The Beginning 1993 Internet Revolution
Monday, October 16, 2006

Timeline

The development of the internet is filled with currents and counter-currents, repression, dissension and rebellion. It isn't a simple story of success after success but rather includes missed opportunities, projects that were feasible and still haven't been achieved, and futile efforts, projects that were repeatedly attempted despite being provably impossible. The history of the internet is filled with individual events, none of them meaningful without context. This is the story of the internet, not one of heroic god figures walking upon the Earth but of human beings who dream and act upon those dreams.



The 80's

* 1980 - Making use of Unix v7's UUCP facility, A News sees the birth of Usenet between UNC and Duke universities. At this time, the ARPANET is a tightly-controlled self-contained network under the regulation of the US Defense Communications Agency. In contrast, the UUCPnet is quickly conceived of as a self-regulated public network mostly kept hidden from management. After all, management does have to approve hundreds of 1980 dollars in monthly phone bills and possibly several thousand in initial equipment expenditures.

* 1980 - Mark Horton feeds the human-nets ARPANET mailing list into the FA.Human-nets Usenet newsgroup. Human-nets discusses the implications of a worldwide computer communications network, usually referred to as WorldNet. The connection is strictly one-way but the ability to eavesdrop on ARPANET discussions provides critical incentive to join Usenet.

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