Happy 40th birthday, Internet! In 1969 a UCLA team sent the first message over ARPANET, the computer network that later became known as the Internet. That event, which took place on 29 October 1969, is celebrated by many as the moment the Internet was born.
I've embedded a link to the blogpost from Cathy Davidson, Duke University, that reflects on what this has meant for the world as we know it.
And for those of you who snickered at Al Gore for saying that *he* invented the internet, I have included a link to an ERIC document that describes the authorization of NREN, the National Research and Education Network. Let it be known that legislation authorizing the creation of what has been referred to as an electronic "information superhighway" was first introduced by Senator Albert Gore in 1988.
The National Research and Education Network, signed into law in early 1991, was hailed as an expansion of the still private, mostly military Internet to educational researchers, teachers and students. I was still teaching at the time this happened, and remember that the prospects were quite exciting but the reality not so good - it was still a bit dicey to get email addresses for ourselves and for students. Huh. And now we're talking about farming student email services off to third party providers. My how time flies.
Comments