History of Internet Abstract Internet is a term which refers to the worldwide information system.

It is a lar ge and complex space that mostly reflects the physical world. Internet was origi nally created for the United States military defense advancement. An event in th e year 1957 called the launch of Sputnik Satellite by the Soviet Union triggered the United States to create the foundations of internet to regain technology le adership. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was formed by then U .S. President Dwight Eisenhower to focus on this aim. ARPANET was the first form of internet that was introduced by the department. Later on, National Science F oundation (NSF) created another network called NSFNET which eventually led to th e creation of the Internet we know today. Tim Berners-Lee consequently took a pr oject which developed the World Wide Web (www). The web uses the HyperText Trans port Protocol provide easy navigation access to web documents and pages. Interne t has affected the lives of people through communication, information research, services, entertainment, and commercialism. Social sites also evolved giving cha nces for people to communicate better. The rapid growth of internet has brought out great numbers of users from all over the world which brought up the issue on faster internet speed. As a response, service providers continue to find ways o n how to provide faster and stable connections. Wireless connections have also e volved such as the Wi-fi. As predicted, service providers have the possibility t o provide internet connection at the speed of up to 10Mbps. History of Internet Internet has become an essential tool in almost all aspects of life nowa days, may it be in education, in businesses, government agencies, or in medical practices. By all means, it is just right for the people to know how it originat ed to gain better understanding and use of internet. The term internet, as defin ed by the Federal Networking Council (FNC), refers to the worldwide information system. There are three factors that constitute the meaning of internet. First, it is a system that is connected together through the use of a unique address sp ace called Internet Protocol. Second, it uses the Transmission Control Protocol or Internet Protocol suite in supporting worldwide communications. Lastly, it ma kes communications high level services available. Another definition introduced by Stewart (n.d.) states that internet refers to a communication space which is lar ge and complex. It largely reflects on the physical world and real life. Interne t has been said to be the only technology that evolved faster than any other tec hnology of all time. The Creation of Internet Articles written regarding the history of internet suggest that the 1957 launch of Sputnik Satellite by Soviet Union triggered the creation of the first computer technology. The occurrence made the people think that Soviet Union alr eady leads the technology advancement superior to the United States. As a respon se, the United States then organized a department called DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) under the Department of Defense to regain superiority (Laursen, 1997). Subsequently, the name of the agency was changed to ARPA. The then United States President Dwight Eisenhower appointed the Massachusetts Insti tute of Technology president James Killian to be the presidential assistant for science and initiated the development of the said department. The creation of internet was originally for military purposes. Since the launchi ng of the Sputnik, it was thought that the Union Soviet could just easily drop d own missiles from the space to attack any part of the world, a thought which ala rmed the United States military. ARPA was organized as a research and developmen t department which aimed to provide innovation to technology by finding ways of using computers that would protect the communications system in case nuclear mis siles attack the country. Innovative measure taken into consideration is the pro vision of an invisible link between machines and computers in automatically shar ing relevant data and visual information, problem solving, and communicating eff ectively (Laursen, 1997). To achieve this view of ARPA, in 1962, Information Pro cessing Techniques Office (IPTO) was formed under the agency which was headed by Joseph Carl Licklider. IPTO had the purpose of expansion of computer usage that

can possibly be integrated into the air defense and manage military command and control effectiveness. Its mission was to provide interconnection link among th e Department of Defense s main computers namely: the pentagon, Cheyenne Mountain, an d SAC HQ. Lickleder, however, was not only interested on expansion of computer u sage but also to introducing innovation of technology that can enable transfer o f messages from an individual to another individual who is distance apart. Techn ology here refers to the use of computers as extension to capabilities of human. This led to the development of ARPANET which was the first form of internet. Th is network of computers was made possible through the use of a technology named the Packet Switching Technology (Bangia, 2005). Leonard Kleinrock developed the theory behind this technology (Leiner, 2011). After its success, ARPANET spread quickly due to improvements made to eliminate network connections difficulty. Mo re and more computers have connected to the ARPANET. It had spread not only in t he United States but had also taken its coverage worldwide. In 1990, ARPANET cea sed its operations which gave way to the rise of a new network called National S cience Foundation Network (NSFNET). All connections in the ARPANET were transfer red to NSFNET. NSFNET has started in 1985 way back before the cessation of ARPANET and was foun ded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Its original purpose was to provid e a research network connection among super-computer centers it built in five un iversities. However, later on, the limitations were lifted which made the networ k available for regional networks. Like the ARPANET, NSFNET has also grown rapid ly. Its rapid growth brought necessary upgrade of its network connection from 56 kbps to 1.5 mbps. Its rapid growth also opened a new demand for commercialism. Several parallel networks are then introduced to accommodate other aspects of us e other than research like commercialism. These networks include AlterNet, CERFn et, and Performance Systems International Network that also gave way to the deve lopment of Commercial Internet Exchange. In 1989, commercial email carriers have been allowed to establish email links. Subsequently, NSFNET has been privatized and contracts have been given to commercial network providers. NSFNET finally h as come to its end and went back to its original mandate which is with research in April 30, 1995. Despite its reversion, NSF has left a significant aspect whic h is it developed a network access to everyone. Internet at Present An easy and convenient access to internet has been made possible through the development of a global hypertext system (Bangia, 2005). The World Wide Web (www) is a hypertext system which was created by Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cai lliau in European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) in 1989. The web uses t he HyperText Transport Protocol to provide easy navigation to Web documents and graphical objects located in another computer. Easy navigation is also reflected through the hypertext links which are included in a hypertext page. The hyperte xt links can be clicked to view the page where it was referenced. Original purposes of internet namely communication and research services are retained and even heightened. Aside from email which was earlier introduced , instant messaging had been incorporated to ease real time communication. In in formation research services, several search engines are available such as Yahoo and Google. Online news, magazines, and journal websites also evolved to widen t heir scope of readers by catering to online users searching for information. Oth er services such as banking, job fairs, and flight booking can all be done throu gh internet with the comforts of the user s home nowadays. Ease of access has brough t rapid growth of internet which prompted the business sector to find its way to expand and market their business through it. At first, advertising were free an d this made the businesses reduce their advertising costs. This also made busine sses products salable online. More customers and more products sold which result to more profits. The increased number of customers pushes trading upwards by incre ased numbers of online retailers too. Aside from commercial intents, internet ha s also been used for entertainment. Music files were sold online and music shari ng have penetrated the internet. Other entertainment aspects provided by the int ernet include online gaming and video sharing. Several sites, especially social networking sites, have also found their way to fame. Examples of these are the s

pread of Facebook and Twitter. Blogging sites have evolved too reflecting the ex periences, interests, and diary of a blog author. At present, internet users hav e hit a number of more than 1.7 billion. The rapid growth of internet has brought out great numbers of users from all over the world. This introduced an issue to internet use which is the conne ction speed. Internet service providers then switched to modems connected throug h cables, digital subscriber lines or DSL and lately, wireless connections such as Wi-fi. Many business establishments provide wireless internet connection serv ices to attract customers. Portable computer device manufacturers have also evol ved and gadgets have become a worldwide trend. Touch screen devices are manufact ured to enable input convenience. Phones that were originally made for conversat ions were incorporated with internet features enabling these devices to connect to the internet remotely. Wi-fi connection has provided internet access to many portable devices which are handheld by people while they are away from their hom es. The Future of Internet Technology innovation seemed to happen frequently nowadays. New advancem ents are revealed every now and then maintaining a face paced technological envi ronment. An unending process of searching for ways on speeding up network connec tions is set up by various service providers. These developments observed now ma y provide basis for the future of internet. Laursen (1997) mentioned the possibi lity of fiber optic cable usage to speed up internet connection of up to 10 Mbps . Furthermore, a new technology also provides possibility of increased connectio n speed through the use of the telephone wires. Several reinventions to internet provided access to internet the easiest way. Smaller handy devices already have internet features in them. This makes a possibility of having a device innovation which will have a feature that reads an html page to the user through the use of headsets. This way, the user need no t spend time reading a website and rather listen to it (McBlain, 2009). A wider range of internet devices will be incorporated in almost all appliances and acce ssories such as an internet connection on a watch. This would allow wider range of users. Next to touch screen computer devices would also be gesture devices wh ich detect user gestures as inputs. As to website extensions that are currently predominated by .com, future websites will contain other extensions to do away w ith .com. A separate set of prediction of future of internet has been laid down by Stewart. He mentioned that people will continue to access desired information a nd use the internet as they want to. Internet will possibly bring unity to commu nities as it does with networks now. This may be through the interconnected netw orks. Internet will also be reflecting more of reality. A similar prediction als o state that internet will be integrated in a wider range of gadgets and applian ces. Tang (2009) likewise proposed a number of predictions of internet in the future. He mentioned that user number will be increased to 5 billion users by t he year 2020 as predicted by the National Science Foundation. Geographically, in ternet users will most likely come from the developing countries. Similar to the predictions as earlier mentioned, internet will be a network of devices rather than computers due to emergence of portable devices which has the internet featu res. Negative predictions also include the attack of more hackers to internet on a wider range. These predictions are some of the future internet perspectives that can be viewed at present time. The continued innovation of technology still holds th e key to the better way of internet usage. References Bangia. R. (2005). Internet and Web Design. New Delhi: Firewall Media. Berners-Lee, T. (August 1996). The World Wide Web: Past, Present, and Future. Re trieved from http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/1996/ppf.html Leiner, B.; Cerf, V.; Clark, D.; Khan, R.; Kleinrock, L.; Lynch, D.; Postel, J.; Roberts, L.; Wolff, S. (2011). Brief History of Internet. Internet Society. Ret rieved form http://www.internetsociety.org/internet/internet-51/history-internet

/brief-history-internet Hauben, M. (n.d.). History of ARPANET. Retrieved from http://www.dei.isep.ipp.pt /~acc/docs/arpa.html Laursen, J. E. (October, 7, 1997). The Internet: Past, Present and Future - Inte rnet & WWW History. Retrieved from http://www.vissing.dk/inthist.html McBlain, A. (2009). 6 Predictions for the Future of Internet. Six Revisions. Schulzrinne, H. (January 9, 2008). Internet Definitions. New York: Columbia Univ ersity. Stewart, W. (n.d.). Internet History. Retrieved from http://www.livinginternet.c om/tindex_i.htm Tang, F. (2009). Internet History, Present, and Future. PPT Presentation.