Juan Monroy — Media Technologies: Internet

Computer Networks
- first used by military
- SAGE Air Defense
  - WAN: wide area network
- Livermore National Lab
  - 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
Internet
- network of networks
  - wide area network
  - local networks and gateways
- “killer app” of personalcomputing
- interoperable
- packet switching
- standard protocols: Ethernet, TCP/IP
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
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
Xerox Network
- local area network
- Bob Metcalfe, 1973
- Ethernet
- interoperable network
Bulletin Board Systems
- 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 users
Commercial BBS
- proliferated in 1980s
  - personal computers
  - POTS modems
- Compuserve, 1969
- Prodigy, 1984
- Quantum-AOL, 1985
- BBS networks connected via gateways
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
- 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
Control over the Internet
- easy to learn
- easy to use
- hard to navigate
Commercial Internet
- Netscape web browser
- America Online
- Internet in a Box ®
- AltaVista
- Yahoo directory
- Google
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
Sharing Platforms
- Uber
- Lyft
- AirBnB
- Relay Ride
- Spinlister