Telegraphy: The first digital communication system in the late 19th century; radiotelegraphy and telex were early forms of digital communication.
Information Theory: Developed in the 1920s by Harry Nyquist and Ralph Hartley; Claude Shannon's 1948 work provided a theoretical basis for understanding signal-to-noise ratio and bandwidth.
Computers and Modems: Fixed-program computers in the 1940s, mainframes in the 1950s; Bell 101 modems transmitted digital data over phone lines.
Time-sharing: Concept developed by Christopher Strachey and J.C.R. Licklider; led to the Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS) at MIT.
Inspiration
J.C.R. Licklider proposed a universal network in the 1960s; his vision led to the development of ARPANET.
Packet Switching
Introduced by Donald Davies and Paul Baran in the 1960s; allowed data to be split into packets and transmitted over a network.
Networks Leading to the Internet
NPL Network
Designed by Donald Davies in the UK; first implementation of packet switching.
ARPANET
Funded by ARPA, became operational in 1969. It was the first network to implement TCP/IP.
CYCLADES
A French network by Louis Pouzin; influenced the design of TCP/IP.
X.25 and Public Data Networks
Established standards for packet-switched networks; used widely in business applications.
UUCP and Usenet
Provided a way to share news and messages across computers.
1973-1989: Merging Networks
TCP/IP
Developed by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn; became the standard protocol suite for the Internet.
Transition from ARPANET to NSFNET
NSFNET created in the 1980s, replacing ARPANET as the backbone for the Internet.
Optical Networking
Enabled by fiber optics and wavelength division multiplexing (WDM), expanded network capacity.
1990-2003: Rise of the Global Internet
Web 1.0
Introduction of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee in 1991; WWW became widely used in the mid-1990s.
Internet's Social and Economic Impact
Internet service providers (ISPs) like AOL and Yahoo! emerged.
E-commerce platforms like Amazon and eBay were launched.
The dot-com bubble (1995-2000) marked rapid expansion and investment.
2004-Present: Web 2.0 and Beyond
Web 2.0
Focused on user-generated content, social networking, and collaboration; sites like Facebook and YouTube grew in popularity.
Mobile Revolution
Smartphones and mobile internet access became widespread, changing how users interact with the web.
Internet Governance
Managed by organizations including ICANN, IETF, and ISOC.
Issues of net neutrality and digital divide remain current.
Key Developments
Email and Usenet for communication.
File Sharing began with Napster and evolved to BitTorrent.
IPv6 developed to extend address space.
Internet Services expanded with platforms like Google, Wikipedia, and social media networks.