BIG^(TM) : The Basic Internet Guide
A Sourcebook for Learning Web Essentials
in the School, the Home and the Office
by Andis Kaulins, J.D. Stanford University
Lecturer a.D. University of Trier, Author Langenscheidt Fachverlag
(in collaboration with Chris Loehr, Erlangen)
Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2004 by Andis Kaulins. All rights reserved.

PART 1
Essential Internet Knowledge

Chapter 1
The Origins of the Digital Revolution

Page 3 - First Mouse, Hypertext, 1st E-Mail, 1st BBS

Invention of the Computer Mouse and Hyptertext

In the 1960's, Doug Engelbart developed a prototype "oNLine System" which utilized "clickable text" (called hypertext, a term coined by Ted Nelson in 1965 for a method perhaps already invented by Vannevar Bush as Memex in 1945). In the process of developing this prototype, Engelbart invented the computer mouse in the process. In 1967 Andy van Dam and others created the Hypertext Editing System.⁶

ARPANET: 1st US Network: Forerunner to the Internet

ARPA, a packet-switching network, was followed in 1969 - for military research purposes - by ARPANET, the world's first decentralized computer "network".⁷ A few major research universities in America, such as UCLA and Stanford (later to become the home of Silicon Valley), joined this network, which served as the forerunner to the modern Internet.

International Network Expansion

This first system of computer networks grew steadily. In 1973, ARPANET expanded into the international sphere with the inclusion of the University College of London and Royal Radar of Norway.

Since Arpanet's activities now concentrated more and more on research, the United States created a separate network called MILnet for its military intelligence activities. Arpanet in turn became a network for the exchange of research information. This information exchange formed the backbone for the birth of the modern Internet.

The First E-mails and USENET

The first e-mail (e-mail = electronic mail) was sent in 1971 by Ray Tomlinson of BBN using the @-sign (and it stuck). In 1978, Ward Christensen and Randy Suess started the first BBS, the Computerized Bulletin Board System (CBBS), followed by the first small newsgroups at USENET, which today is formed of thousands of such newsgroups and millions of users around the world.

For a Continuation of the Book GO TO
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