Happy Birthday 'INTERNET'

It is still considered young and a new media, but it turns 40 today. INTERNET, the networking technology that started from a small room by connecting two computer systems today connects billions around the globe despite the political boundaries governing the nations.

This middle-aged technology was created with the intentions to form an open network that could facilitate free exchange of information. But, it was never thought to have enveloped the human existence with social networking, blogging, tweeting, shopping or haven to the World Wide Web.

September 2, 1969, ARPANET, the forerunner of INTERNET was developed when two computers at University of California, Los Angeles were connected to share some useless data on an experimental military network by Len Kleinrock and his team at UCLA. And, today it stands as one of the most essential medium of communication that has become an inevitable part of human lives.

Later in 1970s Vint Cerf, often referred to as ‘father of internet’ built TCP/IP and email, crafted by Ray Tomlinson followed with multiple networks to connect.

Till 90s access to INTERNET was not an easy task, till Tim Berners-Lee formulated the Web, a part of INTERNET that made the task to connect resources spread across different locations an effortless activity. This followed the Dot com crash which represented the darker side of the INTERNET.

Despite these, overcoming the initial failures INTERNET has emerged out as a winner in every sphere. Even after 40 years of existence it has a wide scope for innovations and potential to grow which have never crossed a normal mind.

Growth is also accompanied by surfacing of cybercrimes – spam, phishing, hacking, denial of service, etc. Even though we expect INTERNET, the combatant to fight these rivals and breakthrough the barriers to rise and shine. Happy Birthday INTERNET!