Ten years ago today I signed up for an internet account.
It was a different world back then. Commercial internet providers were just beginning to get started, following the loosening of the restrictions imposed by the U.S.'s National Science Council. The first graphical browser, NCSA Mosaic, was just being distributed (I was surprised there wasn't more of a fuss made this year about that significant anniversary - after all, the ability to include images on websites really opened up the internet to the wider public. Talk about a killer app - Mosaic was it.)
Setting up a PC to access the internet was difficult, as the code needed was not built into either the Mac or Windows operating systems. You had to dial up your internet provider's telnet site, download the files (using a 14.4k modem), wrestle with such concepts as tcp/ip and ppp, and futz around for hours to get it working. And when you did, you didn't have much. An e-mail address, yes, but who was there to email? It reminds me of the Dilbert cartoon where Dilbert installs a videophone and sits around waiting and hoping that another computer geek will do the same so he'll have someone to contact.
There were the newsgroups though. Back then, newsgroups were very popular. With one click you could find people out there who had similar interests as you and converse with them (in asynchronous time) about those mutual interests. I belonged to several - cats, P.G. Wodehouse, army brats, Stephen Sondheim fans, a couple of medical groups. (And even today, by going to Google Groups I can look back at my old postings. It's a strange feeling - was that pompous person really me?
And there were the now almost-forgotten information retrieval tools like Archie, Veronica, Gopher -- now superseded by the web. FTP is still used, of course, but quietly, and without fanfare, the gopher sites have been closed down.
There was the web. Even before Mosaic, there was Lynx, a text-based browser (still in use!). I'll never forget the thrill I had when I typed in the URL for one of the sample sites my ISP provided and, after the signals crept through the 14.4k modem and out into the world and back, the text came back - I think it was a NASA site. And when I clicked on one of the links in the text and was transported to another site geographically located halfway across the world (I think it was the CERN site - birthplace of the web), well, I felt like an explorer seeing a new world.
It was a smaller world, and you knew more people. Those first non-academic/non-military web users were a close-knit community. You could go to a website where you could enter your birthdate, and other users would send you birthday greetings on the big day. Everybody had a personal page, with links to the cool sites they had discovered (remember the Cool Site of the Day?), biographies, pictures of themselves and their animals. Even my cats each had their own webpage, with images and biographical information. I even had a rudimentary blog -- a travelogue of my vacation in France and my train trip across the United States.
Of course, as in any world, there was good and bad. There were people who had been using the web for years who were upset at the sudden popularity of their secret universe, and hostile towards those they considered "newbies". Every newsgroup had its FAQ for newbies, which laid down THE RULES. You weren't treated seriously if your email address ended with .com (later, you weren't treated seriously if your email address was aol.com). You weren't treated seriously if your email address was a random string of numbers and letters rather than something based on your name or your nickname. You were treated seriously if you had your own web address (unless it had a ~ (tilde) in it.
But that gradually faded - though it creeps in again any time a new web technology begins to get popular - for example, many of the old webloggers (not a majority by any means) treat those who've arrived lately with condescension. An inevitable, if unfortunate, reaction to change.
Inevitably, as more people began to use the web, the commercial interests began to dip their toes in the water. Companies posted their own websites, banner ads appeared, browsers improved, Apple and Microsoft built in the internet connectivity, modems became faster. The internet changed - the web became the primary tool (followed by email) and the newsgroups faded into the background (though they are still heavily used).
Something was lost, and something was gained. The internet was no longer a small community; but it was accessible to more people and there was more to explore.
New technologies developed: MUDs, listserv, chat groups, online gaming, and of course, viruses and spam.
The Net is still evolving and going in new directions that could not be envisioned. Blogs, newsfeeds, video chat, virtual communities, and who knows what next?
What a long strange trip it's been, and will be.
Posted by wetcoast at August 23, 2003 08:48 AM