Page 137 - Communication Cultural and Media Studies The Key Concepts

INTERNET

INTERNET

In 1957 the USSR launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, into
Earth’s orbit, signifying the starting point in the use of technological
progress as a means to Cold War supremacy. A year later, in response to
Sputnik, US President Eisenhower established the National Aero-
nautics Space Administration (NASA) as well as the Defense
Department’s Advanced Projects Research Agency (DAPRA, later
to become APRA).
It was DAPRA which in 1969 developed a nuclear war contingency
plan in the form of a computer network designed to enable
information to exist outside of a vulnerable, central location. ‘Packet
switching’ technology, whereby messages are broken into ‘packets’ and
supplemented by header information on the source and destination,
meant that communication lines did not need to be dedicated to
passing the information as was the case with circuit switching
networks. DAPRA’s decentralised communications network – the
early Net, named APRANET – was developed within the
exclusionary and highly classified confines of the US military with
the assistance of a number of civilian scientific personnel.
The involvement of these researchers meant that the network
quickly captured the attention of the wider computer science
community who contributed a new culture of research-based
information sharing, openness and peer review. The Request For
Comments (RFC) system was established as early as 1969 (originally
by post), as a series of freely available memos intended to provide a
feedback loop for suggestions and research ideas that would assist the
evolution of the network. This process of ‘open access’ to protocol
specifications (the agreed-upon formats for distributing data) and
collaboration in research for the development of the Internet’s own
design became an integral component in the theoretical characterisa-
tion of the Internet as a forum for democratic information distribution
and innovation.
The system progressed rapidly. In 1969 four hosts were connected
to the APRANET, and in 1970 the first host-to-host protocol was
invented which allowed for the development of applications.
International connection was established in 1973 with University
College London and the first all-inclusive e-mail program was
developed in 1975.
A newculture began to appear when, on 12 April of that year,
Kevin MacKenzie e-mailed the MsgGroup (the first APRANET

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