Internet Made Available

By Vanessa Bonilla3rd period - Dcush

Internet Creation MythThe generally accepted story is that someone at the

Pentagon decided it would be a good idea to build a computer network that could survive a nuclear strike. The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) built a network called ARPANET; it initially connected university computers. The Department of Defense (DoD) later changed the name to DARPANET (for Defense Advanced Research Agency Network) and more computers were added. Access to the network was limited to academics and other researchers. Those favored few not only accessed data, but also sent email, posted on bulletin boards, and played games. Eventually, the public got wind of all this and clamored for access until the government decided to share.

The story of ARPANET The real story of ARPANET—and the online world in general—goes

back to at least 1957. It was that year that the Soviet Union successfully launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, and thereby proved that the United States was in second place when it came to technology.

It is difficult to imagine how this affected America and Americans, unless you were there. Suffice it to say that the general attitude was that something had to be done about this, and soon. Government-backed research in rocketry, electronics, and atomic power mushroomed. Science became the number-one priority in schools. Recognizing the need for an all-out effort to close the technology gap, President Dwight D. Eisenhower called on some of the most brilliant minds of the American scientific community to meet the challenge. As a result, on February 7, 1958, ARPA was created by DoD Directive 5105.41 and Public Law 85-325. An arm of the DoD, ARPA's mandate was to promote and underwrite scientific research in all disciplines, and to foster technological advancement on all fronts that might be connected with defense.

Leonard Kleinrock

MIT grad student Leonard Kleinrock was attracted to computing. Kleinrock had come to MIT in 1957 to earn a master's degree in electrical engineering. Having earned the degree and accumulated practical experience at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory (where SAGE was developed), he had no notion to seek a doctorate until a professor urged him to do so.

For his PhD work, Kleinrock chose the relatively unexplored realm of computer communications. Having worked with computers, he foresaw that computer communications would be vital to future research. He also recognized the inadequacy of the telephone system used at the time for linking computers.

Leonard K. and reliable connectivityWith these ideas in mind, Kleinrock

developed mathematical theories for packet networks (though the term was unknown at the time). In 1962 he published a paper presenting the idea of organizing and transmitting data in fixed-length blocks for accuracy, control, and reliability. It’s the beginning of why the Internet today is as robust and reliable as it is.

His PhD research, published as a book in 1964, addressed routing, distributed control, message packetization, and other elements that serve as the foundation for today's Internet technology

First computer connection over Wide AreaKleinrock and his team, along with BBN engineers, cabled the IMP (internet message processor) to UCLA's mainframe computer and went to work. On September 2, 1969, data bits started moving back and forth between the two machines. According to Kleinrock, "That was the first breath of life the Internet ever took.“

On October 29, Kleinrock sent the first-ever computer message from UCLA to Stanford. By the end of 1969, computers at two more universities—UC at Santa Barbara and the University of Utah—were connected to the network.

J.C.R LickliderAlso at MIT during this period (though the two were unaware of each other's work) was psychologist J.C.R. Licklider, a pioneer in psychoacoustics. While working with the department of electrical engineering on improving the military's use of computing technology, Licklider introduced a concept he called the "Galactic Network." He envisioned the Galactic Network as a worldwide network of computers through which people would interact and share information.

He became the head of ARPA's Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO)

Larry Roberts Ivan Sutherland and Larry Roberts went on to succeed Licklider.

Roberts' vision was a network far larger than most people could imagine—but nowhere near what the Internet became. Some 35 years later, Roberts said of taking the network public: "I thought it would become a worldwide activity that would be very important because my thinking was that we were going to be able to share all the knowledge of the world between all the computers. I didn't envision that everybody would have their own computer, that there would be millions of computers. We thought there would be thousands."

Roberts tries to commercialize Packet SwitchingRoberts decided that the time had come for packet-

switching technology to be developed commercially. He approached AT&T about running DARPANET and taking over development of the technology, but the communications giant felt that a packet-switching network was, as Roberts put it, "incompatible with their future.“

Roberts took the idea to BBN, who concurred with Roberts, and made the decision to invest in the commercial packet-switching network. BBN moved ahead with organizing the company, called Telenet.

It was up and running as the world's first commercial packet-switched network (PSN) in 1975. (As noted, Tymnet used circuit switching, and other packet-based systems inspired by DARPANET were experimental.)

For its first decade, the online world was elitist in the extreme. Getting in required … well, connections. Affiliation with a university or government agency that had computer or terminal equipment could get you online. So could an employer who was willing to underwrite access and qualified as a government contractor, though that usually meant adhering to a rigorous set of rules. And even though other networking projects were under way, they weren't intended for the public, either.

Things had to change if the online world were to be accessible to everyone. The instrument of change would be the microcomputer (for example, a personal computer instead of a large mainframe).

CompuServ – The First ISPAlexander "Sandy" Trevor, John Goltz and Jeff

Wilkins founded CompuServ in 1970 and became a publicly available service provider for private individuals with personal microcomputers.

USA Today Sports CenterProbably the first online service dedicated to

a single subject, USA Today Sports Center went live in 1985. It was produced by LINC Networks, in cooperation with USA Today, and was located in Washington, D.C.

The “First”social networkThe WELL (an acronym for Whole

Earth 'Lectronic Link), co-founded by Stewart Brand and Larry Brilliant, began life in 1985 as a bulletin board system.

The WELL was regarded as a counter- or alternative-cultural meeting place, and many have made claims for it being first virtual community

Start of AOLThe Source was founded and literally

assembled by Bill von Meister—sometimes said to be the "father" of AOL.

AOL on DOSWhat it looked like to browse the web in

1991…

AOL for WindowsHere is AOL for Windows, readily available in

1993

On the Way to the Web—The Secret History of the Internet and Its Founders by Michael A. Bankspublished by Apress