Internet Has Profoundly Affected Society

This is an original article © 2003 Ulrich Iserloh. All Rights Reserved. No reproduction in any format, print or electronic, without written permission by author. Fair use is encouraged; piracy is not.

While I was recently reading a technical book about the development of the Internet, I couldn’t help but jotting down a few personal notes on the book’s margin. Sure, not everyone has been connected right away (my dad is just now starting to surf the Internet), but even without being hard-wired to the T1 internet backbone, media and culture has been deeply changed with the advent of the Internet.

Let me ask you this: Can you still remember life before 1995, and what you did with all the time that you’re now spending surfing the web, checking out people’s stats at JDate, and streaming MP3s? I almost can’t, and that’s why I wrote down some of my personal thoughts as it pertains to the evolution of technology.

On another level: How did you feel during the exuberant years of 1998 and 1999, when it was Everything Goes and Let’s Party Like it’s 1999? I still remember how it blew my mind just how much VC money you could sink in just a few months. I felt priviliged to witness the leveraging of Gutenberg’s invention into the digital realm, and the bubble that it created. That’s something that won’t repeat for another 30-40 years! I was there, when it happened! At the epicenter, in NYC!

1492

Gutenberg invents the printing press. Start of the digital revolution. Information becomes a mass-product. Did he realize what he was setting in motion? I guess he must have.

1962

ARPANET, the precursor to the web is established. Unlike Gutenberg, they don’t know yet what it will be good for. Think “Wargames” (Wasn’t that directed in 1979?)

1978

Steve Jobs founds “Apple Computer”. People have suddenly the option to click on things, rather than using a MS-DOS command line. Unfortunately, Jobs and his company aren’t really in a position to break Microsoft’s monopoly. Certainly, their business strategy could have been better by allowing other companies to manufacture Apple hardware.

1981

The domain name server (DNS) is developed. Heaven sent, otherwise you’d be visiting 209.249.147.233 instead of www.iserloh.com.

1984

Apple introduces the Macintosh. Funny, people today think of Apple Computers first when they hear Macintosh, rather than the apple that they can eat.

1986

5000 computers are connected to the Internet. Gore mentions that he’s involved in the first hearings on the Information Superhighway. This is going to haunt him in the 2000 presidential election.

1988

T1 lines are established. Nobody knows what “T1″ stands for. But it is faster.

1990

Tim Berners-Lee conceives the world wide web (www). WWW is what you surf with your browser, while the internet as a whole consists of much more (email, ftp, www).

1991

AOL starts reeling in dial-up customers. One of their fiercest competitors is Compuserve.

1993

Marc Andreesen and Eric Buna develop Mosaic, the precursor to Netscape. 2 million computers are connected to the internet, a total of just 600 websites exist.

1994

Netscape and Yahoo are founded. This is when I should have started to invest money in the stockmarket. Of course, I didn’t have the foresight.

1995

6.5 million computers are connected to the internet, accessing about 100 000 websites. www.pitt.edu/~iserloh sees the light of day.

1996

High-Five is created. Java-script enables the mouse-over button. Microsoft comes late to the scene, unveiling Internet Explorer. 12.8 million are connected to the internet, 500000 websites.

1997

Amazon starts selling books. “e-everything” shows up e-verywhere. “Got e?” 19.5 million are connected to the internet, 1 million websites. My website moves to iserloh.com, its permanent home for the next 99 years. Many Iserloh’s in Germany haven’t caught up, so that’s why iserloh.com is still available. Most people thought I am nuts for registering my online real estate. Now they are sorry.

1998

300 million webpages on the entire internet (www.iserloh.com is making up a tiny fraction thereof). 1.5 million new webpages EVERY day.

1999

More than 100 000 IT-related jobs can not be filled because of lack of qualified personnel. New York is turning into Silicon Alley, and venture-capital is abound. Every measly intern gets to sit on a $1500 Aeron chair (I’ll admit they are extremely comfortable. In fact, I am sitting in one as I write this).

2000

IE5/mac is unveiled, heralding the beginning of enhanced support for CSS, HTML4 and javascript. Netscape follows suit with NN6, which turns out to be a real lemon. They dropped the ball, leaving the field wide-open for Microsoft. You can’t do that, as we know now.

2001

Internet traffic is still soaring, however business is cooling off really fast. Thousands of IT-related jobs are being eliminated. Many companies can’t attract enough new business. After all, just designing websites is not giving you the follow-up opportunities you need to make money. Besides, plain webdesign is cheaper in Asia.

2003

Are we a lot wiser? Do we know what the next big thing is going to be?