Lawrence Peter Ampofo
Evolution of the Internet and the World Wide Web
Download 1.29 Mb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- The World Wide Web
- Iterations of the World Wide Web
Evolution of the Internet and the World Wide Web
The first physical iteration of the internet was realised in 1962 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) lecturer J.C.R. Licklider who conceived of the ‘Galaxy Network’, a collection of computers that could access electronic data from any computer terminal. At the same time, a different MIT researcher, Lawrence Roberts, developed the concept of packet switching, the transference of data in packets of information, replacing of the hitherto traditional circuits, which had been used as part of the telephone network. The United States Department of Defense, Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) and Roberts funded the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), the first packet switching communications system. By the late 1960s, ARPANET had been installed in four US universities, the University of California Los Angeles, Stanford University, the University of California Santa Barbara and the University of Utah. The contemporary internet used the original ARPANET as a template for sending packets of information quickly, cheaply and efficiently over long distances. The most influential facet that eventually shaped the entire architecture of the internet was the implementation of the open-architecture network. The adoption of the open-architecture network, a system whereby internet service providers had the freedom to choose any network architecture to which they could connect without being penalised, by utilising a specific kind of technology, was crucial in fostering the internet as a global communications medium and embodiment of free and unhindered access to information. It was through this “Internetworking Architecture” (Leiner et al, 2003: 1) that widespread communication between computers became possible and not dictated by technical specifications set by a particular corporation or organisation such as the government. The internet continued to be utilised in the academic realm until the development of the Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), which facilitated the development of instant communications technologies such as email, and subsequently the general commercialisation of the personal computer.
The Web was conceived by the former European Organisation for Nuclear Research (Organisation Européene pour la Recherche Nucléaire, CERN) researcher Tim Berners-Lee under similar motivations as that for the internet. At CERN, Berners-Lee also had the idea of devising a computer-based system which would sanction the easy retrieval and storage of scientific data amongst the various researchers. Perhaps the most salient aspect of the early iteration of the Web is Berners-Lee’s vision of a system facilitating the ‘decentralised, organic growth of ideas, technology and society…It is a vision that provides us with new freedom, and allows us to grow faster than we ever could when we were fettered by the hierarchical classification systems into which we bound ourselves’ (Berners-Lee, 1999: 2). Berners-Lee therefore ensured that his version of the Web would be extensively used by capitalising on the geographic proclivity of the internet in combination with the successful commercialisation of the personal computer. Since its initial conception, the Web has undergone a number of different iterations, leading to the widespread implementation of the forthcoming Web 3.0. A more detailed explanation of the different versions of the Web is given below.
Web 1.0 can be described as the development and implementation of a range of key software applications such as Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) and Internet Protocol (IP) to name but a few. The development of these technologies allowed users to share information via networked computers facilitated by the internet. Crucially, these technologies, created during the initial development of the Web, saw the creation of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Web pages, which could be navigated using Web browsers such as Netscape and Internet Explorer. This stage of development for the Web also saw the creation of key online portals for activities such as search and electronic commerce such as Google and Amazon, in addition to the implementation of numerous software platforms such as Java and Flash. Web 1.0 was a read-only platform, insofar as users were able to access information from a particular Web page but not contribute to the alteration of that data, or create and upload their own information unless they had prior technical expertise. Web 2.0 is conceptually and technically different from Web 1.0 as it allows for enhanced participation from its users. Industry analysts and scholars have described Web 2.0 as ‘the read-write Web, where we started seeing “…all of these services that make it easy for us to contribute content and interact with others”’ (Wells, 2006: 1). In this fashion, the onset of Web 2.0 saw the development of front-end services including folksonomies, social bookmarking, media sharing and social collaboration9. Web 3.0 is technically different to the other two iterations of the Web. The technical focus has been applied to back-end development by making Web protocols more interoperable and lowering the barriers that prohibited widespread internet access. Web 3.0 allows the development of new software platforms, which lie outside the scope of those defined as Web 2.0, such as Resource Description Frameworks, SPARQL and the Web Ontology Language (OWL). The development of these protocols, in particular, will eventually herald the implementation of one potentially influential technology, the Semantic Web, a term used to describe a Web where all knowledge and information is available and can be understood by the aforementioned protocols. If the Semantic Web allows knowledge to be more easily understood by new Web protocols then ‘software will essentially become able to understand knowledge, and create new knowledge. In other words, software will become more intelligent’ (Spivack, 2007: 1). While Semantic Web technologies will signal the convergence of new software and hardware making the Web more intelligent and intuitive, the third generation of the Web will also signal the advancement of further technological trends. Perhaps the most significant of these is the increased penetration of mobile technologies such as cellular telephones, and tablet computers10. The increased uptake of mobile technologies with Web access, combined with the intuition of the Semantic Web, means that significantly greater numbers of people, particularly those from developing countries, will be able to access vast repositories of information. Web 3.0 will also see the maturity of other technologies which are currently operating principally within a Web 2.0 framework such as distributed computing and other open technologies such as open source software, cloud computing and the internet of things11. Again, these technologies will have the effect of unpacking the information stored on the Web, and that generated by other people, into a system, which encourages the free and open contribution and retrieval of information. Some industry experts have attempted to define Web 3.0, claiming that it ‘implies a seamless integration of devices. Your data moves with you and knows where you are’ (Roberts, 2007: 1). Collectively, these different technologies are indicative of the new version of the Web where, according to the scientist Ray Kurzweil, ‘several major technology trends…are about to reach a new level of maturity at the same time. The simultaneous maturity of these trends is mutually reinforcing, and collectively they will drive the third-generation Web. From this broader perspective, Web 3.0 might be defined as a third-generation of the Web enabled by the convergence of several key emerging technology trends’ (Kurzweil, 2006: 1). This chapter will now examine the roles played by different actors and contexts influencing the development of the internet and the Web. Its aim is to present a clearer landscape of the roles played and the reasons explaining this development. The socio-political forces that initially inspired the development of the Web and the internet continue to encourage its development today. This chapter also investigates how technical actors, responsible for the development of the Web, incorporated their own normative values into the fabric of these technologies, heavily influencing the ways in which people use them and, by association, interact with each other. In addition to the pivotal role played by the actors responsible for the technical development of these technologies, this analysis also stresses the importance of civil society and non-state actors in the development of the internet and the Web. These elements, which together comprise the overall focus of this chapter, aim to provide the reader with a clear definition of the internet and the Web and a coherent understanding of the different elements influencing their development. Directory: portal -> files -> 4733003 files -> Impact case study (ref3b) files -> Ethics and Factual Television: a short history files -> P. O. Box 27, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland tel. 358-9-191 58080 / 22216; fax 358-9-191 58096 / 23008 files -> The impact of a pledge campaign and the promise of publicity: a randomized controlled trial of charitable donations files -> Diversity and Voice: the Political Participation of Young People in the European Union files -> Chapter 15 a voice in Decision Making: young children in Denmark Stig Broström Introduction Download 1.29 Mb. Share with your friends:
|