The origins of the Net and its impact on modern life

The origins of theNet and its impacton modern life

Simone Alves Nogueira

January 2006

University of Westminster

MA Design for Interaction

History of Convergence

Lecturer: Dr. Richard Barbrook

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The advent of Internet is an important event in the History of theCommunication. Internet has created new forms of communication and changed the wayconnected people interact with the new media. Since 1969 the network has been improved.All efforts to connect a computer to another in order to build a system of electronic links werecompleted. Options of access to information have been developed and people have beeninteracting in a new wide world space: virtual.In November 2005, Nielsen/IbopeNet Ratings, a company who provides the leading source of global information on consumer and business usage of the Internet

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, researched about the useof Internet in ten countries

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. The results demonstrated that Brazil broke the record for Internetusing. Nielsen/IbopeNet Ratings demonstrated that 12,5 million Brazilians have navigated inthe Internet using home computers and the time of navigated hours by day reached 17 hoursand 53 minutes, making the country the leader of the use of Internet. Brazil is a leader as wellin the use of communications tools in this media. The MSN, the popular Messenger fromMicrosoft, is the most used.

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This research illustrates the use of the internet today and how ithas become popular. However, why have the Internet became popular and the most importanttechnology in the 21

st

century? This essay attempts to understand the popularity of theInternet, starting from a retrospective in the history of the Net - mainly in the process of construction of the ARPANET - and its impact on modern life.Firstly, it is important to describe

how

the Internet was created and

who

were theorganizations, scientists, academics and engineers involved in this process.

Where

and

when

ittook place are important points to understand the importance of building this expensivenetworking. Secondly, it is a demand to understand

why

the Internet has become a socialspace where people create new networks. As the Internet improves, discussions about the

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http://www.netratings.com/corp.jsp?section=cof&company=default

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Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States.

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Agencia Estado - http://ultimosegundo.ig.com.br/materias/mundovirtual/2228001-2228500/2228191/2228191_1.xml

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impact of this network on the society arise towards two poles of optimism and pessimism

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.Diverse descriptions of author’s opinions will be presented in order to show different pointsof view in this subject.The 1960 decade was a period of a great deal of discussion and written papers about the USfuture. Threatened by the fear of the emergence of the Russian ideology towards the worldand the rise of the Russian cybernetics movement, US started a strategy which involved thedevelopment of the technological innovation. The "Commission on the Year 2000" - acommission created in 1964 by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and which wasleaded by Daniel Bell - was responsible to recruit "intellectuals representing differentdisciplines and interest groups (...) every section of the US elite would be involved ininventing the new imaginary future of the American empire." (Barbrook 2005: 116) The USwanted to show they were the country who could create a good society and were superior tothe Russian regime. Influenced by the Marshall McLuhan concepts, who wrote the

Understanding Media

in 1964, the Bell commission had the vision that the future were in themachines and " technological innovation had become the impersonal force driving humanitytowards the future." (Barbrook 2005: 118). The predictions of McLuhan were important tomotivate the Bell commission to believe in the future of the information society and predictthat the access to on-line database were a prominent fact. The computing andtelecommunication fused with the television would start to be the representation of this future

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.According to Barbrook "- as the process of convergence was implemented - humanity wasmoving towards its utopian destiny: the Net". (Barbrook 2005: 119)Additionally to the predictions of the new era of technology and communication the Bellcommission anticipated as well the social and cultural impact on the society when theelectronic and information systems were spread

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. The rise of an information society wouldshape a new life for people. Castells explain that "this new social structure is associated withthe emergence of a new mode of development, informationalism, historically shaped by therestructuring of the capitalist mode of production towards the end of the twentieth century."(Castells 1996: 14)

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James Slevin,

The Internet and Society

, p. 46.

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Richard

Barbrook,

Imaginary Futures

, p. 118.

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Richard Barbrook,

Imaginary Futures