overview

This profile looks at the history of the internet and of the web, one of the net's major components. It also points to writing about some of the major players in the fight to shape the web's future, including Microsoft and some of the 'dot com heroes' such as Amazon.com.

     contents

four ages - we're at the beginning of the third age of the internet, where it becomes as ubiquitous and unremarkable as the telephone

prehistory - studies of US academic and military computing, ARPA, DARPA, the net and the web

bodies - a map of the major bodies, such as the IETF, W3C and ICANN

infrastructure - background about fibre, routers and the telecommunications networks

scientists - profiles the scientists and engineers responsible for building the internet and creation of the web. 

digerati - looks at Nicholas Negroponte, George Gilder, Esther Dyson, Dorothy Denning and other gurus of 'being digital'. It includes some accounts of how they've fared in practice

prophets - background writing about early computing, from Descartes through Babbage's mechanical Differential Engine to the work in the first half of last century by Turing, von Neumann and others

IBM - the history of IBM

the five sisters - or seven dwarfs - Hewlett Packard, SGI, Sperry, Data General and other hardware companies

Apple - the company that emphasised 'human-centred computing' 

Microsoft - the 1990s version of the 'Evil Empire', still struggling to grasp the web

other software - pointers to writing about other software companies and Ted Nelson's Xanadu project

open source - Linux, GNU, open source and the 'information wants to be free' push

dot com heroes - fat cats in silicon valley and elsewhere

     the big picture

Christine Borgman's From Gutenberg to the Global Information Infrastructure: Access To Information in the Networked World (Cambridge, MIT Press 00) - strongly recommended - is an incisive overview of 'access' issues: standards, identification techniques, censorship, the 'digital divide', intellectual property, archiving etc.

The US National Information Infrastructure (NII) Virtual Library offers information about the information superhighway, in particular as part of the Global Inventory Project (GIP). 

In identifying resources relating to the Web and the information economy the Harvard Information Infrastructure Project (HIIP) is of particular value.  

We commend the following HIIP volumes from MIT Press: 

• The First 100 Feet: Options for Internet and Broadband Access (99) Ed] Deborah Hurley & James Keller - looking at opportunities for business, government and communities rather than the 'last 100 feet' problem 

• Coordinating the Internet (97) Ed] Brian Kahin & James Keller - governance, domain naming, trademarks, traffic management and pricing 

• National Information Infrastructure Initiatives (97) Ed] Brian Kahin & Ernest Wilson - national policy, the information society versus the welfare society, NII initiatives 

• Borders In Cyberspace (97) Ed] Brian Kahin & Charles Nesson - privacy, global rule-making, jurisdictions and other issues 

• Public Access to the Internet (95) Ed] Brian Kahin & James Keller - pricing, the 'digital divide', national infrastructures, indigenous culture and communities online 

• Standards Policy For The Information Infrastructure (95) Ed] Brian Kahin & Janet Abbate - papers on tying the networks together 

 


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