Exploring one of the greatest inventions: Internet; facts, timeline, people

The internet is not only one of the greatest ever inventions but also an invention that combines many great inventions into a single platform and made them accessible to anybody anywhere in the world with an internet connection.

Image: OECD

Internet was defined by the Federal Networking Council (FNC) on October 24, 1995 as the global information system that (i) is logically linked together by a globally unique address space based on the Internet Protocol (IP) or its subsequent extensions/follow-ons; (ii) is able to support communications using the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite or its subsequent extensions/follow-ons, and/or other IP-compatible protocols; and (iii) provides, uses or makes accessible, either publicly or privately, high level services layered on the communications and related infrastructure described herein.

The internet has done a good job of combining great inventions like television and TV broadcasts, radio, mail, voice calls, messengers, video chats, etc. all into one place. It is easier to use and also less expensive. The internet took the brain’s activities to another level as it made virtual elements affect every facet of human life.

The beauty of the internet is that it is a virtual tool. The effect of the internet can be felt in our everyday lives; people have become very rich in real life through this great platform; people have done business; people have died; people have been sacked through unwise use of it; protests and meetings have been organized; information that would take days and enormous amount of money to dispense can now be done in a matter of seconds, to cut the long story short, internet is the greatest virtual tool anywhere in the world.

The first pair of computers in two different places to be connected was done in the U. S. in 1965. Lawrence G. Roberts working with Thomas Merill connected the TX-2 computer in Massachusetts to the Q-32 in California. The first host-to-host network connection was realized by ARPANET on October 29, 1969. It was created by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the U. S. Department of Defense. ARPANET was one of the first general-purpose computer networks. By the end of 1969, four host computers were connected together into the initial ARPANET (a network concept initiated by Lawrence Roberts in 1966).

The first public demonstration of the internet was done by Robert Kahn in October 1972, when he demonstrated the ARPANET at the International Computer Communication Conference (ICCC) . In March 1972, Ray Tomlinson at BBN (Bolt, Beranek, and Newman, Inc.) wrote the basic email message send and read software which marked the introduction of email application by writing the first email utility program to list, selectively read, file, forward, and respond to messages. Email went on to become the largest network application for over a decade.

There are different types of architecture but the open-architecture network allows each individual network on the larger network to have its own unique interface which it may offer to users and/or other providers. Each network can be designed to suit the taste of a specific environment and user of the network. The open-architecture network was introduced by Robert Kahn after arriving at DARPA in 1972. In the spring of 1973, after starting the internetting effort, he asked Vint Cerf to work with him on the detailed design of the protocol.

Another level of advancement in internet was attained in 1974 when Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn, then at Stanford University in California and DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) respectively collaborated on a paper that first described such a protocol and system architecture- namely, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), which enabled different types of machines on networks all over the world to route and assemble data packets to their ultimate destination, formed the TCP/IP standard, which was adopted by the U. S. Department of Defense in 1980.

The TCP was initially run on big networks until David Clark and his research group at MIT set out to show that a compact and simple implementation of TCP was possible. An implementation was produced for the Xerox Alto and later for the IBM PC. The first .COM domain was registered in 1985.

The boom of the internet came around after Tim Berners-Lee at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) developed the internet application World Wide Web in 1989 and a consequent launch of the first web page on the internet four years later in 1993. It was around the same time that the University of Illinois made the first browser Mosaic available to users and it was also used to access the first web page. The Internet Explorer web browser was later developed by Microsoft Corporation.

The ARPANET was decommissioned in 1990 followed by the decommissioning of the NSFNET (National Science Foundation NETwork) in 1995 to remove the restrictions on the use of the internet to carry commercial traffic. By the beginning of the 21st century, approximately 360 million people (about 60% of the world population then) were estimated to have access to the internet. According to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) 2013 stats, there is presently 39% internet penetration worldwide (77% in the developed world and 31% in the developing world). Internet World Stats on June 30, 2012, put the worldwide penetration at 34.3%. The country with the highest internet penetration is South Korea (97.5%) according to data from OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) in August, 2012 while the lowest is East Timor (0.1%). The internet penetration in Nigeria is 28.4% with over 48million users.

To say the least, the internet has made an indelible mark on the society and it is poised to even have more effects in the future. According to the Pew Charitable Trust in 2004, it took 46 years to wire 30% of the United States for electricity; it took only 7 years for the internet to reach that same level of connection to American homes. By 2005, 68% of American adults and 90% of American teenagers had used the internet. Nearly half of the citizens of the European Union are online.

One of the major ways the internet affects the society today is by connecting individuals in a faster and cheaper way through the use of the social media sites. It has also taken business activities to another level; advertisement is one of the ways the internet generate income both for companies who advertise and the advert agents, online trading has also boomed over the years as anything available for sale in real life can also be ordered for from the comfort of your couch. What a way to make life easier. Despite the internet being a virtual tool, it has generated enormous amount of cash for so many people in real life.

The internet has also affected the love and sex component of the human society. Stats state that by the 21st century, approximately 20% of the internet population had used it to meet others at some time. Also by the 21st century, there were four million websites devoted to pornography, containing more than a quarter of a billion pages which is an equivalent of more than 10% of the web. Indeed it is easy to conclude that both the virtues and vices in the society have manifested themselves on the internet.

The question about who invented the internet still lingers after this post but one undisputable fact is clear to us: many people have contributed their quota to take the internet to this level it is today. Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn laid the foundation the internet is building on today but internet did not start with them. Today there are popular internet services like Google (1998), Facebook (2004), Youtube (2005), Yahoo (1998), Amazon.com (1995), Twitter (2006), LinkedIn (2003), Wikipedia (2001), eBay(1995), Craigslist (1995), etc.

Today, the internet has been extended from the PCs to tabs and mobile phones. Let us all relish the importance of the internet. Without the internet, I can write a very good post (not this one as I can’t write this if there was no internet) in a popular national daily and most of you viewing this will not see it even in Nigeria talk less of overseas. I wrote this, you saw it, all thanks to the internet.

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