Group items tagged

A brief history of the Internet written by some of its founders. From the website of the Internet Society.

Wikipedia page about the History of the Internet that I showed in class. Note that the first Internet connection (really, the first ARPANET connection) was made between UCLA and Stanford -- most early work on the Internet was done at universities and was funded by government grants. It was only after the launch of the Web in the early 90s that businesses began devoting resources to the Internet and the Web.

A timeline of the Internet (with portraits!) from the Computer History Museum. This timeline begins in 1962 and ends in 1992 with the invention of the World Wide Web -- or, rather (though I'd say it's the same thing), with the 1992 invention of the first web browser, Mosaic, at the University of Illinois.

This animated video is British, and that affects some of its perspective (Internet history books will tell you more about the American side), but it's particularly good for showing the structure of the Internet.

Since we were talking about the history of Google earlier today, I found this and I thought I'd share with you all. It gives a great detailed timeline (provided by Google themselves) on their history.

That is a good link, Paola, thanks.

Here is a video explanation of the differences between the internet and the web. It includes a brief history of the internet and the foundation of the Web. This video highlights the information we learned in class and shows images to explain the differences between the two.

Nii Quaynor, Africa's "Father of the Internet" is responsible for establishing the continents internet capabilities. Quaynor, the first African to be on the board of ICANN, was recently inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame.

Natasha, Quaynor would be a terrific person to research for your presentation and final project. Very interesting, and I had never heard of him before.

This article talks about how the Internet's naming and numbering system regulated by ICANN will be having a conference about "Internet governance, principles and proposed frameworks for global Internet cooperation, and a roadmap for future Internet governance challenges."

Fascinating article on grassroots alternatives to paying a company like Verizon for Internet access. If enough of these community-built networks come into being and link to each other, we'll have a brand-new Internet!

A list of some of some important people in the history of the Internet, just to give some ideas to anyone still thinking!

This Journal, known as Perspectives on History, runs through the American Historical Association. It gives great perspective on various aspects of history through how its being used in teaching, the media, and through the archives. For any history majors out there, I strongly recommend checking out this journal.

Okay, here's a picture that roughly approximates how people used to interact with the Internet before there was a Web. All through text, all through a CLI (command-line interface). I started grad school in 1992 and this is pretty much what we had. This too is what that 1988 Washington Post article is thinking of when it talks about Internet.

Oddly enough, today the Washington Post has chosen to reprint a 1988 article about the Internet; that article mentions Robert Tappan Morris, the first person prosecuted under the Computer Fraud Act, whom Brittney Douress told us about today. Nice timing, Brittney! :)

Note too that this article came out well before the World Wide Web was invented circa 1992 / 1993. There weren't any GUI web browsers yet; people just used text-only terminals (no pictures, no video) to access stuff. Mostly news groups -- I'll post a picture of what that looked like if I can find one.

Can't resist sharing this -- found it from Stephanie's "Oldest website on the Internet" link. Great short history of the web. "http://first-website.web.cern.ch" Note that it links to the "first" website at http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html , which is not the same as the "oldest" one that Stephanie linked to -- I think the one Stephanie posted was a demonstration site, but not a "real" site, so I agree that it's older. :)

Social issues and the past and future of the internet is discussed.

just repost this because last time posted wrong. this article talks about some basic differences between Internet and Web.

"Fire in the Scanning Center" is a great caption for a photo. Glad no one was hurt, and that the Internet Archive continues to operate.

Don't forget about the Internet Archive and especially the Wayback Machine in your research -- lots of good free stuff here, and you can look at what websites looked like years ago.

although this isn't a full on article, it does provide a snap shot of what many people think regarding sexism on the internet. It ranges from ignore it to yes this is a serious issue.

This book, Digital History, exists in print form as well, but it is entirely available for free on the open web. It is written for historians who want to "go digital," so you as undergrads (and not necessarily History majors!) aren't exactly its audience, but the book is nevertheless excellent as an introduction to the underpinnings of the internet and the web.