Once More Into the Breach…

I have been addicted to the internet since I first started using it as a kid. My first experience with a computer came in the form of a dreaded typing class. I was not very good, and to this day, I still type with one finger at a time, instead of with my fingers in the correct typing position. This is a quirk that drives my father insane. At first, I didn’t like the computer. My failure with typing caused me to fear failure in every aspect of those pesky machines. Alas, it was not to be. Computers and I were to be involved in a love affair for the ages. My brother had gotten into a computer game called “Putt Putt Travels Through Time”. I played once and was instantly hooked. In college, my addiction only grew worse. I did homework, but mostly I surfed the web and read anything-and everything on the internet. I still remember those days traversing the darker side of youtube. Now I spend a lot of time on popular sites. I access the internet on my phone, computer, ipad and anywhere else I can. I see it as a useful resource. For how much I love the internet, however, I really know very little about it, and the rules and people that govern it. That is one of the topics that I hope we delve into in this History IT class.

I found an about the “unelected government” of the internet. It was a fascinating read. According to the article, there is one group that governs the way the internet will be structured in the 21st century, and it is not the U.S. governemet (who largely funded the internet), or the companies who physically own the wires of the internet- but a group of 275 member organizations from around the globe, comprised of organizations and non-profits and governments. This group is known as W3C, the World Wide Web Consortium. The group is private and based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. W3C is responsible for the majority of the policy-making concerning the internet. The article goes on to say that some critics are concerned that such a private group that reflects the ideas of one person should not control all of the decisions for how the internet should be formatted. The one person they are referring to is Tim Berners-Lee. I learned that he was responsible for helping create the World Wide Web at CERN, and furthermore is responsible for the creation of the URL (Universal Resource Locator).

I suppose I could understand why some people would be worried about what will happen to the internet with essentially one person guiding all the decisions concerning this seemingly living entity, it would make sense that a network made up of so many millions of components should have a large representative of people making decisions about how it should be controlled. But then again, that might be complete chaos. Either way, it was interesting to learn about this fascinating, recondite group of internet policy makers, and I hope we discover more about this in class.

~ by chriscaps on February 11, 2013 .