The Internet

Facts about the Global Network

The current distribution of IP addresses per continent. 
North America (55.9%) and Europe (22.5%) have the two largest concentrations,
with Asia’s current share at 14%. 

Image courtesy of: www.ipligence.com/ worldmap/

 

What is the internet ? - a computer network consisting of a worldwide network of computer networks that use the TCP/IP network protocols to facilitate data transmission.

(source: Princeton University)

The Internet carries a vast array of information resources and services, most notably the inter-linked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the infrastructure to support electronic mail, in addition to popular services such as video on demand, online shopping, online gaming, exchange of information from one-to-many or many-to-many by online chat, online social networking, online publishing, file transfer, file sharing and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) or teleconferencing, telepresence person-to-person communication via voice and video.

(source: Wikipedia)

When and Where was it conceived? 
1960-65 in the United States (at various locations, including UCLA, Stanford University, MIT, and the Department of Defense, Washington D.C.)

Who conceived it?  
J.C.R. Licklider, Robert W. (Bob) Taylor, Douglas Engelbart, and several other researchers working for the above mentioned institutions.

When was it built? 
1965 – 1983 (at key government sites and academic institutions)

Who built the internet? 
US Defense Department – Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), SRI, UCLA, MIT, Systems Data Inc.

Who controls it now? 
AT&T, Verizon, Time Warner Cable, Comcast Communications, and ICANN (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers)

Timeline:     
1965 - 1969 (conceptual and testing phase)
1969 – 1974 (development of standardized protocols)
1974 -1977 (limited government demonstrations)
1977 – 1983 (limited global demonstrations)
1983 - 1994 (up to the World Wide Web)
1994 - Present (the internet goes commercial)

Historical Snapshot:
The original catalyst for the internet was a device that was envisioned in 1956: the personal computer. The person credited with this breakthrough was Douglas Engelbart, a researcher at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in Menlo Park California.

In December 1968 Engelbart conducted the first public demonstration of a desktop computer system he called the “ONLine System” (NLS) in San Francisco, the culmination of a decade’s work at SRI to develop “augmented” computers. Engelbart’s goal was to create a modern computer workstation (including a screen, keyboard, and pointing device) that could “augment” human intelligence by organizing information stored on the machine and sharing it across telephone lines. As a result, communities of scientists would have instantaneous access to information, and be able to collaborative with colleagues in far-flung research centers. This would replicate the environment Engelbart enjoyed at SRI by creating working forums which would connect scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs, and encourage them to seek “dynamic breakthroughs”.

Engelbart’s vision, which anticipated modern computers and global networks, was first summarized in a report for the Air Force in October 1962 called: “Augmenting Human Intelligence: A Conceptual Framework”. The augmentation study was the catalyst that sparked the imagination of several key figures in Internet history. Among them were J.C.R. Licklider and Robert W. (Bob) Taylor, the directors of a Department of Defense funding unit called the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO). Licklider had written a similar paper in 1960 called, “Man-Compter Symbiosis”, and provided Engelbart’s first research funds.

Taylor succeeded Licklider as IPTO director and encouraged Engelbart to contribute to the development of ARPA-Net, a computer network created by the Defense Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) to link scientists and military officials around the country. Taylor then provided research grants that led to the proto-types Engelbart debuted at the 1968 demonstration.

By the time Taylor ended his stewardship of ARPA-Net in 1969, the basic structure of the internet was in place. The final pieces were soon to follow. In 1974 a standard protocol for connecting different networks called “Transmission Control Program/Internet Protocol”, or “TCP/IP”, was formulated by another Defense Department group led by Vinton Cert, a computer scientist from Stanford University. Cert’s paper, “Specification of Internet Transmission Control Program” is credited with the first public recognition of the “Internet”.

Following a demonstration of the network in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1977, and the standardization of all host computers to the protocol in 1983, the Internet became operational to government users in 1984. By 1989 the network was estimated to connect 20,000 scientists around the world. Commercial use of the Internet followed in 1990 with the development of a graphical interface created by Timothy John Berners-Lee, a researcher at CERN, called "the world wide web".