There’s no denying that the Internet has completely changed our world, in fact it is continuously doing so to this day and will continue to do so in the future as well. Just think about how the Internet has transformed. The World Wide Web was created from the Internet, or as it was previously known as, the ARPAnet. Before it became available to the public it was only used by government officials and computer scientists, yet it is now one of the most prominent technologies out there. It started out being used to only speak from system to system and is now an essential tool for humans to communicate. First, users started to communicate through e-mail. Then instant messaging became a popular way to contact someone via the Web allowing immediate responses. Users were having full on conversations in a matter of seconds, just like they were sitting there in person. Now video chats have become an additional way for friends and family to keep in touch. Parents in the United States could speak with and see their children who are in China; the Web has now become almost like a virtual reality. Imagine relying solely on post mail to get a message across to someone at a far distance. Sure the telephone gave this possibility decades before the Web was introduced, but did the phone allow attachments such as images or files to be sent? Post mail allows the physical delivery of objects and the invention of e-mail allowed instant delivery and reception digitally. This information could usually then be converted physically if the user desired.

Communication is not the only way the Web has changed the world, the amount and type of content available was also influential. Research information, audio, video, Bit Torrent, and pornography are all available to view and download from the Web. Users were able to visit an array of sites to help find whatever information they were looking for. Audio and video are available to be embedded in sites and sometimes are even available to download. This has changed the way information is able to be delivered and received. It is at the hands of the user and became an interactive experience. One’s favorite television shows can be streamed online at their own convenience, while some programs even allow it to be downloaded. This has caused much controversy with copyright infringement, specifically with programs like BitTorrent. This changed the world even further by creating copyright laws that were passed due to the availability of information on the Internet. Not only that, but pornography caused parents to purchase software to block this type of content. None of this content was so easily available before the invention of the World Wide Web.

Net neutrality is probably the most important concern to this day and affects any and every Internet user. Internet Service Providers are trying to take over the Web where it used to be owned by the public. That’s the beauty of the Web, there is no owner. But with ISPs trying to filter content and control what the public can access, it’s hard to say that it is not owned by anyone. They are trying to control the speeds of certain sites, the order and availability of sites in search results, and will basically soon try to take over the Web. They are bribing certain companies to pay more to give them the availability that should have in the first place. The future of the Web as we know it is unpredictable. It is in the hands of the FCC depending on their choice to allow this or not, for this has been a battle for years. It could lead to either an unbiased availability as the Web always has been or could lead to the destruction of it. Functionality-wise, the Web has full potential to do even more. Right now HTML 5 is in production which will reduce the need for browser plug-ins like Adobe Flash, which will allow a greater success on mobile devices. Who would have thought that video chatting would be an available tool for the public to use? I could only imagine the future the Web has for us, and believe it will offer new tools and experiences that expand our horizons even greater in a very short amount of time.

List of References

Scott Griffen, Internet Pioneers, 2002, http://www.ibiblio.org/pioneers/index.html. April 6, 2010.

Vannevar Bush, As We May Think, The Atlantic, July 1945,http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1969/12/as-we-may-think/3881/3/?. April 6, 2010.

Author unknown, Laurence Roberts Manages The ARPANET Program, 1996,http://www.livinginternet.com/i/ii_roberts.htm. April 7, 2010.

Barry M. Leiner, “The Past and Future History of the Internet,” Communications of the ACMVol. 40 (February 1997): 103.

Otis Port, Larry Roberts: He Made the Net Work, Business Week September 27, 2004,http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_39/b3901030_mz072.htm.  April 8, 2010.

Josh McHugh, The n-Dimensional Superswitch, Wired, May 2001,http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.05/caspian.html?pg=3&topic=&topic_set=. April 8, 2010.

Author unknown, Tim Berners-Lee, W3, March 31, 2010, http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/Longer.html. April 8, 2010.

Stephanie Schorow, Tim Berners-Lee receives Draper Prize, MIT News, January 5, 2007,http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/draper-prize.html. April 8, 2010.

Moschovitis, Christos. History of the Internet. Santa Barbara, CA: The Moschovitis Group, Inc, 1999.

Segaller, Stephen. Nerds A Brief History of the Internet, New York, NY: TV Books, 1998.

Tim Berners-Lee, Net Neutrality: This is serious, Decentralized Information Group, June 21, 2006, http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/node/144, April 20, 2010.

Author unknown, Who Want to Get Rid of Net Neutrality, Save the Internet,http://www.savetheinternet.com/faq. April 20, 2010.

Lawrence Lessig, No Tolls on The Internet, The Washington Post, 2006,http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/07/AR2006060702108.html, April 20, 2010.

Tim Berners-Lee, Net Neutrality: This is serious, Decentralized Information Group, June 21, 2006, http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/node/144, April 20, 2010

Jonathan Salant, Google, Pushing for ‘Net Neutrality,’ Boosts Lobbying in 2010, Business Week, April 20, 2010, http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-20/google-pushing-for-net-neutrality-boosts-lobbying-in-2010.html, April 20, 2010.

Tim Wu, Network Neutrality FAQ, Tim Wu, http://timwu.org/network_neutrality.html, April 20, 2010.

Author unknown, Copyright Clinic: Definitions, The Industry Trust,http://www.copyrightaware.co.uk/learning-about-copyright/copyrightclinic/definitions.asp, April 20, 2010.

James D. Torr.  ”Introduction.” At Issue: Internet Piracy. Ed. James D. Torr. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2005. August 2004. 20 April 2010. <http://www.enotes.com/internet-piracy-article/54083>.

David Kravets, Isohunt Ordered to Remove Infringing Content, Wired, March 30, 2010,http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/03/isohunt/, April 20, 2010.

Dustin Quillen, Nintendo: Piracy to Blame for 50 Percent Drop in European Sales, 1Up, April 20, 2010, http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3178906, April 20, 2010.

Madeline Bennett, Politicians scrutinized over Digital Economy Act, V3, April 19, 2010,http://www.v3.co.uk/v3/news/2261578/digital-economy-act-debated, April 20, 2010.

Stephen Lawson, Broadband Has No Regulator, BitTorrent CEO Says, PCWorld, April 19, 2010,http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/194554/broadband_has_no_regulator_bittorrent_ceo_says.html, April 20, 2010.

Marshall Brian, How Web Servers Work, How Stuff Works,http://computer.howstuffworks.com/web-server.htm/printable, April 20, 2010.

Nilay Patel, FCC redefines “broadband” to mean 768Kbps, “fast” to mean “kinda slow”, Engadget, March 19, 2008, http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/fcc-redefines-broadband-to-mean-768kbps-fast-to-mean-kinda/, April 22, 2010.

Pricing and Packages, Cablevision, http://optimum.com/ratecard.jsp?serviceType=ool&regionIdnull&searchby=corp&corp=07864, April 22, 2010.

Internet Retailer Top 500 Retail Web Sites, Internet Retailer, 2010, http://www.internetretailer.com/top500/list.asp, April 22, 2010.

Randall Stross, Sorry, Shoppers, but Why Can’t Amazon Collect More Tax?, The New York Times, December 26, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/business/27digi.html?_r=1, April 22, 2010.

Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/gp/subs/primeclub/signup/main.html?ie=UTF8&primeMetadata=your_account_signup, April 22, 2010.

Blake Ellis, Amazon earnings  jump 68%, CNNMoney, April 22, 2010,http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/22/news/companies/amazon_earnings/?postversion=2010042219, April 22, 2010.

Author unknown, Fact Sheet 23: Online Shopping Tips: E-Commerce and You, Privacy Rights Clearing House, March 2010, http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs23-shopping.htm, April 22, 2010.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL): How It Works, Verisign, http://www.verisign.com/ssl/ssl-information-center/how-ssl-security-works/index.html, April 22, 2010.

Fernanda B. Viégas, Studying Cooperation and Conflict between Authors

with history flow Visualizations, IBM, 2004, http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~fviegas/papers/history_flow.pdf, April 27, 2010.

Luke Salkeld, Facebook bully jailed: Death threat girl, 18, is first person put behind bars for vicious internet campaign, Mail Online, August 21, 2009, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1208147/First-cyberbully-jailed-Facebook-death-threats.html, April 27, 2010.

Jim Garrettson, Slipping Through the Filter: The Effectiveness of Web Filtering, The New New Internet, April 27, 2010,http://www.thenewnewinternet.com/2010/04/27/slipping-through-the-filter-the-effectiveness-of-web-filtering/, April 27, 2010.

Author unknown, History of malicious programs, Kapersky Labs, http://www.securelist.com/en/threats/detect?chapter=77, April 28, 2010.

Author unknown, Damage caused by malware, Kapersky Labs, http://www.securelist.com/en/threats/detect?chapter=76, April 28, 2010.

Chang-Hoan cho, Children’s exposure to negative Internet content: effects of family context, Dec 2005, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m6836/is_4_49/ai_n25120984/, April 28, 2010.

Ross Ellis, Teen cyberbullies attack on Facebook: Part One,  Examiner, April 28, 2010, http://www.examiner.com/x-39476-NY-Cyber-Safety-Examiner~y2010m4d28-Teen-cyberbullies-attack-on-Facebook–Part-one, April 28, 2010.

Stephanie Goldberg, Young job-seekers hide their Facebook pages, CNN, March 29, 2010, http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/29/facebook.job-seekers/index.html, April 28, 2010.

Paul Levinson, The Soft Edge: A Natural History and Future of the Information Revolution, (Routledge, 1998) p.xvi

As people use the technology tools of everyday life, they do not take into consideration the hard work put into their development. Computers, televisions, speakers, and the hundreds of other objects, are the works of several different pioneers of that time. The developments that they strived for worked off of one another to invent these mediums that our society takes for granted. Even though they may have not directly invented the object itself, their contribution of knowledge and discoveries certainly affected the outcome of its use today. The Internet for one was created with the work of quite a few innovators, and without their hard work it would not have the same functions as it currently does.

Referred to by some as the “Godfather of our wired age”, Vannevar Bush’s ideas and contributions of knowledge were the starting points to the World Wide Web that we know of today.[1] Starting with his help in the development of the Internet, Bush taught courses in electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1930’s. With his knowledge he then designed an intense computer, one that most would not be familiar with. This computer filled up an entire room and took days to compute a problem, yet its development eventually led to the computer that we are familiar with, the personal computer. Then during World War II, Bush was recruited by President Roosevelt and worked with the development of the atomic bomb.

Though Bush had no direct contribution to the Internet itself, his work helped those after him conceive ways to make this happen. One of his greatest works was his article “As We May Think”, where he talked about a futuristic device that is much like the personal computers we use today. He called this device the “memex” where a user would personally store books, records, and other belongings which would then be indexed and found with speed and flexibility, being a supplement to their memory. [2] This was also described as being part of a desk with screens, keyboards, buttons, and levers.

This being an almost an identical description of the personal computer, showed that Bush’s ideas greatly impacted the digital world, which was seen mainly with computers and the Internet. Dealing more with the Internet, Bush’s ideas also led to the development of hypertext. Hypertext can be described as nonlinear text that links to other texts and can include graphics and other multimedia. The developer of the hypertext, Ted Nelson credited Bush since his idea inspired him to create this new form of communication. This idea was also presented in “As We May Think” stating:

“First he runs through an encyclopedia, finds an interesting but sketchy article, leaves it projected. Next, in a history, he finds another pertinent item, and ties the two together. Thus he goes, building a trail of many items. Occasionally he inserts a comment of his own, either linking it into the main trail or joining it by a side trail to a particular item. When it becomes evident that the elastic properties of available materials had a great deal […], he branches off on a side trail which takes him through textbooks on elasticity and physical constants. He inserts a page of longhand analysis of his own. Thus he builds a trail of his interest through the maze of materials available to him.”

His idea of linking information to other information was the preface to the invention of the hypertext. Without it, the Internet would be completely different and quite inconvenient, lacking flexibility and speed, and maybe not even existing at all. After about three decades and several successors, Larry Roberts created the first working network.

Larry Roberts graduated and earned his Ph.D. from MIT and afterwards spent time at the Lincoln Library where he did some research dealing with computer networks. Then in 1964, he met with a man named J.C.R. Licklider. Licklider was the head of the Information Processing Techniques Office at the Advanced Research Projects Agency, an agency set up by the American government dealing with military technology. Licklider came up with the idea of computer networks and Larry Roberts was the one who eventually carried out his idea. [3]

Roberts did not work on this daunting task all on his own, he worked with Thomas Merrill, a psychologist who studied under Licklider and had a great interest in computers. These two used advice from Leonard Kleinrock, a researcher from MIT, who provided very useful information that led to the success of this network. By using packets rather than circuits as the form of communication to make the computers talk to each other would theoretically complete the computer network and “solve bandwidth constraints by slicing transmissions into small packets and shooting them over the same wires”.[4][5] The first computer network was finally created using a low-speed dial-up telephone line. Even after all of this success Roberts did not stop there. He went to ARPA and developed a wide area computer network called ARPAnet. Afterwards, Roberts left ARPA and created his own business Telenet Communications Corp, which created the first commercial packet-switch network, and then worked at top positions at NetExpress and ATM Systems. From these experiences he said that he learned a valuable lesson; that it was hard to get people to change to a new technology if an existing one works pretty well.[6] However, this is not the case in today’s world and society’s fear of change certainly did not impact other pioneers in the development of the Internet.

The World Wide Web is a term that our society is completely familiar with, which is used daily and is hard to imagine a world without it. Tim Berners-Lee graduated from Oxford University and created the World Wide Web, an internet-based hypermedia initiative for global information sharing” in 1989 while he was working at the CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory and wrote the first World Wide Web server.[7] This new development was designed to have people all over the world combine their knowledge in a web of hypertext. Beforehand, he worked at many different jobs accomplishing many tasks dealing with technology, including building a computer, writing software for printers and even an operating system. He created his own program called “Enquire” which was never published and was later used to develop the World Wide Web. With its launch, Berners-Lee did have some doubts even though his creation was a big success. He feared that the Web would split into different sections of use and also feared specifically new tags that Netscape was creating; however none of these concerns became a problem.

Then in 1994, he founded the World Wide Web Consortium. This organization “develops interoperable technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web to its full potential”.[8] This organization is very important to the World Wide Web; it keeps it in order and provides useful information in creating a functional web site. This order also works with the public to create the greatest satisfaction that it can provide. Berners-Lee also created the Uniform Resource Identifier (URL), HyperText Markup Language (HTML), and HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP).[9] He has received numerous awards and wrote multiple publications as well. Berners-Lee is a proud promoter of “net-neutrality” and states, “When I invented the web, I didn’t have to ask anyone’s permission. Now, hundreds of millions of people are using it freely. I am worried that that is going end in the USA.”[10] Net-neutrality is a big debate in today’s World Wide Web, dealing with battles over who owns what, and what can and cannot be used. Tim Berners-Lee, the innovator who connected the entire world had a great impact on society. This mass communication tool has allowed the world to stay connected and unified, giving users the ability to access information from almost anywhere.

[2] Vannevar Bush, As We May Think, The Atlantic, July 1945,http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1969/12/as-we-may-think/3881/3/?. April 6, 2010.

[3] Author unknown, Laurence Roberts Manages The ARPANET Program, 1996,http://www.livinginternet.com/i/ii_roberts.htm. April 7, 2010.

[4] Barry M. Leiner, “The Past and Future History of the Internet,” Communications of the ACMVol. 40 (February 1997): 103.

[5] Otis Port, Larry Roberts: He Made the Net Work, Business Week September 27, 2004,http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_39/b3901030_mz072.htm.  April 8, 2010.

[6] Josh McHugh, The n-Dimensional Superswitch, Wired, May 2001,http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.05/caspian.html?pg=3&topic=&topic_set=. April 8, 2010.

[7] Author unknown, Tim Berners-Lee, W3, March 31, 2010, http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/Longer.html. April 8, 2010.

[8] ibid

[9] Stephanie Schorow, Tim Berners-Lee receives Draper Prize, MIT News, January 5, 2007,http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/draper-prize.html. April 8, 2010.

[10] ibid

History Essay

The birth of the Internet, which dates back to 1964, revolutionized the entire world, creating networks that connected computers together, sharing information and other useful tools. This eventually led to the development of the World Wide Web which launched in 1991, connecting the entire world with just a few clicks. However this took a lot of time and conquering of setbacks before the Web became a successful tool.  Between 1964 and 1991, there were many developments as well as struggles that led to the creation of the World Wide Web that we know of today.

The Internet that we are currently familiar with was quite different when during its early stages; in fact the public was not even introduced to it until decades after its creation. Personal computers did not exist at this time and the Internet, otherwise known as the ARPAnet at this time, was used solely by the government and computer scientists. Back in 1958 the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was created by President Dwight Eisenhower due to the launch of Sputnik by the Soviets.[1] This later became the organization that created the ARPAnet under the leadership of Larry Roberts. His predecessor J.C.R. Licklider however, was the one to come up with the idea of networking but left ARPA before any progress was made. By using the concept produced by Licklider, Roberts was able to connect a computer at MIT to a computer in Santa Monica through a telephone line, creating this breakthrough in networking and starting off what would be one of the world’s most successful inventions, the World Wide Web.

The first elements of the World Wide Web that we are familiar with was introduced in 1965 by a man named Ted Nelson. Hypertext and hyperlinks were two terms that Nelson coined and now structure the Web. Hypertext allows users to access documents in a non linear manner and hyperlinks are the connections to these documents.[2] Nelson describes that “books are not convenient to read except in sequence”.[3] By creating this unique flow and facilitating to find the information, the user can find filter through the information by easily skipping parts not of interest to them. Two years later the Hypertext Editing System was created by the collaborative work of Ted Nelson and Andries van Damn and later led to the advancement of including elements such as color graphics. Finally in the year 1969 the ARPAnet launched, changing the world forever.

The creation of the ARPAnet led to the development of everything we are familiar with now; e-mail, the PC, and the Web. In 1971 Ray Tomlinson created programs that allowed the first e-mail to be sent from one computer to another. With this as the starting point, others created e-mail programs that collaboratively formed our modern e-mail systems. He also created the formula for e-mails and introduced the “@” symbol which remains the way we send and receive e-mails today.[4]The invention of the Ethernet, “the system that linked computers through hardwiring within a single location” was another groundbreaking invention that led to the success of the Internet.[5]It allowed more than one person in the same location to access the same files and printers. This connected the workplace and helped manage budgets by purchasing less equipment and making work more efficient. Then, the year 1975 marked the release of the first ever personal computer. Ed Roberts the founder of Model Instrumentation Telemetry Systems (MITS) bought microchips from Intel and created the Altair 8800. The crowd’s reception was extremely positive and everybody wanted a computer in their home. These computers were much different than the ones we know of today and there were many problems with them. However, this breakthrough led to further development to create computers with more memory and faster processing speeds.

The creation of the first personal computer was the stepping stone to the Web. Before the World Wide Web was created, the communication tools of networks and the ARPAnet were only used by a specialized branch of individuals. The world-wide use of the Web gave every other person the ability to use the advancements of networks to communicate with one another. Without the personal computer, there would be no need for a network to be created that allowed the public to access it.  It relies on this personal product to survive and grow, later expanding to an array of other devices as well.

In 1977 three networks that were simultaneously forming, ALOHAnet, SATnet, and ARPAnet were connected using transmission control protocol (TCP) which was how systems communicated with one another. [6] Then in 1978 engineers from Xerox created the Internet Protocol (IP), a TCP enhancement that was a separate program handling individual messages’ routes. Now combined together TCP/IP is the new system that is more efficient and less expensive. Using these new advancements, the first forum was published in 1978 and was the first public medium on the Internet at that time. It allowed users to post messages giving them the ability to read and respond to a message, or create their own.

Finally in 1983, ARPAnet was now referred to as the Internet. This occurred once TCP/IP replaced the previous NCP because it was faster, easier to use and less expensive. IP addresses, numbers that are used for computers to communicate with one another, were also being translated into words at this time, creating server names instead of using just numbers. Another leading element that aided in the development of the World Wide Web was the Domain Name System (DNS) which was created by Paul Mockapetris. Since the Internet grew so rapidly the network became extremely chaotic, causing slow response times. When users would try and communicate to a specific IP address it would continuously check different servers until it found the correct one. The DNS however contained all of the servers allowing the IP number to be found quickly.

In 1991, the Internet as we know it was developed by Tim Berners-Lee using a hypertext system. He shared “information space-a web of hypertext documents-within which people communicate with each other and with computers”.[7] His main focus was to allow the public to access this information, whereas the ARPAnet was used mostly by government officials and scientific engineers. There were several criteria that Berners-Lee felt the Web should follow including its flexibility with minimal constraint, the ability to use random links between objects and its construction so that entering and correcting information could be performed easily”.[8] By using a Universal Document Identifier (UDI); later called Universal Resource Locators (URL), a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) his criteria was able to be met. URLs are the address scheme for pointing out a specific location on the Web, HTTP is the protocol for accessing the data and navigating the links, and HTML is the code used. Browsers were created like Erwise, Midas, and Cello which led to the development of Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer.

During 1994, domain names were introduced by InterNIC, an organization created by Network Solutions, Incorporated. The Network Information Center created domain names that we are familiar with such as .com, .edu, and .org to make them more user-friendly. Then the InterNIC created second level domain names that were distributed as a first come, first served basis and had to be registered to create full web addresses like “google.com”. This registration process started out free, but then starting costing money. This year was also the founding of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) by Tim Berners-Lee, with a purpose to create order and functionality within the Web. By doing things such as providing sample code and reference software for free, the W3C outlined specifications and standards for the Web, which continued its evolution.[9] With this structure forming, commerce began to find itself on the Web. Banks started to offer online services, shopping became available online, and radio stations began to broadcast over the Web.

Due to the vast amounts of opportunities provided by the WWW, two college students became obsessed with it, collecting a list of web pages that was so long they could no longer sort through them. David Filo created a search engine with his friend Jerry Yang to easily find these sites and unintentionally received thousands of visitors accessing it. This search engine later became known as “Yahoo!”.  After teaming up with Netscape who included a link as part of its web browser, “Yahoo!” stood out from all other search engines that were just like it.

Search engines led to the fast finding of every type of information available on the Web. The creation of the Web did not stop there, and in fact it never stopped being created. New ideas and functions are being created constantly and adding to this web of information. Its history will be never ending and once a new advancement is conjured and brought to the public’s use, it will just make the story of the Internet’s history that much longer.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Segaller, Stephen. Nerds A Brief History of the Internet, New York, NY: TV Books, 1998.

[4] Moschovitis, Christos. History of the Internet. Santa Barbara, CA: The Moschovitis Group, Inc, 1999.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ibid.

Political/Legal Factors Essay

The Internet has opened the doorway to countless opportunities that society never would have imagined. It possesses the ability to find almost any type of information; allows communication via e-mail, instant message, or video chat; delivers files digitally, streams television shows, and helps complete many daunting tasks. However, this openness has created a great deal of problems in the digital world. The ease of spreading information has caused uproar with music labels and film studios. The ability to download albums and movies without purchasing them has become so easy that more and more people are doing it. Also, Internet Service Providers (ISP) are trying to change how the World Wide Web is controlled. Because of this, “net neutrality” is a term that Internet users have learned to use and defend to make sure this does not happen. Illegal downloading and net neutrality are two major issues that have been on going for years and still have yet to be solved.

When the Web was first created back in 1991, Tim Berners-Lee believed it should be a place of freedom where a single person would not be in control of it. He stated, “When I invented the Web, I didn’t have to ask anyone’s permission. Now, hundreds of millions of people are using it freely. I am worried that that is going end in the USA.” [1] However, this has changed when ISP’s have been trying to control the distribution of information. Telephone and cable companies like AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon are trying to become “Internet gatekeepers”, deciding on which sites get fast access, slow access, or no access at all.[2] They also may control search results, choosing which sites appear first, or not at all. This overtaking could lead to the destruction of the Internet and users are battling to prevent this from happening. Net neutrality is defined as treating all content on the Internet the same; not having service providers choose different speeds for sites or blocking them all together.[3] Back in 2006, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) stripped the neutrality rules that made the Internet successful. Now the service providers are able to charge content providers large fees to get a fast and reliable connection through that provider. If they refuse to pay, their connection could be slowed or even blocked all together.

Tim Berners-Lee, makes states that a factor of net neutrality is “if I pay to connect to the Net with a certain quality of service, and you pay to connect with that or greater quality of service, then we can communicate at that level.”[4] He makes it a point to say that a higher quality of service should still be available if the user pays more. In fact, this is what would anger the users if net neutrality was eliminated. If one is already paying for high speed Internet, yet the service provider is slowing the time for a page to load, then there would be no point to pay more money for this service.

Large companies, small businesses, the President of the United States, musicians, actors, and even individuals are battling to protect net neutrality once again. This is a very serious issue and an important debate with most companies. Cogent Communications, an ISP, advertises that they fully support net neutrality, making them stand out from the rest. Google has increased its lobbying spending by fifty-nine percent, spending 1.4 million dollars between January and March.[5] This goes to show the fear major companies have over the possible control service providers would have over the content provided under their network. Not only would these major companies get hurt, but individuals would be in even more trouble. Amateurs are not going to be able to afford the high fees that the ISPs are going to charge. More than sixty percent of content on the Web was created by every day people rather than large corporations.[6] Control has always been held by the users, but if the world were to lose net neutrality, the public’s content would be in complete control of the ISPs. Creativity would be limited since their work may not be approved by the service provider. If net neutrality were to be eliminated some potential problems would be blocking of certain web sites, charging termination fees, offering special treatment to certain networks, and providers failing to provide certain information on the services they offer.[7] Net neutrality however offers much to society that some may be unaware of. Control is minimized by the network owners, competition is maximized, and outsiders are invited to innovate, guaranteeing a free and competitive market.[8] While net neutrality is still an ongoing issue, the battle against piracy is as well.

The Internet has become a gateway to copyright infringement, the reproducing and spreading of works that are copyrighted without permission. This can be seen specifically with movies, music, and television shows as well as other forms of work. Copyright is automatically generated and protects the work from unauthorized copying, distributing, altering, or any other acts without permission.[9] The owner is in complete control of the distribution of their work. When the protections are broken, it is known as copyright infringement, or piracy. This did not become a widespread problem until the release of Napster in 1999.[10] Napster used peer-to-peer (P2P) networking, linking each computer on the network and giving them the ability to access each other’s files. Even after it was shut down in 2002 after many judicial hearings, other applications were created allowing users to download music once again, and later on movies. Lawsuits were filed against those sharing music on these applications because the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) declared that the ISPs were obligated to provide their names. This did not last very long since the U.S. Court of Appeals stated they were not obligated to do so, making it much harder for the RIAA to target the sharers.

As Internet speeds become faster, it becomes much easier for users to download these files. BitTorrent is a P2P sharing protocol that allows users to download large amount of data. Users are able to go on the Web, download the torrent file, which then is opened into an application which downloads the playable file for the computer. Music, movies, software, games, and books, are all available for download. Many instances dealing with shutting these sites down have become unsuccessful, but recently sites such as Mininova and Isohunt have been forced to remove copyrighted material. On April 5, 2010 a letter was shown on the home page of Isohunt, one of the world’s most popular BitTorrent search engines, which stated they were to remove direct links to torrents and filtering search content due to copyright infringement laws; however this was only being effective in the United States. Every other country would get the same amount of content they had always been receiving. Isohunt was accused of having 95% of material downloaded from their site being copyrighted.[11] Creators of The Pirate Bay, another popular BitTorrent search engine, were fined and sent to jail, yet their site remained untouched. Nintendo also has claimed that there has been a fifty percent drop in their sales due to software downloads.[12] It is safe to say that companies are being directly affected by these BitTorrent sites, allowing free copies of their work and decreasing their revenue.

Currently in the United Kingdom the Digital Economy Act was passed which allows the government to temporarily suspend the Internet access of a user who is suspected of illegal downloading after three offences.[13] This upset the citizens of the United Kingdom; mostly because they feel that the government may not provide enough evidence of one breaking the law. Also, on April 6, 2010, the FCC ordered that Comcast was to cease the use of file sharing applications including BitTorrent from working on its network, yet the high court said that this could not happen.[14]This would contradict the belief of net neutrality, treating other web sites differently than others. Eric Klinker stated that, “there is not going to be a strong regulator for broadband” and that “the public is our regulator”.[15] If one person were to discontinue the public’s use for a site, net neutrality would therefore be overlooked. Even though sites like Isohunt and applications like BitTorrent will forever flood our world with copyright infringement, the result of this case gives positive thoughts to those who fear the end of net neutrality.

[2] Author unknown, Who Want to Get Rid of Net Neutrality, Save the Internet,http://www.savetheinternet.com/faq. April 20, 2010.

[3] Lawrence Lessig, No Tolls on The Internet, The Washington Post, 2006,http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/07/AR2006060702108.html, April 20, 2010.

[4] Tim Berners-Lee, Net Neutrality: This is serious, Decentralized Information Group, June 21, 2006, http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/node/144, April 20, 2010.

[5] Jonathan Salant, Google, Pushing for ‘Net Neutrality,’ Boosts Lobbying in 2010, Business Week, April 20, 2010, http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-20/google-pushing-for-net-neutrality-boosts-lobbying-in-2010.html, April 20, 2010.

[6] Lawrence Lessig, No Tolls on The Internet, The Washington Post, 2006,http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/07/AR2006060702108.html, April 20, 2010.

[7] Tim Wu, Network Neutrality FAQ, Tim Wu, http://timwu.org/network_neutrality.html, April 20, 2010.

[8] Lawrence Lessig, No Tolls on The Internet, The Washington Post, 2006,http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/07/AR2006060702108.html, April 20, 2010.

[9] Author unknown, Copyright Clinic: Definitions, The Industry Trust,http://www.copyrightaware.co.uk/learning-about-copyright/copyrightclinic/definitions.asp, April 20, 2010.

[10] James D. Torr.  ”Introduction.” At Issue: Internet Piracy. Ed. James D. Torr. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2005. August 2004. 20 April 2010. <http://www.enotes.com/internet-piracy-article/54083>.

[11] David Kravets, Isohunt Ordered to Remove Infringing Content, Wired, March 30, 2010,http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/03/isohunt/, April 20, 2010.

[12] Dustin Quillen, Nintendo: Piracy to Blame for 50 Percent Drop in European Sales, 1Up, April 20, 2010, http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3178906, April 20, 2010.

[13] Madeline Bennett, Politicians scrutinized over Digital Economy Act, V3, April 19, 2010,http://www.v3.co.uk/v3/news/2261578/digital-economy-act-debated, April 20, 2010.

[14] Stephen Lawson, Broadband Has No Regulator, BitTorrent CEO Says, PCWorld, April 19, 2010,http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/194554/broadband_has_no_regulator_bittorrent_ceo_says.html, April 20, 2010.

[15] Ibid.

How It Works Essay

Society often takes many of the materials provided to them for granted and does not take the time to understand how it works. It took approximately thirty years from the time the ideas of networking were planned to when the World Wide Web was actually developed. The hard work from every individual led to create of the Web as we know it today. Starting with submitting the address from the computer into the browser and ending with the information on the screen, data is sent through many steps to get the information the user is looking for.

First, the user must be connected to an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to have access to the Internet. Usually, they pay a monthly fee which is determined by the level of quality and speed the user wishes to receive, and in return they acquire a modem which connects to a cable or television line, granting them access to their network and therefore the Internet. The ISP may then also be connected to a larger network. The diagram below illustrates the path the computer takes to get to the Internet.

http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/webserver-backbone-sm.gif

The ISP then connects to a Regional ISP, which connects to the World ISP leading to the World Wide Web. Every computer is connected to each other on the Internet because of the “backbones” that the largest ISP provides through fiber optic cables. Computers in an office, school, or building can be connected through a local area network (LAN) which allows users to connect and access information with intense speed by using a T1 line.

Each machine on the Internet is given one of two names, the server and the client. The machines that carry out work to other machines are known as servers. Each server has a specific task, for example there is a server dealing with information on the Web, and a server for e-mail as well. The machine that accesses that information is known as the client. Each machine is therefore given an Internet Protocol (IP) address, which is a unique address that defines your system. This is how your computer communicates to a server. A server’s IP address does not change very often, where a home machine can have a new IP address each session.[1] IP addresses contain ten numbers with no significance to the site the user is visiting. Therefore, the Domain Name System (DNS) was brought into effect which translates text names to IP addresses. This is much easier to remember since the text relates to the site itself rather than random numbers.

Due to the DNS, a typical web address would look as follows: “www.google.com”. The “www” refers to the host name, “google” refers to the domain name, and “com” refers to the top-level domain name. Each top-level domain name is managed by a company, for example the “.com” domain is managed by VeriSign. It guarantees that all domain names within the top-level domains are unique and maintains contact information for each site.[2] It is important that the domain names are unique so that the sites can be identified.  The host name which is most commonly “www” is created by the company hosting the domain, and may either be omitted or replaced due to how common it is. Now, how does the Domain Name System work? Let’s use the examplewww.google.com and the diagram below to explain.

http://www.theshulers.com/whitepapers/internet_whitepaper/images/ruswp_diag6.gif

After you type www.google.com into your browser, it must contact a DNS server to receive the IP address, since the URL is substituting in for it. It contacts a root DNS server which holds the IP addresses for all of the servers that deal with top-level domains. Each top-level domain (.com, .net, .gov) has its own set of servers; no DNS server contains the entire database. If one server cannot locate the IP address for the requested site, it is redirected to another. After the information is sent to the “.com” server, it checks to see if it has the IP address for www.google.com. If it does not, the browser is redirected to another server until it locates the IP address. If it does, it returns the IP address to your DNS server and then your browser, which contacts the server for www.google.com, opening the web page. Caching is a big factor that helps this process. Once a DNS server resolves a request, it caches the IP address. This means that, once a request is made to the root DNS server for the .com domain, it remembers the IP address for the DNS server handling the .com domain, thus skipping the step involving the root DNS.[3]

For a server to make its services available on the Internet, it uses numbered ports where each service is available on a different port. The client then connects to a service at a specific port on that IP address. The port for the WWW pages are most commonly on port 80 and browsers are automatically directed there when typing in a URL address. If one wanted to connect to another port on Google’s site for example, they would type in http://www.google.com:17, where the “:17 signifies the port number.

The browser breaks the URL into different parts which allows it to read the information given to it. Very similar to the parts of the DNS system, the browser recognizes “http” as the protocol, “www.ramapo.edu” as the server name, and “residences.html” as the file name. When a URL includes the backwards slash (/), it means that it is locating the specific file in a series of folders to find the information being requested. Once all of the information is received, the browser then breaks it down, reading the HTML tags which then translates the information into distinguishable text for the user to understand and navigate through.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

Economic/Business Factors Essay

The World Wide Web is one of the most powerful information tools that the public can get its hands on. It holds a countless amount of data and is one of the prime communication methods in today’s society. If the WWW were to somehow collapse, the world would be in shambles. If it has such an importance so society, why does it have absolutely no income? The Web has no owner; it is in control by the public. There is no company that owns it and collects a profit from its use. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an organization headed by Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web, and is used to set standards, oversee functions, and create new and improved ways for the Web to work. However, they do not make a profit off of the Web’s ownership or primary use. Companies instead use the Internet to assist in making them a primary profit, or be their secondary. Internet Service Providers and online shopping are some ways that companies use the Internet to assist in generating revenues.

Broadband connection has set the way to make the Web what it is today.  It allows much more information to travel at quicker speeds, allowing more complex and visually aesthetic web sites to be created. Before these speeds were available high resolution images and embedded videos would have taken forever to load and were not common to have on sites like they are now. However, to obtain this access of high-speed Internet one must go through an Internet Service Provider (ISP). They provide consumers with modems that are most commonly connected through a cable wire or telephone network that allow instant access to the Internet. Before DSL or cable modems were used, computers were connected through dial-up modems through the telephone lines, not only clogging them up, but giving them a low transfer speed of 56 kilobits per second. Now, basic broadband as defined by the FCC is surpassing 768 kilobits per second.[1] Users are now experiencing the Web at lightning speeds compared to the previous speed of the dial-up modem.

One example is Optimum Online, an ISP which is owned by cable company Cablevision, primarily located in the tri-state area. They offer three different forms of Internet access, Optimum Online, Optimum Online Boost, and Optimum Online Ultra. They advertise Optimum Online as having 15 megabits per second (Mbps) download and 2 Mbps upload for $45/month, Optimum Online Boost having 30Mbps download and 5 Mbps upload for an additional $15/month, and Optimum Online Ultra having 101Mbps download and 15Mbps upload for an additional $55/month.[2] Having all of these packages available, Cablevision is able to target a wide range of costumers, giving them a large selection to meet their needs. Also by giving deals to existing customers, they will be more likely to upgrade to the higher speed packages. They promote Optimum Online Ultra by saying it is the fastest Internet access in America and give statistics of download speeds, like the ability to download 150 songs in a minute, to attract customers to upgrade. Optimum online, as well as many other ISPs also offers a Triple Play package to also attract consumers to purchase their products. When subscribing to their cable, Internet, and telephone services, Cablevision discounts each monthly fee as well as adds benefits like providing free movie tickets. By using these incentives, they can easily target consumers to purchase their products and expand their experiences on the World Wide Web. With only one or few ISPs in one area, they are able to easily control the fees to use their service because without them, connecting to the Internet at such high speeds would be impossible.

Companies making an income on the Internet do not just provide access to it, but they rely on the Internet to expand their business and generate higher revenue. Amazon.com was launched in 1995 and is now America’s top retail business.[3] They sell almost anything on their site including books, media, electronics, clothes, and a wide variety of other items. Amazon’s prices are much cheaper than other online or physical retailers being that they do not collect sales tax on most states since it only exists in the virtual world.[4] This creates a lot of controversy yet it gives them an advantage in competition around the nation. Each item on the site shows the amount of money and percent saved from the regular retail price by purchasing from Amazon. Reviews from customers with ratings are available to view and also to write so the customers can get the satisfaction they are looking for. They also give recommendations based on your searches attempting to upsell the consumer. Amazon offers incentives as well including free shipping on certain items and a membership program Amazon Prime. For an annual fee of $79 an Amazon Prime member can receive unlimited free two-day shipping, and upgrade to one-day shipping for $3.99, and no minimum order size.[5] This can become very useful for those who order from this site often. During the first quarter of 2010, Amazon’s earnings rose 68% and sales increased by 46%.[6] This goes to show its success, marketing on the Internet with the convenience of shopping without leaving the house. Online shopping has become a convenience tool over everything else, without the worry of crowded stores and holding a variety of items, which is a promotion in itself. Retail stores all over the world are offering online shopping as well including special online deals, which expand their market with the benefit of convenience.

With the benefit of online shopping also comes the flaws, identity theft. Hackers have been able to intercept transactions when purchasing items online, stealing credit card information which allows them to use it for their own personal use. Many sites offer tips on how to avoid getting your information stolen including, researching the website, noticing its security policies, check the web address, and keeping your passwords private.[7] Even when following these tips it is still possible to fall victim to this crime. Some useful elements that online shopping sites usually have are seals noting the last time the site was checked and declaring its safety to submit personal information. Now sites can purchase Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates which enables encryption during a transaction and a verification of identity of the certificate owner. [8]This can also prevent phishing, which is when a site poses as another site so they can collect one’s personal information.

With the pros and cons of online shopping it comes to the customer whether they feel comfortable or not. Having both the physical store and the online store allow variety and reach out to both types of people, expanding their market. Amazon may have its advantages over prices and convenience, but physical stores have the customer service and ability to ask questions about certain products which entirely online stores do not have. The ability to shop online has been able to increase the revenues of companies with both speed and flexibility that people believe stores may be lacking. Online shopping has created an entire new environment in the World Wide Web and brought a completely new world to consumers.

[2] Pricing and Packages, Cablevision, http://optimum.com/ratecard.jsp?serviceType=ool&regionIdnull&searchby=corp&corp=07864, April 22, 2010.

[3] Internet Retailer Top 500 Retail Web Sites, Internet Retailer, 2010, http://www.internetretailer.com/top500/list.asp, April 22, 2010.

[4] Randall Stross, Sorry, Shoppers, but Why Can’t Amazon Collect More Tax?, The New York Times, December 26, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/business/27digi.html?_r=1, April 22, 2010.

[5] Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/gp/subs/primeclub/signup/main.html?ie=UTF8&primeMetadata=your_account_signup, April 22, 2010.

[6] Blake Ellis, Amazon earnings  jump 68%, CNNMoney, April 22, 2010,http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/22/news/companies/amazon_earnings/?postversion=2010042219, April 22, 2010.

[7] Author unknown, Fact Sheet 23: Online Shopping Tips: E-Commerce and You, Privacy Rights Clearing House, March 2010, http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs23-shopping.htm, April 22, 2010

[8] Secure Sockets Layer (SSL): How It Works, Verisign, http://www.verisign.com/ssl/ssl-information-center/how-ssl-security-works/index.html, April 22, 2010

Content Essay

The Internet has flooded the world with an array of information and will continue to do so. Between humorous web sites and breaking news articles, one can access almost anything with the click of a button. The countless number of sites can be filtered through search engines like Google which allows fast access to the information being searched. However, having this information so readily available may cause distress amongst the community. Inappropriate material also floods the Web and creates a panic within parents when dealing with the type of material their children are accessing. It is also sometimes hard to distinguish the reliability of a site when it comes to the information it provides since there is so much content available on the Internet.

News articles are readily available by a wide variety of corporations deliver their content on more than one medium. Television networks like CNN and newspapers like The New York Times offer news content on the Internet as well as their main medium. This type of access is in the hands of the public, they can research any topic at a time of their convenience without waiting for the program to begin or the paper to come out. Articles are being constantly added and updated by the minute to give the world the most up to date information. The user is also able to browse topics by genre rather than filtering through an entire list of random articles. With that being said, looking at the news online has become an interactive experience, with the availability to click on certain elements that lead to additional information. Videos have also become part of the interactive experience, which provide live coverage of the topic at hand. At the end of the articles, most sites allow users to comment on the information they had just read, allowing them to give feedback and additional opinions that are available for others to read. The news has never been a social experience before it entered the Web, showing one of the Internet’s most unique characteristics, the collective knowledge.

Wikipedia is the prime example of using the collective knowledge as a way to receive an abundance of information. Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia holding over three million English articles that allows anyone with an Internet connection to contribute to them. The user can type any topic into its search field and Wikipedia will bring up an article based on its results. The articles themselves are filled with links that direct the reader to other articles pertaining to related information from the previous. A table of contents is also provided so the user can jump to a specific section of the page. This type of research is much different than its previous forms, seen specifically with the public’s ability to edit. This may seem like a very helpful tool to finding information on the Web; however its reliability is quite controversial. The authors are anonymous and therefore almost impossible to distinguish if they are a credible source. Since anyone has the ability to add, edit, or remove parts of the article, it is unsure whether the information given is accurate. However, it does its best at monitoring the articles and removing content that is untrue, and warns the reader if there is information that is not cited or is questionable in a particular section. In a study by IBM it was noted that vandalism occurred on Wikipedia is repaired so quickly that most users never see the negative outcome.[1] Each article contains a list of references that link to the source where the editor received the information to contribute. Wikipedia is usually frowned upon as a primary source of research, and is usually forbidden in academics. Most students do not bother to look at the sources for verification of its validity, therefore giving inaccurate information. If they were to thoroughly research the information provided on Wikipedia, following the footnotes that lead to credible sources, then it would be easy to find valid information. Positively, Wikipedia gives the opportunity to add to a community where one may contain the knowledge of a topic that no one has touched on, providing a unique experience to its readers and contributors.

The Internet also provides content that relates to a more personal level of Internet users. Sites that deal with blogging or social networking allow users to interact with one another, providing information based on their interests. This genre of web sites like Facebook and Tumblr give their users the opportunity to post any information they would like to provide. Social networking sites are more of a virtual community where users can create their own online identity, where blogs allow users to share longer pieces of information relating to their lives or interests. These personal sites are very specific to the user’s identity. There is however much controversy over the information posted on both of these types of web sites. Since it is coming directly from a person, especially with Facebook where the user names are a person’s full name, it is taken extremely seriously. Death threats, suicide threats, and pornography are all common posts that users do not understand the severity behind. People can be sent to jail due to their use of social networking sites, seen specifically with Keeley Houghton, the first person in Britain being sent to jail for making a death threat on a social networking site.[2] These sites have a Terms of Use contract that the public must agree to before accepting to become a user of the site, therefore warning them of the seriousness of the content they post. Ranging from violence to sexuality to language use, users must be careful over what type of information they post. Depending on its severity, legal action may be taken or the user and information will be removed from the site. There is however another form of the removal of information which can also be seen specifically in other countries.

Content filtering is the process of which information is blocked and unavailable from being accessed. This can be used in offices, schools, or at the home using parental controls due to the unrestricted access on the Web. Specific countries also use content filtering but for reasons relating to censorship by the government. Iran has blocked social networking sites and began to monitor Web use to track down protestors for the re-election of the President, while China forced Google to censor certain topics relating to political and social issues.[3] China has also censored YouTube entirely in the past after many battles to get its content filtered within its country. YouTube has opened the doors for new and creative ways that information can be spread by giving its users the ability to upload videos for the world to view. By filtering the content, this spread of information has become limited and forces users to find additional ways to get around the government’s regulations and onto the sites they desire.

The use of videos on the Web has set the way for both acceptable and unacceptable social content. The ability to stream television shows, music videos, and news events has given the public the flexibility to watch these videos at their own convenience. Networks such as NBC and ABC made their television shows available online to stream, allowing the public to watch them at a time other than when it was aired. Hulu, a site that houses a variety of television shows from certain networks is a one-click stop for a variety of material. Companies that sponsor the shows are advertised during the normal commercial break and usually last only 30 seconds.  However, the allowance of videos on the Web has also given a great deal of inappropriate material the ability to be accessed which includes pornographies and violent acts, as well as copyrighted movies. Sites like SurftheChannel and TVShack allow users to find television shows and movies not available by the network sites for free streaming. They link to a wide variety of video uploading sites allowing users to watch almost anything they would like uninterrupted. Movies and television shows are also available for download on sites using BitTorrent. Film studios are losing money from these illegal activities on the Web. Pornography is also readily available for viewing on certain web sites created specifically for that purpose. The material is quite inappropriate for children and for that reason parental control programs are created to block sites in the house.

Once news, journals, and videos became available on the Web, they were delivered as they never were before. News became interactive, introducing continuous linking directing a user to countless information. It has facilitated the world to access this information as easily as possible, some information being more negative than positive however. Blogs gave users the ability to express themselves in new ways, whether in writing or videos, and allowed them to share their opinions to the world. The Internet has changed the way content is perceived and used, giving the users of the Web unlimited abilities.

with history flow Visualizations, IBM, 2004, http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~fviegas/papers/history_flow.pdf, April 27, 2010.

[2] Luke Salkeld, Facebook bully jailed: Death threat girl, 18, is first person put behind bars for vicious internet campaign, Mail Online, August 21, 2009, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1208147/First-cyberbully-jailed-Facebook-death-threats.html, April 27, 2010.

[3] Jim Garrettson, Slipping Through the Filter: The Effectiveness of Web Filtering, The New New Internet, April 27, 2010, http://www.thenewnewinternet.com/2010/04/27/slipping-through-the-filter-the-effectiveness-of-web-filtering/, April 27, 2010.

Technological Examination Essay

The functions of the Internet seem almost infinite; however as time goes on it will become an even more powerful tool expanding the virtual world even further. The Internet itself has evolved through time, starting with only a limited number of users and ending with its introduction to the public and the creation of the World Wide Web. It has given the world both positive and negative outcomes; however it is one of the world’s primary mediums for information. Problems created from the Web are eventually solved until more problems arise, showing that even the most powerful tools have weaknesses. Society has grown to live with the Internet readily available anywhere; the desktop, laptop, and cell phone all possessing the power to access the Web, and without its availability the world would be at a loss.

The Internet possesses quite a unique capability that no other technological innovation has been able to possess. It’s the one communication and information tool that is owned and used by the public. Despite certain censoring and restrictions, any Internet user can put almost anything on the Web. Nonetheless, it holds the ability to serve multiple functions. Where else can you e-mail, instant message, and find a news article consecutively at the same place? It links the world together like never before and is forever expanding. The tasks that separate technologies can achieve are combined when using the Web. Advertisements become interactive rather than only for viewing purposes while live video streaming may only be available via web access.

With the strengths that come with the Internet also come the weaknesses. As stated previously, the Internet is an information highway, it contains almost everything. Though it is an extremely powerful tool containing an abundance of knowledge, the Internet is not all-powerful. It contains some weaknesses that limit its ability to function exactly how everyone would like it to. The uncertainty where information is coming from leads Internet users to question its reliability and accuracy. Web sites are not usually cited and do not contain any list of references. Since the Web is built on a collective knowledge, any person can add false information, limiting its user’s ability to trust certain sites; whereas a book lists author and publishing information, giving it more creditability than some web sites. The most credible sites are those that charge a subscription fee to access certain information. Not everything is available to the public, many sites use membership programs to allow access to only those subscribers. The Internet is also limited to its location of availability. You cannot just go outside with your laptop and expect to be connected to the Internet. Whether connected through a wall, cell phone, or router, the Web has a limited range where it can be accessed.

The Internet has also created certain elements just from being in existence. Viruses began spreading during the early stages of the Internet’s creation, starting on the ARPAnet and once users started to become familiar with the design of computers, they used this knowledge to start the spread of viruses which reached into our time.[1] Once computers were connected to one another it became quite easy for viruses to spread, and they did so rapidly. Viruses can cause intense problems to one’s system including: the deletion of critical system elements, hardware failure, data loss or theft, and system inoperability.[2] They can be spread and disguised through e-mail spam, attachments, downloads, or even web sites, all which are available solely from the Web. However, remedial technologies like anti-virus programs were created to counteract these attacks and remove the viruses before they became a serious problem. Now browsers even support add-ons for some anti-virus programs which notify the user about the sites they can trust and help prevent phishing and viruses. Hackers also are an unintended consequence found in the development of the Internet. They are able to bypass security software and obtain information without permission or sometimes even knowledge of the owner. With this ability they have complete access over the computer and files, giving a possibility to even harm the system.

The content available on the Web may be horrifying for parents since the public has almost unlimited access to it which including: pornography, violence, and language. It’s quite easy for children to stumble upon pornographic material, especially when innocent searches result in sexual content.[3] For this reason, parental controls have become available for almost any system. This allows parents to control and monitor the content available to their children without worrying about what type of information they will find or how it will affect them. Real life Web encounters in chat rooms or other means of engaging in contact with others may also affect children negatively. Social networking sites as well as chat rooms are prominent mediums of cyber bullying and can emotionally harm a child. This may include being harassed, threatened, or humiliated via the Internet which puts the youth group in danger.[4] Meeting pedophiles in these chat rooms is also a huge concern for parents. Young children would chat with others who they believed were their age, but behind the mask of the computer is an extremely dangerous adult. With the help of parental controls this type of harassment can be avoided, keeping children away from this dangerous torture. Everyone also has access over the information you decide to post on the Web. If you are searching for a job, the employer is most likely going to search for you on the Web, mainly on social networking sites, to try to learn a little more about you. Conducted from a recent survey by Microsoft, seventy-nine percent of hiring managers have used the Web to better assess their applicants and seventy percent have rejected potential employees due to information found online.[5] This has limited the Internet’s access to job hunters since they must be cautious about the types of information they post on the Internet. From deleting posts and pictures to even changing user names, they will do anything to prevent others from seeing content that may cost them a job.

This technology has definitely evolved over time, especially since these problems were not seen at the start of the Web. Before the World Wide Web was even created, the Internet was being referred to as the ARPAnet. This network was available to only government officials and scientific engineers, unknown to the public. Once society started to use the Internet, the World Wide Web began to unravel giving possibilities never imagined. Speeds became much faster which allowed the designs of sites to become more complex, adding a variety of interaction. MP3’s and video were now available to embed in sites due to high speeds and quick loading. Designers could now use more aesthetically pleasing graphics to attract visitors rather than just text, where dealing with the size of images became less of a concern. Communication over the Web also evolved greatly, starting with solely e-mails and leading to chat rooms, instant messaging, and video chats. These forms of communication have made the Web more human, since humans use communication in their everyday lives. As stated in The Soft Edge, “all media eventually become more human in their performance—that is, they facilitate communication that is increasingly like the ways humans process information ‘naturally’, or prior to the advent of given media”.[6] These communication tools were not just primarily used to access information from one computer to another, but humans used it to access information from each other. E-mails and instant messages created a new means for humans to communicate to each other, giving fast response times rather than the days it took for post mail to come. During the early stages of the Internet its primary function was to allow systems to communicate with one another, and once it was transformed into the World Wide Web, humans used it to communicate to one another as well.

The Internet itself doesn’t necessarily compete with any other technology; however its capability of being one element that has the functionality of a wide variety of other technologies may cause competition.  Internet Service Providers compete with one another in the business aspect of attracting users to their services because without them, the Internet is inaccessible. The Internet also competes with other mediums; DVD’s, CD’s, and video games, since a large majority of these elements are available to stream or download. This also greatly competes with the television as well, if its elements are all available online then there is no real need to own one. While the Web goes to show that it has both beneficial and harmful qualities, it still provides the world with countless data that no other element can provide.

[2] Author unknown, Damage caused by malware, Kapersky Labs, http://www.securelist.com/en/threats/detect?chapter=76, April 28, 2010.

[3] Chang-Hoan cho, Children’s exposure to negative Internet content: effects of family context, Dec 2005, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m6836/is_4_49/ai_n25120984/, April 28, 2010.

[4] Ross Ellis, Teen cyberbullies attack on Facebook: Part One,  Examiner, April 28, 2010, http://www.examiner.com/x-39476-NY-Cyber-Safety-Examiner~y2010m4d28-Teen-cyberbullies-attack-on-Facebook–Part-one, April 28, 2010.

[5] Stephanie Goldberg, Young job-seekers hide their Facebook pages, CNN, March 29, 2010, http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/29/facebook.job-seekers/index.html, April 28, 2010.

[6] Paul Levinson, The Soft Edge: A Natural History and Future of the Information Revolution, (Routledge, 1998) p.xvi

Conclusion

Technologies have become a big part of our lives and will continue to do so until the end of time. They can either help make tasks more productive or are solely for entertainment purposes. The Internet is one of these technologies and is one of the most beneficial to society. If the Internet were to be removed for some reason no one would know what to do. The World Wide Web would not exist, companies would no longer be part of networks for easy transferring of documents; the list is endless. We have learned to become dependent on the Internet, or more specifically the World Wide Web to complete every day tasks. Yet we never take the time to understand how these technologies work, its functions, or the history behind them.

There’s no denying that the Internet has completely changed our world, in fact it is continuously doing so to this day and will continue to do so in the future as well. Just think about how the Internet has transformed. The World Wide Web was created from the Internet, or as it was previously known as, the ARPAnet. Before it became available to the public it was only used by government officials and computer scientists, yet it is now one of the most prominent technologies out there. It started out being used to only speak from system to system and is now an essential tool for humans to communicate. First, users started to communicate through e-mail. Then instant messaging became a popular way to contact someone via the Web allowing immediate responses. Users were having full on conversations in a matter of seconds, just like they were sitting there in person. Now video chats have become an additional way for friends and family to keep in touch. Parents in the United States could speak with and see their children who are in China; the Web has now become almost like a virtual reality. Imagine relying solely on post mail to get a message across to someone at a far distance. Sure the telephone gave this possibility decades before the Web was introduced, but did the phone allow attachments such as images or files to be sent? Post mail allows the physical delivery of objects and the invention of e-mail allowed instant delivery and reception digitally. This information could usually then be converted physically if the user desired.

Communication is not the only way the Web has changed the world, the amount and type of content available was also influential. Research information, audio, video, Bit Torrent, and pornography are all available to view and download from the Web. Users were able to visit an array of sites to help find whatever information they were looking for. Audio and video are available to be embedded in sites and sometimes are even available to download. This has changed the way information is able to be delivered and received. It is at the hands of the user and became an interactive experience. One’s favorite television shows can be streamed online at their own convenience, while some programs even allow it to be downloaded. This has caused much controversy with copyright infringement, specifically with programs like BitTorrent. This changed the world even further by creating copyright laws that were passed due to the availability of information on the Internet. Not only that, but pornography caused parents to purchase software to block this type of content. None of this content was so easily available before the invention of the World Wide Web.

Net neutrality is probably the most important concern to this day and affects any and every Internet user. Internet Service Providers are trying to take over the Web where it used to be owned by the public. That’s the beauty of the Web, there is no owner. But with ISPs trying to filter content and control what the public can access, it’s hard to say that it is not owned by anyone. They are trying to control the speeds of certain sites, the order and availability of sites in search results, and will basically soon try to take over the Web. They are bribing certain companies to pay more to give them the availability that should have in the first place. The future of the Web as we know it is unpredictable. It is in the hands of the FCC depending on their choice to allow this or not, for this has been a battle for years. It could lead to either an unbiased availability as the Web always has been or could lead to the destruction of it. Functionality-wise, the Web has full potential to do even more. Right now HTML 5 is in production which will reduce the need for browser plug-ins like Adobe Flash, which will allow a greater success on mobile devices. Who would have thought that video chatting would be an available tool for the public to use? I could only imagine the future the Web has for us, and believe it will offer new tools and experiences that expand our horizons even greater in a very short amount of time.

List of References

Scott Griffen, Internet Pioneers, 2002, http://www.ibiblio.org/pioneers/index.html. April 6, 2010.

Vannevar Bush, As We May Think, The Atlantic, July 1945,http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1969/12/as-we-may-think/3881/3/?. April 6, 2010.

Author unknown, Laurence Roberts Manages The ARPANET Program, 1996,http://www.livinginternet.com/i/ii_roberts.htm. April 7, 2010.

Barry M. Leiner, “The Past and Future History of the Internet,” Communications of the ACMVol. 40 (February 1997): 103.

Otis Port, Larry Roberts: He Made the Net Work, Business Week September 27, 2004,http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_39/b3901030_mz072.htm.  April 8, 2010.

Josh McHugh, The n-Dimensional Superswitch, Wired, May 2001,http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.05/caspian.html?pg=3&topic=&topic_set=. April 8, 2010.

Author unknown, Tim Berners-Lee, W3, March 31, 2010, http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/Longer.html. April 8, 2010.

Stephanie Schorow, Tim Berners-Lee receives Draper Prize, MIT News, January 5, 2007,http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/draper-prize.html. April 8, 2010.

Moschovitis, Christos. History of the Internet. Santa Barbara, CA: The Moschovitis Group, Inc, 1999.

Segaller, Stephen. Nerds A Brief History of the Internet, New York, NY: TV Books, 1998.

Tim Berners-Lee, Net Neutrality: This is serious, Decentralized Information Group, June 21, 2006, http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/node/144, April 20, 2010.

Author unknown, Who Want to Get Rid of Net Neutrality, Save the Internet, http://www.savetheinternet.com/faq. April 20, 2010.

Lawrence Lessig, No Tolls on The Internet, The Washington Post, 2006,http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/07/AR2006060702108.html, April 20, 2010.

Tim Berners-Lee, Net Neutrality: This is serious, Decentralized Information Group, June 21, 2006, http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/node/144, April 20, 2010

Jonathan Salant, Google, Pushing for ‘Net Neutrality,’ Boosts Lobbying in 2010, Business Week, April 20, 2010, http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-20/google-pushing-for-net-neutrality-boosts-lobbying-in-2010.html, April 20, 2010.

Tim Wu, Network Neutrality FAQ, Tim Wu, http://timwu.org/network_neutrality.html, April 20, 2010.

Author unknown, Copyright Clinic: Definitions, The Industry Trust,http://www.copyrightaware.co.uk/learning-about-copyright/copyrightclinic/definitions.asp, April 20, 2010.

James D. Torr.  ”Introduction.” At Issue: Internet Piracy. Ed. James D. Torr. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2005. August 2004. 20 April 2010. <http://www.enotes.com/internet-piracy-article/54083>.

David Kravets, Isohunt Ordered to Remove Infringing Content, Wired, March 30, 2010,http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/03/isohunt/, April 20, 2010.

Dustin Quillen, Nintendo: Piracy to Blame for 50 Percent Drop in European Sales, 1Up, April 20, 2010, http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3178906, April 20, 2010.

Madeline Bennett, Politicians scrutinized over Digital Economy Act, V3, April 19, 2010,http://www.v3.co.uk/v3/news/2261578/digital-economy-act-debated, April 20, 2010.

Stephen Lawson, Broadband Has No Regulator, BitTorrent CEO Says, PCWorld, April 19, 2010, http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/194554/broadband_has_no_regulator_bittorrent_ceo_says.html, April 20, 2010.

Marshall Brian, How Web Servers Work, How Stuff Works,http://computer.howstuffworks.com/web-server.htm/printable, April 20, 2010.

Nilay Patel, FCC redefines “broadband” to mean 768Kbps, “fast” to mean “kinda slow”, Engadget, March 19, 2008, http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/fcc-redefines-broadband-to-mean-768kbps-fast-to-mean-kinda/, April 22, 2010.

Pricing and Packages, Cablevision, http://optimum.com/ratecard.jsp?serviceType=ool&regionIdnull&searchby=corp&corp=07864, April 22, 2010.

Internet Retailer Top 500 Retail Web Sites, Internet Retailer, 2010, http://www.internetretailer.com/top500/list.asp, April 22, 2010.

Randall Stross, Sorry, Shoppers, but Why Can’t Amazon Collect More Tax?, The New York Times, December 26, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/business/27digi.html?_r=1, April 22, 2010.

Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/gp/subs/primeclub/signup/main.html?ie=UTF8&primeMetadata=your_account_signup, April 22, 2010.

Blake Ellis, Amazon earnings  jump 68%, CNNMoney, April 22, 2010,http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/22/news/companies/amazon_earnings/?postversion=2010042219, April 22, 2010.

Author unknown, Fact Sheet 23: Online Shopping Tips: E-Commerce and You, Privacy Rights Clearing House, March 2010, http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs23-shopping.htm, April 22, 2010.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL): How It Works, Verisign, http://www.verisign.com/ssl/ssl-information-center/how-ssl-security-works/index.html, April 22, 2010.

Fernanda B. Viégas, Studying Cooperation and Conflict between Authors

with history flow Visualizations, IBM, 2004, http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~fviegas/papers/history_flow.pdf, April 27, 2010.

Luke Salkeld, Facebook bully jailed: Death threat girl, 18, is first person put behind bars for vicious internet campaign, Mail Online, August 21, 2009, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1208147/First-cyberbully-jailed-Facebook-death-threats.html, April 27, 2010.

Jim Garrettson, Slipping Through the Filter: The Effectiveness of Web Filtering, The New New Internet, April 27, 2010,http://www.thenewnewinternet.com/2010/04/27/slipping-through-the-filter-the-effectiveness-of-web-filtering/, April 27, 2010.

Author unknown, History of malicious programs, Kapersky Labs, http://www.securelist.com/en/threats/detect?chapter=77, April 28, 2010.

Author unknown, Damage caused by malware, Kapersky Labs, http://www.securelist.com/en/threats/detect?chapter=76, April 28, 2010.

Chang-Hoan cho, Children’s exposure to negative Internet content: effects of family context, Dec 2005, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m6836/is_4_49/ai_n25120984/, April 28, 2010.

Ross Ellis, Teen cyberbullies attack on Facebook: Part One,  Examiner, April 28, 2010, http://www.examiner.com/x-39476-NY-Cyber-Safety-Examiner~y2010m4d28-Teen-cyberbullies-attack-on-Facebook–Part-one, April 28, 2010.

Stephanie Goldberg, Young job-seekers hide their Facebook pages, CNN, March 29, 2010, http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/29/facebook.job-seekers/index.html, April 28, 2010.

Paul Levinson, The Soft Edge: A Natural History and Future of the Information Revolution, (Routledge, 1998) p.xvi

The Internet possesses quite a unique capability that no other technological innovation has been able to possess. It’s the one communication and information tool that is owned and used by the public. Despite certain censoring and restrictions, any Internet user can put almost anything on the Web. Nonetheless, it holds the ability to serve multiple functions. Where else can you e-mail, instant message, and find a news article consecutively at the same place? It links the world together like never before and is forever expanding. The tasks that separate technologies can achieve are combined when using the Web. Advertisements become interactive rather than only for viewing purposes while live video streaming may only be available via web access.

With the strengths that come with the Internet also come the weaknesses. As stated previously, the Internet is an information highway, it contains almost everything. Though it is an extremely powerful tool containing an abundance of knowledge, the Internet is not all-powerful. It contains some weaknesses that limit its ability to function exactly how everyone would like it to. The uncertainty where information is coming from leads Internet users to question its reliability and accuracy. Web sites are not usually cited and do not contain any list of references. Since the Web is built on a collective knowledge, any person can add false information, limiting its user’s ability to trust certain sites; whereas a book lists author and publishing information, giving it more creditability than some web sites. The most credible sites are those that charge a subscription fee to access certain information. Not everything is available to the public, many sites use membership programs to allow access to only those subscribers. The Internet is also limited to its location of availability. You cannot just go outside with your laptop and expect to be connected to the Internet. Whether connected through a wall, cell phone, or router, the Web has a limited range where it can be accessed.

The Internet has also created certain elements just from being in existence. Viruses began spreading during the early stages of the Internet’s creation, starting on the ARPAnet and once users started to become familiar with the design of computers, they used this knowledge to start the spread of viruses which reached into our time.[1] Once computers were connected to one another it became quite easy for viruses to spread, and they did so rapidly. Viruses can cause intense problems to one’s system including: the deletion of critical system elements, hardware failure, data loss or theft, and system inoperability.[2] They can be spread and disguised through e-mail spam, attachments, downloads, or even web sites, all which are available solely from the Web. However, remedial technologies like anti-virus programs were created to counteract these attacks and remove the viruses before they became a serious problem. Now browsers even support add-ons for some anti-virus programs which notify the user about the sites they can trust and help prevent phishing and viruses. Hackers also are an unintended consequence found in the development of the Internet. They are able to bypass security software and obtain information without permission or sometimes even knowledge of the owner. With this ability they have complete access over the computer and files, giving a possibility to even harm the system.

The content available on the Web may be horrifying for parents since the public has almost unlimited access to it which including: pornography, violence, and language. It’s quite easy for children to stumble upon pornographic material, especially when innocent searches result in sexual content.[3] For this reason, parental controls have become available for almost any system. This allows parents to control and monitor the content available to their children without worrying about what type of information they will find or how it will affect them. Real life Web encounters in chat rooms or other means of engaging in contact with others may also affect children negatively. Social networking sites as well as chat rooms are prominent mediums of cyber bullying and can emotionally harm a child. This may include being harassed, threatened, or humiliated via the Internet which puts the youth group in danger.[4] Meeting pedophiles in these chat rooms is also a huge concern for parents. Young children would chat with others who they believed were their age, but behind the mask of the computer is an extremely dangerous adult. With the help of parental controls this type of harassment can be avoided, keeping children away from this dangerous torture. Everyone also has access over the information you decide to post on the Web. If you are searching for a job, the employer is most likely going to search for you on the Web, mainly on social networking sites, to try to learn a little more about you. Conducted from a recent survey by Microsoft, seventy-nine percent of hiring managers have used the Web to better assess their applicants and seventy percent have rejected potential employees due to information found online.[5] This has limited the Internet’s access to job hunters since they must be cautious about the types of information they post on the Internet. From deleting posts and pictures to even changing user names, they will do anything to prevent others from seeing content that may cost them a job.

This technology has definitely evolved over time, especially since these problems were not seen at the start of the Web. Before the World Wide Web was even created, the Internet was being referred to as the ARPAnet. This network was available to only government officials and scientific engineers, unknown to the public. Once society started to use the Internet, the World Wide Web began to unravel giving possibilities never imagined. Speeds became much faster which allowed the designs of sites to become more complex, adding a variety of interaction. MP3’s and video were now available to embed in sites due to high speeds and quick loading. Designers could now use more aesthetically pleasing graphics to attract visitors rather than just text, where dealing with the size of images became less of a concern. Communication over the Web also evolved greatly, starting with solely e-mails and leading to chat rooms, instant messaging, and video chats. These forms of communication have made the Web more human, since humans use communication in their everyday lives. As stated in The Soft Edge, “all media eventually become more human in their performance—that is, they facilitate communication that is increasingly like the ways humans process information ‘naturally’, or prior to the advent of given media”.[6] These communication tools were not just primarily used to access information from one computer to another, but humans used it to access information from each other. E-mails and instant messages created a new means for humans to communicate to each other, giving fast response times rather than the days it took for post mail to come. During the early stages of the Internet its primary function was to allow systems to communicate with one another, and once it was transformed into the World Wide Web, humans used it to communicate to one another as well.

The Internet itself doesn’t necessarily compete with any other technology; however its capability of being one element that has the functionality of a wide variety of other technologies may cause competition.  Internet Service Providers compete with one another in the business aspect of attracting users to their services because without them, the Internet is inaccessible. The Internet also competes with other mediums; DVD’s, CD’s, and video games, since a large majority of these elements are available to stream or download. This also greatly competes with the television as well, if its elements are all available online then there is no real need to own one. While the Web goes to show that it has both beneficial and harmful qualities, it still provides the world with countless data that no other element can provide.

[1] Author unknown, History of malicious programs, Kapersky Labs, http://www.securelist.com/en/threats/detect?chapter=77, April 28, 2010.

[2] Author unknown, Damage caused by malware, Kapersky Labs, http://www.securelist.com/en/threats/detect?chapter=76, April 28, 2010.

[3] Chang-Hoan cho, Children’s exposure to negative Internet content: effects of family context, Dec 2005, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m6836/is_4_49/ai_n25120984/, April 28, 2010.

[4] Ross Ellis, Teen cyberbullies attack on Facebook: Part One,  Examiner, April 28, 2010, http://www.examiner.com/x-39476-NY-Cyber-Safety-Examiner~y2010m4d28-Teen-cyberbullies-attack-on-Facebook–Part-one, April 28, 2010.

[5] Stephanie Goldberg, Young job-seekers hide their Facebook pages, CNN, March 29, 2010, http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/29/facebook.job-seekers/index.html, April 28, 2010.

[6] Paul Levinson, The Soft Edge: A Natural History and Future of the Information Revolution, (Routledge, 1998) p.xvi

News articles are readily available by a wide variety of corporations deliver their content on more than one medium. Television networks like CNN and newspapers like The New York Times offer news content on the Internet as well as their main medium. This type of access is in the hands of the public, they can research any topic at a time of their convenience without waiting for the program to begin or the paper to come out. Articles are being constantly added and updated by the minute to give the world the most up to date information. The user is also able to browse topics by genre rather than filtering through an entire list of random articles. With that being said, looking at the news online has become an interactive experience, with the availability to click on certain elements that lead to additional information. Videos have also become part of the interactive experience, which provide live coverage of the topic at hand. At the end of the articles, most sites allow users to comment on the information they had just read, allowing them to give feedback and additional opinions that are available for others to read. The news has never been a social experience before it entered the Web, showing one of the Internet’s most unique characteristics, the collective knowledge.

Wikipedia is the prime example of using the collective knowledge as a way to receive an abundance of information. Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia holding over three million English articles that allows anyone with an Internet connection to contribute to them. The user can type any topic into its search field and Wikipedia will bring up an article based on its results. The articles themselves are filled with links that direct the reader to other articles pertaining to related information from the previous. A table of contents is also provided so the user can jump to a specific section of the page. This type of research is much different than its previous forms, seen specifically with the public’s ability to edit. This may seem like a very helpful tool to finding information on the Web; however its reliability is quite controversial. The authors are anonymous and therefore almost impossible to distinguish if they are a credible source. Since anyone has the ability to add, edit, or remove parts of the article, it is unsure whether the information given is accurate. However, it does its best at monitoring the articles and removing content that is untrue, and warns the reader if there is information that is not cited or is questionable in a particular section. In a study by IBM it was noted that vandalism occurred on Wikipedia is repaired so quickly that most users never see the negative outcome.[1] Each article contains a list of references that link to the source where the editor received the information to contribute. Wikipedia is usually frowned upon as a primary source of research, and is usually forbidden in academics. Most students do not bother to look at the sources for verification of its validity, therefore giving inaccurate information. If they were to thoroughly research the information provided on Wikipedia, following the footnotes that lead to credible sources, then it would be easy to find valid information. Positively, Wikipedia gives the opportunity to add to a community where one may contain the knowledge of a topic that no one has touched on, providing a unique experience to its readers and contributors.

The Internet also provides content that relates to a more personal level of Internet users. Sites that deal with blogging or social networking allow users to interact with one another, providing information based on their interests. This genre of web sites like Facebook and Tumblr give their users the opportunity to post any information they would like to provide. Social networking sites are more of a virtual community where users can create their own online identity, where blogs allow users to share longer pieces of information relating to their lives or interests. These personal sites are very specific to the user’s identity. There is however much controversy over the information posted on both of these types of web sites. Since it is coming directly from a person, especially with Facebook where the user names are a person’s full name, it is taken extremely seriously. Death threats, suicide threats, and pornography are all common posts that users do not understand the severity behind. People can be sent to jail due to their use of social networking sites, seen specifically with Keeley Houghton, the first person in Britain being sent to jail for making a death threat on a social networking site.[2] These sites have a Terms of Use contract that the public must agree to before accepting to become a user of the site, therefore warning them of the seriousness of the content they post. Ranging from violence to sexuality to language use, users must be careful over what type of information they post. Depending on its severity, legal action may be taken or the user and information will be removed from the site. There is however another form of the removal of information which can also be seen specifically in other countries.

Content filtering is the process of which information is blocked and unavailable from being accessed. This can be used in offices, schools, or at the home using parental controls due to the unrestricted access on the Web. Specific countries also use content filtering but for reasons relating to censorship by the government. Iran has blocked social networking sites and began to monitor Web use to track down protestors for the re-election of the President, while China forced Google to censor certain topics relating to political and social issues.[3] China has also censored YouTube entirely in the past after many battles to get its content filtered within its country. YouTube has opened the doors for new and creative ways that information can be spread by giving its users the ability to upload videos for the world to view. By filtering the content, this spread of information has become limited and forces users to find additional ways to get around the government’s regulations and onto the sites they desire.

The use of videos on the Web has set the way for both acceptable and unacceptable social content. The ability to stream television shows, music videos, and news events has given the public the flexibility to watch these videos at their own convenience. Networks such as NBC and ABC made their television shows available online to stream, allowing the public to watch them at a time other than when it was aired. Hulu, a site that houses a variety of television shows from certain networks is a one-click stop for a variety of material. Companies that sponsor the shows are advertised during the normal commercial break and usually last only 30 seconds.  However, the allowance of videos on the Web has also given a great deal of inappropriate material the ability to be accessed which includes pornographies and violent acts, as well as copyrighted movies. Sites like SurftheChannel and TVShack allow users to find television shows and movies not available by the network sites for free streaming. They link to a wide variety of video uploading sites allowing users to watch almost anything they would like uninterrupted. Movies and television shows are also available for download on sites using BitTorrent. Film studios are losing money from these illegal activities on the Web. Pornography is also readily available for viewing on certain web sites created specifically for that purpose. The material is quite inappropriate for children and for that reason parental control programs are created to block sites in the house.

Once news, journals, and videos became available on the Web, they were delivered as they never were before. News became interactive, introducing continuous linking directing a user to countless information. It has facilitated the world to access this information as easily as possible, some information being more negative than positive however. Blogs gave users the ability to express themselves in new ways, whether in writing or videos, and allowed them to share their opinions to the world. The Internet has changed the way content is perceived and used, giving the users of the Web unlimited abilities.

[1] Fernanda B. Viégas, Studying Cooperation and Conflict between Authors

with history flow Visualizations, IBM, 2004, http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~fviegas/papers/history_flow.pdf, April 27, 2010.

[2] Luke Salkeld, Facebook bully jailed: Death threat girl, 18, is first person put behind bars for vicious internet campaign, Mail Online, August 21, 2009, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1208147/First-cyberbully-jailed-Facebook-death-threats.html, April 27, 2010.

[3] Jim Garrettson, Slipping Through the Filter: The Effectiveness of Web Filtering, The New New Internet, April 27, 2010, http://www.thenewnewinternet.com/2010/04/27/slipping-through-the-filter-the-effectiveness-of-web-filtering/, April 27, 2010.

Broadband connection has set the way to make the Web what it is today.  It allows much more information to travel at quicker speeds, allowing more complex and visually aesthetic web sites to be created. Before these speeds were available high resolution images and embedded videos would have taken forever to load and were not common to have on sites like they are now. However, to obtain this access of high-speed Internet one must go through an Internet Service Provider (ISP). They provide consumers with modems that are most commonly connected through a cable wire or telephone network that allow instant access to the Internet. Before DSL or cable modems were used, computers were connected through dial-up modems through the telephone lines, not only clogging them up, but giving them a low transfer speed of 56 kilobits per second. Now, basic broadband as defined by the FCC is surpassing 768 kilobits per second.[1] Users are now experiencing the Web at lightning speeds compared to the previous speed of the dial-up modem.

One example is Optimum Online, an ISP which is owned by cable company Cablevision, primarily located in the tri-state area. They offer three different forms of Internet access, Optimum Online, Optimum Online Boost, and Optimum Online Ultra. They advertise Optimum Online as having 15 megabits per second (Mbps) download and 2 Mbps upload for $45/month, Optimum Online Boost having 30Mbps download and 5 Mbps upload for an additional $15/month, and Optimum Online Ultra having 101Mbps download and 15Mbps upload for an additional $55/month.[2] Having all of these packages available, Cablevision is able to target a wide range of costumers, giving them a large selection to meet their needs. Also by giving deals to existing customers, they will be more likely to upgrade to the higher speed packages. They promote Optimum Online Ultra by saying it is the fastest Internet access in America and give statistics of download speeds, like the ability to download 150 songs in a minute, to attract customers to upgrade. Optimum online, as well as many other ISPs also offers a Triple Play package to also attract consumers to purchase their products. When subscribing to their cable, Internet, and telephone services, Cablevision discounts each monthly fee as well as adds benefits like providing free movie tickets. By using these incentives, they can easily target consumers to purchase their products and expand their experiences on the World Wide Web. With only one or few ISPs in one area, they are able to easily control the fees to use their service because without them, connecting to the Internet at such high speeds would be impossible.

Companies making an income on the Internet do not just provide access to it, but they rely on the Internet to expand their business and generate higher revenue. Amazon.com was launched in 1995 and is now America’s top retail business.[3] They sell almost anything on their site including books, media, electronics, clothes, and a wide variety of other items. Amazon’s prices are much cheaper than other online or physical retailers being that they do not collect sales tax on most states since it only exists in the virtual world.[4] This creates a lot of controversy yet it gives them an advantage in competition around the nation. Each item on the site shows the amount of money and percent saved from the regular retail price by purchasing from Amazon. Reviews from customers with ratings are available to view and also to write so the customers can get the satisfaction they are looking for. They also give recommendations based on your searches attempting to upsell the consumer. Amazon offers incentives as well including free shipping on certain items and a membership program Amazon Prime. For an annual fee of $79 an Amazon Prime member can receive unlimited free two-day shipping, and upgrade to one-day shipping for $3.99, and no minimum order size.[5] This can become very useful for those who order from this site often. During the first quarter of 2010, Amazon’s earnings rose 68% and sales increased by 46%.[6] This goes to show its success, marketing on the Internet with the convenience of shopping without leaving the house. Online shopping has become a convenience tool over everything else, without the worry of crowded stores and holding a variety of items, which is a promotion in itself. Retail stores all over the world are offering online shopping as well including special online deals, which expand their market with the benefit of convenience.

With the benefit of online shopping also comes the flaws, identity theft. Hackers have been able to intercept transactions when purchasing items online, stealing credit card information which allows them to use it for their own personal use. Many sites offer tips on how to avoid getting your information stolen including, researching the website, noticing its security policies, check the web address, and keeping your passwords private.[7] Even when following these tips it is still possible to fall victim to this crime. Some useful elements that online shopping sites usually have are seals noting the last time the site was checked and declaring its safety to submit personal information. Now sites can purchase Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates which enables encryption during a transaction and a verification of identity of the certificate owner. [8]This can also prevent phishing, which is when a site poses as another site so they can collect one’s personal information.

With the pros and cons of online shopping it comes to the customer whether they feel comfortable or not. Having both the physical store and the online store allow variety and reach out to both types of people, expanding their market. Amazon may have its advantages over prices and convenience, but physical stores have the customer service and ability to ask questions about certain products which entirely online stores do not have. The ability to shop online has been able to increase the revenues of companies with both speed and flexibility that people believe stores may be lacking. Online shopping has created an entire new environment in the World Wide Web and brought a completely new world to consumers.

[1] Nilay Patel, FCC redefines “broadband” to mean 768Kbps, “fast” to mean “kinda slow”, Engadget, March 19, 2008, http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/fcc-redefines-broadband-to-mean-768kbps-fast-to-mean-kinda/, April 22, 2010.

[2] Pricing and Packages, Cablevision, http://optimum.com/ratecard.jsp?serviceType=ool&regionIdnull&searchby=corp&corp=07864, April 22, 2010.

[3] Internet Retailer Top 500 Retail Web Sites, Internet Retailer, 2010, http://www.internetretailer.com/top500/list.asp, April 22, 2010.

[4] Randall Stross, Sorry, Shoppers, but Why Can’t Amazon Collect More Tax?, The New York Times, December 26, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/business/27digi.html?_r=1, April 22, 2010.

[5] Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/gp/subs/primeclub/signup/main.html?ie=UTF8&primeMetadata=your_account_signup, April 22, 2010.

[6] Blake Ellis, Amazon earnings  jump 68%, CNNMoney, April 22, 2010, http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/22/news/companies/amazon_earnings/?postversion=2010042219, April 22, 2010.

[7] Author unknown, Fact Sheet 23: Online Shopping Tips: E-Commerce and You, Privacy Rights Clearing House, March 2010, http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs23-shopping.htm, April 22, 2010

[8] Secure Sockets Layer (SSL): How It Works, Verisign, http://www.verisign.com/ssl/ssl-information-center/how-ssl-security-works/index.html, April 22, 2010

First, the user must be connected to an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to have access to the Internet. Usually, they pay a monthly fee which is determined by the level of quality and speed the user wishes to receive, and in return they acquire a modem which connects to a cable or television line, granting them access to their network and therefore the Internet. The ISP may then also be connected to a larger network. The diagram below illustrates the path the computer takes to get to the Internet.

http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/webserver-backbone-sm.gif

The ISP then connects to a Regional ISP, which connects to the World ISP leading to the World Wide Web. Every computer is connected to each other on the Internet because of the “backbones” that the largest ISP provides through fiber optic cables. Computers in an office, school, or building can be connected through a local area network (LAN) which allows users to connect and access information with intense speed by using a T1 line.

Each machine on the Internet is given one of two names, the server and the client. The machines that carry out work to other machines are known as servers. Each server has a specific task, for example there is a server dealing with information on the Web, and a server for e-mail as well. The machine that accesses that information is known as the client. Each machine is therefore given an Internet Protocol (IP) address, which is a unique address that defines your system. This is how your computer communicates to a server. A server’s IP address does not change very often, where a home machine can have a new IP address each session.[1] IP addresses contain ten numbers with no significance to the site the user is visiting. Therefore, the Domain Name System (DNS) was brought into effect which translates text names to IP addresses. This is much easier to remember since the text relates to the site itself rather than random numbers.

Due to the DNS, a typical web address would look as follows: “www.google.com”. The “www” refers to the host name, “google” refers to the domain name, and “com” refers to the top-level domain name. Each top-level domain name is managed by a company, for example the “.com” domain is managed by VeriSign. It guarantees that all domain names within the top-level domains are unique and maintains contact information for each site.[2] It is important that the domain names are unique so that the sites can be identified.  The host name which is most commonly “www” is created by the company hosting the domain, and may either be omitted or replaced due to how common it is. Now, how does the Domain Name System work? Let’s use the example www.google.com and the diagram below to explain.

http://www.theshulers.com/whitepapers/internet_whitepaper/images/ruswp_diag6.gif

After you type www.google.com into your browser, it must contact a DNS server to receive the IP address, since the URL is substituting in for it. It contacts a root DNS server which holds the IP addresses for all of the servers that deal with top-level domains. Each top-level domain (.com, .net, .gov) has its own set of servers; no DNS server contains the entire database. If one server cannot locate the IP address for the requested site, it is redirected to another. After the information is sent to the “.com” server, it checks to see if it has the IP address for www.google.com. If it does not, the browser is redirected to another server until it locates the IP address. If it does, it returns the IP address to your DNS server and then your browser, which contacts the server for www.google.com, opening the web page. Caching is a big factor that helps this process. Once a DNS server resolves a request, it caches the IP address. This means that, once a request is made to the root DNS server for the .com domain, it remembers the IP address for the DNS server handling the .com domain, thus skipping the step involving the root DNS.[3]

For a server to make its services available on the Internet, it uses numbered ports where each service is available on a different port. The client then connects to a service at a specific port on that IP address. The port for the WWW pages are most commonly on port 80 and browsers are automatically directed there when typing in a URL address. If one wanted to connect to another port on Google’s site for example, they would type in http://www.google.com:17, where the “:17 signifies the port number.

The browser breaks the URL into different parts which allows it to read the information given to it. Very similar to the parts of the DNS system, the browser recognizes “http” as the protocol, “www.ramapo.edu” as the server name, and “residences.html” as the file name. When a URL includes the backwards slash (/), it means that it is locating the specific file in a series of folders to find the information being requested. Once all of the information is received, the browser then breaks it down, reading the HTML tags which then translates the information into distinguishable text for the user to understand and navigate through.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

COMM 356 01

Jane Pirone

Political/Legal Factors Essay

The Internet has opened the doorway to countless opportunities that society never would have imagined. It possesses the ability to find almost any type of information; allows communication via e-mail, instant message, or video chat; delivers files digitally, streams television shows, and helps complete many daunting tasks. However, this openness has created a great deal of problems in the digital world. The ease of spreading information has caused uproar with music labels and film studios. The ability to download albums and movies without purchasing them has become so easy that more and more people are doing it. Also, Internet Service Providers (ISP) are trying to change how the World Wide Web is controlled. Because of this, “net neutrality” is a term that Internet users have learned to use and defend to make sure this does not happen. Illegal downloading and net neutrality are two major issues that have been on going for years and still have yet to be solved.

When the Web was first created back in 1991, Tim Berners-Lee believed it should be a place of freedom where a single person would not be in control of it. He stated, “When I invented the Web, I didn’t have to ask anyone’s permission. Now, hundreds of millions of people are using it freely. I am worried that that is going end in the USA.” [1] However, this has changed when ISP’s have been trying to control the distribution of information. Telephone and cable companies like AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon are trying to become “Internet gatekeepers”, deciding on which sites get fast access, slow access, or no access at all.[2] They also may control search results, choosing which sites appear first, or not at all. This overtaking could lead to the destruction of the Internet and users are battling to prevent this from happening. Net neutrality is defined as treating all content on the Internet the same; not having service providers choose different speeds for sites or blocking them all together.[3] Back in 2006, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) stripped the neutrality rules that made the Internet successful. Now the service providers are able to charge content providers large fees to get a fast and reliable connection through that provider. If they refuse to pay, their connection could be slowed or even blocked all together.

Tim Berners-Lee, makes states that a factor of net neutrality is “if I pay to connect to the Net with a certain quality of service, and you pay to connect with that or greater quality of service, then we can communicate at that level.”[4] He makes it a point to say that a higher quality of service should still be available if the user pays more. In fact, this is what would anger the users if net neutrality was eliminated. If one is already paying for high speed Internet, yet the service provider is slowing the time for a page to load, then there would be no point to pay more money for this service.

Large companies, small businesses, the President of the United States, musicians, actors, and even individuals are battling to protect net neutrality once again. This is a very serious issue and an important debate with most companies. Cogent Communications, an ISP, advertises that they fully support net neutrality, making them stand out from the rest. Google has increased its lobbying spending by fifty-nine percent, spending 1.4 million dollars between January and March.[5] This goes to show the fear major companies have over the possible control service providers would have over the content provided under their network. Not only would these major companies get hurt, but individuals would be in even more trouble. Amateurs are not going to be able to afford the high fees that the ISPs are going to charge. More than sixty percent of content on the Web was created by every day people rather than large corporations.[6] Control has always been held by the users, but if the world were to lose net neutrality, the public’s content would be in complete control of the ISPs. Creativity would be limited since their work may not be approved by the service provider. If net neutrality were to be eliminated some potential problems would be blocking of certain web sites, charging termination fees, offering special treatment to certain networks, and providers failing to provide certain information on the services they offer.[7] Net neutrality however offers much to society that some may be unaware of. Control is minimized by the network owners, competition is maximized, and outsiders are invited to innovate, guaranteeing a free and competitive market.[8] While net neutrality is still an ongoing issue, the battle against piracy is as well.

The Internet has become a gateway to copyright infringement, the reproducing and spreading of works that are copyrighted without permission. This can be seen specifically with movies, music, and television shows as well as other forms of work. Copyright is automatically generated and protects the work from unauthorized copying, distributing, altering, or any other acts without permission.[9] The owner is in complete control of the distribution of their work. When the protections are broken, it is known as copyright infringement, or piracy. This did not become a widespread problem until the release of Napster in 1999.[10] Napster used peer-to-peer (P2P) networking, linking each computer on the network and giving them the ability to access each other’s files. Even after it was shut down in 2002 after many judicial hearings, other applications were created allowing users to download music once again, and later on movies. Lawsuits were filed against those sharing music on these applications because the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) declared that the ISPs were obligated to provide their names. This did not last very long since the U.S. Court of Appeals stated they were not obligated to do so, making it much harder for the RIAA to target the sharers.

As Internet speeds become faster, it becomes much easier for users to download these files. BitTorrent is a P2P sharing protocol that allows users to download large amount of data. Users are able to go on the Web, download the torrent file, which then is opened into an application which downloads the playable file for the computer. Music, movies, software, games, and books, are all available for download. Many instances dealing with shutting these sites down have become unsuccessful, but recently sites such as Mininova and Isohunt have been forced to remove copyrighted material. On April 5, 2010 a letter was shown on the home page of Isohunt, one of the world’s most popular BitTorrent search engines, which stated they were to remove direct links to torrents and filtering search content due to copyright infringement laws; however this was only being effective in the United States. Every other country would get the same amount of content they had always been receiving. Isohunt was accused of having 95% of material downloaded from their site being copyrighted.[11] Creators of The Pirate Bay, another popular BitTorrent search engine, were fined and sent to jail, yet their site remained untouched. Nintendo also has claimed that there has been a fifty percent drop in their sales due to software downloads.[12] It is safe to say that companies are being directly affected by these BitTorrent sites, allowing free copies of their work and decreasing their revenue.

Currently in the United Kingdom the Digital Economy Act was passed which allows the government to temporarily suspend the Internet access of a user who is suspected of illegal downloading after three offences.[13] This upset the citizens of the United Kingdom; mostly because they feel that the government may not provide enough evidence of one breaking the law. Also, on April 6, 2010, the FCC ordered that Comcast was to cease the use of file sharing applications including BitTorrent from working on its network, yet the high court said that this could not happen.[14] This would contradict the belief of net neutrality, treating other web sites differently than others. Eric Klinker stated that, “there is not going to be a strong regulator for broadband” and that “the public is our regulator”.[15] If one person were to discontinue the public’s use for a site, net neutrality would therefore be overlooked. Even though sites like Isohunt and applications like BitTorrent will forever flood our world with copyright infringement, the result of this case gives positive thoughts to those who fear the end of net neutrality.

[2] Author unknown, Who Want to Get Rid of Net Neutrality, Save the Internet, http://www.savetheinternet.com/faq. April 20, 2010.

[3] Lawrence Lessig, No Tolls on The Internet, The Washington Post, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/07/AR2006060702108.html, April 20, 2010.

[4] Tim Berners-Lee, Net Neutrality: This is serious, Decentralized Information Group, June 21, 2006, http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/node/144, April 20, 2010.

[5] Jonathan Salant, Google, Pushing for ‘Net Neutrality,’ Boosts Lobbying in 2010, Business Week, April 20, 2010, http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-20/google-pushing-for-net-neutrality-boosts-lobbying-in-2010.html, April 20, 2010.

[6] Lawrence Lessig, No Tolls on The Internet, The Washington Post, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/07/AR2006060702108.html, April 20, 2010.

[7] Tim Wu, Network Neutrality FAQ, Tim Wu, http://timwu.org/network_neutrality.html, April 20, 2010.

[8] Lawrence Lessig, No Tolls on The Internet, The Washington Post, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/07/AR2006060702108.html, April 20, 2010.

[9] Author unknown, Copyright Clinic: Definitions, The Industry Trust, http://www.copyrightaware.co.uk/learning-about-copyright/copyrightclinic/definitions.asp, April 20, 2010.

[10] James D. Torr.  ”Introduction.” At Issue: Internet Piracy. Ed. James D. Torr. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2005. August 2004. 20 April 2010. <http://www.enotes.com/internet-piracy-article/54083>.

[11] David Kravets, Isohunt Ordered to Remove Infringing Content, Wired, March 30, 2010, http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/03/isohunt/, April 20, 2010.

[12] Dustin Quillen, Nintendo: Piracy to Blame for 50 Percent Drop in European Sales, 1Up, April 20, 2010, http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3178906, April 20, 2010.

[13] Madeline Bennett, Politicians scrutinized over Digital Economy Act, V3, April 19, 2010, http://www.v3.co.uk/v3/news/2261578/digital-economy-act-debated, April 20, 2010.

[14] Stephen Lawson, Broadband Has No Regulator, BitTorrent CEO Says, PCWorld, April 19, 2010, http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/194554/broadband_has_no_regulator_bittorrent_ceo_says.html, April 20, 2010.

[15] Ibid.

The Internet that we are currently familiar with was quite different when during its early stages; in fact the public was not even introduced to it until decades after its creation. Personal computers did not exist at this time and the Internet, otherwise known as the ARPAnet at this time, was used solely by the government and computer scientists. Back in 1958 the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was created by President Dwight Eisenhower due to the launch of Sputnik by the Soviets.[1] This later became the organization that created the ARPAnet under the leadership of Larry Roberts. His predecessor J.C.R. Licklider however, was the one to come up with the idea of networking but left ARPA before any progress was made. By using the concept produced by Licklider, Roberts was able to connect a computer at MIT to a computer in Santa Monica through a telephone line, creating this breakthrough in networking and starting off what would be one of the world’s most successful inventions, the World Wide Web.

The first elements of the World Wide Web that we are familiar with was introduced in 1965 by a man named Ted Nelson. Hypertext and hyperlinks were two terms that Nelson coined and now structure the Web. Hypertext allows users to access documents in a non linear manner and hyperlinks are the connections to these documents.[2] Nelson describes that “books are not convenient to read except in sequence”.[3] By creating this unique flow and facilitating to find the information, the user can find filter through the information by easily skipping parts not of interest to them. Two years later the Hypertext Editing System was created by the collaborative work of Ted Nelson and Andries van Damn and later led to the advancement of including elements such as color graphics. Finally in the year 1969 the ARPAnet launched, changing the world forever.

The creation of the ARPAnet led to the development of everything we are familiar with now; e-mail, the PC, and the Web. In 1971 Ray Tomlinson created programs that allowed the first e-mail to be sent from one computer to another. With this as the starting point, others created e-mail programs that collaboratively formed our modern e-mail systems. He also created the formula for e-mails and introduced the “@” symbol which remains the way we send and receive e-mails today.[4] The invention of the Ethernet, “the system that linked computers through hardwiring within a single location” was another groundbreaking invention that led to the success of the Internet.[5] It allowed more than one person in the same location to access the same files and printers. This connected the workplace and helped manage budgets by purchasing less equipment and making work more efficient. Then, the year 1975 marked the release of the first ever personal computer. Ed Roberts the founder of Model Instrumentation Telemetry Systems (MITS) bought microchips from Intel and created the Altair 8800. The crowd’s reception was extremely positive and everybody wanted a computer in their home. These computers were much different than the ones we know of today and there were many problems with them. However, this breakthrough led to further development to create computers with more memory and faster processing speeds.

The creation of the first personal computer was the stepping stone to the Web. Before the World Wide Web was created, the communication tools of networks and the ARPAnet were only used by a specialized branch of individuals. The world-wide use of the Web gave every other person the ability to use the advancements of networks to communicate with one another. Without the personal computer, there would be no need for a network to be created that allowed the public to access it.  It relies on this personal product to survive and grow, later expanding to an array of other devices as well.

In 1977 three networks that were simultaneously forming, ALOHAnet, SATnet, and ARPAnet were connected using transmission control protocol (TCP) which was how systems communicated with one another. [6] Then in 1978 engineers from Xerox created the Internet Protocol (IP), a TCP enhancement that was a separate program handling individual messages’ routes. Now combined together TCP/IP is the new system that is more efficient and less expensive. Using these new advancements, the first forum was published in 1978 and was the first public medium on the Internet at that time. It allowed users to post messages giving them the ability to read and respond to a message, or create their own.

Finally in 1983, ARPAnet was now referred to as the Internet. This occurred once TCP/IP replaced the previous NCP because it was faster, easier to use and less expensive. IP addresses, numbers that are used for computers to communicate with one another, were also being translated into words at this time, creating server names instead of using just numbers. Another leading element that aided in the development of the World Wide Web was the Domain Name System (DNS) which was created by Paul Mockapetris. Since the Internet grew so rapidly the network became extremely chaotic, causing slow response times. When users would try and communicate to a specific IP address it would continuously check different servers until it found the correct one. The DNS however contained all of the servers allowing the IP number to be found quickly.

In 1991, the Internet as we know it was developed by Tim Berners-Lee using a hypertext system. He shared “information space-a web of hypertext documents-within which people communicate with each other and with computers”.[7] His main focus was to allow the public to access this information, whereas the ARPAnet was used mostly by government officials and scientific engineers. There were several criteria that Berners-Lee felt the Web should follow including its flexibility with minimal constraint, the ability to use random links between objects and its construction so that entering and correcting information could be performed easily”.[8] By using a Universal Document Identifier (UDI); later called Universal Resource Locators (URL), a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) his criteria was able to be met. URLs are the address scheme for pointing out a specific location on the Web, HTTP is the protocol for accessing the data and navigating the links, and HTML is the code used. Browsers were created like Erwise, Midas, and Cello which led to the development of Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer.

During 1994, domain names were introduced by InterNIC, an organization created by Network Solutions, Incorporated. The Network Information Center created domain names that we are familiar with such as .com, .edu, and .org to make them more user-friendly. Then the InterNIC created second level domain names that were distributed as a first come, first served basis and had to be registered to create full web addresses like “google.com”. This registration process started out free, but then starting costing money. This year was also the founding of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) by Tim Berners-Lee, with a purpose to create order and functionality within the Web. By doing things such as providing sample code and reference software for free, the W3C outlined specifications and standards for the Web, which continued its evolution.[9] With this structure forming, commerce began to find itself on the Web. Banks started to offer online services, shopping became available online, and radio stations began to broadcast over the Web.

Due to the vast amounts of opportunities provided by the WWW, two college students became obsessed with it, collecting a list of web pages that was so long they could no longer sort through them. David Filo created a search engine with his friend Jerry Yang to easily find these sites and unintentionally received thousands of visitors accessing it. This search engine later became known as “Yahoo!”.  After teaming up with Netscape who included a link as part of its web browser, “Yahoo!” stood out from all other search engines that were just like it.

Search engines led to the fast finding of every type of information available on the Web. The creation of the Web did not stop there, and in fact it never stopped being created. New ideas and functions are being created constantly and adding to this web of information. Its history will be never ending and once a new advancement is conjured and brought to the public’s use, it will just make the story of the Internet’s history that much longer.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Segaller, Stephen. Nerds A Brief History of the Internet, New York, NY: TV Books, 1998.

[4] Moschovitis, Christos. History of the Internet. Santa Barbara, CA: The Moschovitis Group, Inc, 1999.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ibid.

Referred to by some as the “Godfather of our wired age”, Vannevar Bush’s ideas and contributions of knowledge were the starting points to the World Wide Web that we know of today.[1] Starting with his help in the development of the Internet, Bush taught courses in electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1930’s. With his knowledge he then designed an intense computer, one that most would not be familiar with. This computer filled up an entire room and took days to compute a problem, yet its development eventually led to the computer that we are familiar with, the personal computer. Then during World War II, Bush was recruited by President Roosevelt and worked with the development of the atomic bomb.

Though Bush had no direct contribution to the Internet itself, his work helped those after him conceive ways to make this happen. One of his greatest works was his article “As We May Think”, where he talked about a futuristic device that is much like the personal computers we use today. He called this device the “memex” where a user would personally store books, records, and other belongings which would then be indexed and found with speed and flexibility, being a supplement to their memory. [2] This was also described as being part of a desk with screens, keyboards, buttons, and levers.

This being an almost an identical description of the personal computer, showed that Bush’s ideas greatly impacted the digital world, which was seen mainly with computers and the Internet. Dealing more with the Internet, Bush’s ideas also led to the development of hypertext. Hypertext can be described as nonlinear text that links to other texts and can include graphics and other multimedia. The developer of the hypertext, Ted Nelson credited Bush since his idea inspired him to create this new form of communication. This idea was also presented in “As We May Think” stating:

“First he runs through an encyclopedia, finds an interesting but sketchy article, leaves it projected. Next, in a history, he finds another pertinent item, and ties the two together. Thus he goes, building a trail of many items. Occasionally he inserts a comment of his own, either linking it into the main trail or joining it by a side trail to a particular item. When it becomes evident that the elastic properties of available materials had a great deal […], he branches off on a side trail which takes him through textbooks on elasticity and physical constants. He inserts a page of longhand analysis of his own. Thus he builds a trail of his interest through the maze of materials available to him.”

His idea of linking information to other information was the preface to the invention of the hypertext. Without it, the Internet would be completely different and quite inconvenient, lacking flexibility and speed, and maybe not even existing at all. After about three decades and several successors, Larry Roberts created the first working network.

Larry Roberts graduated and earned his Ph.D. from MIT and afterwards spent time at the Lincoln Library where he did some research dealing with computer networks. Then in 1964, he met with a man named J.C.R. Licklider. Licklider was the head of the Information Processing Techniques Office at the Advanced Research Projects Agency, an agency set up by the American government dealing with military technology. Licklider came up with the idea of computer networks and Larry Roberts was the one who eventually carried out his idea. [3]

Roberts did not work on this daunting task all on his own, he worked with Thomas Merrill, a psychologist who studied under Licklider and had a great interest in computers. These two used advice from Leonard Kleinrock, a researcher from MIT, who provided very useful information that led to the success of this network. By using packets rather than circuits as the form of communication to make the computers talk to each other would theoretically complete the computer network and “solve bandwidth constraints by slicing transmissions into small packets and shooting them over the same wires”.[4][5] The first computer network was finally created using a low-speed dial-up telephone line. Even after all of this success Roberts did not stop there. He went to ARPA and developed a wide area computer network called ARPAnet. Afterwards, Roberts left ARPA and created his own business Telenet Communications Corp, which created the first commercial packet-switch network, and then worked at top positions at NetExpress and ATM Systems. From these experiences he said that he learned a valuable lesson; that it was hard to get people to change to a new technology if an existing one works pretty well.[6] However, this is not the case in today’s world and society’s fear of change certainly did not impact other pioneers in the development of the Internet.

The World Wide Web is a term that our society is completely familiar with, which is used daily and is hard to imagine a world without it. Tim Berners-Lee graduated from Oxford University and created the World Wide Web, an internet-based hypermedia initiative for global information sharing” in 1989 while he was working at the CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory and wrote the first World Wide Web server.[7] This new development was designed to have people all over the world combine their knowledge in a web of hypertext. Beforehand, he worked at many different jobs accomplishing many tasks dealing with technology, including building a computer, writing software for printers and even an operating system. He created his own program called “Enquire” which was never published and was later used to develop the World Wide Web. With its launch, Berners-Lee did have some doubts even though his creation was a big success. He feared that the Web would split into different sections of use and also feared specifically new tags that Netscape was creating; however none of these concerns became a problem.

Then in 1994, he founded the World Wide Web Consortium. This organization “develops interoperable technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web to its full potential”.[8] This organization is very important to the World Wide Web; it keeps it in order and provides useful information in creating a functional web site. This order also works with the public to create the greatest satisfaction that it can provide. Berners-Lee also created the Uniform Resource Identifier (URL), HyperText Markup Language (HTML), and HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP).[9] He has received numerous awards and wrote multiple publications as well. Berners-Lee is a proud promoter of “net-neutrality” and states, “When I invented the web, I didn’t have to ask anyone’s permission. Now, hundreds of millions of people are using it freely. I am worried that that is going end in the USA.”[10] Net-neutrality is a big debate in today’s World Wide Web, dealing with battles over who owns what, and what can and cannot be used. Tim Berners-Lee, the innovator who connected the entire world had a great impact on society. This mass communication tool has allowed the world to stay connected and unified, giving users the ability to access information from almost anywhere.

[2] Vannevar Bush, As We May Think, The Atlantic, July 1945, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1969/12/as-we-may-think/3881/3/?. April 6, 2010.

[3] Author unknown, Laurence Roberts Manages The ARPANET Program, 1996, http://www.livinginternet.com/i/ii_roberts.htm. April 7, 2010.

[4] Barry M. Leiner, “The Past and Future History of the Internet,” Communications of the ACM Vol. 40 (February 1997): 103.

[5] Otis Port, Larry Roberts: He Made the Net Work, Business Week September 27, 2004, http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_39/b3901030_mz072.htm.  April 8, 2010.

[6] Josh McHugh, The n-Dimensional Superswitch, Wired, May 2001, http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.05/caspian.html?pg=3&topic=&topic_set=. April 8, 2010.

[7] Author unknown, Tim Berners-Lee, W3, March 31, 2010, http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/Longer.html. April 8, 2010.

[8] ibid

[9] Stephanie Schorow, Tim Berners-Lee receives Draper Prize, MIT News, January 5, 2007, http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/draper-prize.html. April 8, 2010.

[10] ibid