History of the Internet

Reflecting of this course I realized just now that I missed the very first blog assignment. I came into the class a couple weeks late and it must have slipped my mind. Seeing this video for the first time after the semester rather than in the beginning  gave me a very different reaction than I imagine I would of had in the first week. I've come along way since the beginning of the semester. I had no idea the complexities of the internet and how it all came together in only the past 50 years. I find it really interesting how the internet is such a global necessity and but only months ago I assumed America was behind all of it by itself. It's amazing how little I knew and how much I have taken from this class looking back on it. The internet is pivotal in daily life and I'm surprised this class isn't mandatory outside of the com arts major. For people, especially college students, that depend on computers, the internet, and social media sites everyone should have to understand what exactly they are using. It was also really interesting getting a time-elapsed version of how the digital age took of in America and around the world so quickly. I wonder where the internet will be in the next 50 years.

i-Dosing: Sammy Luterbach

I think I can pretty much say with certainty that i-dosing makes me miserable.

As someone who has never done drugs or even had the slightest interest in doing drugs due to their dangers, I was a little intrigued to see if this could get me to understand what all the hype was about in a safe way. I found a video on YouTube that said it would give the same effect marijuana does, and despite the daunting warning under the video that said, "Not responsible for any trauma, injuries, or death. View at your own risk," I gave it a whirl.

I was interested to watch at first because it featured cool designs in Lisa Frank colors, and I am, after all, a product of the early nineties. As the video continued though, it started moving faster and faster, flashing, and playing the club/dance music louder and faster. At certain points, I had to look away because it was making me feel sick. As I write this blog post, I still have a pounding headache.

Maybe I'm a big baby, but I hated every second of this i-dose. If this is what being high feels like, I'm out.

Max Reisbaum Video Response

I found this video to be very informative and I felt it did a very good job laying out the foundations for what later became the Internet. It is really fascinating how imperative the cold war was to the speed at which the Internet developed and the huge role competition played into the development as well. I was really surprised at how little I knew about the development of the Internet. I had no idea that Internet and computers developed on very different timelines and that even though computers had been around for most of the 20th century, the Internet only began to be created during the 1960s. I think they could have done a much better job with the images used in the video though. I thought the animation was not very eye catching and felt there was a lack of actual pictures or videos. Overall, great choice of video to start this course off.

Blog Post 2-Video Response

It is amazing what the Internet has become from such a small simple idea. The video makes the creation of the Internet seem so simple, yet I can't even begin to imagine how much time and work was put in to make the Internet what it is today. I enjoyed the simplicity of this video, but it would be interesting to know how much time was put into this idea, who exactly were the people who used this, and how the invention of the early internet has had an effect on our version of the internet today.

Video Response

It was extremely interesting and informative to see the history of the creation of the internet laid out in this video, especially in such an aesthetically pleasing manner. It really did a good job of getting the key points down without bogging us down in technical details that us common laymen might not understand. I definitely learned a lot about the creation of the internet that I did not know before. What really strikes me about the internet, the more I think about it, is its key characteristic: decentralization. Like the video said, the DARPA hardware was eventually taken down, but the internet was already up and running - it exists outside of the control of any one party. No individual, government, corporation, or cat has the power to control the internet as a complete entity. I find this fascinating.

Video Response

I guess I've never really stopped to think how amazing of an invention the Internet is and how many different processes were necessary in order for it to come into existence.  I knew the Internet had its roots from the military (at least in the US), but I had thought it began in the mid 1960s - not 1957.  I was also completely oblivious to the fact that France had any role in the creation of the Internet.  It's incredible how much the Internet has evolved, from something used primarily for academic and military purposes to a social and entertainment fueled medium.  On a side note, I couldn't help but notice that the video forgot to give Al Gore credit for inventing the Internet...

Post #2, Internet Video

It was interesting to see the earliest roots of the internet and how digital technology became more prevalent. Like so many of the world's most important inventions, the internet was spurred by rival countries competing to get ahead, which at that time were the United States and Russia. But I think it's also interesting that seemingly the most important aspect of the birth of the internet- the networking- was advanced most in France. The video makes it seem like the advancements in each country were due to monetary or cultural restraints, and I wonder why the usually-peaceful France was able to improve the internet just as much as the countries that were trying to get ahead of all the others. I'm sure the scientists and engineers present in each country had a large influence on the events also, making social factors just as important as economic ones.
The video also makes me wonder what the earliest innovators of computers and the internet envisioned them turning into. Surely no one 50 years ago could have predicted what we have now, just as no one today can fully know what we'll have even 5 years from now. But I wonder what they thought the consequences would be of connecting the world and allowing faster communication, and if they imagined if what they made would completely reshape society, as it has.

Sammy's Video Response

I love the culture of the internet and am fascinated with keeping up with the different communication outlets it provides, but I can honestly say that I know very little about its history.

After watching this video (and attending lectures), I’m a little embarrassed about just how little I knew. I had no idea that the beginnings of the internet began in the ‘50s and was for military use. I knew that computers existed in the ‘50s (has anyone seen Desk Set?!), but it’s shocking to me that the internet was slowly starting to develop then as well.

When I think of the internet, I think of the fun and exciting things I like to do on it. The fact that it really came into its own out of military workings, fear, and competition surrounding the Cold War is fascinating. The graphics in this video really helped me to understand and visualize a bit of the developments from the earliest form of the internet to what it is today. It has come a long way, and I can’t wait to see where it will go.

Video Response

I would say I spend a decent amount of time on the internet, but I have never heard anything about ARPANET before I watched this video. I learned a lot about the internet from watching it. This video really opened my eyes to how the internet was actually developed, and how far its come since then. I thought it was very cool to see how the internet was formed interlocking 4 independent networks. This video left me wondering what happened to the development of the internet after 1990, when ARPANET was removed. The video only says that "the internet was up and running...", but it does not give any details on how. Another thing I found interesting was the involvement of France and England in the internet's  development. I would be fascinated to find out real reasons these countries decided to get involved.

Video Response

To be honest, although I spend most of my time on internet, I am not smart at all when it comes to technology. I was unfamiliar with ARPANET until I heard about it in the lecture and in the video. However I am interested to see that the technological advance was done in accordance with the social climate in the United States, such as the tension that arose from the Cold War and the fear of atomic bombing. The simple animation of "the History of Internet" made it easier for me to understand the sophisticated technological terms. However, it would have been more comprehensible if it spent more time in explaining different terms, such as DNS, packet-switching, etc. For a person who has average understanding of internet and computer, it took me some time and effort to fully understand. After watching the video, I have grown curious about the reasons that drove foreign players to participate in developing internet. Was it for a purpose in competition such as the United States? Was it to create better commerce between states?

Response to Video

Having been taught a little bit in another class about how the internet came to be, ARPANET was fairly familiar to me but this video filled in a lot of what I hadn't known about the development of the internet. Watching this really put into perspective how much the internet has changed in terms of its power, usage, and availability. However the one thing the video seemed to ignore (like someone else has mentioned in their response) was the growth of the internet after ARPANET hardware was removed...it said the internet was up and running but what I would have liked to know was where it was spreading, how it was doing so, and who was using the technology the most in terms of country (was it only in France, England, and the US at that time?...How did other countries get it?). Maybe these questions have simple or obvious answers but I'm not the most technical person when it comes to understanding networking and hosting. Overall the video filled in the basics of how the internet came to be, something I think people maybe tend to ignore since the internet is everywhere nowadays.

Response to "History of the Internet"

I found the video “History of the Internet” to be very informative. As I am not one usually enamored with the discourse of technological advances, I was more attuned to the social stances in which the technology derived. As mentioned in class, the United States’ part in developing the Internet stemmed from a technological competition with the Soviet Union but also fear from the possibly threatening Cuba. Thus I would implore why other countries would then join the technological race. As from what I understood, the main players in the development of the Internet were, the United States, France, and England. I wonder then what social stances attributed to England and France becoming involved with the development of the Internet. Or was it perhaps that these developments, like so often happens with technology, meant for a different purpose?