What is the Internet?
History
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The Internet links the diverse peoples of the
world in electronic conversations and commerce.
The Internet seems to have sprung up overnight.
While that is NOT true, the perception is still
rather valid.
Since 1991 the number of Internet users
has grown from less than 500,000 to
hundreds of millions if not billions.
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
What is the Internet?
History
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The Internet was once the exclusive realm of US
government agencies, universities and research
organizations.
Now it is open to just about anyone who has
access to a computer anywhere in the world.
Increasing access is one of the motives of the
One Laptop Per Child initiative we discussed the
first week of class
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
What is the Internet?
Some Definitions
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Computer Network: is a group of computers and computer
devices linked together over communications (wired and
wireless) “lines” so that information, resources, and ideas
can be shared.
Local Area Network (LAN): is a network that covers a
limited geographic area such as a group of offices, a
building, or a number of nearby buildings.
When a group of LANs are connected we have an internet.
(this intentionally has a small “i”)
The Internet (capital “I”) can be thought of as the linking of
hundreds of thousands of LANs into one world-wide,
seemingly random collection of interconnected devices.
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
What is the Internet?
History
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The Internet was born in 1969 out of the threat of war.
Four universities, University of California at Los Angeles,
University of California at Santa Barbara, University of Utah,
and Stanford Research Institute were linked together in the
first ever truly wide-area-network.
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This network was funded by the Defense Department.
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ARPAnet: funding was through Advanced Research Project
Agency
ARPAnet had two purposes
1. This was a cold-war era military project. A decentralized
network of computers to coordinate military operations
2. Great Idea: It was hoped that the network would enable
scientists and researchers to share idea and information
quickly and easily. (It’s this second idea that changed the
world)
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
What is the Internet?
History
ARPAnet
• 1969 – 4 sites called hosts
• 1971 – 20 hosts and nationwide including schools such
as Harvard, MIT, Utah, Illinois as well as California
schools.
• 1972 – Ray Tomlinson writes a program that creates the
ability to transmit electronic mail over ARPAnet.
• Great Idea: Tomlinson invented the ‘user@host’
convention.
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
What is the Internet?
History
1979, Idea of the
Internet grabs the
attention of the
growing Tech
world.
Cover of Computer
Magazine Sept. 1979
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
What is the Internet?
History- Early 1980s
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1981 – 200 hosts
• US allies express interest
• IBM releases the IBM PC
• Prior to this Internet existed as a network
of large systems
In 1981 NSFnet was created – it was the
“child” of ARPAnet
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G.
Kershner
What is the Internet?
History- Early 1980s
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1981 NSFnet
• Mid-1980s, NSF created a high-speed electronic
structure, or backbone,
• connected the five national supercomputer centers
with ARPAnet
• Supercomputer centers available to researchers
nationwide.
• NSF worked to connect smaller regional networks to
ARPAnet
• Universities not the US military/government were
major players
1983 – Gaming company – Video Crop founded running
an independent dial-up network running on Apple IIs
and Commodore 64s. Grandparent of America Online
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G.
Kershner
What is the Internet?
History
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1988 – First “worm” attacks ARPAnet effecting 6000 or the
60,000 computers then connected.
• US govt. creates Computer Emergency Response Team
(CERT) to deal with such incidents.
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1988 -- Canada, Denmark, Finalnd, France, Iceland,
Norway and Sweden come “online”.
Ordinary citizens cannot gain access to ARPAnet/Internet
• Quantum Computer Services (who later changed their name to
America Online) provide Internet-like service to general public
for a fee.
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Standard service – news, reference, email
Enhanced service – standard plus hardware and software forums
• NOT connected to the Internet
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
What is the Internet?
History -- 1989
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January, 80,000 hosts
November, 160,000 hosts
More nations: Australia, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan,
Mexico, Natherlands, New Zealand and the United Kingdom
Great Idea: Tim Berners-Lee invents the concept of
hypertext systems that can run across the Internet
independent of a computer’s operating system.
(This is the idea of a Browser!)
• This enabled the formation of the World-Wide-Web as we
know it today.
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MCImail and CompUServe join America Online in the email
for a fee environment.
• They are NOT connected to the Internet
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
What is the Internet?
History -- 1990
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ARPAnet is decommissioned. NSFnet takes over
responsibility for service to universities and researchers
worldwide.
300,000 host systems
More nations come on board: Argentina, Austria, Belgium,
Brazil, Chile, Greece, India, Ireland, South Korea, Spain
and Switzerland.
Tools are invented and special services provided in
medicine and finance.
Worm attacks increase
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
What is the Internet?
History -- 1992
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Internet get’s its own professional society to
direct policy and set direction
Great Idea: Students at University of Indiana
take Berners-Lee’s idea and create the first
browser called MOSAIC.
• Commercial spinoff is Netscape.
• Now non-Techies can use the Internet
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Until 1992, user community doubled every
year, this year it doubled it’s user base in
3-months.
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
What is the Internet?
History -- 1993
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The United Nations and the White House are
added to the list of accessible sites.
AOL goes after the general public
• People with little familiarity with computers
• User-friendly, kid-friendly, family friendly
• Competitors are going after the Techies
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
What is the Internet?
History -- 1993
AOL for Windows
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
What is the Internet?
History – Late 1990s
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1995
• Independent services start providing Internet access.
• Search Engines Yahoo and Altavista appear
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1996
• Microsoft releases Internet Explorer
• Browser war and lawsuits of Microsoft as a monopoly begin
• Great Idea: AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) released, changing
the way people communicate over the Internet
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1998
• AOL buys Netscape, creates alliance with SUN Microsystems
• Google arrives, with a new kind of search mechanism using
ranking rather than categories.
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
What is the Internet?
History
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv0XCaUkfNk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j9WfPoSl0U&NR=1
What is the Internet?
History – The new Century
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2000
• Time Warner buys AOL. This was supposed to create a
mega-competitor to Microsoft. NOT!
• Dot com bubble bursts
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2001 – Great Idea: Google uses a new search idea,
ranking of sites rather than categories.
JuniperResearch Internet population forecast: Between
2006 and 2011, “38 percent increase in the number of
people with online access will mean that, by 2011, 22
percent of the Earth's population will surf the Internet
regularly.”
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
What is the Internet?
History – Things to Think About
Some see the Internet as having two stages:
• Before Browsers (Mosaic and the World-WideWeb)
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A world of shared but “flat” information
Email, newsgroups, heavy US government
involvement
• After Browsers
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Truly a WORLD-WIDE web
Dynamic, 3-dimensional, ever changing, International
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
What is the Internet?
History -- Things to Think About
The Roads and Crossroads of Internet History
by Gregory Gromov
Epilogue and Prologue ...
The WWW creates a multidimencional Web of Roads. Those
Roads have their beginning at the civilization that was
raised on a concept of a plane BOOK; the civilization that
has existed for thousands of years.
The Hyperlinks -- Roads of WWW -- lead from a BOOK of a
plane text to the multidimencional Universe of WORDs, to
the WORD's WORLD, which becomes the kernel concept of
the next civilization...
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
Internet History Links
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
www.computerhistory.org/internet_history
www.netvalley.com/archives/mirrors/davemarshtimeline-1.htm
www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml?
articleID=1931047230
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL#History
www.hm-treasury.gov.uk
www.netvalley.com/archives/mirrors/davemarshtimeline-1.htm
www.netvalley.com/intval/07262/main.htm?sdf=1
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet#Digital_di
vide
Kershner, H.G., “Computer Literacy 3rd Ed.,” 2000
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
What is the Internet?
Digital Divide
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Digital Divide
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Haves vs have-nots
Rich vs poor
First World vs Developing world
“The digital divide is most commonly defined as the
gap between those individuals and communities that
have, and do not have, access to the information
technologies” http://www.edutopia.org/digital-divide-where-we-are-today
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/2130907/america_offline
_stories_from_the_digital_divide/
http://www.mefeedia.com/entry/breaking-down-thedigital-divide/16256567
Copyright © 2009 by Helene G. Kershner
What is the Internet?
How does the Internet Know me?
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As individuals we have a variety of “names”
• Email addresses
name@host
• Individualized web pages where we use some kind of name
that uniquely identifies us, MySpace, Linkin
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When we connect to the Internet the “host” we connect to
has both a name:
• cse.buffalo.edu
• buffalo.edu
• google.com or gmail.com
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Each of these hosts also has a number assigned to it.
• When your computer connects wirelessly it is connecting to a
host computer and that host computer’s IP address.
• When you connect at home your computer connects to the IP
address of your IP Service provider (ISP).
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This might be UB
For me at home it is TimeWarner
Copyright © 2009 by Helene G. Kershner
What is the Internet?
How does the Internet Know me?
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As individuals we have a
variety of unique individual
identifiers and we often
have more than one.
The sites we connect to
have names and numeric
addresses
The computers we connect
to has both a name and
addresses.
Together these provide
each connection with a
unique address that
humans can use (series of
names) as well as
computers (numbers).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet
Visualization of the various routes
through a portion of the Internet
Copyright © 2009 by Helene G. Kershner
What is the Internet?
So Who Owns the Internet?
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It was started by the US government.
It’s goal was to create a complex, redundant,
interconnected web of computers that could survive just
about anything.
The success of the Internet is obvious.
• Just go to Google and type in Internet Success
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Blackouts, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes and floods
interrupted service in the localized areas The rest of the
system runs interrupted.
The goal was to create a network with no central node, no
core, no center.
• This goal has been met more completely than anyone could
have imagined!
Copyright © 2009 by Helene G. Kershner
What is the Internet?
So Who Owns the Internet?
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No One owns the Internet.
• Originally created by
• No one expected the
seen.
• No one expected the
collaboration.
• No one expected the
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US scientists and military
overwhelming acceptance it has
incredible ability it created for
problems it has spawned
SPAM
Hate Spaces
Privacy issues
• Individuals, corporations, and governments own or
control parts of it.
• It works best when controlled in this way as
decentralized as it was first envisioned.
Copyright © 2009 by Helene G. Kershner
What is the Internet?
So Who Owns the Internet?
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No One owns the Internet.
• Individuals, corporations, and governments own or
control parts of it.
• Not all “control” is benign – China
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Internet censored by state, business and organizationally
run ISPs
“Internet repression is considered more extensive and
more advanced than in any other country in the world.”
China blocks content and monitors which sites its citizens
visit.
Amnesty International notes that China “has the largest
recorded number of imprisoned journalists and cyberdissidents in the world.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_the_People's_Republic_of_China
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China blocks YouTube
http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2009/03/reuters
_us_china_youtube
Copyright © 2009 by Helene G. Kershner
What is the Internet?
So Who Owns the Internet?
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The Internet does have coordination.
• Volunteers from many nations serve on advisory boards and
steering committees to develop standards and provide
coordination to the Internet.
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“Contrary to its popular portrayal as total anarchy, the
Internet is actually managed. It runs like a decentralized
organization, but without a single person or organization
filling the manager's role.”
Most of the of day-to-day operations is coordinated without
a central authority and its operation is embedded in the the
Internet technical design.
“The manager's job - handling the exceptional one percent
- is performed by not one but several organizations.”
Internet Providers form a lose confederation. Some provide
access only, others minimally filter content (as does Google
for Spam). http://ccs.mit.edu/papers/CCSWP197/ccswp197.html#1
Copyright © 2009 by Helene G. Kershner
What is the Internet?
So Who Owns the Internet?
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Great Idea: The Internet Society – is the
Internet’s central coordinate (www.isoc.org)
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an international volunteer organization
sets Internet standards and policy in a cooperative way
Anyone can join
This open invitation makes the Internet a truly
worldwide, democratic organization.
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
What is the Internet?
So Who Owns the Internet?
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Great Idea: ICANN Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers
• “Coordinates the assignment of unique identifiers on the
Internet.”
 www.wildmanpublishing.com
• This includes the giving of domain names, and IP (Internet
Protocol) addresses.
• Global naming standard makes web surfing possible
• Headquarters in California
• “Overseen by an international board of directors draw from
across the Internet technical, business, academic, and noncommercial communities.”
• US government continues to have primary role in pproving
changes to the file that is the heart of the domain name
system. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet
Copyright © 2009 by Helene G. Kershner
What is the Internet?
So Who Owns the Internet?
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Each associated network governs itself and agrees to live
by the standards set by the volunteer Internet boards.
Different organizations and nations create regulations and
rules that govern the operation of individual sub-nets
• Within the US individual states have different rules
• Rules that govern the Internet in the United States are
much more liberal than those that govern the Internet in
China.
These rules change constantly in response to the needs of
the citizens and users in different locations.
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
What is the Internet?
So Who Owns the Internet?
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Other organizations play critical roles.
InterNIC is a non-profit group
• Originally created by the National Science Foundation
• Now independently funded
• Coordinates Internet registration throughout North
America.
• Anyone wanting a permanent connection ( in North
America) the Internet must register with InterNIC.
• Organizes and keeps track of site names and site
addresses,
• Sets the rules on registration
• Sites pay an initial registration fee and annual fees
thereafter.
• Coordinates and approves names on a first-come, firstserved basic.
• Rules governing names increasingly reflect copyright
and trademark regulations and require continuous use
of the names.
Copyright © 2009 by Helene G. Kershner
What is the Internet?
So Who Owns the Internet?
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InterNIC is most powerful and is still funded
by the US government.
Similar “NIC” exist throughout the world and
coordinate their registrations.
US has had critical control over domain
names.
• US sites do not end in US
• Cites from other countries have country extensions.
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner