Galactic Network
In the early 19th century, Samuel Morse was sitting in his shack and “typed” the first message – actually just a series of beeps and dashes – sent through a considerable distance. It was received after a few moments. The message: "What hath God wrought?"
Fast forward 125 years later in 1969, Leonard Kleinrock and his team were sitting in his laboratory at the University of California in Los Angeles. Beside them is a large grey metal box called the “interface message processor.” Several hundreds of miles away another team gathered around their own big grey box at the Stanford Research Institute as they typed in a message. Unlike their much clichéd contemporaries, the scientists were all buzzing with excitement and even the message was mistyped, and what was sent was an unassuming but nevertheless weighty word: “Lo.”
In a flash Kleinrock received the message and there was an ecstatic celebration. The Internet as we knew it was born. By the way, the message was supposed to be “Log In,” but it does not matter anymore. Lo was the word that was just right. Lo and behold, the birth of the World Wide Web.
It was early as 1962 when the concept of connecting hundreds of computers together was raised. It was the year of the space race and naturally the concept rode with the times and was called the Galactic Network. Kleinrock, then working for the MIT conceived the packet switching concept. It was followed by an experiment connecting two computers in 1965 using telephone lines.
It was also in 1972 that the first electronic mail was sent with all the functions to read, file, forward, and respond to messages. This was the first hot application for the Internet, the spark the allowed the concept to explode and take it to where it is today.
But it should be remembered that computers during those days weighed tons and occupied entire rooms. Twelve years after Kleinrock experiment, there were just 213 computers in the budding network, mostly universities and professors exchanging ideas and messages.
Another 14 years after, the Integrated Business Machines or IBM invented the personal computer, the silicon chip came into fruition and the email phenomenon is exploding bringing 16 million people into the network. It was in the early 1990s when Yahoo came to town, in 1995 Amazon and in 1998 Google. By 2001 Wikipedia changed the whole landscape and 513 million people were in the Internet.
The number of people using the Internet at present easily surpasses 2 billion. Many more technologies came in recent years – video sharing, the rise of the social networking sites, international collaboration and VOIP protocols are even out to redefine telecommunication networks. The freedom of expression has never been much active. Now everyone from Steve Jobs to any regular Joe have blogs to tell the world what they think and feel.
Indeed, the Internet has redefined the world and life as well all know it. School, work and even social life have never been the same again. Business flourished, entertainment reached a whole new level, and the amount information spreading to more people has never been this wide and so fast. Now everyone is online and getting their voice heard.
At the heart of the technology is the freedom -- the freedom to know, to learn to express and to enjoy life. And we barely scratched the surface. Who knows what the Galactic Network will bring up next?