The Internet Revolution: The Not-for-dummies Guide to the History, Technology, And Use of the Internet - Softcover

Okin, J. R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0976385759 ISBN 13: 9780976385752

Publisher: Ironbound Pr, 2005

Synopsis

SUPERANNO Presents the complete history of the Internet, from its original design and engineering as the world's first packet-switched computer network (the ARPANET) to the transformation into a privatized, commercial network, and its emergence as today's international networking infrastructure. Includes a detailed explanation of how the Internet's technology works, why it works so well, how it is being used, and how it is managed. Simultaneous.

About this title

About the Author

J. R. Okin is a technology consultant who specializes in systems engineering. His clients have included AT&T Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, Unix International, and the Open Software Foundation. During the dot com boom, Mr. Okin worked as the Director of Software Engineering and Development at a small Internet startup in New York City. He received a bachelor's degree from Vassar College and a master's degree from Cambridge University, both in English Literature.

From the Back Cover

Discover the REVOLUTION that is the INTERNET

This plain language guide explains:

- How computers evolved, and how they became the instrument of a revolution.

- Who designed and built the first computer network, and for what purpose.

- Why computer networking required the invention of a new type of communication network, and how a computer network differs from a telephone network.

- How the Internet was formed, and how it evolved from a private, experimental network into a public, commercial, global communication infrastructure.

- What the Internet consists of, how it works, and how it relates to the Web.

- How email was invented, how it works, and the role it played in transforming the Internet.

- What cyberspace consists of, how it is used today, and what it promises for how we will communicate, work, and play tomorrow.

- How and why the technology and management of the Internet fostered a revolution, and the strategies for success that made this possible.

"The Internet Revolution" is the first volume of a 3-book series that also includes:

- "The Information Revolution: The Not-For-Dummies Guide to the History, Technology, and Use of the World Wide Web" and

- "The Technology Revolution: The Not-For-Dummies Guide to the Impact, Perils, and Promise of the Internet."

From the Inside Flap

Who built the Internet? Who controls it, maintains it, makes decisions about what it can and cannot do and what types of information it may and may not carry? What does the Internet consist of and how does it work? This book answers these and many other questions about the Internet, its history, and its use.It's difficult to avoid some reference to the Internet, no matter how hard we may try. It comes up in conversations with friends and family and in meetings at work. We hear about the Internet on radio and television programs as broadcasters awkwardly spell out their Internet site addresses. We see the Internet's effect on commerce everywhere we look, in its role as an entirely new and powerful medium for the distribution of all forms of advertising.This change didn't happen overnight. But it definitely feels like it did. It took less than ten years after the Internet was privatized and opened up to commercial traffic in the early 1990s for it to become - quietly and unobstrusively - an integral component of our home life, our jobs, and the world's communication infrastructures, economies, and cultures. In the course of a few, frenetic years, the Internet has grown into an inexorable force that businesses, non-commercial organizations, governments, scientific and academic institutions, and individuals throughout the industrialized world have not only accepted but embraced.Everywhere we look, we see more and more references to the Internet. That's because it is becoming part and parcel of everything we do. The Internet is changing how we raise and educate our children, how we stay connected with our families and friends, how, when, and where we perform our jobs, how we purchase our goods, how we read the weather forecast or our horoscope or send a birthday card. These changes in our behavior are fundamental and permanent, and they are becoming more pervasive with each passing year. Consequently, the Internet is changing us, our communities, our societies, and, as you will understand after reading this book, the very interconnectedness of our world.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Why a Revolution?

Not very long ago, the only people talking about the Internet were the small number of individuals who were engaged in engineering it, building it, and nurturing its growth. That was during the 1970s. But even during the 1980s, as the Internet expanded its reach and diversified its information resources and services, the Internet's existence went largely unnoticed by the general public and it managed to retain its quiet, remote, and unassuming presence. The only national press coverage the Internet received during the first two decades of its existence was when there was a sudden and sizable failure in one of its component systems or a debilitating network attack, like the Internet worm of 1988. And the only individuals who took an interest in the Internet were computer enthusiasts, and their numbers were still very small. Moreover, in order to have any access to the Internet, you had to work at a major research facility, like AT&T Bell Laboratories, or attend one of the lucky few Internet-connected academic institutions, like MIT or Stanford, or be employed by one of the United States government agencies that controlled it. In other words, for the first twenty or so years of its existence, the Internet remained predominantly hidden from public view and functioned as the private and entirely commerce-free playground of researchers and scientists, students and computer center workers, and some members of the military.

Nowadays, it's difficult to avoid some reference to the Internet, no matter how hard we may try. It comes up in conversations with friends and family and in meetings at work as people complain about the latest email virus or some interminable network slowdown or as they rave about a site they have just discovered for managing their stock portfolio or playing poker. We hear about the Internet on radio and television programs as broadcasters awkwardly spell out their Internet site addresses in an effort to entice us to get more in-depth information on a particular subject, such as a recent news story or the upcoming episodes of a popular show. We see the Internet's effect on commerce everywhere we look, in its role as an entirely new and powerful medium for the distribution of all forms of advertising, as evidenced by the Web site names that confront us on everything and anything that can contain printed text, from billboards to baseball caps, t-shirts to tattoos, the sides of cars, trucks, trains, and planes, the walls of sports stadiums, the cellophane wrappers enclosing heads of lettuce, and even those annoying stickers attached to each and every grapefruit, tomato, and cucumber.

This change didn't happen overnight, but it definitely feels like it did. It took less than ten years after the Internet was privatized and opened up to commercial traffic in the early 1990s for it to become a basic and essential part of our daily lives. It became, quietly and unobtrusively, an integral component of our home life, our jobs, and the world's communication infrastructures, economies, and cultures. This change was so compelling and pervasive that it raises the question: what kind of vacuum or void existed before the Internet's creation and its evolution into such a powerful and ubiquitous presence? In the course of a few, frenetic years, the Internet has grown into an inexorable force that businesses, non-commercial organizations, governments, scientific and academic institutions, and individuals throughout the industrialized world have not only accepted but embraced. Consequently, the Internet's impact can be seen all around us.

The Internet has transformed how business is conducted, and it has provided powerful new ways to locate, learn about, and buy all types of products and services. It has inspired and made possible the creation of entirely new business enterprises, including the much touted and highly speculative business of e-commerce. It has enabled governments to better share information about and distribute information to their citizens, and better collect information about those citizens. It has facilitated collaboration on research, which, incidentally, fulfilled one of the visions of its original creators. It has dramatically changed the way we communicate and has enabled the creation of new social structures in the form of virtual communities. It has forever altered how we access information and the variety and quantity of information we can access, empowering us to gain knowledge through a richness of resources that was previously only imagined in science fiction. It has allowed us to become publishers of family photos, shared genealogies, journals, diaries, diatribes, musical compositions, short stories, full length novels, and just about anything else that can be stored and distributed in the form of a computer file.

For the purposes of a simple comparison, consider an earlier revolution incited by a different, but just as pronounced, leap in technology. The Industrial Revolution, which began in England in the 18th century and resulted from the invention and refinement of the steam engine, brought us the mechanization of labor. Machines were created that performed the labor of men, women, and farm animals, and they performed this work faster, cheaper, with fewer problems and interruptions, and often with greater precision. For a fortunate minority, the Industrial Revolution meant new-found wealth, provided one understood how to apply the new technology and succeeded in financing and managing a new type of business venture. For the majority of the population, it meant a change in employment and, more often than not, a resulting change - for better or worse - in one's financial situation, as many old, established jobs were eliminated or greatly changed and new, very different jobs were created.

Edition details

• Publisher: Ironbound Pr
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0976385759
• ISBN 13: 9780976385752
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 382