Internet Technologies - Week of September 2, 1996

Schedule

Required Reading

  1. Rights & Responsibilities of Participants in Networked Communities, Dorothy E. Denning and Herbert S. Lin, eds., Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, National Research Council, National Academy Press, 1994.
    1. Executive Summary
    2. Chapter 1: The Nature of Electronic Networks
    3. Appendix A: Network Technologies
  2. Edward A. Cavazos and Gavino Morin, Cyberspace and the Law, Chapter 1: Defining Cyberspace.
  3. PBS Life on the Internet, The History of the Internet

Recommended Reading

  1. Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon, Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet, Simon & Schuster, 1996.
  2. Network Module Underground - GMU/CNE tutorials on network technology
  3. George Gilder, The Bandwidth Tidal Wave
  4. Ken Polsson, Chronology of Events in History of Microcomputers

Questions

  1. What are the key claims in the readings?
  2. The Internet is an outgrowth of ARPANET. When was ARPANET developed? What was its original purpose? When did it first go international?
  3. When did the number of Internet hosts pass 1,000? 10,000? 100,000? 1,000,000? 10,000,000?
  4. Who's in charge of the Internet?
  5. The Internet uses packet switching to route data over the network. What is packet switching?
  6. What is TCP/IP?
  7. What types of applications/tools can be used by two or more people to communicate over the Internet?
  8. What types of applications/tools can be used to access documents and other types of information on the Internet?
  9. In what ways does e-mail differ from postal mail? fax?
  10. In what ways does a web site differ from TV? a bookstore?