The Web Unwoven :: Expository History Interenet Essays

IntroductionThe WWW and the Internet be joined at the hip. The two are not separateat least today. (Galbreath, 1977).(1) Most graduate students today, especially those of us majoring in Instructional Technology (IT), use the World Wide sack up (WWW or Web) and the Internet (Net) for research. However many students do not know exactly how the Web came about nor do they understand its relationship to the Internet. Students, along with the commonplace public, often consider the words Web and Internet interchangeable, meaning one and the same thing, primarily for the reason that Galbreath mentions abovethe two seem joined at the hip today. The purpose of this paper is to provide a synopsis of the historical evolution of the Internet, to distinguish between it and the Web, and to present a glimpse of the Internets future.History J.C.R. Licklider of the mom Institute of Technology (MIT) recorded the first conceptual description of estimator networked social interactions in Augus t 1962. His Galactic Network concept essentially described, in spirit, the Internet of today. It involved computers interconnected around the globe through which we could quickly access info and programs from any site. He convinced several of his colleagues of the importance of this networking concept. (2) Evidently, computer networking research work at MIT (1961-1967), the RAND Corporation (1962-1965), and at NPL in the UK (1964-1967) all proceeded in parallel without any of the researchers knowing of the others work. (For a complete timeline of Internet developments shout Hobbes Timeline.) (3) For instance, in July 1961, Leonard Kleinrock at MIT published the first paper on packet switching theory and later in 1964 he published the first bulk on the subject. Meanwhile, in 1962, The RAND Corporation published Paul Barans report On Distributed Communications Networks. The report was funded by a US Air Force film to explore how the US military could protect its communications systems from hostile attack. In this and his subsequent reports, Baran recommended a national public utility to transmit digital data among a large set of subscribers. With his proposed packet switching system, messages are divided into packets, which are separately addressed and separately transmitted. Each packet is passed from client to node on the network. Although each packet may follow different paths, when it ends up in its proper destination, all the packets are then reassembled into a complete message.