An Abridged History of Digital Media

An Abridged History of Digital Media

…and where we are today

The First Computers

• Mechanical Computers• Difference Engine (1822)• Analytical Engine (1837)

• Punch Card Computers• Herman Hollerith (1890)• Used for census data• Later became IBM

The First Computers

• Electric Programmable Computers– Colossus (1943)• Decoded German encryption in WWII

– ENIAC (1943-1946)• Commissioned by the U.S. government

– UNIVAC (1951)• Designed for business• Predicted outcome of the 1952 election

Evolution of Computers

• PCs– IBM 701 – first mass-produced computer (1953)

• Mini-computers– Intel creates first microprocessor (1971)

• Microsoft (1975)– Bill Gates/Paul Allen

• Apple (1976)– Steve Jobs/Steve Wozniak

Then…There Was the Internet

The Internet Has Changed Everything

• Traditional media on the decline• Media consumption habits changing• Power structures toppling• E-commerce diversifying• Demand for journalism is growing• Smaller, nice organizations

News Consumption

We Are All Web Workers Now

• FACT: You are a geek (It’s ok)• Continuously want to learn• Innovation is key• Know the “buzzwords”

Digital Natives

Bits and Bytes

• What is a bit? What is a byte?

• Megabyte: 1,000,000 bytes• Gigabytes: 1,000,000,000 bytes

The Cloud

World Wide Web and Web 2.0

• The WWW is a way to access information from the Internet using HTTP and browsers

• The Web and the Internet are *not* synonymous

• Used to be static pages• Web 2.0 – When things started getting

interactive

Servers

• Computers that store and distribute information over the Internet

• They read IP addresses• All domains have a corresponding IP address

Browsers

• The tool you use to access information that is published on the Web

Browsers

• You have plenty of options