Proposed by Vannevar Bush (Directory of Office of Scientific R&D for
Roosevelt)
Bush on why it's hard to find information in library:
Library uses hierarchical index, and desired item can be found in only
one place.
"Having found one item, moreover, one has to emerge from the system and
re-enter on a new path."
Alternative: concept of hypertext (term coined later):
Human mind operates by association (not indices)
Hence user wants to create information trails of traveled links
Memex proposed as a goal for scientists in post-war era
A machine to store a lots of text, graphics:
"A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books,
records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be
consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate
supplement to his memory.
It consists of a desk, and while it can presumably be operated from
a distance, it is primarily the piece of furniture at which he works. On
the top are slanting translucent screens, on which material can be projected
for convenient reading. There is a keyboard, and sets of buttons and levers.
Otherwise it looks like an ordinary desk.
In one end is the stored material. The matter of bulk is well taken
care of by improved microfilm. Only a small part of the interior of the
memex is devoted to storage, the rest to mechanism. Yet if the user inserted
5000 pages of material a day it would take him hundreds of years to fill
the repository, so he can be profligate and enter material freely."
In response to Soviet research efforts, Eisenhower established Advanced
Research Projects Agency (ARPA).
ARPA launched first American satellite within 18 months.
Several years later, ARPA was given the task of developing a reliable
communications network, specifically for use by computers. Motivation was
to have a network of decentralized military computers connected in such
way that it could withstand destruction of one or several nodes in a war.
1962
Networking...
Paul Baran at RAND proposes distributed packet switched communication network
with no centralized control.
1965
First computer network:
ARPA sponsors study on "cooperative network of time-sharing computers"
-- TX-2 at MIT Lincoln Lab and Q-32 at System Development Corporation (Santa
Monica, CA) are directly linked (without packet switches).
Hypertext terms coined:
Ted Nelson coins the terms "hypertext" and "hypermedia" in a paper to the
ACM 20th national conference
"By 'hypertext' mean nonsequential writing - text that branches and
allows choice to the reader, best read at an interactive screen."
1967
Networking: Packet switching invented:
At ACM Symp. on Operating System Principles:
Plan proposed for packet-switching network
First design paper on ARPANET was published by Lawrence G. Roberts
First hypertext system built:
Developed by team of researchers led by Dr. Andries van Dam at Brown University.
Research funded by IBM
Hypertext Editing System ran on an IBM/360 mainframe
IBM sold system to Houston Manned Spacecraft Center, which reportedly used
it for the Apollo space program documentation.
1968
Hypertext: Engelbart's NLS:
Doug Engelbart (inventor of mouse) demos hypertext system
called NLS, the oN Line System
held in "shared journal," over 100,000 papers, reports, memos and cross
references
provided collaboration between remote users
Recognized at WWW4 conference as a predecessor of the WWW.
Networking: First Packet Switched Network Operational
What was arguably the first packet-switching network was operational and
in-place at the National Physical Laboratories in the UK.
Parallel efforts in France also resulted in an early packet-switching
network at Societe Internationale de Telecommunications Aeronautiques in
1968-1970.
1969
Networking...
ARPANET commissioned; first node at UCLA, then Stanford Research Institute
(SRI), University of Utah in Salt Lake City, and UCSB (UC Santa Barbara).
Information Message Processors (IMP) was developed by Bolt Beranek on
Honeywell DDP 516 to deliver messages between the four node network above.
First RFC (Request For Comments), "Host Software", was submitted by
Steve Crocker.
1970
Networking...
ALOHAnet developed by Norman Abrahamson; offspring was Ethernet
ARPANET hosts start using Network Control Protocol (NCP). This protocol
was used until 1982 at which time it was replaced with TCP/IP.
1971
Networking...
ARPANET grows to 15 nodes:
UCLA, SRI, UCSB, University of Utah, BBN, MIT, RAND, SDC, Harvard,
Lincoln Lab, Stanford, UIUC, CWRU, CMU, and NASA (Ames).
RFC 318: Telnet Ray Tomlinson writes e-mail program to operate across networks
Inter-Networking Working Group (INWG), headed by Vinton Cerf, established
and given task of investigating common protocols.
Public demonstration of ARPANET by Bob Kahn of BBN. The demonstration
consisted of "packet switch" and TIP (Terminal Interface Processor) in
basement of Washington Hilton Hotel. Public could use TIP to run distributed
applications across U.S.
Hypertext:
CMS researchers develop ZOG:
large database designed for a multiuser environment
text-only
ZOG database consisted of frames which, in turn, consisted of a title,
a description, a line with standard ZOG commands, and a set of menu items
(called selections) leading to other frames
Later commercialized: Knowledge Management System (KMS)
Allows collaborative authoring
Has a "linearize" function to print a hypertext document -- something still
missing from Web browsers!
1973
Networking...
First overseas connection to ARPANET:
University College of London -- UK
Royal Radar Establishment --Norway
First published outline for the idea of Ethernet: Bob Metcalfe's Harvard
Ph.D. Thesis.
RFC 454: File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
1974
Networking...
Design of TCP published by Vinton Cerf and Bob Kahn.
Computers...
Intel markets 8080 microprocessor.
1976
Networking...
Bell Labs develops UUCP (unix-to-unix copy); releases in UNIX one year
later
1978
Hypertext...
Andrew Lippman (MIT Architecture Machine Group) lead team of researchers
developed what is argued to be the first true hypermedia system: Aspen
Movie Map
Four cameras, pointing in different directions, were mounted on a truck
which was driven through the streets of Aspen. The cameras took pictures
at regular intervals, and all the pictures were compiled onto videodisks.
The images were linked in such a way that would allow the user to start
at a given point and move forward, back, left, or right. Once a route through
the city was chosen, the system could display the images in rapid succession
creating a movie-like motion.
Navigation map, displayed in addition to the movie window, allowed user
to jump directly to point on city map instead of finding the way through
city streets to that destination.
1979
Networking...
USENET established, originally between UNC and Duke
1980
Web...
Tim Berners-Lee joined CERN as a consultant.
Proposed "Enquire-within-upon-everything," a system that stores associations
between arbitrary pieces of information.
Later leaves CERN.
Computers...
Xerox PARC developments:
Manufactures the STAR, a "personal workstation" based on bitmapped display
and mouse.
The first commercial WYSIWYG editor is introduced.
Work starts on a printer description language (later to be commercialized
as Postscript).
IBM introduces PC.
1981
New Networks:
BITNET (Because It's Time NETwork)
CSNET (Computer Science NETwork) established
Based on funding from NSF
Stated goal of providing network access to universities without ARPANET
access
Hypertext: Xanadu Proposed
Theodor Holm Nelson, a writer, film-maker, and software designer, conceived
following system:
Xanadu is a system for the network sale of documents with automatic royalty
on every byte.
This is a completely interactive a universal document database (docuverse).
The transclusion feature allows quotation of fragments of any size
with royalty to the original publisher.
It is a system for a point-and-click universe.
This is an implementation of a connected literature.
Its followers believe in it with almost religious zeal and its skeptics
bash it with equal conviction.
Transclusion (term introduced by Ted Nelson) is process of including
something by reference rather than by copying.
Transclusion differs from URLs in WWW:
allow addressing of any substring of any document from any other
document
Xanadu would permanently keep every version of every document, thereby
eliminating the possibility of a broken link and the ever-so-familiar 404-Document
Not Found error. Xanadu would only maintain the current version of the
document in its entirety. The previous versions could then be dynamically
reconstructed from the current version through a very sophisticated versioning
system which would keep track of modifications made to each generation
of the document
Referred to in Wired magazine as "the longest-running vaporware
story in the history of the computer industry."
1982
Networking...
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP) selected
as Dept. of Defense protocol suite
First definition of term "internet."
RFC 827: External Gateway Protocol
Computers...
Sun introduces Unix-based workstation for under $20,000. UNIX machines
with built-in TCP/IP start their gain in popularity.
1983
Networking...
Domain Name Server (DNS) developed at Univ. of Wisconsin
Gateway between CSNET and ARPANET established.
ARPANET split into ARPANET and MILNET.
Computers...
Apple introduces Macintosh. The notion of "point and click" starts
to become mainstream.
1984
Networking...
Over 1000 hosts in ARPANET
TCP/IP and the Internet are introduced to CERN.
1985
Hypertext...
8000 page computer manual for the Symbolics machine was put into a hypertext
system.
Xerox released NoteCards, a LISP-based hypertext system.
scrolling windows for each notecard
pre-formatted specialized notecards
separate browser/navigator window
1986
Networking:
NSFNET created with 56 Kbit/sec links.
Originally composed of 5 super-computer centers connected with 56 Kbps
lines.
Explosion of connections from universities follows.
Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) created.
Hypertext:
Office Workstations Ltd (OWL) introduced OWL-Guide, a hypertext system
for Macintosh. Gained widespread acceptance due to Mac's popularity.
Later ported to IBM-PC platform and became the first multi-platform
hypertext system.
1987
Apple's HyperCard:
Apple releases HyperCard, exposing many to hypertext ideas.
Bill Atkinson of Apple Computers introduced HyperCard.
Apple bundled application free with all Macintoshs.
HyperCard soon-after became the most widely used hypertext system and
many HyperCard-based applications were developed.
Many believe HyperCard to be the application that contributed the most
to the popularization of the hypertext model.
First Hypertext conference:
ACM held the first Conference on Hypertext later that year.
Networking:
NSF and Merit Network, Inc. agree to manage the NSFNET backbone.
Over 10,000 Internet hosts
1988
November 1: Internet worm affects 10% of hosts
NSFNET backbone upgraded to T1 (1.544 Mbps)
1989
Networking:
CERN is now largest Internet site in Europe.
Over 100,000 hosts
CSNET merges into BITNET to form Corporation for Research and Education
Networking (CREN).
Tim Berners-Lee:
In March, Tim Berners-Lee returns to CERN and proposes hypertext system
to store knowledge for High Energy physicists. Click here
to see his proposal. One motivation for hypertext was to prevent loss of
information as people left CERN. Hypertext system permits an arbitrary
graph of information, which Berners-Lee argued was advantageous over information
systems based on trees, such as UUCP News.
1990
Networking:
ARPANET decommissioned (replaced by NSFNET)
October 1990
Web...
"World-Wide Web" is chosen as a name. Project official starts at CERN.
November 1990
Web...
Initial Web browser written on NeXT. Was a wysiwyg browser.
December 1990
Web...
Line mode WWW browser demonstrated.
1991
Networking:
NSFNET backbone upgraded to T3 (44.736 Mbps)
NSFNET traffic passes 1 trillion bytes/month and 10 billion packets/month
Java project initiated:
Bill Joy, currently a vice president at Sun Microsystems, is widely believed
to have been the person to conceive of the idea of a programming language
that later became Java.
In late 1970's, Joy wanted to design a language that combined the best
features of MESA and C. In an attempt to re-write the UNIX operating system
in 1980's, Joy decided that C++ was inadequate for the job. A better tool
was needed to write short and effective programs. It was this desire to
invent a better programming tool that swayed Joy, in 1991, in the direction
of Sun's "Stealth Project" - as named by Scott McNealy, Sun's president.
In January 1991, Bill Joy, James Gosling, Mike Sheradin, Patrick Naughton
(formerly the project leader of Sun's OpenWindows user environment), and
several others met in Aspen, Colorado for first time to discuss ideas for
Stealth Project.
Goal of Stealth Project was for computers in the consumer electronics
market. Project vision was to develop "smart" consumer electronic devices
that could all be centrally controlled and programmed from a handheld-remote-control-like
device.
According to Gosling, "the goal was ... to build a system that would
let us do a large, distributed, heterogeneous network of consumer electronic
devices all talking to each other."
Members of Stealth Project, later known as Green Project, divided tasks
amongst themselves.
Mike Sheradin focused on business development
Patrick Naughton worked on the graphics system,
James Gosling identified proper programming language.
Gosling joined Sun in 1984, previously developing the commercially unsuccessful
NeWS windowing system as well as GOSMACS - a C language implementation
of GNU EMACS.
He began with C++. His extensions and modifications to C++ (also know as
C++ ++ --), were first steps towards development of an independent language.
He named language "Oak" while staring at an oak tree outside his office
window!
Name "Oak" was later dismissed due to patent search (name was copyrighted
and used for another programming language). "It's surprisingly difficult
to find a good name for a programming language, as the team discovered
after many hours of brainstorming. Finally, inspiration struck one day
during a trip to local coffee shop".
Others speculated that the name Java came from several individuals involved
in the project: James gosling, Arthur Van hoff, Andy Bechtolsheim.
Oak's goals:
Reliability: consumer electronics devices cannot be rebooted
Independence: Be completely platform independent, and function seamlessly
regardless of the type of CPU in the device
Security: By design, Oak-based devices were to function in a network
and often exchange code and information
Simplicity: to be widely accepted and used within the consumer electronics
industry, it would have to be simple and compact, so that the language
could be mastered relatively easily
March 1991
Web...
Limited release of WWW line mode browser on several platforms: VAX,
RS/6000, Sun 4
May 1991
Web...
First US Web server, at Stanford Linear Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC)
August 1991
Web...
First posting of Web software on Internet, on alt.hypertext.
Java...
Oak team had working prototype of user interface and graphical system,
which was demonstrated to Sun co-founders Scott McNealy and Bill Joy
1992
Networking...
Internet has over one million hosts.
Jan-May 1992
Web...
Line mode browser, X based browsers (Erwise, Viola) released by various
organizations.
September 1992
Java...
Development of Oak, the green OS, the user interface, and *7 hardware prototype
were demonstrated to McNealy and Joy.
Prototype was PDA-like (personal digital assistant) device that Gosling
described as a "handheld remote control."
Patrick Naughton proclaimed that "in 18 months, we did the equivalent
of what 75-people organizations at Sun took three years to do -- an operating
system, a language, a toolkit, an interface, a new hardware platform, ..."
However, PDA market was not explosive, as later demonstrated by Apple's
Newton PDA.
Sun then envisioned Oak's roles as a technology similar to that of Dolby
Labs, which would become the standard for the consumer electronics products.
November 1992
Java...
Oak/Java project incorporated under name FirstPerson.
Given Java's lack of success in the consumer electronics industry, company's
direction was somewhat uncertain. Under Sun's influence, company began
re-evaluating its mission.
From now until 1994, FirstPerson will unsuccessfully try to penetrate
interactive TV market.
First effort (early 1993) failed: Time-Warner issued an RFP (request for
proposal) for a set-top box operating system and interactive, video-on-demand
technology. SGI was granted the contract by Time-Warner.
Further attempts failed. Java was still looking for a purpose in life.
January 1993
Web...
Mac browser (ECP) released. 50 known HTTP servers.
February 1993
Web...
NCSA releases Marc Andreesen's Mosaic for X.
Mosaic for Mac, Windows released later in 1993.
March 1993
Networking...
HTTP is 1/10% of NSF backbone traffic.
August 1993
Web...
First WWW conference: WWW Wizards Workshop
September 1993
Networking...
HTTP traffic now 1% of NSF backbone traffic.
October 1993
Web...
200 HTTP servers
December 1993
Web...
Marc Andreesen leaves NCSA, drops work on Mosaic, joins a small company
(unrelated to the Web).
1994
Networking...
NSFNET traffic passes 10 trillion bytes/month
Percent packets and bytes in order:
FTP
WWW
telnet
March 1994
Web...
Andreesen leaves small firm to found with SGI founder Jim Clark and
Erin Bina (also on the Mosaic team) "Mosaic Communications Corporation,"
later renamed Netscape.
May 1994
Web...
First WWW Conference: oversubscribed -- 400 of 800 could attend. Now
there are over 4500 Web servers.
June 1994
Java...
In June of 1994, Bill Joy started the "Liveoak" project with stated objective
of building a "big small operating" system.
In July of 1994, the project "clicked" into place. Naughton gets the
idea of putting "Liveoak" to work on the Internet while he was playing
with writing a web browser over a long weekend. Just the kind of thing
you'd want to do with your weekend!
This was the turning point for Java.
July 1994
Web..
MIT/CERN agree to start WWW Consortium.
September 1994
Java...
Naughton and Jonathan Payne (a Sun engineer) start writing "WebRunner,"
a Java-based web browser later renamed "HotJava."
By October 1994, HotJava is stable and demonstrated to Sun executives.
This time, Java's potential, in context of WWW, is recognized and project
is supported
December 1994
Web...
CERN drops WWW development due to construction of costly Large Hadron
Collider accelerator
1995
Networking:
NSFNET reverts back to a research network. Main US Internet backbone traffic
now routed through interconnected network providers.
WWW surpasses ftp-data in March as the service with greatest traffic
on NSFNet based on packet count, and in April based on byte count
Traditional online dial-up systems (Compuserve, American Online, Prodigy)
begin to provide Internet access
Registration of domain names is no longer free. Beginning 14 September,
a $50 annual fee has been imposed, which up until now was subsidized by
NSF. NSF continues to pay for .edu registration, and on an interim basis
for .gov
Technologies of the Year: WWW, Search engines
Java:
Sun formally announced Java and HotJava at SunWorld `95.
Soon after, Netscape Inc. announced that it would incorporate Java support
in their browser.
This was great triumph for Java since it was now supported by most popular
browser in world.
By December, a reborn Internet-savy Microsoft announced that it would
support Java in its Internet Explorer web browser, further solidifying
Java's role in the World Wide Web.
March 1995
WWW...
CERN shows WWW to European Media; helped WWW enter mass market
March 1996
Networking...
U.S. Internet backbone increased from 45 Mbit/sec to 155 Mbit/sec due
to growing traffic - primarily Web traffic.
