What is the standard definition of Internet? A quick look at the Internet's origin, it's intended purpose, and it's evolution.
What is the Internet?
Many online sources offer varying definitions, but mostly everyone agrees that the Internet is a worldwide, publicly accessible network of interconnected computer networks that allows sharing or networking of files and information at remote sites from other academic institutions, research institutes, private companies, government agencies and individuals using the Transmission Control Protocol or Internet Protocol, and that communicate through phone and satellite. It is a three level hierarchy composed of backbone networks, mid-level networks, and stub networks. These include commercial, university and other research networks.
Purpose of the Internet
In the 1950's, computers were still very rare, and computer science was in it's infancy. Most technological advancements during this period, such as cryptography, radar and battlefield communication, were due to military operations during World War II , and government activities are at the base of the development of the Internet. Three decades ago, the RAND Corporation struggled with possible ways for US authorities to successfully communicate after a nuclear war. Their chief concern was that any central network control center might be destroyed by an enemy missile. In a plan made public in 1964, the RAND Corporation proposed that the new network have no central authority.
ARPA was a response to the Soviets' launch of Sputnik in 1957, man's first foray into outer space, along with the U.S.S.R testing it's first intercontinental ballistic missile. In 1958, when NASA was created, ARPA's main focus became computer science and information processing. One goal was to connect mainframe computers at different universities around the country so that they would be able to communicate using a common language and protocol.
Origin of the Internet
The first record of social interaction enabled by networking is a series of memos written by J.C.R. Licklider from MIT in 1962, discussing his "Galactic Network" concept. Licklider was head of the computer research program at DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Program Agency), a program launched by the U.S. Department of Defense. RAND and NPL were also working on packet switching networks at the time, and their work developed in parallel without the researchers knowing about the other work.
The word "packet" was adopted from the work at NPL, and by the end of 1969, four host computers were connected into the ARPANET, and the budding Internet was off the ground. Even at this early stage, the networking research incorporated both work on the underlying network and work on how to utilize the network. This tradition continues to this day.
Evolution of the Internet
In 1971 there were fifteen nodes in ARPANET; by 1972, there were thirty-seven, and the network users finally could begin to develop applications. In October 1972 the first demonstration of the ARPANET was made public at the International Computer Communication Conference. The initial "hot" application, electronic mail, was introduced. Basic email messages were written, sent and read, filed, forwarded, and answered. From there email took off as the largest network application for over a decade. This led to the kind of activity we see on the World Wide Web today, "people-to-people" traffic.
By the early 1990's it became possible for people to post information via Internet sites. The first method for doing this was Gopher. Using this system, people could look at a list of links. Each link led either to another set of links or to a document. A major new step came in 1994 with the development of the World Wide Web. Unlike Gopher, it enabled users to jump from any point in one document to any point in another document, known as "hypertext." In addition, the World Wide Web soon grew to support the use of pictures, sound files, and movie clips.
