Monday, 5 August 2013

History of the Web



OK, so undertaking the first day in Web Media1 this semester, myself & fellow web 'want to knowers' were given insight into the history of the web.  Being a self confessed virtual retard,  my knowledge of the internet extended to knowing very little other than enjoying the convenience of electronic mail, social medias ie Facebook and my favorite, online shopping!

Within the first class we were introduced to a small snip-it of The Virtual Revolution documentary where Dr Aleks Krotoski presents a 3hr & 56min provocative and strongly authored argument charting two decades of profound change since the invention of the World Wide Web, weighing up the huge benefits & the unforeseen downsides which are reshaping almost every aspect of our lives.  She explores the founding father of the web we know today, Tim Berners-Lee & is joined by some of the digital revolutions key innovators as they speak of this technology & the power it holds.

It is a great educational documentary and recommend you check it out (see link below) as it opens your eyes to  the technology I, personally, have taken for granted more & more over the last few years as it becomes the most immediate technical tool in which I am able to, with complete freedom, acquire extensive knowledge to learn with, to problem solve alongside & to profit from!

Perhaps you could say the Web & Internet all evolved from the idea 'The Mundaneum', founded by Paul Otlet (who outlined a globally connected network of computers in 1934) & Henri La Fontaine in 1910 which aimed to "gather together all the world's knowledge & classify it according to a system the developed called the Universal Decimal Classification" though development of electronic computers in the 1950s is when the history of the internet really kicked off with the first concepts introduced to the public leading to the Internet were sent over the ARPANet (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) by Computer science Professor Leonard Kleinrocks at UCLA.  

 From there development of packet switched networks such as ARPANet, Mark I, CYCLADES, Merit Network, Tymnet & Telenet throughout the late 1960s to early 1970s. Development of multiple seperate networks which could be joined together into other networks dubbed 'internetworking' was primarily associated with the ARPANet. 

 The Internet Protocol suite (TCP/IP) was standardized & the concept of a world-wide network of interconnected networks, called the Internet, was introduced in 1982.  Commercial Internet Service Providers (ISPs) began emerging in the late 1980s to early 1990s with the ARPANet being decommissioned in 1990.  Commercialization of the Internet became in 1995 when NSFNet was decommissioned, resulting in the removal of the last restrictions on the use of the Internet enabling commercial traffic to be carried.

 The Internet has had a revolutionary impact on culture and commerce since the mid-1990s, incl the rise of near-instant communication by email, instant messaging and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP - phone calls), video calling & the World Wide Web with its discussion forums, blogs, social networking & those fantabulous online shopping sites!

 Taking over the global communication landscape the Internet was almost instant in historical terms; it only communicated 1% of the information flowing through 2-way telecommunication networks in 1993, already 51% by 2000 and more than 97% of the telecommunicated information by 2007!

 Today the Internet continues to grow, driven by greater amounts of online information, commerce, entertainment & social networking.
Alright now, so being the curious cat that I am, to me @ the mino Social Media is one of most interest within the virtual realm, hence why I thought I'd include this timeline of  the introduction of Popular Internet Services to my blog.... :-)

...& that's me on the History of the Web... ...now, go and check out The Virtual Revolution!




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