World Wide Web

The internet and World Wide Web transformed the ways we communicate, share information, and carry out business. The history of this invention is packed with large figures and even larger innovations.

 

The start of all this began in 1958 when President Dwight D. Eisenhower started the Advanced Research Projects Agency, or ARPA for short. This agency was formed due to the Soviet's launch of Sputnik. The U.S. government wanted to get ahead of our enemies and the first project began.

The first project ARPA headed was to build the first large scale computer network. The first step was getting two computers connected on a network, and this was successfully done by Lawrence Roberts using the concept of "packet switching".

 

A coworker Leonard Kleinrock expanded on the packet-switching technology by using it to send messages through several computers causing a net of interconnection. This is where we get the term inter-net, and this is also the birth place of ARPANET in the late 1960's. 

 

The goal of ARPANET was to have a no failure communication system and decentralized data exchange for the cold war. This was when secure and reliable communication was dire. 

 

Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf built on the foundation of ARPANET by developing Internet Protocol (IP). This innovation allowed computers to communicate with a common language which is the first step for global connection. 

 

One of the pivotal breakthroughs came from a man named Tim Berners-Lee when he introduced the idea of the World Wide Web in the early 1990's. This was a new way to map out and organize information over the internet. 

 

Berners-Lee's invention changed how information was shared and consumed by creating a web of pages making the internet accessible for the public. This was huge because originally you needed a vast amount of computing knowledge to operate and surf the web.  

 

The invention of the internet shrunk the world it created a mode of communication across unthinkable distances years before. What started as a tool for military personnel quickly became accessible to the general public. 

 

The internet's global reach also made opportunity for economic growth by allowing businesses to operate on a global scale. E-commerce, banking, and marketplaces has transformed the way we conduct business.

 

However, all this good doesn't come without some bad. 

 

The internet's growing popularity led to the rise of e-commerce and huge speculation. Anybody was throwing their money in tech stocks hoping to get rich quick.

 

This is called the Dot-Com bubble in the late 1990's. Eventually the bubble bursted, causing a significant market crash in 2000. The economic fallout reminded us that while this technology is incredible, it can also have volatility. 

In summary, the invention of the internet and World Wide Web has changed the way we communicate and access information. From its beginnings as a secure military communication system to prevent Cold War surprises, the internet has evolved. 

It has evolved into a global tool that connects people across the world, shrinking distances and transforming industries. While the internet has brought new challenges, its benefits to communication, commerce, and knowledge sharing, is hard to look past.