Chapters 8-9

     Mark Giese in chapter 8 of Communication and Cyberspace discusses the transformation from the Arpanet to the Internet and how the phrase “Information Superhighway” has transformed as well.  Giese defines the Internet as a network of computer networks.  Although there are much more users in 2012, there were 1.5 million host computers and 21 million users worldwide in the 1990’s.  The 1990’s were time of great growth.  The Internet first coined as the Arpanet (Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) was first used for maintaining communication within the military in case of a nuclear bombing or catastrophic event.  Giese makes a fabulous point about how the rationale behind using the Arpanet was the same reason behind the construction of the Interstate highway system: national security.  A second reason for the growth of the Internet was described as a clash of cultures with the defense establishment and the academic research community.  The Arpanet and the highway system were both intended for the use for elite groups only, not everybody.  The term hacker ethic, the free flow of information, became popular at this point.  Discussion groups made it a popular “tool” instead of for military uses.  The clash of the two cultures was directly responsible for the expansion of the network and changed the world forever.  It was soon noted that the Information superhighway system was not a correct synonym of the Internet.  The uses for the Internet had nothing to do with what the highway systems were about, as discussed in class as well.  Another nickname was the Information infrastructure, which did not last either.  Cyberspace did not start out as its original word either, but was rather called cyber places.  People did not agree that “place” was a good word to use because it was not an actual place they would visit, but rather a space (hence cyberspace).

     Chapter 9 poses the questions concerning public interest in and access to the Information superhighway.  In 1998, the Internet economy generated $300 billion in the U.S alone.  A great definition by Ron Jacobson is that the Internet is “really about the transformation of information and knowledge, rather than its growth.”  Al Gore, Vice President at the time, was the Clinton administrations most avid supporter of the national telecommunications reform making many promises to the people for the year 2000.  The digital divide was a huge concern for many citizens at this time as well.  The digital divide is the gap between the information haves and have-nots.  “One can only hope that the emerging global information infrastructure will lead to environments that offer potential for leveling great socioeconomic inequities and for improving the quality of life for humans.”

The Internet, Web, and Social media

Through out the beginning of the personal computer or the PC the leader of the industry was IBM. IBM is a company that is very regimented. They had all employees dress in Navy Blue pinstripe suits and encouraged their employees to communicate with each other as much as possible. This company decided to stay away from the software and manufacturing of PC's and decided to focus on teh hardware as they had always done. Apple, a competitor of IBM, had created a new image with the help of Steve Jobs. They created an image that was new and hip and attracted a very artistic and creative crowd. Apple had gone down hill when Jobs left the company, but when he came back with the invention of the iPod Apple once again flourished. In chapters 8 and 9 of "Communication and Cyberspace" individuals go on to describe the internet, which they call an information superhighway. William Gibson went on to coin the term cyberspace, which he describes as a consensual hallucination. His vision of the internet and cyberspace was that it is a transnational capitalism run amok. An obstacle in this era was Interface Message Processors or IMP's. IMP gives computers the ability to talk to each other if they were produced by the same manufacturer. The internet or computer network has been created from the beginning by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency as a part of their defense strategy. Their thought was to create a decentralized network so that if one part of the network was attacked or went down the other parts would fill in and there would be no loss of connection. These networks consist of many components such as terminals and nodes. Terminals are not endpoints which are not connected to each other, but to a main frame. Nodes are interconnected within the network. In 1969 ARPAnet was commissioned by the department of defense and the key to this system was packet switching. Packet switching is where several packets are sent to one destination, the nodes reroute in accordance with how easy it is to reach its end point, and they come back together at their destination. Mosco has many views about the electronic age, but one that stood out to me was that in an electric age information has been increasingly modified. Another idea that intrigued me was the thought that cyberspace has no limits and or no barriers and will expand as information increases. With discoveries like prodigy, America online and the WEB our society has become greatly entwined in the internet and all that it has to offer. Within the text we have been reading they speak of a "digital divide, which is the gap between those who have access to and use the internet and those who do not(166)". This idea enlightens you on how the world has increasingly progressed through the years. Thoughts from the text and thoughts of my own hope that this gap is lessened each and every passing day

Confusions in The Giese Article

In his essay From ARPANET to Internet Mark Giese brings up an important topic about the Internet that gets taken for granted these days. Namely that the Internet has a long, interesting history and did not just shoot forth into existence arbitrarily, as some people probably assume. While it did well at explaining this topic, I found some confusions and contradictions in his discussion on the dichotomy of Internet ‘culture.’

His main point is that the history of Internet culture and development is defined by two contradictory, but interrelated sides, that of the hierarchal rigid military sphere, and the more egalitarian ‘hacker’ academic sphere. The problem is that he provides very little evidence of the military actively conflicting with the academics. The military, in his description, seems to take a very laissez-faire approach to how the academics and hackers used their equipment. As long as ARPANET and it’s successor kept performing it’s originally intended defense function, then the military had little reason to interfere with the academics and hackers discussion groups and experiments. The problems of the early Internet Giese describes don’t seem to be a product of military blockheadedness, but the growing pains of new technology.

In fact, the relationship between the military and academic cultures seems to not be one of confrontation and contradiction, but of mutual benefit, forming a sort of feedback loop. If it were not for ‘hackers’, such as Bill Gates, then there wouldn’t be the Microsoft systems upon which the military is completely dependent. The latest pieces of military technology, such as the Predator drone, would not be possible without the innovations brought about by the military’s attitude towards the academic community. Modern net and ‘hacker’ culture flourished because of military hierarchy and control, not in spite of it.