40 Years of Internet Messaging Started with LO
Maybe you saw that little news item about the 40th anniversary of the first Internet message. Actually, partial message. Someone in the fall of 1969 was trying to use the then-newborn network to access a remote computer, and started typing “login.” The letters L and O were transmitted, but at that point the remote computer crashed. Not the blue-screen-of-death … but the early-Internet equivalent.
So the first Internet message was, officially, LO. Two letters. Impressed? Well, then at least think of it as some Tweets and texts today.
But think about it. Think about what the Internet was in 1969 and what it is now. Actually, the Internet wasn’t much of anything for a quarter century between “LO” and the dawn of widespread online communication. Heck, even through most of the mid-1990s the Internet seemed to only muddle along before beginning to live up to its potential.
Two quick personal stories. When I entered college in the early 90s, I was the only one in my fraternity – 60-some guys – with my own computer. Everyone else used computer labs (remember those?) to “type” their paper and have it printed on the university’s giant dot-matrix printer (you paid extra for “real” paper). It is kind of remarkable to think of a college student not having a computer today … but at the time, it was cutting edge.
Anyway, in my second year of college, I was thrilled to be able to sign up for an e-mail address. I had to go through all sorts of processes to get one, but I thought of myself as cutting edge and getting an email account was pretty cool. The problem was that having an email address didn’t do me much good. Why? Well, because there wasn’t really anyone to write to. Of course, I wasn’t the first person to get an email address…just the first among my friends. So basically, that first foray into the Internet had to wait for a while. To be honest, I felt a little like the guy who owned the first telephone felt back in the 1880s. Very cool … but not very useful.
So for me, the Internet was at first… well … sort of a fad. Sure, I could also use the web too … but it was mainly a toy, cool, but unless you wanted to spend all day in chat rooms, nothing particularly useful.
Until my graduate thesis, that is (personal story # 2). The focus of my thesis was the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_Decency_Act). The CDA was basically the first attempt by Congress to regulate the Internet (seems like nothing changes) … and in particular, content, the definition of decency, and whether or not the “broadcasters” of Internet content (specifically ISPs) should be held liable for the distribution of certain kinds of content … similar to how television broadcasters are held liable (Note, the CDA was later declared partially unconstitutional).
For a policy geek with a technology bent, it was a great subject for a graduate thesis and really bonded big policy questions with my interest in technology issues. The challenge I faced was that there was simply no other place to do research on something regarding the Internet except for … the Internet. Not a radical concept today, but in the mid-90s, this was a big deal. Using the Internet to research the Internet seemed an academic no-no. Not cheating per se, but definitely not something that “serious” academics would do. Needless to say, this required some persuading of my graduate committee. Especially the one professor used to citations from dusty books at the library, not Internet-only sources … or sources like the online Time magazine
Anyway, on this 40th anniversary of the Internet, I’d like to hear your story about when the Internet stopped being a fad for you and became a tool for business or personal advancement. This may not apply to anyone under 30 (though of course, maybe your stories are when Facebook became embarrassing), who has known the Internet since their teens … but for you more seasoned techies, this could make for some interesting commentary.
As far as we’ve come in 40 years, there’s still so much more progress ahead. The Internet will only grow in its impact on our lives, in ways that we probably can’t imagine any more than the guy typing “login” could imagine in 1969.
-Steve
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