“Instead [the internet’s] protean identity is reproduced by a mix of fandom, community, commerce and business, linked by technologies that are both private and publicly owned and variously regulated. In other words the Internet came into existence as the rest of numerous factors, accidents, passions, collisions and tensions. ” (Lister et al, 2009, p.163)
Once upon a time… “numerous factors” included a US Defence agency and education institutions who used a network to communicate. It was so large, that the directory book of all the users’ addresses amounted to several pages…..
Images sourced from an original copy of the Arpanet Directory circa 1982. It was quite a thing to behold.
Reference:
Lister, M. … [et al.], (2009) “Chapter 3. Networks, users and economics” from Martin Lister … [et al.], New media: a critical introduction pp.163-236, London: Routledge
