-
Jan 1, 1575
Typewriter
In 1575 an Italian printmaker, Francesco Rampazzetto, invented the 'scrittura tattile', a machine to impress letters in papers. Although the exact date of its creation is unknown, it led the way to modern typewriters. William Austin Burt patented the first typewriter on the 10th of November, 1829. It was still slow and clumsy, but it was a step in the right direction. The difference between Rampazzetto's typewriter and that of Burt is that Burt's was a complex machine, as opposed to a printer -
Analytical Engine
Charles Babbage designs his first mechanical computer. It was a general purpose computer, and although it was not ever fully completed until the 1990s, it still provided the framework from which modern computers and the digital age evolved from -
Telegraphs
Telegraphy is the long distance transmission of textual/symbolic (as opposed to verbal or audio) messages without the physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus semaphore (a system of conveying information by means of visual signals, using towers with pivoting shutters, also known as blades or paddles. ) is a method of telegraphy whereas pigeon post is not. These long distance communicators were the precursors to the instant communication provided by the Internet -
Enigma Machine
The Enigma Machines were a family of related electro-mechanical rotor cipher machines used in the twentieth century for enciphering and deciphering secret messages. Enigma was invented by the German engineer Arthur Scherbius at the end of World War I. It was used most famously before and during World War II by Nazi Germany. They were famous because of they were incredibly complex to decode by the enemy, but quite easy to use, as long as you knew how -
First Personal Computer
The Programma 101 was the first "desktop personal computer", as it was about the size of a typewriter, and was accessible to all people. Prior to this, computers were the size of trucks, and needed to be used only by trained specialists. It was released during the 1965 New York World Fair -
The Birth of the Internet
On the 29th of October, 1969, the first two nodes of what would become the ARPANET were interconnected between Leonard Kleinrock's Network Measurement Center at the UCLA's School of Engineering and Applied Science and Douglas Engelbart's NLS system at SRI International in Menlo Park, California. The ARPANET was decomissioned in 1990, but it provided the basework for the beginnings of the Internet -
Apple 1
The first Apple Computer, later named the Apple 1, was released on the 11th of April 1976. Due to a partnership of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, this extraordinary new computer was created. It was so revolutionary because all one needed was a keyboard and an inexpensive television set to work, and it provided a new user experience due to its revolutionary operating system -
World Wide Web
On the 20th of December, 1990, the first succesful test of the World Wide Web was completed by Tim Berners-Lee. Tim Berners-Lee used Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to embed hypertext links, words, pictures, and eventually audio and video in their websites. He has stated that he was inspired to create the World Wide Web by the book "Enquire Within Upon Everything" by Moyra Bremner -
Mosiac
Marc Andreessen was the coauthor of Mosiac, the first widely used Web browser. It was easy-to-install and allowed personal computers to call up websites. It was first released on the 23rd of January, 1993, and was so revolutionary because it allowed those who had access to the World Wide Web to call up various websites in a manner that was easy to use and install, so that all people could use it easily -
The Web Log
Blog, a truncation of the expression Web Log, was created by Justin Hall. The first blog was created on the 22nd of January, 1994, and it was a beguiling Web site that logged Justin's personal activities, random thoughts, deep beliefs and intimate encounters. Justin was dubbed by the New York Times Magazine "the founding father of personal blogging" -
Changing Influences in 1994
In 1994, the wall between the personal computer and the INternet was breached after AOL allowed members to directly access the Internet. This led to a flood of new users trying to directly access the Internet through AOL. The number of clients grew to 10 million people within 3 years. This new development meant that people could now access the Internet at a much lower cost, as well as have direct access -
Google
On the 4th of September, 1998, an extraordinary innovation which was called 'Google' was founded. Larry Page and Sergey Brin used a recursive algorithm that could rank each page by calculating the number of links pointing to it and the relative importance of each of those pages. Nowadays, Google is the most visited site on the Internet, and makes a revenue of nearly $60 billion (2013) -
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is is a free-access, free content Internet encyclopedia, supported and hosted by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Anyone who can access the site can edit almost any of its articles. Its creators (Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger) took a piece of software that allowed readers to edit a Web page and applied it to his effort to create an online encyclopedia -
Social Networks
Friendster was first created on the 22nd of March, 2002, and is widely regarded as one of the precursors to modern social media, such as Facebook and Twitter. Other social networks are MySpace, LinkedIn, Foursquare and Tumblr. They connect family and friends, and allow people to share interests, activities, backgrounds or real-life connections -
1 Million Internet Users
By 2005, 16% of the world population of 6.5 billion are using the Internet, 8% in the developing world, and 51% in the developed world. By 2010, 30% of the world's population of 6.9 billion are using the Internet, 21% in the developing world, and 67% in the developed world. By 2013, 39% of the world's population of 7.1 billion are using the Internet, 31% in the developing world, and 77% in the developed world -
Today, and into the Future
These days, the Internet is a world-wide network consisting of more than a billion people, all sharing their information. In the future, the next phase of the Digital Revolution will involve a fuller fusion of technology with the creative industries, such as media, fashion, music, entertainment, education, literature and the arts. In this new era, human entrepreneurs and innovators will supply the imagination, creativity, and the ability to think differently
