Internet History: Journey to 2011 (Chapter Two)

Chapter Two – Hello Email

Concepts like E-mail found their first usage through the ARPANET system, and its noticeable benefits were praised by all who used it.

In the 70s and 80s the once popular bulletin-board system was developed (so old-fashioned now) but not to be over-looked as a key turning point in the internets development.  

This is when it gets exciting as during this time all of the main universities in the US were connected to the network and they used it to test and broadcast data such as passing  academic resources to and fro.

It may seem a long way from sharing information on Facebook but at the time this was seen as fascinating sharing tool!

Hello USENET!

Next was a really important development namely USENET  (1979) and what I like to think of as the real foundations of the internet as we come to know it today. Lots of categories called “newsgroups” (a bit similar to categories in our blogs today) were created whereby users would discuss computer nerdy things like computer hardware.

It was clear that USENET really contributed to the spirit of information sharing that is at the heart of what we know of the Internet today. As Brad Templeton from “I Remember USENET” said “USENET was the soul of the Internet”. (Brad also talks about Google new USENET!)

Hello Personal Computer

Many people were buying PCs in the late 70s and then in 1981 when IBM announced its first Personal Computer and Microsoft created DOS  the audience for the developing Internet was beginning to really take off and grow!  Bulletin Boards like Usenet, Bitnet and Fidonet where on the rise and emails were now flying in their masses from Pc to PC.

The internet was growing rapidly. IRC (Internet Relay Chat) became available in 1988 and communities formed in rooms. An early known IRC chat program was called “Talk”, what I find interesting is that if the user was logged on an incoming message would appear on the user’s terminal during whatever other task they may be doing, which is comparable to Instant Messaging today.