The Electronic Revolution Essay Research Paper THE

The Electronic Revolution Essay, Research Paper

THE ELECTRONIC REVOLUTION

We are all aware of the first and second industrial revolutions as described in our Text: “Technology and American Society,” and how they have influenced our lives

and cultures today. This material has been presented in a limited amount so we may

have an understanding of the major technological transformations of the last three

centuries and the causes and effects of technological change. 1

I will present in this paper a limited view of a subject not covered or classified,

which (if not already) has affected our lives. Even though the Electronic Revolution is a

broad statement in itself, and may have different meanings to many people, I will

concentrate on one aspect of this Electronic Revolution; “The World Wide Web.”

But what is the World Wide Web. Where did it come from, and why is it so

popular and so potentially important. Is it a system of both communications and

publication. How does it work, what effect does it have on our lives, and what can we

expect in its future. These are the questions I will attempt to answer.

The Industrial Revolution dominated the economy. Half of the population

contributed to the manufacturing of man-made goods. The enactment of the Patent

Law of 1790, the improvements with our infrastructure, and the availability of a vast

array of natural resources entered us into the modern era of the factory, and rapid

technological change.

The Second Industrial Revolution was of course related to the first except for it’s

growth, which was even faster. Major developments with the internal combustion

engine, electricity, chemicals, continued improvements of transportation and the

organized research lab propelled us into the Twentieth Century.

The Electronic Revolution, related to both revolutions has produced

technological changes even more rapidly than the first two. Major developments with

metallurgy, solar and nuclear power, circuit boards, microprocessors, and the

establishment of the “Information Highway” will beam us into the Twenty First Century.

Technological change is often dependent on existing needs, and does not

emerge all at once. That the rate and amount of technological changes are influenced

by outside sources other than the specific technology at hand. One of these outside

influences is our political climate, and how the laws of government can have an impact

on the rate, amount, type, and by whom technology is developed.

The Clinton administration, shortly after Bill’s inaugural address, had paved the

way for a specific technology to advance at a high rate of speed. By vowing the

government’s commitment via dedicating funds for research and development,

instituting certain corporate tax breaks, and creating the National Technical Information

Service (NTIS) 2, to support his much-hyped information superhighway (or, more

properly, Global Information Infrastructure).

Thus “The World Wide Web.” The World Wide Web is among the most rapidly

adopted technological entities of a century that has seen many changes, and

understanding it might be crucial for understanding the next century.

The World Wide Web dates back to March of 1989. In that month, Tim Berners-

Lee of Geneva’s European Particle Physics Laboratory constructed a proposal to

develop a “hypertext system” for the purpose of enabling efficient and easy information

sharing throughout the world’s researchers in the field of High Energy Physics. 3

The basic proposal consisted of these components:

¨ A consistent user interface. (Availability)

¨ The ability to incorporate a wide range of technologies and document types.

¨ A “universal readership”; that is, anyone on the network, on a different computer, could read the same document as anyone else, and could do so easily. (Standardization)

This idea would allow collaborative researchers to present their research,

complete with texts, graphics, illustrations, and ultimately sound, video, and other

means as required.

October 1990: almost a year later, the project was presented again with some

minor changes. Two months later the project began to take shape. Work began on the

first “line browser” for the World Wide Web (WWW or Web), and by the end of 1990 this

browser and a browser for the “NeXTStep operating system were well on the way.” 3

March 1991: now two years later after the original proposal, the first WWW

browser saw limited network use, and two months later, the WWW browser was

extensively in use at Geneva’s European Particle Physics Laboratories, and the Web

was off and running.

By October 1991: merely ten months after starting work on the project, seminars,

workshops and newsgroup announcements were held about the Web. In addition, this

brought the installation of the gateway for Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS)

searches (Now known as WAISgate, a

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