TEL 555
Week 3 – History
Back to the Schedule
How the Net Works slide
presentation
Warriors of the Net (www.warriorsofthe.net)- This is a
great movie about technical aspects of the Net – IP in particular.
What is a
Network?
Information Technology slide
presentation
Winston
and Technology Diffusion (handout)
·
Electrical and electronic communication changes have been accommodated
by preexisting social formations
·
Ideation
·
Testing-constructing prototypes; the scientist is still
within the social sphere
·
“Supervening Social Necessity”
Prototypes
can be:
1. “rejected”
2. “accepted”
3. “parallel”
4. “partial”
Supervening
Social Necessity (social factors) can be:
1. Other tech
factors that assisted in innovation/diffusion
2. Concentration
of social forces working directly on innovation
3. Commercial
Invention
·
“Law of the
suppression of radical potential” “the ‘accelerator’ is the supervening
social necessity transforming the prototype into an invention and pushing the
invention into the world – causing its diffusion. But there is also a ‘brake’: this operates a third
transformation, wherein general social constraints coalesce to limit the
potential of the device radically to disrupt pre-existing social formations”
(p.11)
·
The conflict between supervening social necessity and the
Law of the suppression of radical potential creates:
1. Technological
performance
2. Spin offs
3. Redundant
devices
History of Networks
The
Telegraph
Influence of capitalist ideology
(19th century)
·
Industrial revolution (19th century) led to the
rise of expressions of capitalist modernity (mechanized production and consumption)
including tech devices/tools; machine and corporate management replaced artists
and craft workers; mechanization, taylorism, etc
The
Telephone
Wireless
and Radio
Mass consumption, mass
communications, and politics
·
Industrial revolution and mass market values
The
“Beginnings” of Networks
·
Conceptual precursors:
telegraph and telephone (distribution model) – e.g. postal service
·
Transoceanic cables
·
Bell's broken monopoly
forced competition and better telephone service
·
Privatization
Networks
and Recording Technology
Television
Communication
Satellites
Cable
Television
Mechanizing
Calculations/Computers
The
Integrated Circuit
Microcomputer
Internet
·
"The history
outlined in this thirds section demonstrates that the idea of networks is as
old as telecommunication." (Winston, p. 321)
History of Computers/Internet
Charles Babbage (1792-1871)
Difference Engine: (1833)
·
Mechanical calculator, simply an adding machine
·
Analytical Engine: Performs arithmetic [i.e., computing] functions
that could be programmed in (via punch cards), turning it into a universal
machine - computer.
·
Babbage's project died in the 1850s
BY 1945 Conceptual shift from
human being to a machine
·
1936 article by Turing: "The Computing Machine"
WW II: computers are an integral
part of the war effort
·
Compute tables that artillery officers can use to guide the
guns (firing tables)
The first computers
·
ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer) in the
U.S.
·
Colossus (Britain): computer for cryptanalyis (decoding) -
Alan Turing
·
Enigma (Germany): encoding machine used by the Germans
UNIVAC: the world's first
commercial computer
·
U.S. General Elections in 1952 – predicted edlections with
small sample
·
UNIVAC gets much publicity
IBM builds the IBM 6-50
·
First mass-produced computer for businesses (payroll, taxes,
etc…)
·
IBM became by the late 1950's the leading computer
manufacturer
·
Superb marketing and customer service
Douglas Engelbart 1950s
·
Giant computers with no individual interest
·
Wanted to improve human thinking and communication with
“electronic brains”
·
Tools to change the world – benefit society
Usenet (1979)
·
Textual communication that is threaded by topic
DOD’s Advanced Research Project
Agency (ARPA) and the Stanford Research Institute (SRI)
·
Designed to radically change computing technology
·
Start of computer mediated communication (CMC), e-mail
·
Ideation of the mouse and graphic user interface (GUI) and
individual access (empowered users) – human computer interaction
·
Too many users created bottlenecks and data degradation, led
to the development of “packet switching”
Packet Switching
·
Developed to ensure reliable communication case of nuclear
assault on the US
·
Basically, information is broken into parts (packets) that are
sent along different paths to the destination and then reassembled on the
receiver’s end; if a portion of the information is not received the receive can
request what is missing; packets can take different routes;
·
Distributive network NOT centralized (no centralized command
center that would be susceptible to destruction)
·
Significance: (1) no central control and (2) digitization
·
Led to ARPNET
Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research
Center)
·
Personal computers and software
·
Humanize computers, interactions
·
Englebart develops the mouse leading to easier use-no longer
need to program
·
GUI’s are refined
Mid-1970's: IBM still convinced
that ordinary people would not want or need a computer
Altair 8800: "build yourself
computer"
·
Computer kit for technical hobbyist
·
"homebrew computers"
Steve Jobs and Steven Wozniak
·
Develop Apple Computers with technology “borrowed” from
Xerox Parc)
·
People DO want their own computer mass-production
·
IBM not sure how to respond, eventually in 1981, IBM builds their
first PC with technology “borrowed” from Apple)
Software revolution and the
individual user
Brief
Timeline for Development of the Internet and WWW:
·
1957: USSR launches Sputnik --> U.S. starts ARPA
(Advanced Research Project Agency)
·
1969: ARPANET begins
·
1970s: Xerox PARC -- began earliest Ethernet LAN, also early
GUI.
·
1976: Elizabeth II, queen of England, sends email
·
1983: ARPANET split into ARPANET for research and MILNET for
the military.
·
1983: TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol),
a standard that allows interoperability (interconnection) between computers
·
1984: Domain Name System (DNS) introduced
·
1987: Internet, funding taken over by NSF.
·
1991: Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in Switzerland developes
·
hypertext-transfer-protocol (http) that made the WWW
possible
·
1992: Internet Society (ISOC) is chartered
·
1994: Marc Andreessen develops graphical browser for the
Internet; beginnings of the World Wide Web.
·
1995: Traditional online dial-up systems (Compuserve,
America Online, Prodigy) begin to provide Internet access