Happy birthday Mr Internet...

This year is the 50 year anniversary of the creation of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency(ARPA) in the US in response to the Soviet launch of Sputnik I, the world's first artificial satellite.

ARPA went on to create ARPANet - the first computer network and the genesis of the internet.

It is also the 15th anniversary of Mosaic, the world's first graphical internet browser (there was no 'world-wide-web' before Mosaic).

Vanity Fair has published an article drawing from interviews with some of the pioneers of the internet entitled, How the internet was won.


It's an interesting glimpse of how the 4th mass media came to be and a great read for anyone who wants more context on why the internet has developed as it has.

I also found it very interesting that this article was in the Entertainment and Culture section of Vanity Fair NOT in a Technology section.

Here in Australia - particularly in the public sector - I've noticed the tendency to consider the internet and websites as a technology tool or IT application.

In the US thinking has progressed further and the internet is recognised as a communications and interaction medium that enables communities and cultural development.