Evolution of the internet

1. Introduction

The Internet is one of the major reason business, home, and other users purchase computers, to have

access to it. The Internet is a widely used research tool, providing society with access to global information and instant

communication. The Inte

rnet, also called the net, is a wo

rld wide collection of networks that links million of business, government agencies, educational

institutions, and individuals. Toda, more than one billion home and business users around the world

access a variety of services on the Internet.

Figure 1. URL (uniform resource locator)

2. Evolution

The Internet has it roots in a networking project sta

rted by the Pen

tagon’s Advanced Research Project Agency (

ARPA), an ag

ency of the US department of defense. AR

PA’s goal was to build

a network that:

Allowed scientists at different physical loca

tions to share informati

on and work together on military and scientific projects.

· Could function even if part of the network were disable or destroyed by a disaster such as a nuclear attack.

The network was developed and it was given the name of

ARPANET. This network consisted of four main computers, on

e each located at the University of California at Los Angeles, the Univer

sity of California at San

ta Barbara, the Stanford Research institute, and the University of Utah. Each of these computers served as a host (more commonly known as a server, is any computer that provides services an

d connections to other computers on a network) on the network. As researchers and others realized the great benefit of using ARPANET to share data and information. This network b

egan to grow rapidly until the National Science Foundation connected its huge network to ARPANET. This last configuration of complex net

works and hosts became known as the Internet.

Figure 2. ARPAN

ET computers

3. The World Wide Web (structu

re)

Many people use the terms World Wide Web and Intern

et interchangeably; the World Wide Web actually is a service of the Internet. While the Internet developed in the late 1960s the World Wide Web developed in the early 1990s. Since then, it has grown phenomenally to become one of the more widely used Internet services. The World wide web (www), or web,

consists of a worldwide collection of electronic documents. Each electronic document is called a Web page, which can contain text, graphics, animation, audio, and video. Additionally Web pages usually have built-in connections to other documents. A web site is a collection of related Web pages and associated items, such as document and pictures, stored on a web server. A web server is a computer that delivers requested Web pages to your computer.

Figure 3. The World Wide Web

4. Impact on the world

The Internet gives us a way to communicate around the world breaking the distance barriers thanks to its velocity and availability. People around the world use a variety of Internet services in daily activities.

Internet services allow home and business users to access the Web for activities such as conducting research, reading blogs, or sharing videos; to send e-mail messages; or to converse with others using chat rooms, instant messaging. Somehow the internet created an other way to socialize, or even to live, because as the time goes more people are using it constantly. Today, more than 550 million hosts connect to the Internet.

Figure 4. “It brakes our distance barriers”

5.Journal Article Review

“Every increase in freedom to create or consume media, from paperback books to YouTube, alarms people accustomed to the restrictions of the old system, convincing them that the new media will make young people stupid”- The wall street journal.

This article talks about the interaction between the Internet and the human intellectual capacity; it mentions Internet as being able to “feed” the human mind as the books do. But the only problem that interferes with widening our knowledge with the Internet is that the Internet is full of unnecessary information, or “junk,” that instead of helping our minds to develop, is going to hamper our minds to reach a higher level of knowledge.

6.Sources

· Shirky, C. (2010, June 4,). Does the Internet make you smarter? The Wall Street Journal On-line. Retrieve information from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704025304575284973472694334.html

· DARPA / ARPA --
Defense / Advanced Research Project Agency (1997). Retrieve information from Living Internet: “the first book published on the web” web site: http://www.livinginternet.com/i/ii_darpa.htm

· Shelly, G. B., & Vermaat, M. E., (2011). Discovering computers: “Living in a digital world.” (pp. 74-81). Boston: Course Technology, Cenage learning.