Turow: “global system of interconnected private, public, academic, business and government computer networks, using a standard set of commands to link billions of users.”
Digital
binary code
bits and bytes
packet transmission
Turow: “packets are segments of messages that contain digital instructions that allow them to reassemble properly at the same time at the destination.”
Mainframe Computers
room-sized
powered by diode vacuum tubes
in use between 1940s and 1960s
owned by governments and military
John Vincent Atanasoff, first electronic computer
Alan Turing, Colossus
ENIAC: Electronic Number Integrator and Calculator
Minicomputers
shelf-sized
powered by transistors
in use between 1960s and 1970s
owned by major corporations and institutions
hotels
universities
banks
airlines
produced by Digital, HP, IBM
Microcomputers
desktop-sized
powered by Intel microprocessors
in use starting in the 1970s
used by hobbyists and professionals
Early Computer Networks
SAGE Air Defense
first wide-area network
Livermore National Laboratory
first local-area network
ARPANET
Advanced Research Projects Agency
US Defense Department
started in 1958 in response to Sputnik launching
cooperated with research universities
headed by J.C.R. Licklider
ARPANET
distributed network
computer network
decentralized
designed to survive nuclear attack
first connection
November 1969
between UCLA and Stanford
publicly demonstrated
DARPA, 1972
“internetting”
Interoperability
computers connecting to a common standard regardless of manufacturer
“Esperanto for machines”
packet switching
TCP/IP common protocols
Internet names and numbers, common addressing
electronic mail, first application
Growth of the Internet
growth of personal computers, 1970s–1980s
rise of the commercial internet, 1990s
world wide web, killer application of the Internet, 1990s
Personal Computers
Alto
developed by Xerox, early 1970s
prototype for a personal computer
graphical user interface
desktop
mouse
Ethernet
high speed LAN
Bob Metcalfe
Altair
first personal microcomputer, 1975
Microsoft BASIC sold for Altair computer
sold by mail order
$400 do-it-yourself kit
$500 assembled model
Apple
Steve Jobs and Wozniak
Apple I
computer kit, 1976
Apple II
personal computer, 1977
Macintosh
1984
graphic user interface
Hypercard
linking on keywords or icons
Internetting
“network of networks"
ARPANET
BITNET
USENET
NSFNet
Commercial Internet
end of Cold War, 1991
Gopher, University of Minnesota
bulletin boards and Internet gateways
commercial ISPs
dialup Internet service providers
Dot-Com Boom of the 1990s
Netscape
America Online
Amazon
Yahoo!
eBay
Google
Dot-Com Bust
AOL-Time Warner merger, 2000
Internet Explorer displaced Netscape as top browser
dominance of Windows
it was free
stock market bubble, 2001
recession
World Wide Web
hypertext documents
hyperlinks
Center for European Nuclear Research (CERN), Geneva, Switzerland, February 1989
Tim Berners-Lee, Sam Walker, and Robert Cailliau created HypertText Markup Language
HTML
structure, content, and layout of the Internet, specifically the World Wide Web
easy to learn and webpages sprung up by the millions in the 1990s
Incumbent firm that brought its business online, such as The New York Times.
Internet firms that operate like offline businesses, such as Huffington Post and Amazon.
Businesses that didn’t even exist outside the Internet environment or even other media industries
Big Five
Amazon
Apple
Facebook
Google
Microsoft
Born-Digital Web Sites
social media sites
search engines
websites that allow users to find sites relevant to topics of interest to them.
Google
searches conducted by web crawlers
stored in an index
results by an algorithm
increasingly personalized
Web Advertising
banner advertisement on a website
sponsored search results
advertising network
advertising exchanges
Profiling
Creating a description based on collected data
Ask users for personal information: name, gender, age, email address.
Ask users about topics they’re interested in.
Track user movements through a website or even across the world wide web.
Match advertisers to users with relevant content
Web Tracking
Cookie
Clickstream
Data mining
Behavioral targeting
Post-PC Computing Devices
Feature phone
Smartphone
Tablets
Wearables
Internet of Things
App-Centered Business
App-centered businesses reach people through applications, software that uses the Internet but the not the web to bring material to audiences, software that runs on computers.
Mobile application (or an “App)” run especially well on mobile devices.
Feature phone
Smartphone
Mobile apps
Some publishers make mobile-friendly versions of their sites—some design their sites as mobile-first.
Advertising companies use mobile apps for…
Behavioral tracking via cookies
Linking user to a device identification number
Track individuals across devices and measure purchasing behavior.
Users Engage in second-screen activities
activities undertaken while “watching TV”
checking email
messaging
looking up information related to the “TV" program
Social and Cultural Issues Related to the Internet
Intellectual Property
copyright
Digital Millennium Copyright Act
anti-circumvention
safe harbor for service providers
patents
Net neutrality
The proposition that ISPs should treat all traffic on the Internet equally
An ISP might allow you to reach its clients but not other sites on the Internet. It might also slow them down.
ISPs argue that certain sites take up so much bandwidth and resources that they provide as exhibitors of the Internet, they should be compensated.