Transcript PowerPoint Presentation - The Internet as

The History of the Internet
The Theologians of the Internet



Vanavar Bush: The Memex
J.C.R. Licklider: Networked Computers
Ted Nelson: Hypertext, or Nonlinear Text
Vanavar Bush: Conceiver of the “Memex”




In 1945 Bush published the the
article “As We May Think” in The
Atlantic Monthly
He lays out the concept of a machine
called the “Memex”. This machine
would be loaded with microforms of
texts which would allow the reader to
rapidly access the texts
The reader could then create their
own references which would “link” to
other texts or notes, as a sort of path.
This theory of interconnections made
by the individual, or nonlinearity, is
key to how the Internet operates
today.
J.C.R. Licklider: Conceiver of Computer Networking



Conceived of concept of shared
resources for computers over a
network.
This system would allow for
users to exchange data,
centralize data storage and work
collaboratively on projects.
Licklider even foresaw the
possibility of having universal
programs that users of the
network could download and use,
irrespective of their machine’s
programming. This idea was the
precursors to the JAVA
programming language.
Ted Nelson: The conceiver of Hypertext



Was influenced by Bush’s
concept of the Memex
Presented a paper in 1965 at
the Association for Computing
Machinery in which he coined
the term hypertext for nonlinear organization of texts.
Later moved on to attempt to
create the “Xanadu” project
which would be a storehouse
of documents, with links to
other documents and
previous versions of the same
document.
The Technology of the Internet






The concept of the “data packet network”
ARPANET
USENET
TCP/IP
Creation of HTTP and HTML code
The development of Mosaic / Netscape
Paul Baran: Creator of the Distributed Network



Paul Baran of the RAND
corporation was charged with
coming up with a military
communications system that
could survive a nuclear attack.
In 1962, Baran came up with the
idea of creating redundant,
distributed connections that
would avoid the kind of
centralization that could cause a
network to fail due to a nuclear
strike.
Baran also devised a system
whereby messages were broken
down into “message blocks”, or
“packets”
The Distributed Network




At each node, the node would store the data packet
and would then decide which way to route the packet
based on traffic data from the nodes it was connected
to. Baran called this “hot potato routing”
At the receiving end of the network, the message
would be assembled according to the sequence
number, irrespective of the order that the “message
blocks were received.
The system that he designed was based on lowwattage microwave transmitters and would have been
capable of carrying 128 encrypted telephone
communications, 866 data connections (from telex to
digital data up to 19Kb/s)
Due to bureaucratic issues, the plan was not
implemented.
Larry Roberts: Creator of ARPANET


Roberts was hired by ARPA
(Advanced Research Projects
Agency) and charged with the
creation of the ARPANET in
1966, based on the need for
better computer resource
allocation and exchange of
information.
His first concept for ARPANET
was to directly link each
mainframe computer together as
hosts via telephone lines.
Messages would be sent using
Baran’s concept of “packet
switching” from node to node
until the message was received.
The IMPs



The drawback to the direct connect model
was the need to use processor power from
the mainframes themselves to run the
network and the programming language
incompatibility from mainframe to mainframe.
Based on some advice Roberts received from
Wes Clark, the network was constructed with
a “gateway” or an “Interface Message
Processor” (IMP).
This method had the advantage of being able
to free up the mainframe’s processing power,
and also use a common language for
message transmission.
The First Nodes of ARPANET:
1969-1970
Using Baran’s idea of
“packet switching”, the
IMPs first came on-line
in 1969, linking the
mainframe at the
University of California,
Los Angles to the
mainframe at the
Stanford Research
Institute. By 1970,
Harvard, MIT, and BBS
(the manufactures of the
IMPs) were connected
via 2 transcontinental
phone lines.
Base Map courtesy Yahoo Reference
USENET: “The Poor Man’s ARPANET”





Though ARPANET spread to many institutions in the 1970’s only those
institutions that were part of ARPA were allowed to have access.
In response to this,in 1979 three graduate students came up with the idea
to use the UUCP program (a part of the UNIX operating system) to create
a network newsletter.
Any “client” computer running UNIX would dial into a “server” computer
and check for any changes to the news file. The client would submit to
the server any changes (additions) that it had. Any other clients that
called in would get both the original news item, plus any additions made.
This allowed the individual users to post messages and comments as well
as receive replies.
By 1988, this system supported 11,000 sites, and carried over 1,800
messages a day.
TCP/IP: The enabler of the “network of networks”



Vint Cerf: The creator of the
TCP/IP Protocol

In 1974, Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn submitted a
paper in which the outlines of a new network
transmission protocol called TransmissionControl Protocol.
The key part of the protocol was that it encoded
information into “envelopes” and passed them
onto the network via a gateway. The Envelope
would start with an address, and the actual
packet data would not be read by any of the
network nodes except for the computer it was
intended for.
Thus, the contents of the packets could be of
any type of data or packet segment, so long as
the addressing was TCP protocol.
This enabled the exchange of data between
different networks and computer formats.
Tim Berners-Lee: The Creator of the World Wide Web




In 1980 Berners-Lee created Enquire, a
program based on Bush and Nelson’s
concept of hypertext. Links in the Enquire
system would open further pages of
information.
In 1990, he created HTTP (HyperText
Transfer Protocol) which would transmit
hypertext documents over the web.
In that same year he created HTML
(HyperText Markup Language) in which to
write pages, a browser to view the HTML
pages, and the concepts of URL (Universal
Resource Locators)
This system was text-based only, with no
graphics, and page links were footnoted
reference numbers at the end of a page.
Marc Andreesen: Creator of Mosaic



In 1992 Andreesen, a graduate student at
the NCSA (National Center for
Supercomputing Applications at the
University of Illinois) created, along with Eric
Bina, the first graphical Web browser, called
Mosaic.
Mosaic was critically different from previous
web browsers in that images were now able
to be displayed, text was able to be further
formatted, and links were now able to be
imbedded into the text.
Mosaic was launched early in 1993 and was
an immediate success. It quickly became
the browser of choice.



Andreesen left NCSA at the end of 1993 and became one of the
founding programmers of Netscape Navigator.
By 1996, Netscape was being used by 75% of all web users.(1)
However, by 1999, Netscape was eclipsed by Microsoft’s rival
product, Internet Explorer and Netscape was bought by AOL for
$10 billion.(2)
Footnotes:
1.
Internet Pioneers. http://www.ibiblio.org/pioneers/
2.
Ibid.
3.
Sources:
4.
Griffin, Scott. Internet Pioneers. On-Line: http://www.ibiblio.org/pioneers/
5.
Naughton, John. A brief History of the Future. London, Orion Books, 1999-2000.
The Internet as Interactive
Networked Media Today
Is
it anything new?
How does it differ
from other media
forms?
Newness:

Gordon Graham: “radically new” and “merely
novel”

Transformation is the key to this distinction

Is the Internet transforming our “personal and
social lives”?
What separates the Internet from
older media forms?


Network character of the Internet is crucial
Three key features arise from this:




Decentralisation
Interactivity
Open Access
None exclusive to Internet, but each sufficiently
different in scale and character to give Internet
unique identity
Decentralisation (Production)

Most media decentralised, but oligopolies
prevail

Limited dominance in specific areas (Internet
Explorer in browser market)…

…but fierce competition in other areas (UK ISP
market)
Decentralisation (Consumption)



“Surfing the net”: can a Website hold my
attention as long as a Sunday newspaper?
Failure of major portals to establish themselves
as multi-channelled attractions (msn.co.uk,
AOL)
Hype of Internet and promise of freedom and
control (“Where do you want to go today?”) has
countered this portal approach.
Interactivity




All forms of media are fundamentally
interactive…
…but the Internet allows for malleable, social
interaction
Hyperlinks: the foundation of Internet activity
“Virtual communities”: chat rooms and
newsgroups
Interactivity continued….

“Virtual worlds?”: is Everquest really the 27th
strongest economy in the world?

A “technological prosthesis” (McLuhan), that is
attached to us…

… or a Cyberspace that surrounds us
Open Access





Distinction between consumption of information
and production
Web-based news service is cheaper than it’s
newspaper rival -- but not in an Internet café.
Fixed cost barrier to cheap Internet access
A Website is easier to produce than a private
radio show…
…but old problem of marketing remains
The Internet: “Radically new?”




Substantially different media form
“Radically new” for those who use it…
…but inconclusive collateral benefits.
May transform our social and personal lives,
but still an emerging technology:
“The Future’s arrived. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.”
- William Gibson
Déjà Vu All Over Again ?? : The Radio






In the 1920’s with the dawn of radio in the USA, there was no consensus
on how the new technology would be able to expand. It became clear
that for radio to be used to its full capacity, some sort of funding structure
would need to be created to support it.
However, there was a general consensus that a commercial format (with
direct advertising) was not in the public interest.
Some of the ideas proposed were radio licensing (using the BBC as an
example), and a tax on radios sold (a one-time fee).
The idea that won out however, was the use of sponsorship, whereby a
commercial enterprise sponsored a program (or rather, the airtime) for a
toll.
This indirectly led to the network system and the marginalization of the
amateur broadcaster due to bandwidth restrictions.
Eventually, direct commercials replaced sponsorship on the commercial
networks.
Déjà Vu All Over Again ?? : The Internet





By 1996, the World Wide Web was made up many small “webcasters”
with no real commercial entity dominating the web spectrum.
However, disk space and bandwidth were fairly high in cost, presenting a
barrier to the smaller amateur.
In 1997, GeoCities created the sponsorship model for users to build
“homesteads” with 2Mb of space on a web server. By allowing a small ad
on each page of your website, you had free site hosting.
This model was taken up by other providers and has allowed for a rapid
expansion of web pages on the World Wide Web. In essence, it has
made the WWW a more diverse and expansive environment.
Now, direct advertising is becoming more prevalent, with the advent of the
infamous “pop-up ads”.