Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The Internet is a network of computer networks. In that sense, even though the content provided can often be similar to that offered by radio or television networks (→ Radio ; Radio Networks ; Television ; Television Networks ), a more appropriate structural analogy should probably be to telephone or telegraph networks (→ Telegraph, History of ). The Internet, telephone, and telegraph networks all originated as electronic means of communicating in a point-to-point context. In relation to content, as well, early experiments with the telephone (in the 1880s and 1890s) connected performers and audiences in multiple locations and varied content, such as sports contests, musical programs, and vaudeville shows, and provided a kind of conceptual forerunner for what was to come with radio, television, and the Internet. The Internet, though, owes its existence to developments in computers and communication between computers. The US military developed a number of precursors to the Internet, the best known of which is ARPANET. ARPANET use was restricted to military and scientific personnel. The National Science Foundation (NSF) originally provided administrative oversight of the Internet, but in 1995, the NSF ceased its administration of the Internet, and commercial use was permitted. The world wide web (WWW), developed by Tim Berners-Lee, soon replaced file transfer protocol as the most ... log in or subscribe to read full text