Computing History Part 3 :

Rise of the Internet, the World-wide Web,

Mobile Computing, 3D Graphics, Multimedia,

Dr AG Hamilton-Taylor,
UWI, Mona
material marked with * in slide title
is derived from Georgia Tech

Some of this material has been developed by Georgia Tech HCI faculty, and continues to
evolve. Contributors include Gregory Abowd, Jim Foley, Diane Gromala, Elizabeth Mynatt,
Jeff Pierce, Colin Potts, Chris Shaw, John Stasko, and Bruce Walker. This specific
presentation also borrows from James Landay and Jason Hong at UC Berkeley. Comments
directed to [email protected] are encouraged. Permission is granted to use with
acknowledgement for non-profit purposes.
1
The Evolution of Computing *

• Series of technological advances

lead to and are sometimes facilitated by a
• Series of paradigm shifts
that in turn are created by a
• Series of key people and events

2
Lewis Latimer: Inventor and Innovator
Watch https://youtu.be/vnehQD9NCrE
• Lewis Latimer, whose parents ran away from slavery, secured
his first patent in 1874 for the Water Closet, an improved
toilet system for railroad cars
• Latimer’s expertise in draftmanship meant that on 14th
February 1876 Bell’s telephone patent was filed just a few
hours earlier then Bell’s rival inventor Elisha Gray
• The first experiments with light bulbs (by Maxim and Edison)
would last only a few days.
• In 1881, Latimer and Joseph Nichols registered a patent for a
light bulb with a carbon filament which could last for months.
▪ Shortly afterwards, Latimer received another patent for ‘the process of
manufacturing carbons’ which was an improvement on the method for
the production of the carbon filaments in light bulbs.
3
Lewis Latimer: Inventor and Innovator:
Watch https://youtu.be/vnehQD9NCrE
• Latimer worked closely with Edison from 1884 as his chief
patent draftsman/writer, and international patent law expert.
▪ Edison encouraged Latimer to write his first book ‘Incandescent
Electric Lighting: A Practical Description of the Edison System’ to
explain how to wire buildings etc (have a look at it via this link!)
▪ The Edison Electric Light Company became General Electric (GE)
• In 1886 Latimer invented an early air conditioning unit seen
as the forerunner of the modern air conditioning unit
• In 1894, Latimer pursued a patent on a safety elevator that
prevented the riders from falling out and into the shaft
▪ An advocate of civil rights, in 1895 Lewis wrote a statement for the
National Conference of Colored Men on equality, security, opportunity
– His home is a museum in New York - https://youtu.be/Qh0hI9WMqOI
▪ Latimer played the violin and flute, painted, wrote plays and poetry
4
– https://invention.si.edu/innovative-lives-lewis-latimer-1848-1928-renaissance-man
Pardigm/Technology – 3D Graphics,
Interactive Multimedia, Videogames
Enabled by several technologies
• 3D Graphics
▪ Specialised hardware was developed
▪ 3D software libraries
• Videogame technology
• Interactive Multimedia
▪ Multimedia Authoring Tools
▪ Browser Plugins
– E.g. Macromedia Shockwave, Flash,
▪ HTML 5 added support for video etc
5
Paradigm Shift – Interactive
Graphical Simulators
• Ivan Sutherland joined Prof Evans at Univ of Utah to
found Evans and Sutherland in 1968 - in an abandoned
univ building
▪ A pioneer in the computer graphics industry, they
make
– Aircraft Flight Training Simulators,
– Ship training simulators
– Space simulators
– Training Simulations for the US Army
▪ Watch Evans & Sutherland history (5 min)
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHhYAUgY3S0

6
3D Graphics
Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI)
• Co-founded by Jim Clark, Marc Hannah, others
▪ Jim Clark formerly worked at Evans and Sutherland
▪ Watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8GmEIPq1Nc

7
Dr. Marc Hannah
• Hannah was SGI Chief Scientist & Vice President
▪ Hannah’s PhD thesis (Jim Clark was supervisor) was groundbreaking yet
simple - accessible at (optional) :
– https://web.stanford.edu/class/cs349g/Marc-Hannah-Thesis.pdf
• Dr. Marc Hannah: The Computer Scientist Who
Brought Worlds to Life (excellent interview)
▪ https://www.redhat.com/en/command-line-heroes/season-6/marc-hannah (optional)

8
 SGI
Computers
SGI Workstations
and SGI Servers
in 1997

9
3D Graphics
Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI)

• SGI Pioneered
▪ The 3D graphics workstation in 1984 –
– Sold US$1billion of them annually by 1993
• SGI computers and software
▪ enabled Pixar and others to create CG movies
– E.g. Jurassic Park, Titanic, Toy Story, Lord of the Rings, Star
Wars Episode 1, Twister – all used SGI computers...
• All Aboard To Jurassic Park Island | Extended Preview (optional)
▪ https://youtu.be/VzZN9AVBS1I
▪ enabled 3D advertisement industry for TV

10
 3D Graphics Research done by
Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI)
• SGI Geometry Engine hardware architecture was
designed to rapidly process
▪ 3D polygons,
▪ 3D graphical transformations,
▪ Lighting and shading of 3D polygons
• The SGI Geometry Engine hardware architecture is
still the industry standard
▪ used by Nvidia, Radeon, Intel graphics adapters for
computers
▪ and used in Nintendo, Playstation, Xbox game hardware

11
 3D Graphics Research done by
Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI)
• SGI researchers realised that all objects could
be depicted as a series of interconnected
polygons
▪ Specifically, a series of connected triangles can
make a wireframe of any object
– Even spheres, if the triangles are small enough
▪ These triangles could be shaded to make solid
objects
– SGI Developed the Graphics Language (GL) for efficient
processing of these triangles/polygons
12
 3D Graphics Research done by
Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI)
• SGI Developed the Graphics Language (GL) 3D
software architecture/library to allow efficient
programming to process
▪ 3D polygons,
▪ 3D graphical transformations
– Rotation, scaling and movement of 3D polygons
▪ Lighting and shading of 3D polygons
• SGI transformed GL into OpenGL, the 3D industry
open standard used often today in 3D software, VR,
games…, and even Alice…
13
 Gerald “Jerry” Lawson
• Designed First videogame cartridge console in 1976
▪ The Fairchild Channel F Video Entertainment Computer
▪ Watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ERyPjoEpzo
▪ Gerald Lawson also did first known 3D game
▪ Steve Wozniak learned some circuit design as an intern for Gerald Lawson at Fairchild

14
15
Gerald “Jerry” Lawson Speaks
• “I don’t play video games that often; I really
don’t,” he said in the 2009 interview. “First of
all, most of the games that are out now — I’m
appalled by them.” Most are concerned with
“shooting somebody and killing somebody,” he
said.
• “To me, a game should be something like
a skill you should develop — if you play
this game, you walk away with something
of value.”
▪ NY Times Article
16
▪ http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/14/technology/personaltech/14lawson.html
John Henry Thompson
(Jamaican parentage)
• Chief Scientist, Macromedia
(acquired by Adobe),
▪ 1987-2001
• Important Developer on teams for
▪ Shockwave – first popular web
animation system
– Forerunner of Flash
▪ Macromedia Director
▪ Lingo Scripting Language for Director
and XObjects
▪ VideoWorks – predecessor of Adobe
Premeire
• Developed software for MIT Media
Lab 17
John Henry Thompson
• http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/John_Thompson
http://www.johnhenrythompson.com/bio

18
Invention of the Internet
• Arpanet switches to TCP/IP in 1983 and
becomes the Internet
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLNZMyegB_s
• TCP/IP is an addition to packet switching
▪ TCP/IP makes it easier to
– interconnect networks of networks (Internet
Protocol – IP), and to
– adjust the speed of transmission and reception
(Transmission Control Protocol - TCP) between
various types/speeds of networks and between fast
servers and slow receiving computers
19
 Paradigm: Hypertext *
• Concept: Think of information not as linear flow of text
but as linked interconnected nodes
• Navigating Knowledge: Hypertext Pioneers
Watchhttps://youtu.be/hUHsmnWmI3k
• Vanevar Bush’s MEMEX gave
the idea in 1945
• Ted Nelson coined hypertext term in 1965
• Engelbart’s system did it in 1965
• Help systems and Apple’s Hypercard
programming system made it public in 80’s
• CD-based Encyclopaedias used in it the 1980’s and 90’s
• WWW in ’93 used hyperlinks for web pages, and made
it universal
20
 The World-Wide Web (WWW) *
• Watch Birth of WWW: https://youtu.be/_mNOXDbXr9c
• The Web’s Three Key Components
▪ URL = Uniform Resource Locator
▪ HTML = Hypertext Markup Language
▪ Browser (very basic version)
• Tim Berners-Lee invented them
▪ What problem motivated him to invent the WWW?
▪ How did it add the WWW layer on top of the internet?
▪ Watch https://youtu.be/z_W5EmgN754?t=1318 (to min 28)
– or https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0082dgz

21
Early Tim Berners-Lee Browser
(had limited features, hard to use)

See https://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/WorldWideWeb.html
 ViolaWWW - Notable early
browser

• Developed by Pei-Yuan Wei, in 1991/92 at UC

Berkeley as a personal project (while a student)
▪ Viola improved on Berner-Lee browser by adding
navigation back/forward buttons, history/bookmarks,
scripting (all influenced by Apple’s Hypercard), style
sheets that inspired CSS years later, embedded apps, and
more…
▪ Viola was used at CERN by Tim-Berners-Lee’s team, but it
was hard to install and only ran on Unix X-Windows.
– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ViolaWWW (optional)
▪ The head of the Software Section at NCSA at U.Illinois
saw ViolaWWW and encouraged his team to write Mosaic. 23
First popular web browsers *
Mosaic browser, Netscape browser,
developed at Univ. commercial rewrite of
Illinois NCSA - 1993 Mosaic - 1994

Mosaic was free, easy to install, easy to use, with versions for
the Mac, Windows and Unix X-Windows, with good help 24
 First commercial web browser -
Netscape, 1994
Inventing the browser: http://youtu.be/_L3Y2_YiT-A
James “Jim” Clark Marc Andreeson
• Financed and co-founded • Univ of Illinois grad
Netscape student, started team that
▪ (had started SGI before) wrote Mosaic browser,
co-founded Netscape

25
 Watch The True Story of the
Internet: Browser Wars
• Watch https://youtu.be/Gh6N1uPjGno or
https://youtu.be/pm74yIptsIc
• The invention of the first browser, Mosaic, at Univ
of Illinois Urbana-Champaign NCSA (National
Center for Supercomputing Applications) by Marc
Andreeson and other students
• How Jim Clark recruited the Mosaic team to write
the first commercial browser, Netscape
• How Netscape became the first browser most
people used, and made the WWW take off…
26
Watch The True Story of the
Internet: Browser Wars
• How Microsoft tried to force a buyout of Netscape
for next to nothing
• How Netscape started the new web industry
• How Microsoft wrote Internet Explorer and
threatened computer makers not to install
Netscape
• Netscape loses market share, goes out of
business (they made the code open source, and it
became the foundation of Firefox)
▪ Firefox’s fight for the future of the web
(optional)https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/nov/17/firef
ox-mozilla-fights-back-against-google-chrome-dominance-privacy-fears
 The Browser Wars –
Microsoft vs Netscape
• After Netscape makes the browser and the WWW
popular, Microsoft writes Internet Explorer and
starts giving it away
▪ The US govt concluded that Microsoft is trying to
put Netscape and other IT companies out of
business unfairly and took Microsoft to court
– http://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/cs201/p
rojects/corporate-monopolies/development_mic
rosoft.html (optional)

28
What happened in the court case
United States vs. Microsoft Corporation?

• US Govt takes Microsoft to court for acting as a

monopoly and illegally stifling competition in the
software industry (against Netscape and others)
▪ Bill Gates takes the stand and says ‘I don’t
recall’ about emails he sent, etc. so many
times that the judge starts to laugh
▪ Microsoft offers video evidence saying that
Windows 95 will slow down if Internet
Explorer is removed, but later admits that the
video was doctored
29
 What happened in the court case
United States vs. Microsoft Corporation?
• The US Court found Microsoft guilty of unfair/illegal
competition, and ordered Microsoft split into two
companies in June 2000:
▪ One company would make the Windows OS,
▪ The other company would make the Applications and
Internet Explorer browser
• But, GW Bush was elected president in Nov 2000
and an out of court settlement was done in 2001
with the Appeal court under his administration
▪ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft
(optional)
30
Can Philanthropy have Negative
influences on development?
• The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has
helped many worthy causes around the world.
▪ However, concerns have been raised about some
policies that they advocate for developing countries
▪ Watch Al Jazeera story - Gates Foundation accused of
exploiting its leverage in Africa
– https://youtu.be/QkY7vSmRWig
▪ Watch DW investigative report
– https://youtu.be/cwHzOOE2tNE?t=747 (to min 16)
– https://youtu.be/cwHzOOE2tNE?t=20 (first 3 minutes)
– https://youtu.be/cwHzOOE2tNE?t=266 (to min 7)
– https://youtu.be/cwHzOOE2tNE?t=1620 (to min 30)
– https://youtu.be/cwHzOOE2tNE?t=1964 (to end) 31
Can Philanthropy have Negative
influences on development?
• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation proposes
a scheme for measuring corruption in
(developing) countries:
▪ Bill Gates proposes WJP Rule of Law Index:
– Watch https://youtu.be/rggqkpIq_XM
• How philanthropy benefits the super-rich
▪ https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/s
ep/08/how-philanthropy-benefits-the-super-ri
ch (read first two pages)

32
 Valerie Thomas -
Physicist/Inventor,
Computer Scientist
• Invented a way to transmit 3D images, or
holograms.
▪ Watch her bio at https://youtu.be/Ipiireemmig
• Managed the development of early Landsat
satellite image processing software systems - –
at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center https://en.wikipedi
▪ She was the expert on Computer Compatible Tapes, a.org/wiki/Valerie_
or CCTs, that were used by NASA to store early Thomas
Landsat imagery.
• Landsat pioneered the use of satellite imagery
to monitor Earth’s natural resources, and is
used to track things like glacier recession,
deforestation rates, global crop monitoring etc. 33
34
Gladys West and the Invention
of GPS

100 Women: Gladys West - the 'hidden figure' of GPS

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-43812053
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladys_West
35
 Gladys West:
hidden figure who helped invent GPS

• Gladys West developed a detailed mathematical model

of the slightly irregular shape of the Earth
▪ Her Earth model became a building block for what would
become the GPS orbit.
▪ https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/nov/19/gladys-west
-the-hidden-figure-who-helped-invent-gps

• Her work led to modern GPS, which is so important for

road, land and sea navigation for transport, shipping,
businesses and personal use (even on cellphones)
▪ Gladys West became project manager for the Seasat radar
altimetry project circa 1979;
– The US Navy Seasat was the first satellite that could monitor the oceans.
36
 Gladys West and GPS
• Watch her work: https://youtu.be/Dg4_mqHXtfw and
&watch her bio at https://youtu.be/IVAw62L9MG8
• “…from the mid-1970s through the 1980s, using
complex algorithms to account for variations in
gravitational, tidal, and other forces that distort Earth’s
shape, she programmed an IBM 7030 “Stretch”
supercomputer to deliver increasingly refined
calculations for an extremely accurate geodetic Earth
model, a geoid, optimized for what ultimately became
the Global Positioning System (GPS) orbit

– Inducted into the USA Space and Missiles Pioneers Hall of Fame
▪ https://www.afspc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1707464/mathematician-in
37 ducted-into-space-and-missiles-pioneers-hall-of-fame/
Person-to-Person
Communications *
• Enabled by several technologies
▪ Ethernet and Internet TCP/IP protocol
▪ Personal computer
▪ Internet, telephone/cellular networks
• And by killer-app software
▪ Email, Web Browser, Chat, forums, social
media

38
 Innovator: Alan Kay *
• Xerox PARC researcher
▪ Former student of Ivan Sutherland
• Foundation work on Desktop GUI interface,
GUI overlapping windows, Smalltalk, other…
• Had idea for Dynabook in 1970’s –
▪ Tablet computer connected to global wireless
network, multimedia capable, with a personal
library for learning
▪ Dynabook was not implemented (technology did
not exist to make it then)
▪ http://www.edibleapple.com/2010/04/30/from-alan
-kays-dynabook-to-the-apple-ipad/ (optional) 39
Paradigm: Mobile Computing *

• Devices used in a
variety of contexts
• Employ sensors to
understand how user is
working with devices
• Wireless
communication
• PDAs, Cell Phones,
smartphones, Tablets,
smart watches, GPSs,
etc etc etc
40
Personal Digital Assistant(PDA)
forerunner of smartphone

• Apple Newton (1993-1998) – had messaging, email,

address book, calendar, drawing apps, ..
▪ Newton demo(up to min3) https://youtu.be/SQqQwauidKw
▪ Recognised handwriting, but early models had issues..
– There were earlier PDA’s but not with GUI’s, not as sophisticated41
 Dr. Donna Auguste
• Lead the software development
team for the Apple Newton PDA
• held four patents on the Newton PDA
▪ Intern at Xerox PARC
• Co-founded Freshwater Software,
Inc. and later sold it for US$147
million
▪ established a foundation, Leave a Little
Room, that provides housing, electricity
and vaccinations to poor and
underprivileged communities around
the world
42
 The Lasting Impact of the
Apple Newton
• The Newton was developed after Steve Jobs left
▪ Jobs cancelled the Newton project after he returned, but
aspects of it were incorporated into the iPhone and iPad
▪ Some of the Newton designers were called back to work
on the iPod, iPhone etc
• Apple formed a new company in partnership with
ARM of Britain to make the CPU for the Newton.
▪ ARM now makes over 90% of microprocessors for most smartphones,
▪ Apple’s new computers use the new M1 ARM CPU (faster then Intel…)
• Popular PDA’s like the Palm Pilot (and later on, some early
smartphones like Blackberry) adopted aspects of the Newton’s
GUI, OS and design
▪ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PalmPilot 43
What happened to Apple after
Steve Jobs Left in 1985?
• Apple developed a number of fairly successful
projects, including the color Mac (Mac II, etc)
▪ The Mac became a standard at US schools/universities,
for media companies, musicians, writers, etc who could
not understand DOS or even Windows
• The Mac had features we take for granted such
as automatic/easy installation of peripherals
▪ Windows later copied this with plug-and-play, which
was less reliable and was parodied as ‘plug-and-pray’
▪ With DOS and early Windows, you had to go through
an often long technical procedure to install peripherals
• But Mac prices were high, so PC’s dominated sales 44
 What did Steve Jobs do after he
Left Apple in 1985?
• He started a company called NeXT
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXT(optional)
▪ NeXT computer (1988) had excellent graphics, ethernet,
was high-speed, first rewriteable CD, CD-quality sound,
great looking design…
– It scared the computer industry, and everyone started adding
these features in PC’s
▪ NeXT OS was based on UNIX, had excellent software
development tools and security
– NeXT created Objective-C language based on Smalltalk and C
– the original/old Mac OS had no security features
▪ But the NeXT computer was expensive, so sales were low
– Aimed at Univ’s and Research Centres: cost $6500 to $10000
– NeXT ran into financial difficulties by 1993 45
NeXt Computer (Cube Model)

46
NeXt computer GUI

47
What happened to NeXT?
(The Return of Jobs to Apple)
• Watch Bloomberg Steve Jobs: Game Changers
▪ https://youtu.be/5fI3zz2cp3k?t=376 (Minute 6 to end)
▪ Apple Tribute : https://youtu.be/CeSAjK2CBEA
• Apple ran into problems, called Steve Jobs back and
bought NeXT for $400m in 1997,
▪ Steve Jobs became iCEO, and called in designers such as Jonny
Ive to design the first iMac. The iMac was the first of the series of
Apple “i products” such as the iPod, iPhone, and iPad
– NeXT hardware and software principles were incorporated into the
new iMacs, along with the new beautiful ”i product” design ideas
▪ The NeXT Operating System became the foundation of Mac OS X
and the subsequent iOS for iPhones/iPads,
▪ The NeXT language Objective-C is used up to now to develop for
iMacs, and also for the iPhones/iPads
48
The First Apple iMac’s

49
The Influence of Apple after
Steve Jobs returned
• The iPod and iTunes (launched 2001) changed the
design of MP3 players and design of music library
software,
▪ The iPod was much easier to use than the other MP3
players and was more stylish
▪ iTunes made it easy for users to organize music
collections and to purchase MP3’s
▪ More importantly, the iPod changed the music industry
because of the deal with major record companies and
small independent producers to sell music on iTunes.

50
 Apple changed the smartphone industry
and Launched the app industry
• The iPhone made smartphones easier to use
and defined the modern smartphone
▪ The first iPhone (2007) introduced larger color
screens, GPS, motion detection,
– Watch the original iPhone designers inside story
• https://youtu.be/xxBc1c3uAJw
– Watch iPhone Launch drama & the Impact of iPhone
• https://youtu.be/MM2WypS-iMY
▪ Apple’s app store (launched 2008) created a
global marketplace for low-cost phone software
– App development became a billion dollar industry
which allowed small developers to participate 51
Apple changed the smartphone industry
and Launched the app industry
• Within a few years after the iPhone launch,
companies like Blackberry, Nokia and Palm
basically went out of business
▪ Their products were good, but could not
compete with the new touch screen smartphone
▪ The market had moved on, and most people no
longer wanted the older phone technology

52
Google Android challenges the iPhone iOS
operating system
• Android was an independent company
started in 2003
▪ idea was to make an OS for cameras, then an
OS to compete with Windows mobile and others
• Google bought Android in 2005 and modified
it to compete with Blackberry
• When the iPhone was launched in 2007,
Google changed Android by 2008 to look like
the iPhone’s iOS operating system
53
 Google Android challenges the iPhone iOS
operating system
• Android is available to many phone
manufacturers, who can also customize it
▪ They also added an app (play) store, which
created another global market
• Android allowed Samsung, Huawei, LG and
others to focus on challenging Apple on the
hardware features (e.g. camera capabilities)
▪ These phones provided competition for Apple,
often at a lower cost for global users
▪ Android is now available on TV’s, in cars, etc
Windows Mobile/Phone
• Microsoft tried and tried and tried to get into
the hand-held and phone OS market
▪ First for hand-held PC’s from 2000 (Pocket PC)
▪ and later for phones (Pocket PC Phone 2003),
▪ And (several versions came and went)….
▪ And then Windows Phone 8.1
▪ And then Windows 10 Mobile, which is
scheduled to be discontinued by the end of
2019
▪ no version became seriously popular… 55
Rise of the Internet
The Virtual Revolution - BBC documentary
• Internet as platform for open expression?
• There are different opinions:
▪ One view is that it allows free expression and that is
was deliberately designed to do so
– The truth is that part of the reason that access is so open is
that the internet was designed to work even if part of its
infrastructure was damaged by war, etc
▪ Another view is that it allows hatemongers, criminals
and terrrorists international access
▪ Discusses potential for domination of a few
organisations and companies and countries on the
internet
▪ Discusses potential for inequality 56
 Invention of the World-Wide Web (WWW)
and its Significance to Knowledge, Commerce,
and Freedom of Expression

• The Dot Com Boom and Bust (optional)

▪ https://youtu.be/0GmDytHPA-w
• Digital Dark Age
▪ Learn how our fragile, rapidly obsolete systems of storing data could
lead to a digital dark age
▪ Watch https://youtu.be/PSlMzirvsFc
• The Virtual Revolution Episode 1 – BBC
▪ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eea61LpkCdg
▪ (optional) Rise of commercial internet, rise of music piracy:(36:00 –
43:00)
▪ Watch min 50 to 58: internet commerce versus open
platform and open expression
– Also the rise of monopolies in cyberspace
57
 Wikipedia and making
Encyclopaedia Open Source
• Wikipedia used WWW and ‘Wiki’ page editing
▪ Watch https://youtu.be/z_W5EmgN754?t=449 (to min 10)
– or https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0091gwn
• In the days of paper/book encyclopaedias, they were so
expensive that they employed company salespersons who
offered payment plans to buy them, spread out over years.
▪ Most people and even schools could not afford them
▪ You had to replace them to update them
▪ But they were generally edited by a panel of experts
▪ CD-ROM encyclopaedias became available in the 1990s,
were cheaper/updatable - replaced paper encyclopaedias
▪ Wikipedia put CD-ROM encyclopaedias out of business
58
Limitations/Critiques of
Wikipedia
• Wikipedia allows anyone to write an
article, which expands access to
information, but who guarantees or
oversees the accuracy of the articles?
▪ It should be the Wikipedia editors, but who
appoints the editors of the Wikipedia Articles?
▪ Who prevents self-appointed experts from
writing biased perspectives, e.g. on the
Caribbean, if the editors take their side?

59
Limitations/Critiques of
Wikipedia
• Are there articles on a particular subject
for different levels of readers or students,
▪ e.g. primary, high, university, researchers, the
public?
• In textbooks or the encyclopaedias of the
past, the level of the expected
readers/students would be taken into
consideration
▪ Just as you have separate dictionaries for
primary and high school and college
60
 ICANN - Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers (optional)
• ICANN is the governing body of the internet
▪ ICANN hosts the 13 root servers that keep a
master list of ALL internet servers and websites
– http://www.icann.org/en/about/welcome
– the BBC documentary and others suggest that there is
no governing body for the internet, but what they mean
is that the CONTENT of websites is NOT regulated by
ICANN
▪ ICANN was primarily controlled by the US. The
Obama administration made the governance of
ICANN more international.
61
Emmit McHenry

• ICANN regulates the registration of

website names, and, but does not deal
directly with the companies and the public
▪ The registration is done by Domain Registrars
• Emmit McHenry started the first
commercial Domain registry naming
company for the .com domain
• (but did not invent .com as some sites claim)
– Watch http://youtu.be/YH5_gEVbPJI
– and http://youtu.be/ZTC9G_Oyl2U (optional) 62
Current WWW
• W3 Org defines standards for the WWW
▪ (optional) http://www.w3.org/History.html and
https://www.w3.org/blog/news/archives/7972
• The Current WWW includes
▪ HTML5 – incorporates controls for video, etc
▪ CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) for better
formatting
▪ Javascript for code scripting and interactive
web pages
– https://www.w3.org/standards/ (optional) 63
Web Design (optional)

• Has expanded to become a publishing

platform, an interactive platform, etc
▪ Watch: overview of web design professions
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iVVM_DgWY
4

64
Paradigm: (CSCW)
Computer-Supported Collaborative Work

• CSCW means that Several persons can

work together on a document, project,
design ,etc
– CSCW is becoming a killer-app…
– Conferencing, shared white boards, etc
– Google docs is a good example of this,
and is becoming a killer app
replacement for microsoft office

65
 The First Search Engine:
Archie (1989)
• Invented by Barbadian Alan Emtage
▪ 2017 Internet Hall of Fame Inductee
– Watch first 6 min (rest optional) of
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP5wyUtuX9I
– Father of Search Engine: Alan Emtage
• https://youtu.be/G5KVjXtwRfw
▪ Designed and implemented Archie in 1989 while
a student and working as a systems administrator
– Within a year, half the internet traffic to Canada was going to the
innovator's machine.
– At its peak, there were over 30 Archie indexers reported,
searching millions of files. 66
 The First Search Engine:
Archie
▪ Archie was more advanced than the original
Yahoo,
▪ because it searched Archives (hence the name
Archie) of internet machines using an algorithm
▪ Yahoo used manually compiled results
– Today, the Search industry earns US$780 billion
dollars annually
– The Caribbean gets none of this money thus far

67
 Alan Emtage Went on to
• Create and chair several Working Groups at the
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF),
• IETF is part of W3C, the standard-setting body
for the WWW and HTML
▪ https://www.w3.org/Consortium/facts
• Emtage co-chaired the Uniform Resource
Identifier (URI) Working Group which created
and codified the standard for Uniform Resource
Locators (URLs) with Tim Berners-Lee, Marc
Andreessen, others
▪ http://www.mcgill.ca/aoc/greatest-mcgillians/alan-emtage
68
The Rise of the Search engine
Companies
• The early commercial search engines
included Yahoo – founded by Jerry Yang and
David Filo (1995),
▪ They used manual methods to compile search
results, and banner ads to earn revenue
• Note that
▪ many of these ideas were mentored by lecturers
and started on campus (esp at Stanford Univ)
▪ some of these ideas were not instant successes
69
 The Rise of the Search engine
Companies – Google (optional)
• Founders: Larry Page and Sergey Brinn.
▪ Watch to min of https://youtu.be/JttH-mSndFw?t=912
▪ How the Google search engine algorithm works and why
it beat the other early search engines (min 15 to)
▪ The search results from Google can vary between users
– it used to show the most popular pages first, but now…
– They don’t check the accuracy of the information!
▪ How Google copied Adwords and legal case settlement
– https://youtu.be/JttH-mSndFw?t=1569
– Watch How Google AdWords works
• https://youtu.be/xH4Tlnes3ew
▪ 60 Minutes story on concerns about Google’s dominance
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzJAzZmPQys&t=819s
70
 John Doerr on risks of venture
capital investing
• The risks that
1. members of the founding startup team might
leave before the startup becomes firmly
established.
2. the venture capitalist might not be able to find the
capital to invest in the startup.
3. the project attempted by the startup might not be
technically feasible.
4. the product created by the startup might not have
a market.
• Doerr is a venture capitalist with Kleiner Perkins in Silicon Valley, which
backed companies like
71
Netscape, Sun Microsystems, Amazon.com, Macromedia, and Google.
 Rise of CISCO -
Internet Routers (optional)
• Founders: Len Bosack & Sandy Lerner
• watch http://youtu.be/mhz24AR3nIc
▪ And first 3 min of https://youtu.be/16GJpLE2GlQ
• This video also looks at
▪ How they did self-financed entrepreneurship
▪ How venture capitalists and founders can fall out,
and the legal/ownership/management issues
▪ The investment from Sequoia Capital, which was
also one of the original investors in Apple, Oracle,
Google and others.. 72
Future challenges ahead for the
web

• BBC News - Internet 'father' Vincent Cerf

on future challenges ahead for the web
▪ https://www.bbc.com/news/av/technology-50
183326/internet-father-vint-cerf-on-future-ch
allenges-ahead-for-the-web

73
VOIP – Development of the Voice
over Internet Protocol (optional)
• Marian Croak, Main inventor of VOIP at AT&T
▪ Has Over 200 patents – Watch (optional)
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kUmEpBNWXQ
– This is the technology that has been used by telecoms and
by voice applications such as Skype, WhatsApp, etc.
▪ Now Vice President of Google
• Google's Marian Croak Aimed for the Top.
She Couldn't Escape Racism. Read:
▪ June 2020: Two years ago, Marian Croak was hiding
in her office at Google's YouTube offices, convinced
the police would enter and shoot her dead.
– https://www.morningstar.com/news/dow-jones/202006268738/googles-mari
an-croak-aimed-for-the-top-she-couldnt-escape-racism
74
Open Letter & Call to Action
from African-American PhDs
(optional)
• An Open Letter & Call to Action to the
Computing Community from Black in
Computing and Our Allies
▪ Read Letter of June 8, 2020 at
– https://blackincomputing.org/
▪ “We have experienced the structural and institutional
racism and bias that is integrated into society,
professional networks, expert communities, and
industries”…
▪ “We demand equal partnership with the institutions
of computing to achieve systemic fairness in our
field….” 75
Capital system in trouble?
(optional)
• Silicon Valley Bank broke. Silicon Valley is broken
▪ LA Times March 12 2023
▪ https://twitter.com/bcmerchant/status/1634969178531835904
– https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2023-03-12/column-silic
on-valley-bank-is-broken-because-silicon-valley-is-broken
▪ “There have been a lot of reckonings for Silicon Valley of late —
the falls from grace of once-mighty founders, the collapse of the
crypto industry and mass layoffs across the tech sector, to name
a few.”
▪ “But it’s the stunning failure of Silicon Valley Bank, the region’s
go-to regular old bank and one of the largest in the nation, that
should finally force us to reconsider — and reform — how our
tech industry operates”

76
WhatsApp (optional)

• WhatsApp Success Story| Biography

| Startup Stories
▪ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anpofTIR
tsI
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WhatsApp

77
Zoom rises in COVID-19 Pandemic
(optional)

• Everyone you know uses Zoom. That

wasn't the plan
• Story by Jon Sarlin, CNN Business
• Video by Jon Sarlin and Janelle Gonzalez,
CNN Business
• May 21, 2020
▪ https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/21/tech/zoo
m-founder-eric-yuan/index.html
78
Amazon Empire (optional)

• Amazon Empire: The Rise and Reign

of Jeff Bezos (full film) | FRONTLINE
▪ An inside look at how Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos
built one of the largest and most influential
economic forces in the world — and the cost
of Amazon’s convenience.
– First 4 minutes (optional)
– https://youtu.be/RVVfJVj5z8s

79
Cryptocurrency boom and bust
(optional)

• Hellscape: Inside The Meltdowns At

Twitter And FTX
▪ first 4 minutes of
https://youtu.be/PyRr8XsEkso
▪ HQ of FTX was in Bahamas…
– https://youtu.be/PyRr8XsEkso?t=700 (to min 15)

80
2022: Elon Musk buys Twitter
(optional)

• Hellscape: Inside The Meltdowns At

Twitter And FTX
▪ (optional)
https://youtu.be/PyRr8XsEkso?t=938 to min
17 and https://youtu.be/PyRr8XsEkso?t=1180
▪ https://youtu.be/PyRr8XsEkso?t=1205
▪ Twitter as a platform for ‘free speech’ ?
– https://youtu.be/PyRr8XsEkso?t=1483

81
Jack Ma and Alibaba (optional)

• How I Overcame Failure | Jack Ma |

馬雲/马云
▪ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SN9Kj8
SdgE
▪ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alibaba_Group

82
End of Part 3

83