Chapter 1: A History of Information Highways and Byways

Full-text of chapter 1 (pp. 1-35)

Introduction
The Social Role of Communications Networks
Ancient Networks
Modern Networks
The Social Role of Writing and Publishing
Development of Modern Computers

Introduction
pp. 1-2

Ithiel de la Sola Pool, MIT professor and computer visionary, argued in the early 1980s that computer communications would profoundly alter history. (At this point, the personal computer was still unheard of and the early Internet was the exclusive domain of engineers, computer scientists and scientists.) In a prophetic statement, he wrote:

One could argue that computer communication is one of the perhaps four most fundamental changes in the history of communications technology. Any such list is, of course, judgmental, but the case can be made that writing 5,000 years ago, printing 500 years ago, telegraphy 150 years ago, and now computer communication were the four truly revolutionary changes, and that most of the thousands of other changes in communication technology have been but perfecting adaptations of these four.1

In the process of writing this book, we kept reaching back into the history of networks, publishing, computers and the development of the Internet for metaphors and descriptions of the cognitive and design issues raised by this new technology. We initially envisioned this book as a straightforward guide, similar to the many guides to using the Internet that were in print in 1997. However, as we began to write the book, we felt like the blind men trying to describe the elephant when we talked about the Internet with newly "wired" professors. We also realized that the guides on the market assumed either a level of technical proficiency with computers or only a basic level of immediate and practical application.

Our research into the historical background provided both fascinating anecdotal details that rounded out our own understanding of the Internet and the necessary framework for imparting this understanding to others. We offer this departure from the current trend in guides on the subject because your students may ask you about the origins of the Internet. More importantly, we feel that a solid grounding on the nature of the Internet is critical to even out the disparity that still exists between technology "insiders" who have worked on the Internet for the last fifteen to twenty years and the rest of us who only in the last few years have used e-mail with any regularity.

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