Can I Paint You A Picture? Can you spare a moment? I want to paint you a picture. It won't take long and you might learn something as we go along. But I am not making any promises! It's about the web and the internet. First, I want to ask you a simple question. Do you have a clear concrete picture of the web or the internet in your mind? That is, can you picture it? Can you visualize it? Would you have any trouble explaining it to a group of small children? How would you describe it? How would you get them to picture it in their minds? We sit at a computer, we go online and we get stuff! It just pops up on the screen... do we need to know about servers, infrastructure, all that hardware...or how it really works? Is there any need to view the whole picture? The big picture? Let me give you some background on why I ask this question. There were several times in my life, which readily come to mind, when I was made to consider the big picture. First time, when I was taking driving lessons and the instructor kept repeating, make sure you get the big picture -- all the cars, all the intersections, what's ahead of you, what's behind you ... see the big picture. It made sense and it's very important when you're driving a vehicle -- you must see the whole picture. The second time I heard that expression was in an art class. The instructor kept saying don't get stuck on the small details -- you must see the big picture, the whole picture... the colors, lines, forms... the whole composition. It made sense and it's somewhat important if you want to create a masterpiece! Recently, as I was making a few changes with one of my websites... it suddenly occurred to me. Am I seeing the big picture, the whole picture when it comes to my website...the whole picture when it comes to the internet? I realized in this situation, I had not really examined the big picture at all. What makes up the internet, where it's been, where it's going? The big picture. The whole picture. A clear picture. Quick, ask yourself, what is the web? Can you picture it in your mind? Can you visualize it? Can you completely explain it to a small child so he or she would completely understand it? UUURRRR Time's up! Maybe, it would be helpful to paint a clear picture in your head. Help you visualize the web. To see the big picture. The internet had a specific beginning or inception. Everything has to be born! It all started with the time-sharing of IBM computers in the early 60's at universities such as Dartmouth and Berkeley in the States. People would share the same computer for their computing tasks. These activities led to J.C.R. Licklider and his ideas of interactive computing and a "Galactic Network". Ideas that would help form ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) and the internet was on it's way. If you would like to picture it -- perhaps, the internet was truly born with the first two computers were hooked up into a network. Picture this: in 1965 using a low speed dial-up telephone line, MIT researcher Lawrence G. Roberts working with Thomas Merrill, connected the TX-2 computer in Massachusetts to the Q-32 in California. All things considered, time-sharing, Licklider, Roberts, ARPANET --- with or without Al Gore's help; the internet is an American invention. But it has no borders and belongs to no one and everyone! In less than 25 years, it has expanded to millions if not billions of computers worldwide into one giant web or network. And a 'web' is more than an opt description - it's a complex web of wires and cables reaching around the world. Connecting it all together. The internet is roughly 35% english, 65% Non-english with the Chinese at 14%. Yet only 13% of world's population, 812 million are internet users as of Dec. '04. North America has the hightest concentration with 70% of the people using the internet. Now you have to place yourself into this massive picture -- where do you come in? If you have a website - visualize it as a minuscule little web in its own right. Picture your website as a concrete visual image. Picture your site not as a collection of files and pages but as a small web connected by links. Imagine a self contained, closed site; no links coming in or going out. Basically, this is the nucleus of every website ever created. We all start at this point. We can leave our website on a server or desktop and that's it -- it's finished. A private site that only you can access. Very few people create a website for this purpose. Nature of the beast - we obviously create a website to be a part of the internet or this other great big web that coils it's way to every nuck and cranny of this world. Picture it as a giant spider's web or collections of webs all connected, spread all over the earth and beyond. With billions of spiders (web pages) competing for your attention. This infrastructure, is ever expanding, extending it's reach, becoming more entangled...more crowded as it grows. Encompassing everything in it's wake. Can you picture a billion computers in your head? That's what the internet consists of...billions of computers. But it doesn't stop there, if you only think of it as computers and wires -- you're not getting the whole picture. There are a billion minds connected to those computers, controlling them, contributing, harvesting, feeding... ...our collective intelligence... wired to the world and beyond. Now picture the future -- the internet won't stop! It will go outward and inward. And as the web goes wireless, it will be everywhere -- even inside our bodies. Monitoring our health, keeping us alive... and of course, we must not forget all that information directly wired to our brain cells...ready for access! You didn't really think the web would limit itself to the outside world -- did you? If that 'whole picture' is too frightening, grotesque or arcane for you to imagine. Please, don't picture the Borg! But instead, picture Data! Better yet, picture all those Generic Einsteins walking around, interacting, creating, propelling... ...a whole new world. Let me paint you a picture! The whole picture. The big picture. Titus Hoskins |
