Archive for the ‘Next Book (the Development of the Net)’ Category
ICANN becomes Independent!
Posted by: johnnyryan on: 1 October 2009
Yesterday’s announcement from ICANN ends a lingering point of controversy surrounding the governance of the Internet: the United States’ continued control of the Internet’s Domain Name System (DNS). ICANN’s announcement of 30 September 2009 ends that controversy. A relevant snippet from the forthcoming book gives the background to ICANN, the controversy, and the importance of [...]
The Big Idea: the death of the center and the new centrifugal trend
Posted by: johnnyryan on: 21 September 2009
Now that it is complete, a clear narrative has emerged from the forthcoming book. The Internet, like many readers of the book itself, is a child of the industrial era. Long before digital communications, the steam engine, telegraph pole, and coalmine quickened the pace of the world. Industrialized commerce, communications and war spun the globe [...]
World of Warcraft, WTF?
Posted by: johnnyryan on: 5 September 2009
For the forthcoming book it was inevitable that I would look at World of Warcraft.
‘World of Warcraft’ is by any standard is the most popular computer game of all time. Since its release in 2005 it has built a steadily increasing following of loyal subscribers. 11.5 million people across the globe were paid subscribers as [...]
Al Gore and the Internet
Posted by: johnnyryan on: 23 August 2009
With the forthcoming book almost complete, there are one or two matters that I had to get to the bottom of. Foremost among them, Al Gore’s involvement in the development of the Internet, and the controversy that surrounded this question in the 2000 presidential election…
For a brief moment during the 2000 presidential election in the [...]
Civic Hacking (citizen activism online, and very 2.0)
Posted by: johnnyryan on: 18 August 2009
Researching two-way politics and online citizen activism in the US for the forthcoming book, I spoke to John Tauberer recently. Josh set up the website GovTrack.us, an “independent, nonpartisan website that started the “civic hacking” movement in the United States”. The site contains data on the status of legislation, voting records of senators and congressmen, [...]
New Audiences and the digital fourth wall
Posted by: johnnyryan on: 25 July 2009
Working on the forthcoming book. Here’s a teaser the changed media environment…
The theatres of the Elizabethan and Stuart eras were venues where ‘a thousand townsemen, gentlemen and whores, porters and serving–men together throng’. The decorum of the modern theatre did not apply. Heckles and sometimes projectiles came at the players from every direction. To the [...]
The origins of “smart casual”?
Posted by: johnnyryan on: 22 July 2009
Short teaser from the forthcoming book… The tailored suit has a long history. The coat, waistcoat, and breeches gradually became the gentleman’s mainstay from the English Restoration in the 1660s onward, when the elaborate dress common at European courts fell out of favor. Embroidery and silk died out from the middle of the 18th century [...]
The bubble… (eBay, Amazon, Netscape, Webvan, Pets.com…)
Posted by: johnnyryan on: 18 July 2009
Continuing from the earlier snippet about the Dot Com Collapse… this is a continuing piece from the forthcoming book. (feedback welcome)
The collapse had been foreseen by a shrewd few. In early December 1996, Alan Greenspan, the Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, attended a dinner in his honor at the American Enterprise Institute. After the [...]
Short note on the virulent growth of WWW + Internet, 1988-1997
Posted by: johnnyryan on: 15 July 2009
Some data from the book.
On 25 July 1994, the front cover of Time Magazine announced ‘the strange new world of the Internet’. The Internet was of course only new to those who had not known of it previously. What was new was the WWW, which put a user friendly face on the network. Also new [...]
Communities beyond geography: Phone phreakers
Posted by: johnnyryan on: 14 July 2009
More for the book… In 1957, a blind, five year old boy named Joe Engressia first realized that he could control the phone system and make long distance phone calls at no cost by whistling a specific pitch down the phone line. The AT&T phone network used twelve combinations of six audio tones as control [...]
1840s – Byron’s daughter becomes world’s first programmer
Posted by: johnnyryan on: 9 July 2009
(Not sure whether to include this in the book…) On 12 February 1812, Lord Byron, perhaps the most outrageous and disreputable of the English poets, took the floor at the House of Lords to begin his maiden speech. A bill had recently been introduced that would impose a death penalty in response to the Luddites, [...]
Newspaper circulation decline
Posted by: johnnyryan on: 28 June 2009
The decline in newspaper circulation is a topic I’ve begun to explore for the forthcoming book on the history of the Internet. In May 2009, the Newspaper Association of America issued figures revealing a 29.7% decline in US newspapers’ print advertising revenues in a single quarter at the beginning of 2009. This presumably is partly [...]
Quick note on ‘Openness’
Posted by: johnnyryan on: 23 June 2009
The word ‘Openness’ is attractive as the keystone of the book’s title. And yet it is controversial.
It may even be inaccurate. The ‘Open’ word as I am using it first came to me when I read interviews with Paul Baran in which he talked about two startling things: first, how RAND published his secret research because they believed it [...]
Interview with Tim Wu
Posted by: johnnyryan on: 12 June 2009
Tim Wu was speaking at the IIEA in Dublin on 25 May. I had a talk with him on the record about Theodore Vail, AT&T Bell, net neutrality, Internet regulation, Google and “the temptation of Goolge”, norms on the Internet, and the future of mobile networks.
Silicon Valley Landmark: Zott’s and the packet radio test
Posted by: johnnyryan on: 9 June 2009
San Francisco features disproportionately in the history of the digital age. Yet despite the historical coverage it receives, little attention has been given to one of its landmarks, a small wood paneled tavern known as “Zott’s” – officially named “The Alpine Inn”
Models of state research spending: Vannevar Bush v Mike Mansfield
Posted by: johnnyryan on: 6 June 2009
A new statement from Ireland’s Science Advisory Counsel calls for an exploration of how “Ireland can maximise the revenue potential of its investment in STI”. The Irish Science Advisory Counsel is composed of senior figures in industry and research including Sean Baker of IONA and Roger Whatmore of the Tyndall Institute. The question coming to [...]
Internet growth before WWW
Posted by: johnnyryan on: 5 June 2009
Some figures on Internet growth from 1981 to 1993. This is growth in the Internet before WWW.
Date—-Hosts
08/81—213
10/85—1,961
10/89—159,000
10/93—-2,056,000
The tulip, NASDAQ, and the dot-com crash
Posted by: johnnyryan on: 13 May 2009
I’m studying the dot-com crash for the book… (the image is the Pets.com sock puppet)
From 1634-1637 a wave of enthusiasm and investment swept the Dutch Republic, the object of which was the tulip. At home, the tulip was becoming an important element of Turkish court culture, to the extent that the Sultan of the Ottoman [...]
Innovation in the shadow of the Nuke
Posted by: johnnyryan on: 10 May 2009
Researching my forthcoming book on the history of the ‘Net, I’m investigating the nuclear context.
By the mid 1960s the Air Force had upgraded its early nuclear missiles to use solid-state propellants. The new solid-state weapons brought the launch time down from eight hours to a matter of minutes. Yet while US missiles were becoming easier [...]
The MP3, its origins, and its impact
Posted by: johnnyryan on: 27 April 2009
Continuing on the music theme for my forthcoming book, and the disruption caused by the Internet to established industries…
In 1996, the song ‘Until it sleeps’ by Metallica became the first track to be illegally copied from CD, encoded as an MP3, and made available on the Internet by a user operating under the nickname ‘NetFrack’. [...]
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- johnnyryan: Big Think: http://bigthink.com/
- johnnyryan: 2 months since finishing the book on the Internet, and I'm still not sure the word 'centrifugal' is right http://tinyurl.com/yecauls
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- johnnyryan: Time for me to heed my own advice re presentations... http://bit.ly/4bDzOI
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