"What is the Internet Anyway?"
Emily Esfahani Smith, Ed. ·
Feb 2, 2011 at 5:46am
"Can you explain what internet is?" Katie Couric asked in 1994 on the Today Show. Co-host Bryant Gumbel, meanwhile, had his own question: What is "that little mark with the 'a' and the ring around it? Katie thought that was 'about.'" He of course means the "@" sign.
Watch the clip here:
In an age of iPads, Twitter, and 3G, can you believe that--in less than twenty years--we've come so far? It just goes to show that the most powerful agent of change in our lives these days is technology. And combine technology with pop-culture--as the internet did--and you have the stuff of a cultural revolution, the effects of which we see played out every single day.
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Nov '10
Re: "What is the Internet Anyway?"
10 years ago we bought an HP tape auto-loader. For the uninitiated, that's a box with some tape drives in it and a robotic arm to switch out the tapes automatically. We joked at the time: "We could back up the whole Internet with that thing!" And we probably could have. But not any more. We've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars replacing that first auto-loader with disk based backups and off-line tape libraries, and we struggle to keep pace just backing up our own data. It's amazing the pace at which content is created, even in our medium sized company.
What's really interesting for me to see is that we seem to be stuck in between two worlds: One that values the Internet and technology for business, and one that does not. As that second world disappears, I wonder what the Internet will look like, and what it will be doing for us? It's hard to imagine.
Re: "What is the Internet Anyway?"
It is amazing. It's also amazing how the internet has replaced so many material items that we used to have--I'm reminded of all the tapes, and then later CDs, that I owned as a kid. Now we have iTunes. The same thing can be said about newspapers, magazines, and books. They have all been boiled down to a screen on your computer, or laptop, or iPad.
Nov '10
Re: "What is the Internet Anyway?"
That's true. This weekend I experienced something for the first time: I was in B&N just browsing and came upon a book I'd been wanting. It was $15. I brought up Nook for iPhone and bought it for $5. I mean, I'm standing there at the bookshelf looking at the book, buying it on my iPhone. Of course I haven't read it yet.
And how about TV? I never watch regular TV, but I've been going through all of the Lost episodes on Netflix. It's just crazy that I can watch every episode, one after another, no commercials, whenever I want. I mean, I'm old enough to remember when VCRs first came out. We've come a long way, baby!
Re: "What is the Internet Anyway?"
It's true! I do the same with TV. You definitely lose a little something though. Take books. Reading them on the kindle (I'm not sure what the Nook is like) means that you don't see the author's name and book title at the top of each page, as you would with a physical book. I've noticed that as a result, people tend to not remember/know the author of the book they're reading--nor the title. And yet, whenever someone tells me about a good book he's reading, my first question is: who's the author?
Same with music. Buying it one song on iTunes, as opposed to the whole CD, takes the song out of its context.
Edited on Feb 2, 2011 at 7:29amMay '10
Re: "What is the Internet Anyway?"
Well said.
Communication and media technology has exploded in my lifetime. It's been both good and bad, but I can't imagine having missed out on all the personal connections I've made online.
My first job was doing grunt work for an oil company as they expanded into other parts of the building and reorganized. At one point, I helped them load a dinosaur computer onto a truck. That thing was as big as my bed. I was sure I was about to be flattened like a pancake as they were taking it up with the hyrdraulic lift and it was leaning ominously toward me.
Dec '10
Re: "What is the Internet Anyway?"
In 1994, I was a junior in college. The Internet was already well underway and I was conversant with the Mosaic browser. (Netscape was an upstart at the time.) It goes to show me how out-of-touch people like Couric and Gumbel really were.
A project for my business writing class (BTW, I could do a whole post on how breadth requirements are killing American competitiveness in the sciences) was "Creating an Internet magazine."
It was a pretty darned good proposal and a lot of the stuff I suggested could have been done at the time and had been done shortly thereafter.
Re: "What is the Internet Anyway?"
Aaron Miller:
My first job was doing grunt work for an oil company as they expanded into other parts of the building and reorganized. At one point, I helped them load a dinosaur computer onto a truck. That thing was as big as my bed. I was sure I was about to be flattened like a pancake as they were taking it up with the hyrdraulic lift and it was leaning ominously toward me. · Feb 2 at 7:55am
Yes, and now we have lithe Macbook Airs!
Re: "What is the Internet Anyway?"
I don't think my family had internet in 1994--it might have been a year or two later before we got it, and I think we initially had AOL. One of my best friends had Netscape, though, and I remember us getting together at her house, and after an afternoon of playing outside, we would beg her parents to let us go online. If they did, we'd sit behind the computer screen, waiting in anticipation for the dial up connection to go through.
I don't really remember what we did once we got online--probably something stupid, like instant message our friends on AIM. That was the popular thing at the time for kids our age. Now, kids our age--judging by my brother and his friends--are itching to get online to check on their facebook accounts.
Jul '10
Re: "What is the Internet Anyway?"
Is Katie wearing a weasel on her head?
Re: "What is the Internet Anyway?"
That's the second time you've made me laugh this morning.
Jul '10
Re: "What is the Internet Anyway?"
Emily Esfahani Smith, Ed.
That's the second time you've made me laugh this morning. · Feb 2 at 8:54am
Well, nice to know I serve some useful purpose in the universe.
May '10
Re: "What is the Internet Anyway?"
I remember getting onto the internet using AOL in '93/'94. I'd instantly want to get more information on a subject. But, alas, there was nothing out there. Then, a year later, I ran a search on the same subject and came back with thousands of hits. That's when I knew the internet was finally getting out of its toddler stage.
Sep '10
Re: "What is the Internet Anyway?"
I was using Telnet and getting into the local university's Unix system (legally, don't worry). I think I also joined Compuserve in the early 90's and would use both the Internet and Compuserve.
That was cutting edge.
(Ping).