There is an excellent article by Cameron Chapman ‘The History of the Internet in a Nutshell’ http://sixrevisions.com/res Had me reflecting on my own experience. I’m so old I remember filling in cards with a HB pencil then waiting anxiously overnight to see if my PL1 or FORTRAN IV scratchings were correct. One mistake and it was back to the pencil again!
I then recall my late wife talking about how she was corresponding with colleagues back in the US of A using her university computer. Didnt think much of it at the time. I then had the pleasure of using an IBM intranet system that required programming skills and which gave real meaning to the work ‘cluncky’ Many managers would wait anxiously by their machine each morning to receive the daily prognostications from the big boss. Ho hum.
I still recall running a rather large education department when, in 1995, I still had no reason to have a computer on my desk or so the IT manager said. At the time we were struggling with setting up an executive information system. I think they are still looking for one! In the good ol nineties we used our Commodores, a phone and sometimes a fax to deliver distance education. Worked pretty well I thought at the time. In that era I was a board member of the now defunct Open Learning Technology Corporation, the forerunner of education.au limited. At the OLTC we had long discussions about ‘connecting up’ education systems across the country. Yet 15 years later its still not possible due to firewalls!!
In 1996 I did some consulting for the UK government and bumped into a group of education people at Cambridge who showed me this email thing. I found the whole experience both intimidating and exciting at the same time.
In 1999 I had my first internet system paralleling an old intranet. Thank heavens for Y2K!
In 2002 I had, sadly, to sack someone for inappropriate use of the internet. In 2007 we hosted an Australian workshop series by Jimmy Wales the inventor of Wikipedia. I rate Wikipedia and search engines like Google as some of the most extraordinary, and important world events of my lifetime. Last year I met Tim Berners-Lee whose vision for the world wide web remains both exciting and undiminished. If only governments would free up their data and get out of the way!
Now one of my biggest challenges is controlling my email and my propensity to look at it all the time. I think its an addiction.
What’s next? Bring on artificial intelligence, we need someone or something to do the HB pencil stuff and read all those emails, postings, twits……..
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