Welcome to Information Technology and Society

Week 5

 

Here's the wiki with course material: http://socinfotech.pbworks.com/FrontPage.

 

 

In this class we'll focus on how the information technology revolution developed, especially vis-a-vis long time Berkeley Professor Manuel Castells' research on the Network Society, as well as http://webnographers.org - a wiki bibliography on virtual ethnography.

 

I invite your questions, and I'll post a version of the text from each class to http://socinfotech.pbworks.com/FrontPage over the weeks.

There's already a lot of information on this wiki, which will develop with this class.

 

And please join the Google Group for World University and School - like Wikipedia with MIT Open Course Ware -

http://groups.google.com/group/World-University-and-School.

 

 

Social History of the Internet

 

 

[11:09]  Aphilo Aarde: What's so interesting about the internet in general is that we all become producers of information

[11:09]  Andromeda Mesmer: Well -- in Wikipedia -- i think that Anshe Chung got rid of the less flattering portions of her biography ...

[11:09]  Aphilo Aarde: much more readily than ever before in history.

[11:09]  Andromeda Mesmer: So -- information destroyed --

[11:10]  Aphilo Aarde: All of you are builders, I suspect (Jonathan, too) in SL.

[11:10]  Tarek String is Online

[11:10]  Aphilo Aarde: Greetings, Mel

[11:10]  Aphilo Aarde: Greetings Sandhya!

[11:10]  Melchizedek Blauvelt: evening all

[11:10]  XiuJuan Ying: hello Mel

[11:10]  Andromeda Mesmer: Yes -- I just entered something in a contest - so I was concerned about not being able to log on.

[11:10]  Aphilo Aarde: Welcome to Information Technology and Society on Harvard's virtual island

[11:10]  JonathanE Cortes: hi mel

[11:11]  Aphilo Aarde: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University

[11:11]  Aphilo Aarde: I see Andromeda

[11:11]  Aphilo Aarde: It's morning here in Calif

[11:11]  Aphilo Aarde: Info Tech rewrites so much ...

[11:11]  Andromeda Mesmer: "Tai Chi in the Year of the Tiger" was my entry ...

[11:12]  Aphilo Aarde: Well today, we'll begin to examine a Social History of the Internet

[11:12]  Aphilo Aarde: What's so interesting about the internet in general is that we all become producers of information

[11:13]  Aphilo Aarde: ... to say it again ... so we all can group build in Second Life, for example, and group knowledge produce in Wikipedia.

[11:13]  Aphilo Aarde: And create on own web pages in ao many different ways to share ideas

[11:13]  Aphilo Aarde: based on this distributed network, which emerged first decades ago.

[11:14]  Aphilo Aarde: And these information technologies on the internet - this distributed network - can become more and more multimedia - oriented

[11:14]  Aphilo Aarde: And Second Life is a remarkable example of this.

[11:15]  Aphilo Aarde: To depart from where we left off

[11:15]  Aphilo Aarde: last week

[11:15]  Marian Dragovar is Offline

[11:16]  Kevin Menczel is Offline

[11:16]  Aphilo Aarde: The social outcome of 1 the information revolution 2 a far-reaching socioeconomic restructuring and 3 cultural change due to the 1960s

[11:16]  Aphilo Aarde: is the Interet

[11:16]  Aphilo Aarde: And the Internet emblematizes the transition between this revolution and an ongoing NOW

[11:17]  Aphilo Aarde: For the Social History of the Internet, I'd like to refer you to

[11:17]  Aphilo Aarde: "Inventing the Internet"

[11:17]  Aphilo Aarde: Abbate, Janet. 1999. Inventing the Internet. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press

[11:18]  Aphilo Aarde: which is also here at webnographers.org - http://www.webnographers.org/index.php?title=Books#History_of_the_Internet

[11:18]  Aphilo Aarde: which I mostly edit

[11:18]  Aphilo Aarde: and which has many helpful resources

[11:19]  Aphilo Aarde: Remember, your questions and observations are welcome while I chat

[11:19]  Aphilo Aarde: I welcome your engagement

[11:19]  Alvenoh Asp is Online

[11:19]  Aphilo Aarde: And group type chat makes possible multiple lines of reasoning, which I fin to be

[11:20]  Aphilo Aarde: edifying for all.

[11:20]  Aphilo Aarde: So, the INTERNET

[11:20]  Breeze Underwood is Online

[11:20]  Aphilo Aarde: is a global network of computer networks that have the ability to talk to each other (this is the tricky part)

[11:21]  Aphilo Aarde: and reroute messages through alternative pathways when a path is blocked.

[11:21]  Aphilo Aarde: ON the internet, there are an infinite number of alternative paths.

[11:21]  Aphilo Aarde: And not all computer networks are in the internet ... e.g. global financial markets.

[11:22]  Aphilo Aarde: The internet has a long and fascinating history

[11:22]  Marian Dragovar is Online

[11:22]  Aphilo Aarde: In 1969, it was first formed.

[11:22]  Aphilo Aarde: Today's internet - for surfing and enjoyment - emerged in 1994-95, with

[11:22]  Aphilo Aarde: the advent of the graphical user interface browser MOSAIC

[11:23]  Aphilo Aarde: There's a popular story about how the internet started.

[11:23]  Aphilo Aarde: The FALSE story is that it was a military technology

[11:23]  Bon McLeod is Offline

[11:24]  Aphilo Aarde: to prevent collapse of communications in case of nuclear attack.

[11:24]  Aphilo Aarde: It started in an innovated research agency in 1958 called ARPA

[11:24]  Aphilo Aarde: in response to soviet advancement

[11:25]  Aphilo Aarde: It was an attempt to mobilize the intellectual resources of the ACADEMIC world to build a superior technology.

[11:25]  Aphilo Aarde: ARPA at first was made up of a very small group of people.

[11:25]  Aphilo Aarde: some whom had worked on nuclear submarines, and others coming from NASA

[11:26]  Aphilo Aarde: They had peanuts money - but a huge amount for an academic project at the time

[11:26]  Aphilo Aarde: it was tiny in the context of the Pentagon's budget

[11:27]  Aphilo Aarde: ARPA had a reputation for starting projects with almost complete academic freedom.

[11:27]  Breeze Underwood is Offline

[11:27]  Aphilo Aarde: ARPA stands for

[11:28]  Aphilo Aarde: Advanced Research Projects Agency, renamed the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 1972

[11:28]  Bon McLeod is Online

[11:28]  Aphilo Aarde: At the same time

[11:28]  Aphilo Aarde: another agency had a related idea

[11:29]  Aphilo Aarde: the IPTO

[11:29]  Aphilo Aarde: Information Processing Techniques Office

[11:29]  Aphilo Aarde: conceived the notion of exploring computer networking

[11:29]  Aphilo Aarde: They had TWO big problems

[11:29]  Aphilo Aarde: 1 With TRANSMISSION TECHNOLOGIES

[11:30]  Aphilo Aarde: and 2 COMMUNICATION SOFTWARE

[11:30]  Aphilo Aarde: We're still in the late 50s and early 60s

[11:30]  Breeze Underwood is Online

[11:30]  Aphilo Aarde: Transmission technologies as a problem

[11:31]  Aphilo Aarde: was solved independently by 2 people.

[11:31]  Aphilo Aarde: Paul Baran in the US, and Donald Davies in Britain

[11:31]  Aphilo Aarde: Baran was working at the RAND corporation in Santa Monica, which was the most sophisticated think tank around at the time.

[11:32]  Aphilo Aarde: The RAND corporation worked on the project to organize a communication system which was invulnerable to nuclear attack.

[11:32]  Aphilo Aarde: How?

[11:32]  Aphilo Aarde: They decided to make it PLACELESS

[11:32]  Aphilo Aarde: so that it was everywhere and nowhere

[11:33]  Aphilo Aarde: (Second Life is fascinating because it's an example of placelessness due to the web, which is also an interactive representation of place).

[11:34]  Patio Plasma is Offline

[11:34]  Aphilo Aarde: In the RAND corporations thinking, there would be NO COMMAND AND CONTROL center - due to a huge amount of NODES

[11:34]  Aphilo Aarde: The idea that all nodes could reorganize was around in 1954

[11:34]  Scot Jung is Offline

[11:35]  kinam Bigbear is Online

[11:35]  Aphilo Aarde: These geniuses in the Pentagon REJECTED and didn't implement Baran's ideas.

[11:35]  Aphilo Aarde: To repeat Baran's ideas didn't get approved, but Paul Baran did develop PACKET SWITCHING.

[11:36]  Aphilo Aarde: In parallel, and without knowing, Donald Davies, who was a physicist in Britain's leading Physics center did something similar

[11:37]  Aphilo Aarde: He was working at the National Physics Centre, but in also inventing packet switching, his invention wasn't recognized until the 1970s.

[11:38]  Aphilo Aarde: So this PACKET SWITCHING technology was available in Britain in the late 50s and 60s, too, and the UK Patent Office turned down the proposal.

[11:38]  Aphilo Aarde: The British could have STARTED the INTERNET

[11:38]  In Kenzo is Online

[11:38]  Aphilo Aarde: In the late 1970s, the British decided to get fully involved with the INTERNET

[11:39]  Aphilo Aarde: and BOUGHT american technology.

[11:39]  Aphilo Aarde: So we have the IPTO with PACKET SWITCHING TECHNOLOGIES, and we have Donald Davies

[11:39]  Aphilo Aarde: but this was all only on paper.

[11:40]  Aphilo Aarde: In 1967, in Nashville Tennessee, peopl e in the DEFENSE Department

[11:40]  Aphilo Aarde: still didn't have the proper technology - any technology - for a distributed network

[11:41]  Aphilo Aarde: And they asked Who is this Baran?

[11:41]  Aphilo Aarde: And that's how the Defense Department found Baran's proposal.

[11:41]  Aphilo Aarde: They took the packet switching idea

[11:41]  Aphilo Aarde: and begain to develop it.

[11:42]  Aphilo Aarde: In 1969, ARPA NET emerged

[11:42]  Aphilo Aarde: ARPANET - who were these people?

[11:42]  Kazuhiro Aridian is Online

[11:42]  Aphilo Aarde: Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), created by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the United States Department of Defense, was the world's first operational packet switching network, and the predecessor of the contemporary global Internet. The packet switching of the ARPANET was based on designs by Lawrence Roberts, of the Lincoln Laboratory.[1]

[11:43]  Aphilo Aarde: They were scientists circulating between major universities:

[11:43]  Pooky Amsterdam is Offline

[11:43]  Aphilo Aarde: including MIT, UCLA, Stanford, Utah, Berkeley and USC

[11:44]  Aphilo Aarde: These computer scientists were working from time to time in other think tanks and organizations, besides academia,

[11:44]  Aphilo Aarde: including RAND and SFI - Stanford Research Institute, which then became Stanford Research International, then

[11:45]  Aphilo Aarde: Stanford Industrial Park

[11:45]  Aphilo Aarde: Some were working at BBN

[11:45]  Keystone Bouchard is Online

[11:45]  Aphilo Aarde: BBN - formerly Bolt, Beranek and Newman, a technology company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, best known for its work on packet switching technology and its construction of the Interface Message Processor - the first router

[11:46]  Keystone Bouchard is Offline

[11:46]  Aphilo Aarde: which made the first router - it was an acoustic enginnering firm and a spin off from MIT

[11:46]  kinam Bigbear is Offline

[11:46]  Aphilo Aarde: They created very important networking hardware

[11:47]  Aphilo Aarde: These scientists brought graduate students to work

[11:47]  Aphilo Aarde: So it was Big Science from universities and Defense Department money that created the first network.

[11:48]  Aphilo Aarde: But what were they doing?

[11:48]  Aphilo Aarde: They didn't really know.

[11:49]  Aphilo Aarde: Computing, as we've seen, with the hierarchy of computers (mainframes, minis, & terminals,e tc in the first half of the 60s were the basis)

[11:49]  Aphilo Aarde: So these scientists came together to share computing time, by moving information between computers.

[11:49]  Aidan Aquacade is Online

[11:49]  Aphilo Aarde: That's how the internet emerged.

[11:50]  Aphilo Aarde: This led by 1972 to the first demonstration of ARPANET in Washington DC

[11:50]  Aphilo Aarde: And ARPANET was operational, campus-wide and with connections with Geneva and London -

[11:50]  Aphilo Aarde: And it WORKED!

[11:51]  Aphilo Aarde: ARPANET said that it wasn't really Military, so they decided to privatize.

[11:51]  Aphilo Aarde: ARPANET offered it to AT & T, which decided that it DIDN'T have commercial application, and who left it in the hands of computer scientist

[11:52]  Aphilo Aarde: *scientists

[11:52]  Aphilo Aarde: who decided to become serious.

[11:53]  Aphilo Aarde: ... to make Universities become a global network

[11:53]  Aphilo Aarde: (I'd like to add here that I'd like World University and School - of which this is the first class - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University - to extend this thinking, in a variety of ways).

[11:54]  Aphilo Aarde: The problem for ARPANET and these scientists

[11:54]  Aquiel Aero is Online

[11:54]  Dorka Nemeth is Online

[11:54]  Aphilo Aarde: had to do with communication protocols - a common program for computers to talk.

[11:55]  Aphilo Aarde: They put their best students on it, in what was called the NETWORK WORKING GROUP

[11:55]  Aphilo Aarde: which had 3 key people

[11:56]  Pooky Amsterdam is Online

[11:56]  Aphilo Aarde: Vint Cerf

[11:56]  Aphilo Aarde: Steve Crocker

[11:57]  Aphilo Aarde: and Jon Postel

[11:57]  Aphilo Aarde: These 3 people ultimately designed INTERNET PROTOCOLS

[11:58]  Aphilo Aarde: And they were based at universities in southern California - including UCLA (Crocker) and USC (University of Southern California) Postel

[11:58]  Aphilo Aarde: There were other California and MIT connections.

[11:58]  Aphilo Aarde: Cerf went to the IPTO, met Paul Baran, and from 1973-1978

[11:59]  Aphilo Aarde: they wrote a series of papers on TCP/IP -

[11:59]  Aphilo Aarde: TRANSMISSION CONTROL PROTOCOL / INTERNET PROTOCOL

[11:59]  Aquiel Aero is Offline

[11:59]  Aphilo Aarde: on the which the internet is based today, and which allow NETWORKS to talk with one another.

[12:00]  Aphilo Aarde: By and large, by the end of the 1970s, all work was done, and the INTERNET could operate.

[12:01]  Aquiel Aero is Online

[12:01]  Aphilo Aarde: Great, - it's an interesting history full of accident and lack of knowledge about what they were designing or what would emerge and it lead to a ongoing world-changing technologies, based on information.

[12:01]  Kazuhiro Aridian is Offline

[12:01]  Aphilo Aarde: Let's take a 10 minute break here, and resume again at 10 past the hour -

[12:01]  Aphilo Aarde: with further developments in the social history of the Internet

[12:02]  Aphilo Aarde: Any questions?

[12:02]  Aphilo Aarde: Observations?

[12:02]  sandhya2 Patel: that was very clear

[12:02]  MacZ Urbanowicz is Online

[12:02]  Aphilo Aarde: Thanks

[12:02]  Dena Dana is Online

[12:02]  Aphilo Aarde: Sandhya ...

[12:03]  Andromeda Mesmer: I was looking up the biography of Paul Baran as you were speaking - intersting to get more insight into his thinking.

[12:03]  Aphilo Aarde: There are some video histories of the internet on webnographers.org, but this one only in part.

[12:03]  Tarek String is Offline

[12:03]  Aphilo Aarde: Agreed, Andromeda

[12:03]  Aphilo Aarde: Perhaps we can chat a little about that at 10 past ... would you care to say what you find fascinating then, in brief?

[12:03]  Andromeda Mesmer: Sure.

[12:04]  Aphilo Aarde: Great ... see you in 7 minutes

[12:04]  Andromeda Mesmer: I will root around smore more.

[12:04]  JonathanE Cortes: k

[12:04]  Aphilo Aarde: :)

[12:05]  Bon McLeod is Offline

 

 

 

12:11]  Aphilo Aarde: Hello again

[12:11]  Sophie Zuta is Offline

[12:11]  JonathanE Cortes: hi

[12:11]  Aphilo Aarde: Here's the transcript of the first half of today's class: http://socinfotech.pbworks.com/InfoTechSoc5

[12:11]  Aphilo Aarde: on the course web site.

[12:12]  Aphilo Aarde: I am gradually editing these to create an online history of the internet

[12:12]  Aphilo Aarde: and they're potentially helpful references

[12:12]  Aphilo Aarde: as well

[12:12]  JonathanE Cortes: k

[12:12]  Aphilo Aarde: So, Andromeda - Baran - what interests you?

[12:13]  Aphilo Aarde: Jonathan?

[12:14]  JonathanE Cortes: yes

[12:14]  Aphilo Aarde: I saw you typing and thought you might be observing something about Baran.

[12:14]  Ju Roussel is Offline

[12:14]  Aphilo Aarde: Andromeda, please share you thoughts about Baran, as I proceed.

[12:15]  Andromeda Mesmer: A big motivation of that time was fear of the USSR and atomic bombs --

[12:15]  Andromeda Mesmer: I'll just give the one reference here -

[12:15]  Andromeda Mesmer: http://www.ibiblio.org/pioneers/baran.html - but there is much more.

[12:16]  Aphilo Aarde: Yes, Baran's thinking emerged specifically with his interests in military

[12:16]  Aphilo Aarde: thinking

[12:16]  Aphilo Aarde: Thanks!

[12:17]  Aphilo Aarde: IN a way, he was interested in survivability in the context of nuclear buildup

[12:17]  Jeffy Batista is Offline

[12:18]  Aphilo Aarde: But he did this work in the 50s, and, remember, it wasn't until a relatively quiet lab in Tennessee in 1967 found his ideas interesting that PACKET SWITCHING as idea took form in ARPANET

[12:18]  Andromeda Mesmer: The ability for the US to retaliate -- in the policy of MAD --

[12:19]  Aphilo Aarde: Yes ... MAD is becoming history these days - curious bottom line game that human primates develop with very powerful technologies that involve splitting atoms

[12:20]  Aphilo Aarde: and in the context of which the internet emerged as a response

[12:20]  Aphilo Aarde: To continue

[12:20]  Pooky Amsterdam is Offline

[12:20]  Andromeda Mesmer: Well -- there is still the simpler version of "chicken" on roads...

[12:20]  MS Hawker is Offline

[12:21]  Aphilo Aarde: :) (and 8-100 million species by some estimates, coming through 3.5 billion years ) So, by the

[12:21]  Aphilo Aarde: So, by and large, by the end of the 1970s, all work on the internet was done, and the INTERNET could operate.

[12:21]  Pooky Amsterdam is Online

[12:21]  Nathy Portal is Online

[12:22]  Aphilo Aarde: The Defense Department started to get serious.

[12:22]  Jeffy Batista is Online

[12:22]  Aphilo Aarde: Over 80% of the early use of these networks and TCP/IP - the internet's protocols - still the highway part of the INformaiton Highway

[12:23]  Aphilo Aarde: was for EMAIL

[12:23]  Aphilo Aarde: This was a project by Scientists at big university, paid for by the Defense Department, which was being used for EMAIL, significantly.

[12:24]  Aphilo Aarde: In fact, was we've observed before, the Internet in many was an accident ... there weren't any weapons systems or anything of the like as part of the plan - which is very unusual for the Defense Department

[12:25]  Aphilo Aarde: So 80% of these early networks at the end of the 70s was for EMAIL and personal use

[12:25]  Aphilo Aarde: Most were POP email lists - POP stands for Post Office Protocol - and was one of many protocols, part of TCP/IP

[12:26]  Aphilo Aarde: which again stands for Transmission Control Protocol / INformation Protocol and which was and is the INTERNET rules for PACKET SWITCHING - so the information highway

[12:27]  JenzZa Misfit is Online

[12:27]  Aphilo Aarde: (http - which begins web site addresses - also is one of these protocols, for example, and stands for hyper text transfer protocol).

[12:27]  Whitelight Christiansen is Online

[12:27]  Aphilo Aarde: So, most of this early use of POP email lists were San Francisco loggers .

[12:28]  Aphilo Aarde: And two of THE most popular first lists were the Science Fiction list, and the Marijuana Procurement List.

[12:28]  Nathy Portal is Offline

[12:28]  Aphilo Aarde: In 1983, the Defense Department decided to split ARPANET into 2 networks:

[12:29]  Aphilo Aarde: 1 MILNET - a military network - with email systems for military units

[12:29]  Crimsom Nightfire is Online

[12:29]  Aphilo Aarde: 2 ARPANET/INTERNET - for researhc and civilian purposes

[12:30]  In Kenzo is Offline

[12:30]  Aphilo Aarde: And the military decided to transfer most of the administration of these networks to the National Science Foundation (NSF)

[12:30]  Aphilo Aarde: In 1990, ARPANET, now old and tired, was decommissioned.

[12:30]  Whitelight Christiansen is Offline

[12:30]  Aphilo Aarde: and went into development history of the military.

[12:31]  Aphilo Aarde: And in 1990 the civilian side under the auspices of the NSF received

[12:31]  Aphilo Aarde: insturctions to start to privatize, and then received a commission with a plan to privatize.

[12:31]  Ryszard Merchiston is Offline

[12:32]  Aphilo Aarde: And in 1995, they began to privatize.

[12:32]  Aphilo Aarde: On the other hand, and at the same time, a Grass Roots system -

[12:33]  Aphilo Aarde: A COUNTERCULTURAL MOVEMENT as an instrument of freedom and alternative was in full swing

[12:33]  Aphilo Aarde: ... and around universities by the same students who had developed the internet over the previous decades.

[12:33]  Michele Mrigesh is Offline

[12:33]  XiuJuan Ying is Offline

[12:34]  Aphilo Aarde: So, you have SCIENCE, the MILITARY and COUNTERCULTURE

[12:34]  Aphilo Aarde: all creating the Internet

[12:34]  Aphilo Aarde: So the medium was invented

[12:35]  Aphilo Aarde: And it used TELEPHONE lines to allow computers outside ARPANET to communicate.

[12:35]  Aphilo Aarde: And students used it to communicate.

[12:35]  Aphilo Aarde: University of North Carolina students developed software in the early 1990s, and

[12:36]  Aphilo Aarde: distributed it for FREE

[12:36]  Aphilo Aarde: It was internet discussion software

[12:36]  Aphilo Aarde: called USENET

[12:37]  Aphilo Aarde: These students were at Duke University, not UNC (which students contributed to the Internet in other ways).

[12:37]  XiuJuan Ying is Online

[12:38]  Aphilo Aarde: So, Usenet was a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system.

[12:38]  Aphilo Aarde: and important because it was a very important first example of FREE WARE

[12:38]  Ryszard Merchiston is Online

[12:38]  Aphilo Aarde: which has a long history in the Information Technology Revolution.

[12:38]  Ju Roussel is Online

[12:39]  JonathanE Cortes: wb xiu

[12:39]  Aphilo Aarde: "Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980.[1] Users read and post public messages (called articles or posts, and collectively termed news) to one or more categories, known as newsgroups. Usenet resembles bulletin board systems (BBS) in most respects, and is the precursor to the various Internet forums that are widely used today; and can be superficially regarded as a hybrid between e-mail and web forums. Discussions are threaded, with modern news reader software, as with web forums and BBSes, though posts are stored on the server sequentially.

One notable difference between a BBS or web forum and Usenet is the absence of a central server and dedicated administrator."

[12:39]  XiuJuan Ying: ty

[12:39]  Aphilo Aarde: So, by 1978, PERSONAL SOFTWARE already existed.

[12:40]  Aphilo Aarde: And as we observed before, PERSONAL SOFTWARE itself is a revolutionary idea - so much 'power' at the fingertips of individual users - it's a very democratic idea.

[12:41]  Aphilo Aarde: ANd USENET made discussions possible in remarkable ways

[12:41]  Aphilo Aarde: Most software has piggybaked on the generosity of these pioneers.

[12:41]  Aphilo Aarde: They created a NETWORK

[12:41]  Aphilo Aarde: And USENET became BBS

[12:42]  Aphilo Aarde: Bulletin Board Systems

[12:42]  Keystone Bouchard is Online

[12:42]  Aphilo Aarde: "A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging messages with other users, either through electronic mail or in public message boards. Many BBSes also offer on-line games, in which users can compete with each other, and BBSes with multiple phone lines often provide chat rooms, allowing users to interact with each other.

Originally BBSes were accessed only over a phone line using a modem, but by the early 1990s some BBSes allowed access via a Telnet, packet switched network, or packet radio connection.

The term "Bulletin Board System" itself is a reference to the traditional cork-and-"

[12:43]  Aphilo Aarde: (I'm drawing these quotes from Wikipedia)

[12:43]  Aphilo Aarde: And in 1978/1979 USENET NEWS

[12:43]  Aphilo Aarde: was a remarkable advance

[12:43]  Aphilo Aarde: for individual users

[12:44]  Aphilo Aarde: It's big ADVANTAGE: It was a cheap, dialup (using existing phone lines) system like today's ,

[12:45]  Aphilo Aarde: DISADVANTAGE: it had little transmission capacity,

[12:45]  Aphilo Aarde: and it wasn't connected to ARPANET

[12:45]  Aphilo Aarde: At first ARPANET DISALLOWED Usenet

[12:46]  Aphilo Aarde: But there were bigger problems

[12:46]  Aphilo Aarde: The softwares of USENET and ARPANET

[12:46]  Aphilo Aarde: couldn't communicate

[12:47]  Aphilo Aarde: So at an ARPANET node at UC Berkeley in 1978/79, students designed software which could connect ARPANET and USENET

[12:47]  Aphilo Aarde: And this fusion ultimately became the internet

[12:47]  Aphilo Aarde: SO the internet camre from the top and the bottom simultaneously

[12:49]  Aphilo Aarde: In 1983, Tom Jennings designed a program to allow dialup connections called FIDO

[12:49]  Aphilo Aarde: And he singlehandedly built a global network called FIDONET

[12:49]  Aphilo Aarde: It was also called the "Poor Man's Internet"

[12:50]  Aphilo Aarde: because you could access the web for the price a local phone call.

[12:50]  Rhiannon Chatnoir is Online

[12:50]  Aphilo Aarde: And there are still a few million users on FIDONET

[12:50]  Aphilo Aarde: and nearly 2 billion users on the internet, itself, up from 400 million users in 2000.

[12:51]  Aphilo Aarde: So, the foundation of the Internet came from the Military and University

[12:51]  Aphilo Aarde: as well as from students interested in allowing students to communcate for FREE

[12:51]  Aphilo Aarde: Many of these early internet technologies still are used:

[12:51]  Aphilo Aarde: Mailing Lists

[12:52]  Aphilo Aarde: Posting to BBS and USENET

[12:52]  Aphilo Aarde: Chat rooms

[12:52]  Aphilo Aarde: all of which developed from the Personal Computer connection to the world.

[12:52]  Draxtor Despres is Offline

[12:52]  Aphilo Aarde: So, to summarize the stages of development we've looked at

[12:53]  Aphilo Aarde: from the late 1960s to the early 70s,

[12:53]  Aquiel Aero is Offline

[12:53]  Aphilo Aarde: 1 Military research sponsored the development of the INTERNET from computer departments at leading universities.

[12:54]  Pooky Amsterdam is Offline

[12:54]  Aphilo Aarde: 2 ARPANET in the 1970s for both Military (which became MILNET) and Civilian (e.g. NSF)

[12:54]  Aphilo Aarde: and 3 in the late 1970s, communication software developed for ALL

[12:54]  Aphilo Aarde: This was publicly developed software, where everyone benefits

[12:55]  Ju Roussel is Offline

[12:55]  Aphilo Aarde: In the 1990s, ARPANET was closed.

[12:55]  Aphilo Aarde: And USNET's development was significant in 2 ways

[12:55]  Aphilo Aarde: 1 it could communicate with ARPANET in the mid 80s

[12:55]  Aphilo Aarde: 2 USENET could go global from the beginning, but not ARPANET

[12:56]  Aphilo Aarde: So, the GLOBAL connection of the Internet came via USENET

[12:57]  Aphilo Aarde: So, let's chat a little now

[12:57]  Aphilo Aarde: to bring my talk to a close

[12:57]  Aphilo Aarde: Are there questions?

[12:57]  Aphilo Aarde: Observations?

[12:57]  Aphilo Aarde: Thoughts?

[12:58]  Aphilo Aarde: Yes, Mel

 

[12:58]  Aphilo Aarde: Yes, Mel

[12:58]  Melchizedek Blauvelt: How come the internet as we know it only emerged in the late 80's...became semi-popular in the mid nineties, while all the ingredients have been there for decades Aphilo?

[12:59]  Melchizedek Blauvelt: Is it simply a question of technological capabilities or is there more?

[12:59]  Aphilo Aarde: Good question ... it was a series of bringing existing cool, yet often slow technologies together

[12:59]  Ryszard Merchiston is Offline

[13:00]  Hydra Shaftoe is Online

[13:00]  Aphilo Aarde: When these information technologies, they were often like 'babies'

[13:00]  Ryszard Merchiston is Online

[13:00]  Aphilo Aarde: not that functional, which also meant that there weren't than many users, so

[13:00]  Aphilo Aarde: there lacked a critical mass of popularity to spur easy use and further development.

[13:01]  Dena Dana is Offline

[13:01]  Aphilo Aarde: That happend with the protocols of the World Wide Web itself,

[13:01]  In Kenzo is Online

[13:01]  Aphilo Aarde: starting around 1989, which we'll look at next week, and with graphics in browsers in 9495

[13:02]  Aphilo Aarde: That's when internet popularity spread and more cool and useful things for endusers emerged en masse.

[13:02]  Andromeda Mesmer: Library-to-library communications about books ...

[13:02]  Hydra Shaftoe is Offline

[13:02]  Aphilo Aarde: so, it's partly a question of popularity and how this leads to further developments

[13:03]  Ju Roussel is Online

[13:03]  Aphilo Aarde: That depended on, Andromeda

[13:03]  Aphilo Aarde: http, html and url as well - these protocols that made web page exchange on a worldwide network widely accessible.

[13:04]  Aphilo Aarde: Markup languages are key to popularity - like html - hypertext markup language - there are many

[13:04]  Aphilo Aarde: Good questions ...

[13:05]  Aphilo Aarde: Well, let's leave things here for the today

[13:05]  Aphilo Aarde: Thanks for participating.

[13:05]  Melchizedek Blauvelt: Leaves one to wonder which theunderestimated technologies of today are

[13:05]  Aphilo Aarde: I'd love to find out what you might you to moderate a subject or part of World University & School

[13:05]  Melchizedek Blauvelt: And how popularity may influence them

[13:06]  Andromeda Mesmer: The chatroulette may have possibilites --

[13:06]  Aphilo Aarde: Yes, Mel - I hope WUaS is that, and will lead to further developments like a Universal Translator, for example, and

[13:06]  Aphilo Aarde: developments in virtual worlds.

[13:06]  Melchizedek Blauvelt: Chatroulette is great for griefing, I noticed

[13:06]  Melchizedek Blauvelt: And very popular because of that, too

[13:06]  Aphilo Aarde: Type chat, voice and video would be enhanced by avatar facial engagement for communitcation.

[13:07]  Andromeda Mesmer: Heh -- griefers find an opportunity everywhere.

[13:07]  Aidan Aquacade is Offline

[13:07]  Andromeda Mesmer: Somewhat surprised at that, though.

[13:07]  Aphilo Aarde: Interesting ... I've seen less griefing in Second Life these days than a few years ago.

[13:07]  Aphilo Aarde: But I'm mostly here on Harvard's island for this class, so I may be a little

[13:07]  Andromeda Mesmer: Aphilo -- that is due to #1 better controls, and #2 the griefers growing up and maturing.

[13:07]  Aphilo Aarde: out of touch.

[13:08]  Aphilo Aarde: :) I'm glad to hear it

[13:08]  Melchizedek Blauvelt: The griefers always were mature - they aren't scriptkids

[13:08]  Melchizedek Blauvelt: They became a victim of their own success though

[13:08]  Aphilo Aarde: It would be great if people put their energies to constructive communication processes - and I see griefing as negative and somehow destructive ...

[13:09]  Aphilo Aarde: not sure why people's minds go 'there' - haven't seen any papers on it at webnographers.org

[13:09]  Andromeda Mesmer: Well, when the biggest griefing was going on by the 4-chan and Woodbury U groups -- that was supposed to be due to a hardcore of 35 or so - bored teenagers, according to one investigator

[13:09]  Andromeda Mesmer: But there could be other groups of griefers, with different characteristics ...

[13:09]  Aphilo Aarde: http://www.webnographers.org/index.php?title=Papers

[13:09]  Kobra Snakeankle is Online

[13:10]  Andromeda Mesmer: I'm talking about the griefing of the summer of 2007.

[13:10]  Aphilo Aarde: yes age probably plays a role

[13:10]  Melchizedek Blauvelt: They're mostly in their 30's and 40's

[13:11]  ZEN7MEN Mannonen is Online

[13:11]  JenzZa Misfit is Offline

[13:11]  Melchizedek Blauvelt: And moved to other targets - like Habbo and Scientology, or teengrid

[13:11]  Aphilo Aarde: Just found a paper which I'll add here: http://www.webnographers.org/index.php?title=Papers

[13:11]  Andromeda Mesmer: The ones on SL in the summer of 2007 were centered around Woodbury University --

[13:11]  Melchizedek Blauvelt: Some of them have established businesses here too

[13:11]  Aphilo Aarde: Griefing in virtual worlds: causes, casualties and coping strategies

Thomas Chesney,* Iain Coyne, † Brian Logan ‡ & Neil Madden §

[13:11]  Melchizedek Blauvelt: Woodbury is just a shill Andromeda, so is 4chan

[13:12]  Andromeda Mesmer: What sort of businesses in SL?

[13:12]  Aphilo Aarde: and here: http://www.webnographers.org/index.php?title=Papers#Virtual_Worlds

[13:12]  Melchizedek Blauvelt: Very ordinary ones, like clothing and furniture

[13:13]  Melchizedek Blauvelt: I'm not sure, I think it has something to do with loss of identity

[13:13]  Melchizedek Blauvelt: And people trying to compensate for that (my avatar could be an example)

[13:15]  Andromeda Mesmer: I got interested in griefing at that time because one of them came around to bother us in the sandbox here, when we were trying to take a picture -- and then a friend reported of loss of virtual goods in a furry community due to griefing. So -- I visited Woodbury U and their "sekrit" HQ.

[13:15]  Aphilo Aarde: Here's the "Griefing" paper's abstract:

[13:15]  Aphilo Aarde: A virtual world is a computer-simulated three-dimensional environment. They are increasingly being used for social and commercial interaction, in addition to their original use for game playing. This paper studies negative behaviour, or 'griefing', inside one virtual world through a series of observations and focus groups with users. Data were collected to identify griefing behaviours and their impact, examine why griefing happens and who the likely targets and perpetrators are, and suggest strategies for coping with it. Findings show that griefing behaviour is common. It is defined as unacceptable, persistent behaviour and is typically targeted at inexperienced residents by those with more knowledge of the virtual world. Community and individual coping strategies are identified and discussed.

[13:15]  Melchizedek Blauvelt: It's hardly secret if it's the biggest message board on the internet, is it ;)

[13:16]  Aphilo Aarde: It doesn't posit an answer to why

[13:16]  Aphilo Aarde: It does suggest that inexperienced users are targetted.

[13:17]  Aphilo Aarde: Well, thanks for coming. I'm going to be away from my computer for 5 minutes, then back for office hours for another 45 minutes, or so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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