What is the Internet as we know it today and who created it? It was born from a quiet revolution that took place in the early 1960s called computer networking, which was originally created for military purposes. During those years it existed for transmission of information data. On October 29, 1969 it transmitted the first message communication from one computer to another. This took place between systems located at UCLA and Stanford and each computer was the size of a huge house. That message crashed the computer, regardless of its size, and only the first two letters of the message was received.
Historical background
But, let us understand we cannot credit the invention to any one single person. Many pioneering scientists, engineers and programmers singularly developed features that merged into the “information superhighway”. Nikola Tesla played the with idea of a wireless system in the early 1900s. In the 1930s and 1940s scientists wanted to develop a searchable storage of information. During the early years of computing the information was used for World War 2 codebreaking and other military uses.
Internet technology expands
The technology that eventually became the internet grew during the 1970s as scientists developed Transmission Control Protocol that set the standards on how data could be transmitted between multiple networks. On January 1, 1983 ARPANET adopted TCP/IP protocol. Then, Tim Burners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, or www as we know it today. The web became the tool that accesses data in the form of websites. The web was the crucial link in developing the information network we now access on a daily basis. This giant step dropped this innovative communications network right into the lap of the public.
The internet becomes a lifeline to the world
All of that brings us to the crisis we face today in the form of physical distancing. Try to imagine life without the internet during this pandemic. We would only have the possibilities to listening to radio or TV news and probably phone conversations with our loved ones. The phone would be our lifeline to the world and a very small world that would be. So, the specific time that we are now living. while isolating, has opened a new portal to the world of connectivity, the “information superhighway”.
Family Time on Zoom
Eric Yuan, a lead engineer at Cisco Systems founded Zoom. It started full service in January of 2013 and at that time claimed one million users. It projects this year to 13.3 million monthly active users. There have been family gatherings, music programs, concerts, world-wide connections through this platform and the use is only going to get bigger as we head into the future. I see it eventually being the full business platform for many businesses, coaching, exercise, museum, lawyers, and even retail. Doctors are now moving their practices into virtual office visits. Businesses expanded the use for conferences relating to sales, marketing, customer success, and product teams. Like the internet, Zoom was created for use during the right time, enhanced our lives during the right moment.
Today
So, this very minute, creative brains are struggling to find new ways to deal with our new existence. Engineers are developing innovative technology as quickly as possible. Doctors are in the laboratory discovering answers to our questions and vaccines for eventual use. They are our future, because we all understand life will change and we need new options to carry on business not as we know it but as it will become.
*Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay