|
| Devangshu Datta: Brave new world (contd) | | Anybody who uses any modern technology is, in some sense, riding on the Net |
| Devangshu Datta / New Delhi Sep 12, 2009, 00:08 IST |
|
In September 1969, researchers at the University of California’s Los Angeles campus initiated packet data-transfer between two computers. This is generally thought to be the first proof of concept that eventually led to the Internet.
The ARPANET project was sponsored by the US Department of Defence as a means of creating communication systems that could survive nuclear war. Over the next 20 years, as other little details fell into place, it transmogrified into something else.
In the 1970s, Ray Tomlinson reserved the rarely-used @ symbol to distinguish e-mail ids. Then, Vinton Cerf and Bob Kahn worked out the TCP/IP protocols. Domain names were created. Various universities around the world adopted the system.
On the commercial side, telecom networks developed more capacity. After the US forced open its monopolistic long-distance markets, transmission costs fell drastically. Moore’s Law ensured that, at the same time, computing power grew rapidly.
In 1990, Tim Berner Lees conceptualised Hypertext and the last building block for the Web, as we know it today, fell into place. Within three years, browsers that made it easier to combine graphics and text were available and millions of PC users were online.
By 1995, online book store Amazon.com was up and running and so were search engines. Google came along in 1998 and Napster in 1999. From there, the transition to Web 2.0, social networking, video-webs, etc, has been one long, if not smooth, progression.
Events like 9/11 and the Tsunami proved that the Net was pretty good at fulfilling its original purpose. At times when conventional communications were unusable, the Net continued to function. In particular, after the Tsunami, it helped to coordinate enormous citizen-led aid and rescue efforts.
But the nature of technology is such that it always has unintended consequences. Microwaves, for instance, were first investigated as a means of communication and their ability to cook and heat food was only discovered by accident.
Even by those standards, the Net is extraordinary. The pioneers could scarcely have imagined the Interweb that 1.5 billion people surf today. The user experience has, in fact, changed unrecognisably in the last five years itself, while the user population has tripled.
The Net affects the lives of all but the most determinedly Luddite individuals and the most isolated communities. Anybody who uses any modern technology — even a vanilla bank account or a basic power connection — is, in some sense, riding on the Net.
It has changed all perspectives about scale and scope of service delivery and led to the collapse and renewal of many long-established value chains. Digital access is an entirely new social science category of haves and have-nots.
The Net has also evolved so fast and mutated so radically that predictions about its future direction are almost guaranteed to be wrong. Perhaps because of this amorphous, hydra-headed nature, it evokes confused reactions from aam janta and experts alike.
Some believe that the Net has no impact on their lives while merrily using ATMs, paying utility bills through e-transfers and travelling on tickets keyed to SMS. Unfortunately, a number of elderly, influential politicians and bureaucrats fall into this category.
Others, like an elderly Parsi acquaintance of mine, believe that the Net is magic and capable of anything. This gentleman banned Net access in his PG establishment. His son, who is based overseas, updated their joint bank account via e-banking transactions. His PGs knew his name, address and bank account number. Hence, by induction, they could use the Net to access his bank account!
Mavens who have made predictions about the Net’s future evolution have proved about as clueless. Obviously direct and indirect Net usage will spread until saturation. But that’s about the only prediction that can be made with certainty about this 40-year-old phenomenon.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Read Business news in |  |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Advertisements |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Content Guide
