Essay #1

Many have wondered how the internet we know today has actually come to be. While some may think it just popped up out of thin air, a number of others have taken the time to do research and find the real answers. In order to gain a better understanding of the internet a focus will be placed on various aspects of the internet as well as the groundbreaking innovations that made it what it is today.
Some of these early innovations that will be looked at include the development of the TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol), the idea of Packet Switching, the introduction of the HTML, and lastly the first email program created. Each of these inventions will be looked at closely to show their use, importance, and most of all effects on the internet as a whole.
In order to truly understand the internet we must first define what it actually is. According to Webster’s Dictionary the internet is; a vast computer network linking smaller computer networks worldwide (usually prec. by the). The Internet includes commercial, educational, governmental, and other networks, all of which use the same set of communications protocols. (Webster’s 2007) Now with the internet defined its early technical advancements can be looked at closer to show how useful they are to the internet as a whole. While there were a number of various innovations only four major ones will be focused on due to their importance.
The first innovation that will be looked at is “Packet Switching” introduced by programmer Paul Baran in the early 1960s. Packet Switching solved a number of problems with the data transfer on computers. It simply allowed for data to be sent and received a lot more efficiently and in a more compact form. With this new innovation of packet switching to the internet other programmers now had a bench mark to what they could do in the future. (Adams & Clark)
One programmer in particular is Ray Tomlinson who developed the 1st email program “SNDMSG” in the year of 1972. This new program truly changed the face of the internet into what we know today. The email program made it possible to send information, files, attachments and a number of other things from one person’s computer to another person’s computer. This programmer is also created for his creation of the @ symbol which helped to separate the user from the machine. This @ symbol continues to be a staple of the internet medium in our society today. So now with a faster and more compact way of sending data, and the introduction of the first email program a path has began to be laid for the internet we know today. (Adams & Clark Chp .2)
The next advancement that will be focused on is the invention of the TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol) systems in 1983 by a number of various programmers. Since the invention of this groundbreaking system cannot be credited to one particular person a number of researchers have been given the praise for their unanimous efforts. The TCP/IP allows for computers to communicate with one another, as well as applications on that operating systems. It was said by Wikipedia.com that the TCP is so central that many often refer to it as the TCP/IP. However what many fail to know is that these are two separate systems one handling the lower level transactions from computer to computer(IP) and the other handling high level transactions(TCP) like a web browser to web server. Basically what this means is that the TCP is responsible for the sequenced transmission of all packets. It also safeguards the reliability of the data sealed in each packet, using check/recheck confirmation systems (How did we get here? Adams& Clark Chp. 1)
After looking at three of the most important innovations that have mapped the path of the internet we know today a focus can now be placed on one more. This innovation is the HTML created in 1992 by Tim Bernes- Lee. The html enabled documents to become interactive. It basically gave people the ability to refer readers to other documents scattered around the internet through their own document. HTML is simply a code in a document that can be clicked on to take you to another website or document. This truly opened up the door for the process of linking similar info in one document to similar info in another.(Adams & Clark)


Bibliography:
1. Webster’s Dictionary- www.websters.com/internet
2. Wikipedia – www.wikipedia.com/internet, /tcp/ip,HTML
3. Adams & Clark- How did we get here? Chapters 1 & 2