaboration among research teams, work with large volumes of data, and the use of demanding computing and networking services that individual organizations would find difficult to provide on their own.

You can visit the exhibition on the second floor of the museum foyer through May 5. Across 21 panels, we present key moments in our history as well as our current activities. There are also specific exhibits—such as the first multiprotocol Cisco IGS router, used in December 1991 during Czechoslovakia’s historic first connection to the internet, or a 360° camera of our own design intended for broadcasting medical procedures.

The exhibition demonstrates that today’s digital infrastructure is not a given, but the result of thirty years of systematic work and development.