Assorted Materials: Johnny Ryan

Archive for the ‘General’ 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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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”

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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

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Update on next book – on the history of the Net

Posted by: johnnyryan on: 23 December 2008

This is among the most interesting things I have done yet. In September 2009, I am due

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Choose a book title

Posted by: johnnyryan on: 10 August 2008

With my submission date to Reaktion Press still 13 months away

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About

I'm interested in 4 things: A) THE HISTORY OF THE INTERNET AND ITS LESSONS FOR THE FUTURE; B) Ireland’s Digital Competitiveness; c) the Political Impact of the Internet; D) How ideas - including violent political ideas - are communicated online.

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