Juan Monroy — Media Technologies: Internet

Early Visionaries of the World Wide Web
- H.G. Wells, 1937
- Vannevar Bush, 1945
- J.C.R. Licklider, 1960
- Martin Greenberger, 1964
- Ted Nelson, 1974
Internet
- global confederation of computer networks
- digital signals
- telephone, cable, satellite, fiber optic systems
- standard protocols: Ethernet, Transfer Control Protocol, Internet Protocol
- interoperable
- computer applications
  - telnet
  - email
  - file transfer protocol
  - world wide web
World Wide Web
- multimedia information system
- runs on the Internet
- exchange of documents through hyperlinked text
- Tim Berners-Lee, 1989
- most widely used application on the Internet
- “killer app” of personalcomputing
Computer Networks
- first used by military
- SAGE Air Defense
  - defense early warning
  - WAN: wide area network
- Livermore National Lab
  - multiple computers onsite
  - LAN: local area network
Personal Computers
- 1970s
  - microprocessors
  - microcomputers
- 1980s
  - IBM PC
  - Apple Macintosh
- brought computing into the home
Modems
- portmanteau: Modulater-Demodulator
- digital bits modulated into audible sound
- connect computers using a telephone lines
- audible sound demodulated into digital bits
- transmission measured in baud: bits per second, bps
Modem Handshake Sound
- a requiem for the commercial Internet
How did we invent the Internet?
Soviets Launch Sputnik
- first artificial satellite
- launched October 4, 1957
- broadcast radio signals
- surprised American public
Soviets Launch Sputnik 2, with dog
- launched November 1957
- first to carry live animal
  - dog: Laika
- preceded US attempt to launch satellite
America Responds to Sputnik, with dog
- technological surprise
- challenged idea that US was technological superior nation
- inaugurated the Space Race throughout the 1960s
- culminating in Apollo missions to the moon
Advanced Research Projects Agency
- branch of Defense department
- started in 1958 in response to Sputnik launching
- cooperated with research universities
- headed by J.C.R. Licklider
Communication Networks
- centralized
- decentralized
- distributed
Computer Networking at ARPA
- digital signals
- rerouted around trouble spots
- more flexible and durable during a nuclear war
- allow instant communication
- allow for time-sharing
ARPANET
- distributed network
- node-to-node
- designed by J.C.R. Licklider, head of APRA
- based on brain neural networks
- capable of sustaining a nuclear attack
- activated November 1969
- connection between UCLA and Stanford
- first message: “login”
- resulted in both computers crashing
- network would connect research universities and military outposts
Email
- electronic messages between users on the network
- Ray Tomlinson
  - wrote email program to send and store messages
  - devised the user@host address convention
  - early “killer application”of networked computers
TCP/IP
- common data protocol
- standardized packet switching networks
  - Vincent Cerf, Stanford
  - Robert Kahn, ARPA
- decentralized: allowed the network itself to route the data only from “nodes”
- addresses: provide direction for the packets to be transmitted
Ethernet Network
- Bob Metcalfe, 1973
- Xerox PARC
- local area network
- interoperable network
- first commercial use: networked laser printers
Bitnet
- National Science Foundation, late 1970s
- university internet systems
  - research community
- commercial internet service provider systems
  - hobbyists
- basic framework of the Internet
- IBM could not envision networking for the personal computer
University Computer Networks
- free accounts for students and faculty
- listservs
- file transfer protocol
- internet relay chat
- usenet newsgroups
- gopher sites
European Computer Networks
- British Broadcasting Corporation, Teletext, early 1970s
- British Post Office, Prestel, 1980
- France, Minitel, 1982
Bulletin Board Systems
- dialup ISP
- Tom Trusctott and Jim Ellis, 1979
- computer bulletin board
- user-generated newsgroups proliferated
Walled Gardens
- dialup services
- closed networks
  - exchange email
  - post opinions
  - upload and download information
- limited functionality due to low number of users
Commercial BBS
- Compuserve, 1969
- Prodigy, 1984
- Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link, 1985
- Quantum-AOL, 1985
- gated communities
  - references
  - databases
  - user group networks
- “crushed” by open networks: the Internet and world-wide web
Opening the Internet
- National Science Foundation: NSFNET, 1985
- Cold War ended, c. 1989
- ARPANet closed 1990
- High Performance Computing Act, “Gore Bill, 1991
  - supercomputing applications
  - high-speed fiber optic network
  - birth of commercial web
Hypertext
- non-sequential hypertext, 1965
- Apple Hypercard, 1984
- based on academic research
  - documents hyperlinked to each other
  - transporting text documents across computer networks
Hypertext Markup
- plain text
- markup to denote special text
  - headings and emphases
  - anchors and references
- easy to learn
World Wide Web
- Tim Berners-Lee
- CERN: European Organization for Nuclear Research, 1989
  - hypertext markup language
  - hypertext transfer protocol
- first website put online, CERN, 1991
- CERN made “world wide web” free to anyone, 1993
- exploded in growth (“network effect”)
Mosaic Web Browser
- first graphical web browser, 1993
- University of Illinois
- National Center for Supercomputing Applications
- Marc Andreessen
- average computer user could browse the web
- basis for Netscape, eventually Mozilla Firefox
News on the Web
- Knight Ridder
- San Jose Mercury-News
  - AOL, 1994
  - world wide web, 1995
- Washington Post, 1995
- Raleigh News and Observer, 1995
- Microsoft and NBC: MSNBC, 1995
- almost every major publication and broadcast network, 1996
  - most sites were “shovelware”
Control over the Internet
- easy to learn
- easy to use
- hard to navigate
Web Browser Wars
- Mosaic, 1993
- Netscape
  - acquired by AOL
- Microsoft Internet Explorer, 1995
  - bundled with Windows
  - subject of antitrust action, 1998
- Google Chrome, 2008
Commercial Internet
- Netscape web browser
- America Online
- Internet in a Box ®
- AltaVista
- Yahoo directory
- Google
Non-Commercial Internet
- free software movement
  - “free” as in speech
  - “free” as in beer
- Free Software Foundation, 1985
  - free software
  - free media formats
  - GNU licensing system
  - General Public License, GPL
- UNIX operating system
- Apache web server
- Mozilla Firefox browser
Content Regulations
- Telecommunications Act, 1996
- Communications Decency Act
  - content restrictions on indecent language on the Internet
  - Reno v. ACLU, 1997 struck down most of the CDA
- Internet speech regulated like print, not like broadcasting
- Internet service providers enjoy a safe harbor under certain circumstances
Keeping the Internet Open
- Stop Online Privacy Act, 2012, US House
- Protect Intellectual Property Act, 2012, US Senate
- net neutrality
  - internet service providers
  - common carriers
  - information services
- Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, 1998
  - assigns Internet domain names
  - push for non-Latin alphabets
Web 2.0
- coined by Tim O’Reilly, 2005
- user-generated platforms
- social networking sites
  - share, copy, recommend
  - networked individualism
Wikis
- Ward Cunningham, 1995
  - wiki: Hawaiian, “quick”
  - easy and quick to edit document
- WikiWikiWeb, first
- Wikipedia, most popular
- Wikileaks (textbook)
Control over the Internet
- tame the web
- search engines
  - relevance
  - personalization
- walled gardens
  - social networking sites
  - native apps
Commercial Web 2.0 applications
- Facebook
- YouTube
- Pinterest
- Snapchat
Web 2.0 “Sharing” Platforms
- Uber
- Lyft
- AirBnB
- Relay Ride
- Spinlister