FREE ESSAY ON THE INTERNET: PAST AND FUTURE

THE INTERNET: PAST AND FUTURE

The Internet is an extension of a computer network originally formed in the United States
during the 1960s by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). Working under contract
to the U.S. Department of Defense, ARPA initially connected computers at the Stanford
Research Institute in California, the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), the
University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), and the University of Utah. This
original network, the very first computer network, was called ARPANET (ARPA NETwork).
Scientists built ARPANET with the intention of creating a network that would still be
able to function efficiently if part of the network was damaged. This concept was
important to military organizations, which were studying ways to maintain a working
communications network in the event of nuclear war.
As ARPANET grew in the 1970s, with more and more universities and institutions connecting
to it, users found it necessary to establish standards for the way that data was
transmitted over the network. To meet the needs of data transmission standards, computer
scientists developed the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol
(IP). During the 1970s various government, scientific, and academic groups developed
their own networks. Examples include the Department of Energy's (DoE) Magnetic Fusion
Energy Network (MFENet), the High Energy Physics NETwork (HEPNET), and the National
Science Foundation NETwork (see NSFNET).
In 1989 English computer scientist Timothy Berners-Lee introduced the World Wide Web.
Berners-Lee initially designed the WWW to aid communication between physicists who were
working in different parts of the world for the European Laboratory for Particle Physics
(CERN). As it grew, however, the WWW revolutionized the use of the Internet. During the
early 1990s increasingly large numbers of users who were not part of the scientific or
academic communities began to use the Internet, due in large part to the ability of the
WWW to easily handle multimedia documents.
A major challenge facing the continued growth of the Internet is the difficulty of
providing enough bandwidth to sustain the network. As Internet applications become more
sophisticated, and as more people around the world use the Internet, the amount of
information transmitted across the Internet will demand very high bandwidth connections.
While many communications companies are attempting to develop higher bandwidth
technologies, it is not known whether the technology will be able to satisfactorily keep
up with demand.
In order to accommodate the increasing number of users, the non-profit organization
University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID) is working on the
construction of Internet 2. Internet 2 will add more bandwidth, or available
communication lines, to the current information superhighway in order to accommodate
larger packets of data. UCAID members include representatives from universities, the
government, and the computer industry.
Another important question facing Internet growth is the issue of censorship. Because the
Internet has grown so rapidly, governments have been slow to regulate its use and to pass
laws regarding what content is acceptable. Many Internet users also see such laws as an
infringement on their right to free speech. In 1996 the Congress of the United States
passed the Communications Decency Act, which made it a crime to transmit indecent
material over the Internet. This decision resulted in an immediate outcry from users,
industry experts, and civil liberties groups opposed to such censorship. In 1997 the
United States Supreme Court declared the act unconstitutional because it violated First
Amendment rights to free speech. Lawmakers responded in 1998 by passing a narrower
antipornography bill, the Child Online Protection Act (COPA). This law required
commercial WWW sites to ensure that children could not access material deemed "harmful to
minors." In 1999 a federal judge blocked that bill as well, ruling that it too would
dangerously restrict constitutionally protected free speech.
Increasing commercial use of the Internet has heightened security and privacy concerns.
With a credit or debit card, Internet users can order almost anything from an Internet
site and have it delivered to their home or office. Companies doing business over the
Internet must have very sophisticated security measures in place so that information such
as credit card, bank account, and social security numbers cannot be accessed by
unauthorized users (see Computer Security). Similarly, government facilities,
universities, and institutions must ensure that access to their computers over the
Internet is strictly regulated.
Bibliography
Encyclopedia Americana, 1993 ed.; MS Encarta 99; MS Bookshelf 95; Ask.com