Chapter 8Chapter 8

The Internet

Goals of the ChapterGoals of the Chapter

Trace the history of the development of the Internet (starting with computers)

Discuss topics important to the industry today

Discuss the major content forms extant

History: The beginningsHistory: The beginnings The Internet is dependent upon the development

of computers; therefore it is useful to examine both

Early predecessors to the computer– The Difference Engine (1822) by Charles Babbage

Never finished, but was developed to generate mathematical tables

Early predecessor to the Internet– Electric Telegraph (1844) by Samuel Morse

Enabled the first wire service (AP in 1848)

History: Computer DevelopmentHistory: Computer Development In 1939, John Vincent Atanasoff invents the computer

(never builds) Colossus - British Secret Service uses first computer

to decode Nazi signals (1943) during WWII– Designed by Turing (of Turing Test fame)

ENIAC (1946)– the electronic numerical integrator and calculator– First general-use computer– Helped crunch numbers for the H-Bomb

UNIVAC (1951) – Eckert and Mauchly—inventors of ENIAC create the first civilian computer

History: Computer Development (cont’d)History: Computer Development (cont’d) IBM gains dominance with mainframe computers

– Massive machines requiring dedicated rooms to house them– Too expensive for individual users, mostly used by universities, government, military

and major corporations– Users connect through terminals

Mainframes are replaced in the early 1960s with minicomputers– Size of an office desk standing on end

1972-4 –Palo Alto Xerox labs experiment with user-sized machine: Alto—never mass produced

– This becomes a theme

Altair is first commercially available PC– Does nothing, sits and blinks– Bill Gates arrives with a version of BASIC, to become first computer language for

PCs

Apple Computers forms in 1977 – Steve Jobs and Stephen Wozniak begin building from a garage

– Focus on user-level software applications, graphics begin to become a focus Bill Gates Brings DOS to IBM (1981)

– Helps IBM compete on the PC market Apple releases Macintosh (1984)

– “High” resolution graphics, focus on multimedia in PCs– 1987 ships all macs with “hypercard” app; enables linking by clicking on text

(origin of hyperlinks—but not online yet)– 1988 – to keep up with graphics demands of the Mac, music CD technology is

adapted for the computer (CD-ROMs) Windows 1.0 is released in 1986 largely based on the format of

Apples (Gates)– Really gains ground by 1993 with 3.11

History: Computer Development (cont’d)History: Computer Development (cont’d)

History: Networks and the InternetHistory: Networks and the Internet Early 1950s – SAGE air defense system

– First data network; first modems send bomber counts through phone lines First WAN is developed – Wide Area Network links outposts to the central

computer

SABRE – first civilian data network– used by American Airlines (1966) to book flights – now travelocity.com uses this same system

First LAN (local area network) links computers inside Livermore, CA atomic weapons lab (1964)

Licklider (1962-MIT) sets vision for the Internet– Makes it happen by becoming head of DARPA

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Funds ARPANET (1969): Advanced Research and Projects Network

1972 – first public demonstration of the ARPANET; first email sent– “internetting” describes the potential for open network design—allowing

networks to communicate with eachother Internet is seen as a “network of networks”

– TCP/IP emerges – Transmission Control Protocol/Internet-working Protocol as communication standard between networks Becomes the official protocol in 1983

1980s see an increase in academic usage of Internet– BITNET (email for faculty)– USENET (discussion boards)

1991 – Commercial Users are given access– Gopher – first program bringing hypertext online– Tim Berners-Lee writes HTML and the first browser

History: Networks and the Internet (cont’d)History: Networks and the Internet (cont’d)

1993 – MOSAIC – Mark Andreessen from the University of Illinois builds the first graphical browser enabling pictures to be displayed on the web, in color– He reworks browser and forms Netscape

1995 – Netscape has 50 Million users– Computer Sales soar– Websites rapidly increase in number

First a private company (Network Solutions) is payed by the U.S. Gov’t to sell domain names

ICANN (1998) – Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is formed as a non-profit agency charged with regulating domain names.

For the next 5 years Internet Startups reigned– Until 2000 when the dot-com bubble burst

History: Networks and the Internet (cont’d)History: Networks and the Internet (cont’d)

Internet now boasts:– Information, News, Entertainment, ecommerce,

communication– In 2002:

66% of homes in U.S. had PC(s) 54% of U.S. consumers had access to the Internet at home,

school, library, work…

– “Old media” now have representation online Try to maintain older dominance by regulation and litigation

(Napster and RIAA)

History: Networks and the Internet (cont’d)History: Networks and the Internet (cont’d)

Technology: MaximsTechnology: Maxims

Moore’s Law – processing capacity of computer chips doubles every 18 months (since the late 60s!)

Metcalfe’s Law – the value of the Internet increases rapidly with the number of users

Technology: ComputerTechnology: Computer CPU – Central Processing Unit

– 1st Generation: Vacuum Tubes (ENIAC; 1950s)– 2nd Generation: transistors (1960s) – 3rd Generation: integrated circuits on silicon chips (1970s)

thousands of transistors per chip – 4th Generation: Very Large-Scale Integrated (VLSI) chips (today)

millions of transistors per chip RAM (Random Access Memory) – like short term memory, speeds up access to

information/apps– Emptied when power is turned off

Hard Disc Drives – like long term memory– Data is stored magnetically

ROM (Read Only Memory) – enables system to boot up Other Storage Devices

– Floppy Disk (flexible), CD (Rom, R, RW), DVD (Rom, R, RW), Zip Disks (100MB, 250MB), USB Flash Drives (currently > 1.5GB)

Technology: SoftwareTechnology: Software Early computers didn’t have software

– They ran programs by physically changing the structure of the circuits and switches (on, off)

In 1955 IBM created the first high-level language: FORTRAN– Dubbed, “Machine Language” it was written with 1s and 0s– did the same thing as physically moving the switches, without moving

anything Bill Gates writes a version BASIC (Beginner’s all-purpose symbollic

instruction code) for the Altair (1975) GUI (Graphical User Interface) is made popular by Apple—becomes

the standard computer interface (surpassing DOS) Today most programs are written in C++

– Object-oriented programming language– JAVA and Visual Basic are also frequently used

Technology: InternetTechnology: Internet Mail

– SMTP (Simplified Mail Transfer Protocol) sends email between host computers on the Net

– POP (Post Office Protocol) connects users to their mail servers– Listservs broadcast messages to a distribution list

File Transfers– FTP (File Transfer Protocol) enables transmission of documents around the

Internet (uploading files to a server)– HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) enables transmission of documents

around the Web

Locators– DNS (Domain Name Service) translates the web address into a numeric string

(IP address) that references a particular computer (DNS: http://www.coms.uconn.edu ; IP: 137.99.64.20)

Technology: Internet (cont’d)Technology: Internet (cont’d) Conversation

– IRC (Internet Relay Chat) enables users to instant message– Usenet is a system for asynchronous forums and discussion groups

Remote Access– Telnet enables users to log in to other computers across the

network to access files– PPP (point-to-point protocol) and SLIP (serial line interface

protocol) enable connection to the Internet through phone lines Document Display

– HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and XML (extensible markup language) contain the rules for displaying information on the Web

Internet TrendsInternet Trends Faster Networks –broadband connections, fiber optics in the

backbone, and Internet 2 (NGI) Wireless Access – 3G cell phones (email, web), WAP (wireless

access protocol) vs. WiFi (802.11a,b,G) vs. Bluetooth Streaming – UDP (User Datagram Protocol) drops corrupted

segments, file sizes are small, low res Improving Internet Video – MPEG4 is 1/6 the size of MPEG 2

(MP3’s video compatible) currently used in DVDs and digital cable systems– Newer versions of media player, real networks and Quicktime use

MPEG4 codecs– Multicasting – sharing content with many users, Victoria’s Secret

show

Internet Trends (cont’d)Internet Trends (cont’d) New Languages – DHTML (dynamic) deals with graphics

and animation, WML (Wireless markup language) is bare-bones for cell phones/PDAs, XML (eXtensible), java, CGI scripts (Common Gateway Interface)

Plug-ins – additional programs that run outside of HTML, but still in the browser

Tracking – Cookies, IP Snooping (Carnivore), Spyware Encryption – scrambling binary code so that only “legal”

access can be had– PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) can be used in email– SSL (Secure Socket layer protocol) used for credit card transaction

The Internet Industry LandscapeThe Internet Industry Landscape Computer Hardware

– Manufacturers of PCs/laptops (Dell, HP-compaq, IBM, Apple, Sun Microsystems, Alienware)

– Manufacturers of Neworking devices: Cisco Systems Software

– Microsoft obviously– Shareware and Freeware – download.com, tucows.com

Linux operating system, plug-ins are typically free too (trying to set a standard)

ISPs (Internet Service Providers)– Connect users to the Internet and give email accounts– AOL and MSN (Microsoft Network) are industry leaders– 10,000 ISPs nationwide… www.thelist.com– Anyone can be an ISP

The Internet Industry Landscape (cont’d)The Internet Industry Landscape (cont’d) Content Providers

– Disney, Amazon.com, AOL produce made-for-web content– www.netratings.com – New York Times, Weather Channel and other media outlets tend to reuse offline content

online– Others contract independent design firms: http://designlist.internet.com

Internet Organizations– Non-profit cooperative collaboration of major regional networks provide the backbone (very

high-speed Backbone Network Service, vBNS)– High speed carrier lines are leased by regional networks from long-distance phone carriers

(MCI Worldcom)– Larger ISPs have their own regional networks using NAP (Network Access Points) to connect

to the Internet (AOL phone numbers)– ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) – domain name registration– ISOC (the Internet Society) is an International NGO promoting orderly use and development

of the Internet– IAB (Internet Architecture Board) – run by employees of major companies (AT&T, IBM,

Microsoft…) to make policy decisions

Internet ContentInternet Content Portals – combine search engines, email, information into “one-stop

shopping”– Ex. Yahoo, Google, MSN, AOL…

Entertainment – carry large older media names– Time Warner, Disney, CBS– Some are just repackaged goods, others create new online identities– Streaming Radio Stations

On-line Gaming – play opponents online with X-Box or PS2, or PC, or just online sites (www.shockwave.com)

– MUD (Multi-User Dungeons) evolved from offline D&D games… Do you choose to go right?

– MOOs (MUD Object Oriented) allows users to click on graphics (ex. Everquest) Information – user aims for content over form, www.weather.com,

www.cnn.com

Internet Content (cont’d)Internet Content (cont’d) Electronic Publishing – structure traditional media content for an online

audience – Some don’t originate from offline media www.Slate.com has no offline

counterpart Search Engines – Yahoo, Google index the WWW Download sources – software distribution (www.download.com) or

plug-in distribution File-sharing services – Napster, KaZaA Corporate sites – typically stick to business-relevant information Communities – Chat Rooms, Forums, Listservs, and instant message

services Weblogs (Blogs) – web based personal journal/editorial page Others: Homepages, Fan Sites, Web Rings, Web cams, Web-based

learning sites, pornography, online gambling, etc.