History of Internet
INTERNET,TOWARDS
CONNECTIVITY AND CONVERGENCE
1. Introduction, the early days
by Andrea Botero
The Internet has become a familiar
"place" for millions of people that every day login to exchange
messages, have a chat, search for information or sell a book to mention only
but a few of the activities that take place under this platform. To trace its
origins involves realizing the myriad of circumstances, people, institutions,
technologies and relationships that have make it possible. Doing this could
also help to clarify some of the basic concepts and design ideas behind its
current shape, and the implications of its development for society in general.
The internet in it's very basic
conception, can be considered as a group of innovations that make it possible
the communication and transmission of "data" between computers at
different locations. It has born out of the idea of distribution of resources
and sharing of information over computers (therefore we need computers before
having internet, details in media-computer ) Should it be understood as a
collection of tools, people and resources and not only as fuzzy whole that
creates a virtual space?
Most of the people involved in its
development seems to agree that the launchuing of the
sputnik satellite by the soviets in 1957 was an important factors
determenig the US government to initiate a long standing R&D effort to
apply state of the art technology into US defense system. This effort chanelled
many resources to a program called ARPA (Advance
Research Projects Agency) that will stand as the main motor and
agglutinant factor that allow a group of people to develop some of the ideas
about computing and sharing of information, a working reality. ARPA’s main
focus from war game scenarios to research into timesharing, computer graphics
and computer language produce the first initiative for a network facility that
will communicate the large amount of university based- researchers, this
project was called ARPANET its specifications were ready in 1968, and it was
first tested in 1969.
<pics/arpanet2.gif>A few basic concepts that determine ARPANET´s original
design can be summarised as: decentralization, a common language of data
chopped in to pieces for transportation, the presence of a translation node
(IMP) between the network and local computers, and the freely available information on its design.. all this under
the current image of computers "as mainframes". At the begining the
network comprises 4 nodes (University of California at Los Angeles UCLA - the first one- The Stanford Research Institute, University of
California at Santa Barbara, and the University of Utah)
. Arpanet continued to grow basically in isolation until 1972 went it finally
went public ( during the First International Conference on Computers and
Communication, Washington DC) and sprung the development of other networks ( this series of maps illustrate stages on its development).
The internet is said to be
"officially" born around 1982 when the different networks agree on
using the TCP/IP protocol ( Who had been developed by Robert Kahn and Vinton
Cerf already in 1974) as a standard for their interconnections
making it truly a network of networks and overcoming the previous cacophony of
standards, protocols and increasing its coverage.
2. Time for basics: "Warriors of the Net"
How TCP/IP Works (Video by Ericsson Medialab)
A short movie that illustrates how
the Internet works from the viewpoint of individual data packets. It was
created by Gunilla Elam, Tomas Stephansson, Niklas
Hanberger and Monte Reid , at the Ericsson Medialab (Sweden). More
info about Warriors of the net
3. Internet: More than the World Wide Web
By Andrea Botero
Most of the time spent in the
Internet nowadays is mediated through the World Wide Web (WWW) experience
produced by current browsers. However this has not always been the case, if we
consider the internet as a group of different innovations developed for
different purposes, we can identify the different array of services that it
offers. Ranging from electronic email, user group discussions (news groups),
searching services, information retrieval, file transfer and some other
"playful" activities like games or muds that have been present since
the early days of computer process sharing experiments.
Crude starts of email: in 1971
Ray Tomlinson (ARPANET) sends himself the World's
first e-mail . He is responsible for adapting an existing, popular,
time-share internal mail program linking it to the new network file transfer
technology, the text: 'Testing 1-2-3'.
The second message sent was addressed to all ARPANET users explaining the
possibilities of 'electronic mail' . Basic conventions given by him include - users' log-in name @ host computer name
- Email´s popularity, usefulness and advantages as a communication tool are
held responsible as one reason for the big success and rapid spread of
internet.
Messy information environment and the need for finding it: in 1990, the first Internet search-engine that was
able to find and retrieve computer files, was developed at McGill University , Montreal and baptized as
ARCHIE. soon follow GOPHER from the University of
Minnessota and its search engine VERONICA. All of this including
Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS) were developed as an effort to locate and
identify relevant information amongst the myriad of new sources available. They
have not survived until this days, but laid down the foundations for most of
the current technology in searching and filtering information that is present
in the current WWW search engines.
• Usenet/ lists/ newsgroups and
other Unserious(?) stuff around.
4. The User experience, The web and the raise of the browser
by Andrea Botero
Until now the Internet experience
remains very much limited to a certain group of initiated people, or brave
explorers with time to devote for the learning of its code. In 1989 Tim Berners Lee working in Geneva for the CERN Institute presented his first concept for a "Mesh " latter to
be called World wide Web, and try to convince the institute of the advantages
of this global hypertext system (Vannebar Bush`s and Dough Engelbarts ideas
(see Media Computer section) were basic
for Berners-Lee's conception of what should the web be).
Berners Lee developed the idea of
the HTML ( Hypertext Markup Language )
and develop the first browser (1991), a
piece of software that will "read" the hidden marks of the HTML and
will render a document with hyperlinks to other documents, that then could be
called by a click of the mouse. This strategy made it easier and more intuitive
to navigate through a big resource of information and latter will make it
possible for more people to make available their own info through this channel.
His software was released for free in an FTP server, it generated new ways of
envisioning the internet and give access to new users. The first easy to use-
easy to install browser, the MOSAIC, was developed in 1993 by Mark Andreesen
from NCSA (National Center for SuperComputing
Applications , Illinois). And the story goes on...
Origins
The idea of
the Internet was first discussed by J.C.R. Licklider of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in August 1962 when discussing his ‘Galactic
Network’ concept. Licklider envisioned a globally interconnected set of
computers through which everyone could quickly access data and programs from
any site. Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) then promptly opened a
computer research program and appointed Licklider as its head.
The first
paper on packet switching was written in July 1961 by Leonard Kleinrock of MIT and the first book on
the subject ‘Communication Nets:
Stochastic Message Flow and Delay’ in 1964. The next key step was to make
computers talk together, and in 1965 Lawrence G. Roberts and Thomas Merrill
connected two computers with a low speed dial-up telephone line creating the
first (however small) wide-area computer network ever built.
1957
ARPA formed
within the Ministry of Defence. Its mission was to apply state-of-the-art
technology to US defence and to avoid being surprised by technological advances
of the enemy following the launch of Sputnik 1 by Russia into the earth’s
orbit.
1969
By the end
of 1969, four host computers were connected together into the initial ARPANET
and the growth of the Internet had commenced. Computers were added quickly to
the ARPANET during the following years, and work proceeded on completing a
functionally complete Host-to-Host protocol and other network software. In
December 1970 the Network Working Group (NWG) finished the initial ARPANET
Host-to-Host protocol, called the Network Control Protocol (NCP). As the
ARPANET sites completed implementing NCP during the period 1971-1972, network users
finally could begin to develop applications.
1972
The first
large, and also very successful, demonstration of the ARPANET occurred at the
International Computer Communication Conference (ICCC). This was the first
public demonstration of this new network technology to the public. Also in 1972
electronic mail, or email as it is now commonly known, was introduced when the
basic email message send and read software was written, motivated by the need
of the ARPANET developers for an easy coordination mechanism.
Due to
limitations in some of the programs already developed, Robert Kahn and Vint
Cerf commenced development on a new version of the protocol to allow packet
switching that could meet the needs of an open-architecture network environment
where packets are sent on from one computer to another until they reach their
destination. This protocol would eventually be called the Transmission Control
Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). While NCP tended to act like a device
driver, the new protocol would be more like a communications protocol. It is
due to their work in defining the ‘Internet Protocol’, Vint Cerf and Bob Khan
are regarded as the ‘fathers of the Internet.
US Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) initiated a research program to investigate
techniques and technologies for interlinking packet networks of various kinds. The
objective was to develop communication protocols that would allow networked
computers to communicate transparently across multiple, linked packet networks.
This was called the ‘Internetting Project’ and the system of networks that
emerged from the research was known as the ‘Internet’. The system of protocols
which was developed over the course of this research effort became known as the
TCP/IP Protocol Suite, after the two initial protocols developed: Transmission
Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP).
1975
The ARPANET
was transferred by DARPA to the Defense Communications Agency (now the Defense Information Systems Agency ) as an
operational network.
1979
USENET
established.
Early
1980’s
Researchers
at Bell Labs developed a set of programs for Unix in the early 1980s that told
a computer what to do when a batch of messages landed in its electronic hands. The
programs could copy files between systems and send commands to the next
computer in the chain. It was called the Unix-to-Unix Copy Protocol, or UUCP.
1980
Decided
that TCP/IP would be the preferred military protocols in the US.
1982
EUnet
(European UNIX Network) is created by EUUG to provide email and USENET
services. Original connections between the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and
UK.
50
Newsgroups in existence.
1983
Transition
of the ARPANET host protocol from NCP to TCP/IP on January 1, 1983. ARPANET was
being used by a significant number of defence Research and Development
departments and operational organizations.
1984
Domain Name
System (DNS) introduced due to the growth of the host database. The host
database had achieved a size where the storage of these hosts was no longer
possible on one computer. The Domain Name System was developed allowing the
database to be distributed on many individual servers.
Moderated
newsgroups introduced on USENET (mod.*).
British
government announced the construction of JANET (Joint Academic Network) to
serve British universities.
1985
Internet
was already well established as a technology supporting a broad community of
researchers and developers, and was beginning to be used by other communities
for daily computer communications. Email was being used broadly across several
communities, often with different systems.
Symbolics.com
is assigned on 15 March to become the first registered domain. Other firsts:
cmu.edu, purdue.edu, rice.edu, ucla.edu (April); css.gov (June); mitre.org, .uk
(July).
1986
US National Science Foundation (NSF) initiated the
development of the NSFNET which today provides a major backbone communication
service for the Internet.
Exponential
growth of the Internet commenced.
1987
Email link
established between Germany and China using CSNET protocols, with the first
message from China sent on 20 September.
1988
A National
Research Council committee, chaired by Kleinrock and with Kahn as one of its
members, produced a report commissioned by NSF titled
‘Towards a National Research Network’. This report was influential on then
Senator Al Gore, and ushered in high-speed networks that laid the networking
foundation for the future information superhighway.
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) established.
Internet
Relay Chat (IRC) developed.
1989
RIPE (Reseaux IP Europeans) formed (by European service providers) to ensure the necessary
administrative and technical coordination to allow the operation of the
pan-European IP Network.
Countries
connecting to NSFNET: Australia (AU), Germany (DE), Israel (IL), Italy (IT),
Japan (JP), Mexico (MX), Netherlands (NL), New Zealand (NZ), Puerto Rico (PR),
United Kingdom (UK)
1990
ARPANET ceases to exist and is replaced by NSFNET.
The World
comes online (world.std.com), becoming the first commercial provider of Internet
dial-up access.
Tim Berners-Lee of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in
consultation with CERN, the European Organization
for Nuclear Research based in Switzerland, wrote the first GUI browser , and called it ‘WorldWideWeb’ > with Robert Cailliau. It ran
on the NeXT computer. Tim is widely regarded as being the inventor of the World
Wide Web, ‘WWW’ or ‘web’ for short.
The
development of the browser meant that not only those within university or
research departments could access documents on the Internet, but also documents
could be accessed throughout the country, and also throughout the world, by
anybody with access to a computer and a modem. The simple operation of a web
browser also enabled users without any technical knowledge to access documents
on the web.
Countries
connecting to NSFNET: Argentina (AR), Austria (AT), Belgium (BE), Brazil (BR),
Chile (CL), Greece (GR), India (IN), Ireland (IE), Korea (KR), Spain (ES),
Switzerland (CH)
1991
Commercial
Internet eXchange (CIX) Association, Inc. formed by General Atomics (CERFnet),
Performance Systems International, Inc. (PSInet), and UUNET Technologies, Inc.
(AlterNet), after NSF lifts restrictions on the commercial use of the Net
(March).
World Wide Web was released to the public.
1992
Internet Society (ISOC) formed.
Jean Armour
Polly coins the term ‘surfing the Internet’.
1993
Businesses
and media begin taking notice of the Internet, and the US White House and the
United Nations come online.
Mark
Andreesen of National Center for SuperComputing Applications, Illinois (NCSA)
launched Mosaic X. It was the first
easy to install, easy to use browser and, significantly, was backed by 24-hour
customer support. It also enormously improved the graphic capabilities (by
using 'in-line imaging' instead of separate boxes) and installed many of the
features that are familiar through browsers such as Netscape’s
Navigator (which is the successor company established by Andreesen
to exploit Mosaic) and Microsoft’s Internet
Explorer .
In December
1993 there were 623 web sites worldwide.
1994
National
Research Council report commissioned by NSF, again chaired by Kleinrock (and
again with Kahn as one of the members), entitled ‘Realizing The Information
Future: The Internet and Beyond’ is released. This report was the document in
which a blueprint for the evolution of the information superhighway was
articulated and which has had a lasting affect on the way to think about its
evolution. It anticipated the critical issues of intellectual property rights,
ethics, pricing, education, architecture and regulation for the Internet.
Netscape
developed and refined a new way to distribute software when it made the first
copies of Netscape Navigator client
software available for download over the Internet.
ARPANET/Internet celebrates 25th anniversary.
First
international WWW conference held at CERN, Geneva ,
subsequently held every year in a different country.
1995
The US Federal Networking Council (FNC) passed a resolution defining the term Internet in 1995. This
definition was developed in consultation with members of the Internet and
intellectual property rights communities.
RESOLUTION: The
Federal Networking Council (FNC) agrees that the following language reflects
our definition of the term ‘Internet’. ‘Internet’ refers to the global
information system that -- (i) is logically linked together by a globally
unique address space based on the Internet Protocol (IP) or its subsequent
extensions/follow-ons; (ii) is able
to support communications using the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet
Protocol (TCP/IP) suite or its subsequent extensions/follow-ons, and/or other
IP-compatible protocols; and (iii)
provides, uses or makes accessible, either publicly or privately, high level
services layered on the communications and related infrastructure described
herein.
Internet
access providers as CompuServe, AOL and Prodigy all commenced business.
1996
In January
1996 there were 100 000 web sites worldwide.
1997
By April
1997 there were more than one million web sites worldwide and by year-end it
was estimated there were almost 100
million Internet users.
1998
By year-end
1998 there were almost 3.7 million web sites and over 150 million Internet
users worldwide.
1999
By year-end
1999 there were over 9.5 million web sites worldwide.
2000 – today and the future
The growth
in usage and size of the Internet has been growing exponentially since its
inception, and in recent years, usage and size are skyrocketing. There are a
myriad of statistics out there on how big the Internet really is. Below are
some statistics that give an idea of how the Internet is growing and how big it
is.
The latest
figures available from Computer Industry Almanac
(CIA) for year-end 1999 show that there are 259 million Internet users worldwide while NUA Internet Surveys estimated there were over 304 million Internet users as of March 2000 .
There will be over 765
million users worldwide, or 118 per 1000 people, by year-end 2005
<http://www.c-i-a.com/199911iu.htm> according to CIA. The US
share of Internet users is expected to decline from around 43% of worldwide
Internet users as of the end of 1999 to 27% of the Internet users at year-end
2005. Western
Europe is growing faster than North America and will be a close second by 2005
with over 213 million Internet users while the Asia-Pacific region is growing
even faster and will have nearly 190 million Internet users in 2005. The share
of users in Central and South America, and Africa, are growing less quickly,
particularly Africa.
In general,
the more educated you are, the more likely you are to use the Internet. Studies
have shown there is a close link between educational attainment and occupation
and usage of the Internet. This also holds true for country comparison, the
wealthier a country and the more educated its people, the higher the use of the
Internet among its peoples.
Almost seven per cent of Internet users are German speakers,approximately
51 per cent are English speakers, and just over seven per cent are Japanese
according to Global Reach in their most recent figures as of March 2000
where they measure the number of users online for each language. Spanish,
Chinese then French users follow.
Inktomi
<http://www.inktomi.com/>recently estimated that there are over one billion unique documents on the Web , over
6.4 million servers with almost 5 million web sites, and almost 87% of these web sites are in English
The number
of domains registered worldwide was approaching 18 million in July 2000, and
there were close to 9.5 million .com domain names, according to DomainStats.com . Austria comes tenth with
approximately 107 000 domain names registered and Germany, with the third
highest number of domains registered, has passed one million domain names
registered. The USA has the most domain names registered followed by the United
Kingdom.
Another
method of measuring the growth of the Internet by counting the every host
computer connected to the Internet. Twice a year the Internet Software Consortium counts host computers and in
January 2000 they estimated there were 72.4 million
hosts advertised in the DNS , 29.7 million in January 1998 and less
than 2 million in 1993. Telecordia Technologies show
a similar growth. At the end of June 2000 they estimated there were almost 80
million computer hosts, 70 million in January 2000 and 30.3 million in January
1998.
In Europe,
by RIPE estimated the number of host computers to be 11.4 million in May 2000 , compared to 5.9 million in January
1998 and 44 000 in January 1991.
There has
been a huge growth in the number of email mailboxes worldwide with Messaging Online estimating that there were 569 million email accounts at year-end 1999 , up
83% on the previous year, however only 5% of workers and 6% of households use
email.
And as for
Usenet Newsgroups, the estimates as to the number of these vary widely, but
there are probably in excess of 200 000 Newsgroups today.
References
A number of
sources are used for this article, all in English, but the most important ones
are:
Advantages and Disadvntahes of Mp3
ADVANTAGES
AND DISADVANTAGES OF MP3:
PRO---MP3
is digital quality audio, delivered FREE over the Internet. Your station can
save a chunk of change on shipping charges by using this system.
PRO---MP3
is easy to use and you won't have all those old Voicegal DAT's laying around
your office.
CON---MP3
is not a good way to receive large amounts of audio. If you're changing out
your liners or freshening everything before the book, we still recommend that
you receive the audio on DAT or CD.
CON---while
MP3 audio is, indeed, digital quality sound, it's not as good as a DAT or CD. There's
not a big difference, but it's discernable if your ears are good. .
__________________________________________________________________
--------MORE SOME ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES---------------
__________________________________________________________________
Currently
the costs associated with producing and distributing an album make it extremely
difficult for a musical performer or band to break into the music industry. Rarely
is a musician discovered without the struggle of sending tapes to producers.
The
costs associated with making tapes and CD's and struggling to find places to
send them to make it very difficult for aspiring bands. Using the MP3
technology, a music group can make a single tape and upload that into any
computer. From there the file can be emailed to anyone or placed on a web site
for anyone to access.
Rather
than producing a CD and spending the costs relating to it, the band can email
their songs directly to the record company. The band can easily create a web
site, with his or her downloadable MP3's for anyone to download. In this way,
it is much easier and cheaper to let people hear their music, without the costs
associated with physical production and distribution of CD's or cassette tapes.
Musicians
will have a much greater chance of being recognized by record companies and
fans if they use the inexpensive method of MP3 files to distribute their music.