On the History of Internet, its Future

and Challenges

Sivasubramanian Muthusamy
President
ISOC India Chennai

At MSRIT, Bangalore on One Web Day 2008

 About One Web Day

One Web Day is Earth Day for the internet.

Learn about Internet, Educate Others.

Work on issues important for the Internet’s future.

 The Birth of the Internet

Advance Research Projects Agency ( ARPA )

established in 1958. Satellites launched after
a year.

A project to interconnect Defense Computers

in 1962 (ITPO)

This became the ARPANET in 1969.

 The first connection

Four computers, at UCLA, UCSB, Stanford and

UTAH were connected on Oct 29, 1969 by the
pioneers including Vint Cerf, the Father of
Internet.

The first message was Log, L was sent, o was

sent and when g was typed the computers
crashed.

That was the birth of the ARPANET which

became the NSFNET which became the
Internet.
 The first connection

The first connection

 Internet Pioneers

Vint Cerf, the Father of Internet

 Internet Pioneers

John Postel
 Internet Pioneers

Steve Crocker
 Internet Pioneers

Equally important names associated with

ARPANET:

•J.C.R. Licklider
•Larry Roberts
•Robert Kahn
•Will Crowther and Dave Walden
•Mike Wingfield
•Paul Baran
 Internet Growth

Four computers in 1969 became 210 computers in

1981, 130,000 computers in 1989.

The Internet was mainly in the realm of Government

and Universities.

The applications were BBS, Gopher, Archie, Line

Browsers… until the invention of hypertext and the
World Wide Web in 1990 by Tim Berners-Lee
Tim Berners-Lee
 Hypertext and the WWW

From 1973 the Internet has extended

beyond the USA. Tim Berners-Lee and team
worked on the hypertext project to create
the World Wide Web in 1990. This made it
possible to link to text documents, images
and other files and the World Wide Web,
usable by users everywhere was born.
 Internet Today

800 million computers worldwide

An estimated 1.46 billion users.

 Internet Tomorrow

Target: Next 3 billion users.

Internet accessed not by Desktop and
Laptop computers, more by phone and
Mobile Internet Devices.
 Internet Tomorrow

Today: 256 KBPS / 512 KBPS

Tomorrow:

1 MBPS ? 8 MPBS ?
 Internet Tomorrow

Or 1 GBPS ? 10 GBPS ?

Download a HD quality movie in 3 seconds ?

Internet Tomorrow
 What is special about
the Internet?

• Evolved by Participation for participation

• Standards by Community Model

• has its own conventions, culture and

ethos, unwritten rules - all without a
hierarchy of authority, with an inherent
order.
 What is special about
the Internet?

• Accessible worldwide. Transcends the

boundaries of nations

• neutral of technology, nationhood,

language, religion or race.

• open medium for freedom of speech

 What is special about
the Internet?

• brings together people from around the

world and has been considerably free of
politics.
• Internet is a space without privilege or
prejudice accorded by race, economic
power, military force, or station of birth
• legal concepts of property, expression,
identity, movement, and context on the
Internet are different
 Who owns the
Internet?

• The Telephone / cable companies?

• The Internet Hardware companies?
• The computer companies?
• The Governments?

Or

Is that you ?
 Who controls the
Internet?

• Business?
• Government?
• Any International Organization (s) ?

Should Internet be controlled ? Governed ?

 The Internet
Governance Forum

World Summit on the Information Society

WSIS met at Geneva and Tunis in 2003

Decided that all stakeholders should join

together to discuss about Internet
Governance

The Internet Governance Forum was

established to meet every year for 5 years
 The Internet
Governance Forum

First IGF was held in Athens, Greece in 2006

The second one was held at Rio de Jeneiro,

Brazil.

The third IGF at Hyderabad, India, December,

2008
 The Internet
Governance Forum

IGF Stakeholders

Business

Government

Civil Society
 What do you want the
Internet to be?

Free ?

An Internet of Rules and Regulations?

Censorship?

Who decides?
 What do you want do?

Do you think you should take responsibility

and help the world decide ?

P A R T I C I P A T E.
 How to participate?

The Internet Society

Founded in 1992 by Internet pioneers

International non-profit organization
90+ organization members
28,000+ individual members
90+ chapters worldwide
 About ISOC

The Internet Society

•ISOC works for the open development and evolution

of the Internet
•Works for Internet for all people.
•Works across the areas of technical standards,
education and capacity-building as well as public
policy.

http://www.isoc.org
 India Chennai Chapter

ISOC India Chennai Chapter

•90+ members from four states of India.

•Membership open to students.

Join ISOC India Chennai

http://www.isocindiachennai.in
http://isocmadras.blogspot.com
http://www.isoc.org
Thank You

Sivasubramanian Muthusamy
President

Isocindiachennai@gmail.com
http://www.isocindiachennai.in