The Evolution and Growth of the Internet
Many years ago a network was born having several computers connected and now, that same network has millions of computers connected at all times, it's called the Internet. This paper will explain the evolution and growth of the Internet. I will offer a guided tour though the evolution of the Internet and explain what this effect has on its growth and popularity. It's like a plague growing across the world, signs of its growth are seen everywhere. The Internet was started as an experiment to test networks to try and develop a network that could survive a nuclear attack. While the net has never needed to survive a nuclear blast its design has proven again and again how robust it is. It has with stood many an attack from construction, people digging up cables, to lightning blowing up a router. The network has always recovered and bypassed the problem. The Internet began as the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) during the cold war in 1969. It was developed by the US Department of Defense's (DOD) research people in conjunction with a number of military contractors and universities to explore the possibility of a communication network that could survive a nuclear attack. It continued simply because the DOD, DOD's contractors, and the universities found that it provided a very convenient way to communicate (Wendell). The ARPANET was a success from the very beginning. Although originally designed to allow scientists to share data and access remote computers, e-mail quickly becomes the most popular application. The ARPANET became a high-speed digital post-office as people used it to collaborate on research projects and discuss topics of various interests. By 1971 the ARPANET gr...
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... historical footnotes. Approximately 40 million people are connected to the Internet. More than $1 billion per year changes hands at Internet shopping malls, and Internet related companies like Netscape are the darlings of high-tech investors. Users in almost 150 countries around the world are now connected to the Internet and the number of computer hosts approaches 10 million (Howe). The Age of the Internet has arrived. Traffic on the Internet expands at a 341,634% annual growth rate (Pedroni). Within 30 years, the Internet has grown from a Cold War concept for controlling the tattered remains of a post-nuclear society to the Information Superhighway. Just as the railroads of the 19th century enabled the Machine Age, and revolutionized the society of the time, the Internet has taken us into the Information Age, and profoundly affects the world in which we live.
The usage of the internet is growing faster than any other type of technology. In fact, statistics demonstrate that between 1993 and 1997, the numbers of internet hosts increased from 1 million to approximately 20 million (Zambia, 1999). Furthermore, by 2001 that figure grew exponentially to 120 million (Zambia, 1999). Now, there are almost 2 billions users that use the internet which represents a significant portion of the global population. These statistics alone demonstrate how the intensity of the internet can have a strong impact on economic development.
The World Wide Web started as an idea that focused around the government’s need to communicate if there was a real war. In 1964 the Cold War was at its peak, the Advanced Researched Projects Agency, or ARPA began researching and developing a way to get computers to “communicate with each other,” this is how it all started (The Internet's History and Development). The government scientists who were, “developing networking technology in the 1960's knew that what they were building would be far bigger than themselves; nobody, however, could have predicted the explosion in Internet access and interest in the past several years” (The Internet’s History and Development).
Many believe the internet was an over night sensation, that one day, someone invented the internet and it spread in popularity faster than Tickle Me Elmo or the Macarena. Although the internet did have a surge of commercial popularity, with the invention of Mosaic and later with e-commerce, it was created many years ago with the development of military networking technologies. Also, the internet, unlike many pop culture fads of the nineties, will continue to see a growth in popularity and usefulness as a form of media throughout the information age. Sure, the internet became overambitious to the point where many internet start-up companies lost their businesses in the recession of the past few years. The quality of the internet, however, has increased as companies realize that there exists competition and smarter consumers that demand superiority. The internet has taken the world so far in its short commercial life; the future of the internet provides limitless possibilities of a much different future.
With an entity as vast as the Internet, it is not surprising that a variety of unanswered questions will arise. I’m positive that the Internet will continue to confound scholars as it continues to quickly evolve. By analyzing the views of the celebrants and skeptics, I have been able to understand the potential that the internet has. By using the PEC, I have been able to understand how democracy and capitalism relate to the issues of the Internet. In the future, I hope that society can develop a further understanding of the Internet and move toward the Internet that the celebrants had hoped for.
There exisits two schools of thought concerning which components have been the major catalysts in the forming of the internet and digital world as we know it today. Both entertain stimulating and valid arguments. Manovich stipulates that the visual format of the internet is purely based on the visual reasoning that erupted out of the late nineteenth century as a result of constructivist principles and the tremendous introduction of the cinema, while Cook provides a good argument that although the assertions made by Manovich are true, Manovich overlooks an important component to the aesthetics and organization of the digital internet. Cook describes the importance of late Victorian logic in the form of diagrammatical information put forth by visual reasoning and mathematical pioneers such as Venn, Marshall, and Carroll.
The introduction of the Internet as an additional mass communication media has created new alternatives for information transmission. The ensuing popularity of the Internet has created many challenges that the public sector must deal with. Estimates in 1999 found that there are approximately 171 million Internet users worldwide (Group Computing, Jan/Feb 2000, p. 56). Change in the societal environment has made the Internet an integral part of the American economy.
Frank Mason ENT - 3140 2/19/2014 Historical Case Study - The Internet The internet, in its most basic form, is a hub in which individuals can communicate with one another. The Internet in a way is a global network of networks connecting millions (if not billions) of computers and people worldwide. Unlike many other services that exist across the planet (both physical and digital), the Internet is decentralized and not one person owns all of it. In fact, there is an organization known as the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) that serves as the regulatory body of the entire internet by establishing international internet protocols that sets the standard for how web pages should be developed (by using the latest version of HTML), how networks can communicate with one another and works with many organizations that develop software around the world on how their products can be utilized with the current version of HTML in an accessible and safe manner.
Barry M. Leiner, Vinton G. Cerf, David D. Clark, Robert E. Kahn, Leonard Kleinrock, Daniel C. Lynch, Jon Postel, Lawrence G. Roberts, Stephen S. Wolff – the past and the future history of the internet
The history of the internet shows that the internet is not a new medium. The internet was initially created in the 1960's to as a way for the United States to stay connected in case of a nuclear fallout due to the possible consequences of the Cold War. F...
The Internet has become a major tool for communication and access to information for over two and half billion people (Wright 121). Although Internet has become an unavoidable reality that is consuming our planet in a web of information. This process is being shaped by our actions and choices which ultimately drives us together (Deibert 11). Nowadays China has over 538 million netizens, the world’s largest online community (Feng & Guo 335).
The recent revolution of internet and dot-com boom has brought more people familiar to computers and the Internet. It seems like that we can hardly find our way through everyday life with out using or having an internet connected computer next to us. The way we think, live, and communicate was changed once for all with the invention of networked communication of computers. Computers are no longer a piece of machine that sits on top of our desk for us to admire the marvelous technology brought by the geeks and freaks of 80's, but for us to constantly use and put in to work. And in a way, environment which we live in, the society, schools, jobs, forces us to make friends with that technology. Just like when you don't have a telephone you will have hard time communicate with meeting with your friends, absence of instant messaging programs, or ability to use one, will place you out of the circle of events happening with the friends, or don't let you do the work as fast or as good as the one who uses the technology. This is one of the reasons why increasing number of people choose to have computers and internet as a prime communication tool not only between friends and for socialization, but for everyday life. People are increasingly finding new ways of getting things done not by the waiting at the other end of the phone line, but clicking the way through a certain web pages, or typing their message on emails and messenger program. On-line part of the business of almost all industries, not only limited to the dot-com companies but other 'traditional' businesses as well, has been increasingly finding it self positioning more valuable and growing in potential. We are all too familiar with the online shopping sites and class websites that we use almost everyday in a very handy way of getting things done.
Since the development of the Internet in late 1980s, communication has changed enormously. The Internet has altered the lives of people in the world in a way that was never imagined before. As little as a decade ago, if someone tried to explain the Internet and World Wide Web, it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to understand. Computers were just beginning to become popular and few individuals realized the capacity of one PC, let alone the power of a network of electronic technology. By linking together computers, users could remotely access others on the network, share information, and send electronic mail as easily as pushing a button. Millions of people with shared interests, exchange information and build communities through Web sites, email and instant-messaging software.
The Internet has revolutionized the computer and communications world like nothing before. The Internet enables communication and transmission of data between computers at different locations. The Internet is a computer application that connects tens of thousands of interconnected computer networks that include 1.7 million host computers around the world. The basis of connecting all these computers together is by the use of ordinary telephone wires. Users are then directly joined to other computer users at there own will for a small connection fee per month. The connection conveniently includes unlimited access to over a million web sites twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. There are many reasons why the Internet is important these reasons include: The net adapts to damage and error, data travels at 2/3 the speed of light on copper and fiber, the internet provides the same functionality to everyone, the net is the fastest growing technology ever, the net promotes freedom of speech, the net is digital, and can correct errors. Connecting to the Internet cost the taxpayer little or nothing, since each node was independent, and had to handle its own financing and its own technical requirements.
The internet has come along way since its birth back in 1969, from its start as a government network to the everyday life; it has proven to be one of the greatest inventions ever discovered. It has helped many people with an array of task ranging from everyday government usage, and personal web pages to the ever so expanding horizons of technology still being produced today. Between the good and the bad, the internet has improved the way of life, and will continue to improve throughout time.
So you believe Al Gore created the Internet? Well that’s not possible, because I did. Yes, it’s true, a few years ago I was sitting in my basement with nothing to do and suddenly the idea came to me: why not create an inter-connected network of networks that will allow users to send mail instantly, download copyrighted songs, and order pizza, all from the comfort of their own living room? OK, so maybe I didn’t exactly invent the Internet, but neither did Al Gore.