Internet, Blogs and Twitter

Image via Textdex.com

Below is an interesting timeline created by Mary Cross, author of "Bloggerati, Twitterati: How Blogs and Twitter are Transforming Popular Culture."

Before I type another word, I want to emphasize again that our site is here merely to document our days, how we spend our time, and how much we treasure our time with our small children.  Simply put, I am not transforming anything.  I prefer to post photos of my children and wax poetic about pop culture.  To this day, I am shocked that anyone reads my ramblings.

Having laid out that disclaimer, social media of all types (including the on again/off again popularity of blogs) has had a transformative impact on society.  Social media, to me, is a lot like the ocean, in that we are each a tiny wave; the collective, however, is a powerful force.  Because of social media, we now interact versus simply consume. This phenomenon, coupled with my inability to resist a good timeline, prompted me to share the below:

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Timeline of the Internet, Blogs and Twitter


1957 - In October, Russia launches Sputnik, the first spaceship to orbit the earth, leaving the United States behind in the technology race.

1958 - United States organizes Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) and subsidiary Information Processing Technology Office (IPTO) to move ahead on technology projects like interconnecting military computers at the Pentagon.

1968-1969 - ARPANET network launched, using packet switching and hierarchical routing, which would be basics for the development of the Internet.

1971 - E-mail developed by Ray Tomlinson, who set the protocol for using "@" in e-mail addresses.

1973 - First trans-Atlantic connection on ARPANET, to University College of London.

1974 - Beginning of Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP).

1977 - PC modem developed by Dennis Hayes and Dale Heatherington.

1979 - Usenet launched, an Internet-based discussion system that allowed people to post public messages.  Also, Multi-User Dungeon (MUD) launches with text-based virtual worlds, role-playing games.

1983 - ARPANET computers switch over to TCP and IP.

1984 - Domain name system introduced (instead of numerical IP address).

1986 - Protocol wars:  conflict between European Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) versus US Internet/ARPANET protocol.

1988 - Internet Relay Chat (IRC) allows real-time chat and instant messaging programs.

1989 - America On Line (AOL) is launched.  Also, World Wide Web written by Tim Berners-Lee, a global hypertext system using hypertext markup language (HTML), and universal resource identifiers (URLs).

1990 - First dial-up Internet service provider (ISP), The World.  Also, first Internet search engine, Archie (followed by Gopher in 1991).

1991 - First web page, nxoc01.cern.ch, maintained by Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau.  Also, first webcam, a video-capture device, monitored a coffee maker at Cambridge University in England so workers could see if there was any coffee left.  Finally, MP3 file format launched to share songs and entire albums.

1993 - Mosaic, first graphical web browser for public, devised by Marc Andreessen.  Became Netscape, dominant web browser, which was then overtaken by Internet Explorer, shipped with Windows in 1977.

1995 - Michael Sippey begins publishing "Stating the Obvious" weekly essays about the Internet and technology.

1996 - First mobile phone, the Nokia 9000 Communicator, launched in Finland.

1997 - Jorn Barger posts first weblog, calls new site Robot Wisdom WebLog.

1998 - Google search engine launched, founded by Sergey Brin and Larry Page in Silicon Valley.  Also, first news story broken online, not on mainstream media, by Matt Drudge at his Drudge Report about Shenanigans in the White House during the Clinton administration.

2000 - 407 million users on Internet.  Dot.com bubble, as investors and businesses rush to get in on the new Silicon Valley business model.

2001 - Dot.com bubble bursts as value of sites sinks.  Blogger William Quick claims to have invented the term blog.  Research in Motion launches mobile phone email system for Blackberry.  Wikipedia, free online encyclopedia, launched by Jimmy Wales.

2003 - MySpace begins, once the most popular social network.

2004 - Facebook launched as college social network by Mark Zuckerberg.

2005 - YouTube launched for free online video sharing.

2006 - Twitter launches.  First message, by Jack Dorsey, cofounder: "just setting up my twittr."

2007 - Apple introduces the iPhone.

2008 - First "Internet election," with presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton using the Internet to raise funds and gain supporters.

2009 - 40th anniversary of the Internet.

2010 - 1,966,514,816 people worldwide are on the Internet.  Apple launches the iPad, sells more than 3 million in first four months, 15 million in one year, and launches iPad2 in March 2011.

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I didn't fact-check this timeline, and I am skeptical about a couple of the entries  First, I had a mobile phone prior to 1996, as many of you likely had as well.  Sure, it looked like an enormous walkie talkie, but it was, in fact, a mobile phone.  I saw the now ridiculed phones pressed against ears as early as 1991, and I definitely was not anywhere near Silicon Valley at the time.  We called them cellular phones back then.  Maybe the author didn't count those brick-like relics.  I, did, however, own a Nokia by 1996, and the experience was appreciably different.  Also, I think there were many significant developments between 2001 and 2003.  For example, there were many startups that predated MySpace and Facebook, although they were ultimately unsuccessful.

All things considered, Cross provides an interesting historical perspective on "new" media.