The history of the internet is crucial to understanding how it works today, how it was shaped by its creators, and how it shapes its users. Here is a concise history of the internet, with an expanded version available here.
1962
J.C.R. Licklider works on his concept of the ‘Intergalactic Network’. He then takes charge of the ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) computer research program: the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO).
1965
Larry Roberts and Thomas Marill connect the TX-2 at MIT to the Q-32 in Santa Monica. They use a telephone line.
1967
Wesley Clark proposes network management via Interface Message Processors (IMPs). These would evolve into what we now call routers. Larry Roberts begins work on ARPANET.
1969
Frank Heart puts together a team to write software that allows communication between computers and IMPs. The team is called the Network Working Group and is tasked with creating protocol. These programs will become known as Network Control Protocol (NCP).
1970
Bob Metcalfe builds a network interface with speeds of 100 Kbps between the MIT IMP and ARPANET. By the end of the year, there are 14 nodes at ARPANET.
1972
Ray Tomlinson creates the first electronic mail program, introducing the ‘user@host’ convention.
1974
Ethernet is introduced by Metcalfe as a wire-based system. BBN develop Telenet, the first public packet-switching service.
1977
‘Internetting’ is demonstrated by Cerf and Kahn, showing the validity of international deployment.
1980
Landweber proposes a three-tier structure of ARPANET, Phonenet and Telenet. CSNET is funded by the National Science Board. Commercialisation of Ethernet over following years vastly increase the number of computers connected too hosts.
1984
The Apple Macintosh transforms the number of computer users with it’s friendly interface. Domains such as .org, .com, .net and .gov have become commonplace.
1986
The number of networks explodes from 2,000 to just under 30,000. Ethernet is now being wired into buildings.
1989
Australia, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and the United Kingdom join the Internet
Xanadu
Ted Nelson created the Xanadu Project in 1960 as a ‘hypertext’ model. Xanadu criticises the World Wide Web model, saying: “Today’s popular software simulates paper. The World Wide Web (another imitation of paper) trivialises our original hypertext model with one-way ever-breaking links and no management of version or contents.”
‘Intercomparison’ is a key feature of Xanadu, allowing users to visually compare documents in immersive ways.
Whilst the comment regarding the ‘paper’ simulation on the World Wide Web makes sense, I am relieved that Xanadu space was never commercially successful. As you can see in the following video, the interface looks difficult to manipulate. The way of comparing documents seems to promote a distant-reading approach, which could detract from the meaning behind texts. The Xanadu Space concept of finding connections between different documents or datasets is similar to machine-learning and big data handling.
Web Design
In 1996, Microsoft’s browser was released which introduced HTML tags. Writing websites for HTML quickly became tricky for designers, until CSS was introduced which helped with presentation and layout of HTML sites.
Flash (FutureSplash) was also developed, a simpler to use content development tool. JavaScript is also used. Within programs like Google Chrome, one can enter Developer mode to view the source code of a website, which will reveal the scaffolding underneath the site.
Many modern, in-browser programs are available to users who wish to create a website without learning the ins and outs of HTML, JavaScript and Flash. Platforms such as WordPress, Wix, Webs and Shopify have bridged the gap between website writers and designers without any writing experience. In 2019, you don’t need to write every line of a website from scratch. You can join WordPress, select a template and then move modular boxes around on the screen to your heart’s desire. WordPress reportedly owns 34% of websites worldwide, signifying just how easy it is to create your own site nowadays. Whilst some designers lament the loss of the artistic nature of writing websites, this accessibility, in my opinion, conforms to the ideologies of the researchers who created the internet. The internet is for everyone, shouldn’t web-design be for everyone as well?
It took me roughly 5 minutes to ‘build’ this website. I signed into WordPress with my Google email account. I was then presented with options for my website style – I chose ‘Blog’. I was then offered a choice of free themes (or exclusive themes which come at a subscription price). I chose a theme, chose a name for my site (simply Digital Media: Theory and Critique). WordPress then asked me to select a domain name. The free version includes their handle in the domain (dmtac.word.com), or I could upgrade to have a non tagged domain (dmtac.com).
I am then presented with the ‘web designer’ interface. With a layout similar to Word, Facebook or any other familiar computer-based interface you see every day, navigating my way around the web-designer interface feels almost natural, and incredibly intuitive. I can click a little plus sign to add a text box, photograph, embed a YouTube video or add a link to social media channels. Creating a slick, personalised website (with content), takes a fraction of the time that it would take for a web-designer to write the same site. The modular approach is very easy to use, although there are restrictions to the kind of content you can add to your site. Learning to write web ‘code’ may offer more options for web design, and be more ‘impressive’, but this will do just fine for me (and the rest of that 34% of website designers who use WordPress).
Wireframing
Wireframing is an optional step in the journey of designing a website. Wireframing means creating a 2-dimensional representation of a website, using shapes and spaces to represent where text, images and other content will sit on a webpage. Wireframing is a useful method for visualising the journey of a user on a website, and can influence a designers choices without them having to use trial and error with actual designs.
I experimented with making a layout similar to Facebook:
Resources:
Digital Media: Theory and Critique 