14. A Brief History of the Net
The Computer
• The first rudimentary computer was the abacus, a
simple counting aid invented around 3000 BC in
Babylonia, or what is now Iraq.
• Both Germans and Americans developed huge
electronic computers during WW II for the accurate
placement of artillery and code breaking.
• The integrated circuit, which enabled electronic
components to be manufactured in a solid block
without connecting wire, became available in 1959.
This allowed computers to become more powerful, by
making their electronics smaller.
16. A Brief History of the Net
Early computers were made up of three components:
• The processor, or CPU (for “central processing unit”),
which actually processes the algorithms that “crunch
the numbers.”
• Memory, or RAM (for “random access memory”),
which holds the data currently being worked with.
• Storage (a hard drive or some other device), which
stores data, including programs and documents.
In the 1960s IBM became the first large, successful computer
manufacturer.
27. A Brief History of the Net
• During the 1970s integrated circuits, now called “chips,”
were becoming smaller, more powerful and less expensive.
Young enthusiasts like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were busy
writing programming language.
• By 1977, Apple Computer was selling a small personal
computer for a little more than $1,000.
• The early Internet was developed with military funds
when, in response to the Cuban missile crisis, ARPA
(Advanced Research Projects Agency) began to hook
computers together into networks.
• Like radio, the Internet was put to civilian use after the
government helped to develop it.
28. A Brief History of the Net
The History of Internet
• Animated video
• Phone Phreaking
• Pranksters at the creation
29. A Brief History of the Net
Going Digital
• Scientists convinced senior military officials that
computers could be used for digital
communication which would be more accurate
and reliable because a message converted into
digits could be sent without distortion.
• Programmers developed protocols, or codes that
allow one machine to communicate with
another, because early computers had been
developed by different companies and were not
compatible.
30. A Brief History of the Net
From the Military to the Civilian Net
• The U. S. Department of Defense (DOD)
completed its national system of computers in 1969
and called it ARPANET, for Advance Research
Project Agency Network.
• In 1979, civilian researchers who had been excluded
from ARPANET invented USENET, which drew
on the technology developed by DOD but included
the ability to support discussion groups that could
carry on conversations in real time and newsgroups
in the form of online bulletin boards.
31. A Brief History of the Net
The First Commercial Online Services
• The first successful general interest online service
was Compuserve, whose early users had to master
complex codes and commands to retrieve the
simplest information.
• Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Apple co-founder Steve
Jobs led a revolution in which business and
educational institutions became equipped with
personal computers, and those who used them at
work purchased units for home.
• America Online (AOL) easier to use.
32. A Brief History of the Net
The World Wide Web
• In 1989, British researcher Tim Berners-Lee invented
the World Wide Web, a software system that simplifies
access to files on Internet computers.
• The Web was based on the use of hypertext links
(hyperlinks), which are highlighted words and images
within the Web page that allow the user to move to
another site by simply pointing and clicking a mouse.
• By 1995, so many people were online that it was no
longer useful for national security purposes, and the
military turned it over to the public sector.
34. A Brief History of the Net
Global Dimensions
• The Internet has made the world a “global village” by
allowing web surfers to connect on a personal level with
others in different countries every day.
• Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, China, and Myanmar
permit limited or no Internet access.
• There is more cultural diversity on the Web than in other
mediums. Women, African
Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asians and
Gays and Lesbians have their own portals (sites from
which people begin surfing).
35. Understanding Today’s Internet
Industry
The Architecture of the Net
• Users connect to the Internet via host computers belonging
to Internet service providers (ISPs).
• ISPs include broadband services provided by cable
television coaxial and fiber optic lines, telephone
companies’ dedicated service lines (DSL), and dial-up
services such as AOL. The more expensive broadband
ISPs are rapidly replacing the older dial-up ISPs.
• Major ISPs have proprietary content such as e-mail
services, chat rooms, forums on everything from astrology
to zoology, and stock portfolio managers that allow users to
follow personal investments.
36. Understanding Today’s Internet
Industry
Internet Addresses
• Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) are Internet addresses
that connect to sites on a particular machine.
• E-mail addresses have a user I.D. before the @ and a
domain after it, as in President@whitehouse.gov.
• The most common protocol beside e-mail is hypertext
transfer protocol (http), which enables computers to
recognize links on the Web.
• Hypertext mark up language (html) is the basic language
used to write http.
• Java is a programming language used for animated images
and advanced sound applications
37. Understanding Today’s Internet
Industry
Networks attached to the Internet are organized into a
limited number of categories:
• .com (dot com) for commercial entities
• .edu for educational entities
• .gov for U.S. government
• .org for nonprofit organizations
• .net for network access providers
• .jp is for Japan and .mx is for Mexico
Some speculators began cybersquatting, registering
trademarked names with hopes of reselling them to the
companies that owned the trademarks, but the practice
became illegal in 1999.
38. Understanding Today’s Internet
Industry
Browsers
• A Web browser such as Mozilla’s Firefox, Apple’s Safari or
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer decodes the hypertext
language used in Web documents, allowing Net surfers to
click and jump through these dense data fields.
• Users can navigate through sites by using hyperlinks, icons
(small symbols), pull-down menus, and “hot spots” that
turn a cursor into a pointing hand. These features are
called GUIs (gooeys), for Graphical User Interfaces.
• Users “visit” a site by downloading a page of information
into the memory of the user’s computer.
39. Understanding Today’s Internet
Industry
Search Engines
• A traditional search engine sends out automated software
robots called “spiders” or “crawlers” to discover new sites
and categorize them according to the information
contained on their home page.
• Site owners submit home page information to directories
and editors assign it to a category. Directories won’t return
as many results as the traditional search engine, but are
often more accurate.
• All major search engines are hybrid search engines which
have both robots and human editors.
• Metacrawlers, such as Dogpile and Hotbot, combine
results from more than one search engine at a time.
41. Understanding Today’s Internet
Industry
• Personal Web pages enable Internet users
to tell the world about themselves.
• Web logs, or blogs for short are online
journals.
• MMORPGS, or massively multiplayer
online role playing games, are very
popular.
• MOOCS: Massively Open Online Course
42. Internet and culture
• Hive mind acceptance
• Cyberbullying
• Shallowness vs. depth
• Present shock
• Online vs. IRL friendships
• language
• Anonymity
• Communities without borders
43. Four stages of Internet development
• Web portals
• AOL, Yahoo
• Search engines
• Google
• Social media
• MySpace, Facebook
• What’s next?
• #twitter_rules_the_world?
44. Understanding Today’s Internet
Industry
The Economics of the Net
• Jerry Yang and Dave Filo, the founders of Yahoo!,
started in a trailer at Stanford University. Sergey Brin
and Larry Page developed Google’s technology in
Page’s Stanford dormitory room. Both companies are
worth billions today.
• Network engineers design and build systems that make
up the Internet. Most work for telecommunications
companies, network service providers and information
technology firms.
• Network managers provide day-to-day maintenance of
local systems, also called Intranets and LANs (local
area networks).
45. Understanding Today’s Internet
Industry
• Systems-oriented Webmasters have computer science
and programming skills, and understand networking
protocols and software involved in running a web site.
• Content-oriented Webmasters have backgrounds in
media, editing, graphic design, desktop publishing, and
art. They are often called “producers.”
• Knowledge workers use the Net and other information
sources in their work. The might be content providers
such as online journalists who post information on the
Net or workers who use information provided on the
Net, such as print and broadcast journalists.
46. Understanding Today’s Internet
Industry
Revenue Sources
• Online commerce, or e-commerce is the selling of goods
and services online. Almost anything can be sold over the
Net and it is a very inexpensive way for most businesses
to bring goods and services to market.
• Companies that are successful with e-commerce are
usually those that take advantage of the Net’s unique
capabilities: its interactivity, its ability to target very
specific customers and its ability to offer inventories that
couldn’t exist in physical space.
• Walmart.com carries six times as many items as the
largest Wal-mart store.
47. Understanding Today’s Internet
Industry
Advertising
• Ads on popular Web pages allow surfers to
access the advertiser’s Web pages with the
click of a mouse but pop-up ads are seen as
intrusive and as cluttering up the memory of
the user’s computer.
• Spyware programs track user activities and
report them back to advertisers.
48. Understanding Today’s Internet
Industry
Paid Content
• Users seem willing to pay for online education in
the form of distance learning courses, Web based
information services such as Lexis/Nexis, and
online pornography.
• Millions of Americans visit at least one online
dating site such as Yahoo Personals, Match.com,
or eHarmony.com every month.
49. Understanding Today’s Internet
Industry
Online Dangers: Hacker Attacks
• Hacker used to mean a person who was
proficient at using or programming a
computer. In recent years, the term has been
used to describe a person who uses programs
to gain illegal access to a computer network
or file.
• A virus is a computer program designed to
reproduce itself by copying itself into other
programs stored in a computer.
50. Understanding Today’s Internet
Industry
Online Dangers: Hacker Attacks
• Some viruses are harmless, others can
corrupt a computer’s memory, cause
programs to operate incorrectly or delete key
files.
• Anti-virus software will both detect and
eliminate viruses.
• A firewall program is installed to prevent
unauthorized access.
51. Understanding Today’s Internet
Industry
Online Dangers: Hacker Attacks
• Worms take over e-mail systems and send themselves to
other computers from the infected computer’s address
book.
• Trojan horses sneak into infected computers disguised
as something else.
• Phishing is the practice of sending out official-looking e-
mails that use stolen brand names and trademarks of
legitimate banks and Internet merchants with the intent
of luring the victim into revealing sensitive information,
such as credit card details.
• Spam, or unsolicited e-mail messages, have seriously
disrupted the efficiency of e-mail.
52. Understanding Today’s Internet
Industry
Online Dangers: Hacker Attacks
• By 2004, one-third of e-mail users reported
that 80 percent or more of incoming e-mail
was spam.
• The first federal law to address spam was not
effective because many spammers operate
out of the country and outside of U.S.
jurisdiction.
53. Controversies
Control versus Freedom
• The unlimited freedom of the Internet has caused a
number of problems:
• Propagation of Viruses
• Fraud
• Spam
• Copyright infringement
• Child pornography
• Identity theft
Proposals to control the Internet include requiring an
Internet driver’s license for all users, or electronically
watermarking every computer, program and file.
54. Controversies
Commercialism Versus Public Service
• Net neutrality: Should there be centralized
commercial control of the Internet?
• Wi-Fi or wireless fidelity, high-speed wireless
Internet access.
• Proposals to control the Internet include requiring
an Internet driver’s license for all users, or
electronically watermarking every computer,
program, and file.
55. Controversies
Censorship
• The Internet offers the First Amendment its biggest
challenge.
• The Communications Decency Act of 1996, made it
illegal to make “indecent communication” available to
anyone under 18, but was overturned by the Supreme
Court because it was too broad.
• Hate groups and racist organizations openly exist on
the Web.
• Sites list bomb-making instructions and give advice on
procuring stolen credit cards.
• There are gambling sites in communities where
gambling is illegal.
56. Controversies
Privacy
• All Manner of Personal Information is Online:
• Patterns of credit card purchases.
• Secret contents of personal e-mails.
• Spyware tracks user activities and reports them back to
advertisers.
• Sites place cookies on the hard drives of visitors and
track their movement through other sites.
• Sites say tracking enables them to personalize
advertising and other services, but privacy advocates
say few consumers realize they are monitored. Others
users find it difficult to opt out.
57. Controversies
Reliability of Information
• The Internet is a mass of unedited information in which
credible content sits side-by-side, in the same format,
with nonsense and fraud.
• Library experts suggest the following four criteria to
evaluate Web pages used for research:
• Attribution: Are the author and publishing institution
listed? Can the URL be traced?
• Authority: What credentials are listed for the author?
• Objectivity:What are the author’s objectives?
• Currency: How up-to-date is the information?
58. Chapter 10
The Internet: Convergence in a Networked
World
Chapter Outline
• History
• Industry
• Controversies
