The Development of the Internet

By: Josephine JaymePeriod 5

Introduction

The Internet is a powerful piece of technology that plays a huge role in our everyday lives. We are able to email and chat with one another in real time, be updated on the day's events within seconds, and blog our personal opinions and feelings with millions of people being our audience. Without it, our lives--and even society, would be 100% different if this kind of technology didn't exist. Today, anyone--no matter their age or IQ, is able to use the Internet with no troubles. Though the 1960s idea of the Internet didn't live up to its designated purpose, its flaws contributed to the social & economic success of what it is today.

How did the Internet begin?

--J.C.R. Licklider: An American computer scientist @ MIT; developed the idea that anyone could interact with one another & access the same information and programs through networking. --His idea was known as the "Galactic Network" concept.--Was the 1st head of a research program at DARPA.

--Internet was originally known as ARPANET –the 1st successful large scale packet-switched network.--ARPANET changed the way people would interact with each other. --Was bought by ARPA (the Advanced Research Projects Agency), that was held under the Department of Defense.--ARPA was developed under Eisenhower’s presidency to counter the Soviet launching the Sputnik in 1957. --The reason believed for the ARPANET being created was to provide a backup network in case U.S. experienced a nuclear attack, but that wasn’t the case.--ARPANET was designed to allow communication to continue between major computers in any attack, not specifically nuclear war.

--ARPA contracted a large scale computer network to Bolt Beranek & --Newman to build the switch network in Cambridge, Massachusetts.--This switch network was called the Interface Message Processor (IMP).--IMP was developed within nine months, & the first place IMP was installed was in UCLA. Later nodes were installed at Stanford Research Institute, UC Santa Barbara, & University of Utah.--ARPANET was the ‘birth of the internet’ in 1969.

--Along the way, the engineers who created the switch made ‘accidental discoveries’.--One of these accidents included one of today’s popular tools of communication, the Email, which was discovered in 1971.

--With email, people (particularly engineers & scientists) were able to communicate over a network. --1972: ARPA gave its 1st public demonstration of ARPANET with 40 different computers.--This allowed computers to connect more easily to one another.

--With computers being able to connect more easily, it made possible for global networking to exist.--For example, the University College of London & Royal Radar Establishment of Norway were the first countiries connecting to ARPANET.--Telent was a commercial version of ARPANET, became the ‘1st data service’. By 1976, people were able to use the ‘1st internet’.

With Telenet, people were exposed to ‘networking’ worldwide.--By 1977, the internet becomes a reality. --People are now able to talk through the network; Telenet develops an email system.

Impacts on the U.S.

--One impact included new groups being formed due to the creation of the Internet. --For example, The Computer Science Department research computer network was established in the U.S. in 1979.--Also, 1st MUD (Multiuser Dungeon) was created.--This was the 1st interactive multiuser site.--People were able to interact ways other than email; now users could play interactive games on the internet & with each other.

--Throughout the 1980s, the internet continues to grow with the number of users & becomes easier to understand and use for users.--1984: Number of hosts (a computer that has access to number of databases, or provides other services to a computer network) reaches 1,000.--Domain Name Server (DNS) is also introduced.

Example: 123.456.789.10 to access a ‘website’ would now be named to something easier to understand such as…www.myuniversity.mydept.mynetwork.mycountry.

1991 was a year where modernization of the Internet occurred.--Wide Area Information servers created; allowed for any kind of information to be accessed on the Internet, like Email Messages, text, articles, images, graphics, sound files--Search techniques were created in order to find any kind of information. (ie: Keyword search).--World Wide Web (WWW); allowed easy access to any kind of information anywhere in the world.--Also techniques were created to allow for easier use of the Internet.--Example: A technique called ‘Gopher’ was released by Paul Lindner & Mark P. McCahill fr. University of Minnesota. (Included a menu-driven interface to access online resources.

From 1993-1995, the Internet begins to help commercialize the U.S.--During the 1990s, President Bill Clinton advocated ‘globalization’—a “trend toward increased flow of gods, services, money, & ideas across national borders.”--Businesses & the media become interested in the Internet & is seen as a way to advertise business & news quickly & efficiently.--1994: Places where people could go, such as shopping malls & banks, make their place known through the Internet to do business.--This created a new way of life for people; anything and everything could be done.--For example, if you wanted pizza, you could order it from the resteraunt’s website (i.e. Pizza Hut).

--Microsoft played a huge role in the moderization of the Internet in the 1990s.--For Example, Microsoft created the Internet Explorer in 1995. --Internet Explorer was designed for users to view different web pages.--Internet Explorer 1 was launched in August 16, 1995. As of today, there have been 9 different versions of Internet Explorer launched, each version revised to allow easier functioning for its users.

--As of today, the internet allows us to do practically anything online.--In the 2000s, the Internet allowed the establishment of social networking websites for people to interact with not only their friends but as a means to meet new people, potential clients, & even future husbands/wives.--Social networking sites have been embedded into most everyday lives, and like what the internet is intended for, has allowed people to be caught up in the lastest everything.

MySpace was founded in 2003 by Tom Anderson and was one of the original social networking websites which shaped American life dramatically.--One area that changed American life were politics; during the 2008 U.S. presidential election, candidates set up profile pages to attract young voters to vote.--People, particularly musicians, were able to find fame more quickly by being able to upload their music onto the website for people to hear.--Socially, safety became an issue on the internet; children under 13 would create profiles & lie about their age in order to have one.--Being able to access people’s profiles, it made it easier for ‘stalkers’ to get a hold of personal information, such as where a person lived, where they worked, what school they attended, ect.

Other important Social Networking Sites of the 2000s.

Facebook: Another Social Networking website founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg. As of 2011, FB has 600 million active users. Its competitor was Myspace, but because of FB, the original social networking site lost users to FB.

Instant Messaging allows two or more people to ‘chat’ with Each other in real time. It allows people to share files directly, such as documents, pictures, & MP3 files.

Tumblr is a way for people, particularly young people, to blog their lives to world. It’s a place where people can post entries of their lives, post pictures of their interests, & discover music through it.

This is an example of how someone’s personal blog would look like.

The Internet impacted the U.S. in so many different ways, that the pros and Cons are both in sync. For good, the Internet allowed for businesses to expand their marketing and sell their goods in different areas, even internationally. Nowadays,People are able to do ‘online shopping’, which makes up part of the U.S. economy.

With online shopping, it has saved people their time and even money on transportation by purchasing items online. All that’s needed is a computer, Internet access, (and a credit card).

Internet also allowed older generations to get in touch with younger generations by communicating w/ them on their level. (Presidential candidates used the internet as an important tool to attract young voters to the polls.)

How does the Internet relate back to Pre-21st century America?

There are a few ways that the Internet relates back to early American History.--For Example, the transatlantic route allowed for both native Americans & Europeans to share crops, animals, & other elements that could be found in that specific region. The sharing of these things shaped both’s environments and their lives as well.--Relates back to the late 1990s idea of ‘globalization’.--The Telegraph is another example. Similarly to the ‘early internet’ the telegraph used Morse Code, which was a series of dots & dashes used to communicate, just like how the early internet included numbers in order to reach databases.

The creation of the telephone; today telephones allow for people to access the Internet by plugging a cord into the telephone outlet. This is known as ‘dial up’.

Questions:1.) What does ‘WWW’ stand for?Ans: ‘WWW’ stands for ‘World Wide Web’. By typing these initial points, it allows for millions of pages to be accessed through hyperlinks. It was created by the Domain Name Server,which made it easier for users to access pages by remembering a simple abriviation rather than typing in a string of numbers that would need to be memorized.

2.) Who created the idea of the Internet?Ans: The person who crafted this idea of people being able to connect through a network was J.C.R. Licklider, an American computer scientist at MIT.

3.) What kinds of effects has globalization created the U.S. today?The effects of globalization are mixed: For one thing the Internet allowed for businessesto increase their profits by using this technology. At the same time, its impacts socially are a little more negative since this kind of technology allowed people to access personalInformation about others, thus creating insecurity, especially parents of minors of theirchildren using the Internet.

4. Email was an accidential discovery. How different would today’s society be different if Email and any other way of communication through the Internet, be?I think that since Email was one of the basis of how the Internet is in today’s society, without none of this would exist. There would be no kind of social networking sites, news sites, or instant messaging—the Internet is a way for everyone in the world to communicate. Therefore, the Email is probably the most useful & important discovery founded in the ‘early Internet Era’. It truly has revolutionized what the Internet is today.

Works Cited:

http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~yrjiang/background.htmhttp://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/chris/nph/ARPANET/ScottR/arpanet/tour/overview.htmhttp://www.piesoftwareinc.co.uk/textonly/microsoft.htmlhttp://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/brief.shtmlhttp://www.walthowe.com/navnet/history.html

Pictures from:--The App pictures (ie: FB, AIM, Tumblr)—my own, taken from iTunes.--http://www.forever21.com--http://www.facebook.com--http://tumblr.comhttp://goodnewspic.com/2010/10/09/myspace-logo.htmlhttp://home.messiah.edu/~se1189/definitions.htmlhttp://www.ualberta.ca/~iishani/InternetImpact.htmhttp://clubseatsports.com/?p=7640