This sent me on a Goose chase. Maybe looking for the golden goose. I almost felt like I was on the search for the holy grail. What I found was the mantra, and the man above was the purveyor of the written word. He wasn't with out a sense of humor and many a Request For Comment was written on April 1st. What is all this, what does all this mean. Let me tell you. There is the date of the first RFC a.k.a. RFC 1, April 7th 1969. It is interesting to read about the first thoughts and ideas about what we now know as the World Wide Web, what they conceived of as the net. The early inception of the net was the Arpanet. Have you ever wondered about how the internet is run? Who the controlling body is? How everything comes into being? What makes http and html work? I for one have always wondered about it. This adventure has been aMAZEing. It reads like an acronym heaven. IANA, IESG, IAB, IETF, IRTF( chaired by Postel ), ISI, USC, UCLA, and how could I forget ISOC.

 Tim Berners-Lee

Two of the most important breakthroughs have been the WWW and E-mail. It is the World Wide Web that is the infant. Created by one Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in 1991. An operative Browser came on the scene then in 1993 from the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. The browser was named Mosaic. Berners-Lee made a plea on the internet for others to join in on the development of the web, NCSA answered the call. If only I had kept the phonebook from that period. Very few login locations in the cities. Now look at local providers. The very first commercial ISP was "The World", based in Brookline MA and I am thrilled to report, still in operation @ http://world.std.com/. Now there are many, many ISP's. In fact the ISP I currently use for my website host and internet provider, Minnesota Micronet (editers note: I no longer use MN Micronet and have gone to cable at Comcast) has only been around since 1994. My first experiences came from Telnet, your basic on-line, e-mail text system. I was able to use IRC or internet relay chat at that time. I also looked into a local BBS called TopCity. This was a local telnet system. Well enough of that. Back to some historical references ( I love this stuff ).

By 1994 the Web as we now know it or the World Wide Web has edged out Telnet. Yeah blame me as well. I needed a room with a view and Windows. Furthermore, AOL has been in existence since '85, and at that time was just an intranet. Meaning everything at AOL was coming from their servers. This was a good thing since login speeds were still slow and searching the web was a chore. Just as recent as '95 AOL was able to serve up the internet. And of course with something new you have the pundits.

This was a very short trip.

In 1996 The controversial US Communications Decency Act (CDA) becomes law in the US in order to prohibit distribution of indecent materials over the Net. A few months later a three-judge panel imposes an injunction against its enforcement. Supreme Court unanimously rules most of it unconstitutional in 1997. Short trip for sure. The first amendment to the constitution was the just premise on this point to be sure. Yes, the internet and the WWW are youngsters, growing at an alarming rate. Nothing in history has grown quite as much or has been as controversial. The internet as with many things in our history was conceived by an assumed need.

In a Nutshell

The internet is basically a product of the cold war. In 1957, the  Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was created within the Department of Defense. Russia had already put a satellite into space and the US did not want to be left behind in the technology race. Funny thing what a little friendly competition can achieve.

Also See: Internet Timeline

5/25/2001

Revised: Saturday October 01, 2005