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The Age of
Information
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(A brief history of the Internet & a look at where it's going) |
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by Charles E. Brown / EWM PSI |
Part I:
Many of today's web users are oblivious to where all of this Internet goodness
came from. Significant portions of U.S. households have desktop or laptop
computers or at least a resident that is proficient in their usage. However
a hefty portion of the PC/Mac end-user community wrongfully believes that
the Internet was formed out of commercialism and it's primary function is
to provide a vehicle for businesses to push goods and services. The most commercial
sector of the Internet, (the World Wide Web) is largely responsible for this
misconception.
The WWW is by far the largest reason that today's consumer is drawn to the web. Like moth's hypnotized by the virtual campfire flames on monitor screens world wide, consumers gravitate towards the lure of virtual shops that sell goods and services. But was this a part of the Net's beginnings, is this how it all got started? Is the sole purpose of the Internet to drive the economy, or did the Net have a more earnest and important agenda before the madness of e-fever took hold of the world?
The Net at it's best is an information highway (sorry for the lame analogy). The Net connects the world and allows people to share information and ideas. Furthermore commercialism was frowned upon (sometimes not even tolerated) during the early days of the Net. Although most of today's web designers and developers design for commercial clients, the art of web design and development was first used to push content, not goods and services. This meant speed, efficiency; user-friendly-environments and regularly updated material took precedence over "gee-whiz" (graphics, animation, audio, video and other entertainment gadgets). The first Net surfers did not even have such luxuries.
If you are going to be a Web designer/developer you must have an understanding of where the Net has come from to better keep in-tune to where it's going. Therefore for your review I submit the following condensed look at the beginning, growth and maturity of the Internet!
Like all good stories the Net begins with a government connection. No, not "Area 51", but almost as top secret. Sometime during the early '60s, the Department of Defense funded a research project. This project was based on the inter-networking of computers. Like most government funded scientific projects (Michael Jackson, Fruitcake and others) this project incorporated the Governments two favorite puppets, "The National Science Foundation" and our countries fine institutes of learning.
The very first computer "node" (any computer connected to a network is referred to as a node) was hooked up at UCLA in 1969 (one more 1969 phenomenon). This grew to around 62 "nodes" during the mid '70s. This pattern of growth continued and by the time the '80s, rolled around there were 1,000 of these "nodes" all capable of communicating with each other over a network.
In comes "The National Science Foundation" (big brother) fully funded by the government to setup a high-speed backbone to five super-computer-centers across the United States. Using bad rock and pop videos as a smoke screen (smile), the project was able to benefit from anonymity and quietly grow throughout the 80's. This growth included the setup and use of over 100,000 "nodes".
These "nodes" were predominately used for the academic research of universities. However the word had spread and the barbarians were at the gate (our fine commercial society members), howling to gain access. During 1995 the government officially removed itself from the network leaving behind around 4,000,000 "nodes". From the mid to late '90s, the Internet became 3x larger, boasting over 16 million hosts (a static IP address).
During the '90s, the Internet also went commercial (everybody else sold-out in the 80's). Formerly the NSF restricted commercial traffic on the high-speed backbone known now as the Internet. However these restrictions were backed up by legislation that barely slapped the violators on the wrist and said "bad salesman"! Nevertheless the NSF had been funding the commercial sector of the backbone prior to the government cutting the Internet funding out of its budget during 1995. Therefore back during 1993, when funding was still available for the commercial sector, every form of commercial entity had already begun using the Net as a high tech business card and feeding tank for their pet sharks (salesman).
The Internet is composed of independent computers hooked-up over a network. This network primarily consists of the worlds phone lines, network routers, switches, trunks and other communications devices. Governments, companies and other factions own some of these elements, but no single entity owns or controls the whole show. As a matter of fact the Department of Defense and its puppet the NSF eventually learned that not only is there no owner, there's no one running the place, it pretty much runs it's self. This was FAAAR...too scary of a situation and was probably the #1 reason for the U.S. Governments abrupt halt on funding in 1995.
Although the Internet is 3 decades old, the World Wide Web (WWW) didn't appear until the early '90s. It was developed by Tim Berners-Lee to help physicists keep track of cross-references. The Web consists of servers, which are computers running special programs, hooked-up to the Internet. These servers store web documents. These documents are retrieved by browsers, which are software applications for a PC, terminal, workstation, or Ray-Ban. These browsers allow you to see the documents from a server displayed on your monitor screen.
The biggest gun that the Web offered was the ability to activate "hyperlinks" in text (as if end-users were not addicted enough to point-and-click already thanks to Win & Mac). The hyperlink was designed to retrieve a document for the user rather than the user having to understand how to search for a document on their own. However the Internet community basically ignored the Web, until some students at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois, Urban-Campaign (UIUC) wrote and released a program called "Mosaic" (prior to the government removing it's fondling funding fingers from NSF finger puppet).
This program was the first Web graphical browser. Funding for this project came from the NSF, therefore it was public domain. The program utilized a graphical user interface (GUI) to make it easy for anyone to use the Web without being an MIT grad. In 1993 Mosaic was released for "Microsoft Windows" and Web traffic became at least 1% of the NSF's backbone traffic. The door had been opened for the average person to step onto the Net and join the information revolution. The Web had become the #8 protocol (method of using the Net) people were using when they were on the high-speed backbone. The top 4 protocols during 1993 were (e-mail, file transfer, Telnet and Usenet). Two years later during 1995, the Web became the #1 protocol on the Internet.
As the Web is the #1 reason people are using the Internet, the Internet is the #1 reason why people are buying computers. The PC, (Personal Computer) formerly known as the "IBM compatible computer" has exploded across the planet, appearing on desktops all over the world. Most of the owners of these PC's are at least occasional Internet users, and this ever-growing number of users has created a virtual "traffic jam" of monstrous proportions. File sizes can sometimes be quite large, especially considering that technology has given us digital audio and video files that can be up or downloaded over the Internet. Data transfer rates (the speed info moves across the Net) have become a common "around-the-water-cooler" topic of discussion. Therefore a need was created for a speedier Net.
The traditional method of connecting to the Internet is through a "dial-up connection". This occurs when a computer uses a "modem" to access the Internet through a Local Area Network (LAN). The modem communicates with the LAN and temporarily suspends your phone service. It further requests that the LAN create a connection to your ISP (Internet Service Provider) or Online Service (AOL, Prodigy, exc.). Your "modem" also facilitates the exchange of data after a connection has been established.
Computers use modems to communicate with each other. Therefore the method of communication that these modems use, must be highly standardized and adopted across a body of the computer/Internet community in order for computers to be able to share data with one another and perpetuate this thing called the Internet. However recent technology has given us better methods of communicating between computers using the exact same network but a much faster process? This technology is referred to as "Broadband".
Broadband can be considered as various methods of getting high-speed access to the Internet. Of course high-speed is a relative term, what was referred to as a high-speed backbone just a few paragraphs ago is now considered to be slow motion by the Internet community. However today's high-speed demands have spawned a collection of technologies that are becoming more and more affordable and easily accessible to the average computer user. DSL, Satellite and Cable are the 3 current top contenders for general consumer broadband access. Although they vary in method, their general purpose is identical, and that's to get users hooked up and moving faster.
"To the Emerald City, with lightning speed..." is a familiar movie quote, and it's a fitting description of what users want out of their Net connection. However high-speed-access is more expensive than the plethora of free and cheap ISP's and Online Services available to the masses. Therefore how do you sell the idea that the Net must move at lightning speed to the consumer? Easy, you lead a horse to water, it will drink!
Basically, you lead the consumer to high-tech web sites that incorporate a vast array of multi-media components (audio, video, high-resolution-graphics and animation) and explain to them why they are unable to enjoy any of these features. It's a pretty simple trick, setup by the fact that users have been convinced to buy a computer. Accessing the Web was their primary reason for getting the computer, therefore If they are led to believe that their broom-stick needs a "nitrous-oxide' switch for them to enjoy the Web (get to the Emerald City), then so-be-it.
The problem is that you don't' need DSL, Satellite or Cable access in order to get speedy information on the Net. These services are most beneficial when used for their "always-on" features and their ability to free-up your phone lines for incoming and outgoing calls. Basic unformatted text travels fine using 56K (not to shabby on modems prior to 56K either). If the Net is about information and information works fine in plain text and plain text works fine on a dial-up connection (minus blocking phone service) why is broadband the hot issue of Net?
The commercial sector of the Net means big money. Businesses want their Net image to be as high-tech as with other advertising mediums (TV, radio, newspaper, magazine, billboard and others). The Net has a much more difficult time pulling this off than other mediums do. Differences in user systems, bandwidth and other problems mean commercial entities are burning the midnight oil to keep their Net presence spiffy-looking and sounding. The WWW does a better job of this than any other protocol and that's why the WWW is so highly commercial and addicted to "gee-whiz" factors.
But increased dynamics usually means more data. This means larger data transfers which leads to slower data transfer rates. To provide an analogy, a two-lane highway with bumper to bumper traffic moves slower than a 6 lane highway supporting the same size of traffic as the two lane. However there is another way to deal with traffic jams using the highway analogy. Driving smaller cars and using mass transportation are also options. On the Net, this is means using data compression to reduce file sizes and using packets to deliver data in groups. The use of compression methods can be seen in "compression algorithms" (example: MP3's) and the use of packets can be seen in "Streaming Audio/Video" files.
While the computer/Internet industry is hard at work creating tricks to move data faster and smarter, Web designers/developers are finding ways to use these technology enhancements to their advantage. This endless cycle of more-more-more is turning the Web into a steroid addicted form of TV.
There is a cloak-and-dagger faction of the Web's commercial community that is pushing to take over your computer the way they have done your TV set. In fact, recent years have seen Microsoft just flat out tell you what their intentions are by introducing "Web TV". However quietly behind closed doors there is a hard-core group of dedicated computer/Internet users who use e-mail, FTP, Telnet and Usenet to get their information-freak-on and give the WWW a cold shoulder.
This group of dedicated users is a diverse crossbreed of novice and expert users that covers all ethnic and social classes as well as educational backgrounds. Therefore if you are going to become involved in web design/development, you'd better be able to meet the needs of the entire Net community and not focus solely on the WWW and it's "gee-whiz" factors.
The Web is still growing at an alarming rate. More users mean more potential customers to e-businesses. Therefore you will continue to see a push to make the Web look act and work like TV. Because of this, technology is being driven toward providing us with bandwidth that will allow us to move an entire "Library of Congress" worth of information across the Net. These BOHEMATH file sizes will be moved from one side of the globe to the other in the time it takes to flip the channel away from an "Info-mercial". But until then Web developers must focus on content taking precedence over "gee-whiz".
If both of these elements must share the same bandwidth you must give a green light to what usually brings traffic to the site, information (unless your site is specifically for entertainment). Whether commercial, organizational or propaganda, content is the essential ingredient of the Net overall. Web site layout should be a study of the formatting and structural design of content. Gee-whiz elements are props to serve as audible and visual aids. They are the dressing for a site, used to enhance or dress-up the content. This is the Web's most powerful ability. However abuse of this ability has contributed to Net congestion and a hostile-take-over of the end-users computer.
There are more chat groups centered around users discussing regaining control of the Web than on virus protection. Web designers/developers by day use all of their skills to appease their clients and employers with the latest in visual and audible goodies. By night these elves weave Web Sites, chat groups, news-groups FTP sites and other mediums that inform us all about maximizing the potential of the PC/Internet tag team. After spending his/her day updating a graphical environment they spend their evenings manning a content driven sites devoted to freedom of information.
The Internet is a new virtual frontier. The WWW could just as easily stand for "the Wild Wild West" as it does "the World Wide Web". This highly commercial sector of the Net known as the Web, is a virtual "Dodge City" in the Internet frontier. However in the old west, Dodge City is where people went for lowbrow entertainment. Miners, cattle drives, cavalries, and wagon trains did the real work of the westward settlement. The Internet equivalent of these would be FTP, e-mail, Telnet and Usenet, all of which helped map the new frontier that the Web is blazing trails on.
Although accessing the Web may be the #1 reason people get a Net connection,
getting information is the #1 reason people maintain a Net connection. They
quickly learn to get the information in the fastest, user-friendliest way
available. If your Web Page does not give them this, they will use other Web
Sites and if necessary other protocols besides the Web. Therefore the future
of the Web belongs to designers/developers who focus on content and use "gee-whiz"
elements to dress-up content and enhance content delivery. In short, don't
give your traffic a beautifully wrapped empty box for Christmas.