MAC 215 Media History

Why do I see several posts about the ice bucket challenge

and nothing about Ferguson, Missouri?

OUTLINE

Discussion Internet Origins

Internet TimelineWeb Timeline

DISCUSSION

How might the personalized web be detrimental to diversity and tolerance?

How might social media contribute to your own self-segregation and spiral of silence?

Where do you get your news? and how might it be filtered?

Implications of personalization

Defining Internet– three layers

1. The physical layer (the network's hardware and wires)

2. the logical layer (the protocols that determine who connects to what)

3. the content layer (the actual material delivered by the protocols over the wires

Lawrence Lessig, The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World

1. The physical layer or infrastructure of new mediaTelephone systems/cable systemsInternet service providersComputer hardware (including routers,

modems)Mobile phonesComputer softwarePortals

gateway sites, search engines

2. The logical layer of new media

Protocols/languages/file formatsHTMLPHPMP3TCP/IP

3. Content layer

Text, images, video, software, etc.

Transformed old cultural formsweb radio, web TV, movies online, online

newspapers, web zines, itunes

Spanking new formsDigital games, blogs, tweets, re-tweets, status

updates, new video genres (remix, etc), memes

What is the Internet?

A set of standards for interconnecting networks “A network of networks”

Internet Timeline

1958 Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA)

1962 J.C.R. Licklider, DirectorMemo “Members and affiliates of the

intergalactic computer network”

“integrated network operation”

Douglas Engelbert

Human Computer Interfaces: screen, keyboard, mouse

Internet Timeline

Paul Baran, RAND Institute1961 packet switchingInterface Message

Processer(node/router)1964 distributed computer

networking - “a highly redundant system”

“to permit survivors to do all those things necessary to shuck their ashes and reconstruct the economy.”

Distributed network

Internet Timeline

1969 ARPANETprecursor to Internet

ARPANET 1971

Internet Timeline (cont)

1974 TCP (TCP/IP by 1978) Vint Cerf & Bob Kahn Enables packet switching IP – packets, TCP – connections broken and reassembled at incredible speeds, flawlessly

Principles of Internet Architecture:

distributed (no central control)end to end principle “stupid network”

Passing of packets are neutral (though some ISPs filter

open communication protocols (language)multilayered (layers isolated)compatibility between networks

“An open system of computer communication” –Castells

Internet Timeline (cont)

1983 ARPANET separates into MILNET and ARPA-INTERNET Domain Name System .edu, .gov, .com, .mil, .org, .net, .int

1984 NSF expands high speed network

1990 ARPANET decommissioned; The Internet is privatized ISPs create networks based on ARPANET’s design 1000s of ISPs cooperate with one another to create the Internet

Internet origins and values

ARPANET cooperation, openness, consensus

Shared protocolsAgreement on technical standardsDecentralized and distributed network Run by volunteersFor freeFor the public good

“The Internet cannot be regulated”Nicholas Negroponte in Being Digital (1995)

The Internet a volunteer baseddecentralized distributed network of networks

Counterculture and the Internet

Access to tools of liberation

Diverse uses of computing

Alternative networks“The conceptual

forerunner of the World Wide Web” – Steve Jobs

Published by Stewart Brand1968-1972

1980s Internet Communities

Network cultureFIDONET (1983) Alternative communitiesSharing documents

1980s Computer culture

Hackerscomputer enthusiasts (hobbyists)

modifyinglearning by doingsharing and creating

• the Steve’s (Jobs & Wozniak)

Internet’s values generally…

Individual freedom (autonomy)Independent thinking Sharing & cooperation w/peersInteroperability Non discrimination (net neutrality)Open access (open communication)

Right to access, right to tinker

“Information must be free”-The Internet Galaxy by Manuel Castells

1998 ruling the root

ICANN - non profit, private corporation given authority by US Department of Commerce to

manage the Internet naming system1. Root server system management

2. IP address allocation

3. Domain name management (internet naming system)• top level domain (TLD)• country code top level domain (ccTLDs)

Domain Name System (DNS) Tree with root at top

Root authority

Internet goes globalroot authority is challenged

Sell to highest bidder?put under US control?

Map of root servers

Jon Postel (1943-1998)

documented and developed

key Internet standardsTCP/IP – basic Net protocolsSMTP – email transferDNS – name servers

ran the Internet naming & address system on a voluntary, free-of-charge, and public

interest basis

At 5:04pm on Jan 28th 1998 Jon Postel pulls the root! Jan 29th US Gov. and Network Solutions

secures root authorityOctober 16th 1998 Jon Postel dies (some say from stress over DNS root authority)

Critiques of ICANNAmerican dominanceUnique relationship with DoCPartnership with Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI)

the monopoly registry and dominant registrar

Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP)

ccTLD registration issuesNon transparent board selection processdecisions not a consensus of Internet communityNon representative body of global InternetToo much control by a non representative body

Web Timeline

Tim Berners Lee Hypertext – datalinking system (1989)HTML (hypertext markup language;

1990)Browser (GUI) – Nexus (1991)

Mark AndreessenMosaic (1993; Netscape 1994) 1st popular browser

Web 1.0 (write only web)

1995Amazon.com & e-commerce

1998 Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

(ICANN) governs domain names (URLs)

1999p2p file sharing (via Napster)Blogger Software released

2001 Instant Messaging services flourish

Web 2.0 (read/write web)

2005 broadband increases (dial-up declines)

Platforms for user-generated content!Wikis – Wikipedia (2001)SNSs – MySpace (2003), Facebook (2005)Photo and video sharing sites – Flickr (2004),

YouTube (2005)Smart phones – iPhone (2007)

Democratizing effects

Interactivityparticipationaltered social relations

lowered barriers to entryremoval of intermediaries or gait-keepers

(disintermediation)

DiY ethos (do it yourself)