(>’.’)> InteRnetZ rOOlz! ARPANET is teh sux!!! <(*.*<)
The internet, like many technological innovations, came out of the United States defense department. In response to the 1957 launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was established by the Department of Defense in 1958. The idea of the a global network of computers was first proposed in 1962 by J.C.R. Licklider of MIT. Later that year he went to work for ARPA, by then called DARPA (D for defense), to head up the computer research program there. At this point, Al Gore was 9 years old and did not have the necessary security clearance to be privy to the goings on at DARPA.
In 1961, Leonard Kleinrock of MIT wrote a paper on packet switching, an alternative to circuit-based communications. The need for packet technology was confirmed in 1966 when the first wide-range computer network was set up. MIT’s Lawrence Roberts connected a computer in Massachusetts with one in California, establishing the feasibility of multiple computers working together over long distances. The project also demonstrated that circuit-switched telephone systems were not adequate, and that packet switching would be necessary. Roberts went off to work for DARPA and in 1967 published his plans for the ARPANET, the precursor of the Internet. The intention was to establish a non-centralized communications system that would remain functional even after a nuclear attack.
After some initial packet switching details were worked out, the first host computer was connected to the ARPANET in 1969. By the end of that year, there were four host computers connected to the network. In 1972, the idea of email was brought to the ARPANET. That same year Bob Kahn organized a public demonstration of the ARPANET (and email) at the International Computer Communication Conference. Kahn (not to be confused with Star Trek villain Khan) was also responsible for the idea of open-architecture networking. This type of network allows a great deal of flexibility and freedom in the design of individual networks. In 1973, in collaboration with Vint Cerf, Kahn developed the TCP/IP protocols, something that all websites have in common today. The Department of Defense adopted TCP/IP in 1980, and it was adopted universally three years later. Also in 1983, Al Gore was serving his fourth term in the US House of Representatives.
In 1986, the National Science Foundation funded the NSFNET. NSFNET was to function as the basis for the infrastructure of the Internet. This “backbone” of the internet was intended to be used for research and educational purposes only, the intended result of which was the development of private sector networks for commercial use. By the time public funding of NSFNET was terminated in 1995, the Internet had grown dramatically and was beginning to resemble what we see today. In 1991, Al Gore, at that time a US Senator, introduced a bill that would be signed into law as the High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991. Some of the effects of this act included the creation of a high-speed fiber optic network and the development of the web browser Mosaic. Mosaic is given credit by some for the internet boom of the 1990s. It’s creator, Marc Andreessen, went on to develop the Netscape browser.
In 1991, the hypertext-based system known as the World Wide Web was developed by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN. The first commercial internet service was made available by Delphi in 1992. By 1995, commercial internet services were becoming more and more widespread with AOL, Prodigy, and CompuServe being some of the more common providers. As technology has improved and connection speeds increased, the Internet has become even more ubiquitous. In 2007, Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to bring attention to global climate change - the very same climate change being caused by the huge coal-burning server farms that are required to keep the Internet going. Coincidence?
