Was it really only 25 years ago.

will say this

protocols are established, before something goes into operation
often in the very early design stages
it is one of the first things done
it has too be done before 'the thing' DVD or internet, is created ,functioning, and public

I can not see, the date of the protocols, as Establishment of anything, except the concept, certainly NOT the implementation of public access internet

one side is arguing, about the tangible aspects of the implementation and use, the who and what

the other side is arguing about concepts protocols and when the ideas for it were first talked about

and there were different players on each side, which aided in this becoming real

and IMO 'real' is when it exists and is usable, not the 20yrs ?, that led up to it happening
yes with out those previous years it would not have happen
but those previous years are not the internet
arpanet was not the internet
it was the precursor in the USA, just as were dialup BBS,
it was putting everything on ONE electronic backbone, that made it the internet

Dutch_12078 wrote:
ARPANET didn't become known as the public Internet until Al Gore's "High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991" was signed by President George H. W. Bush and led to the creation of the National Information Infrastructure.

You say that as if it's true. It isn't.

See RFCs 675, 753, 759, 760, 766, 774, 777, etc., all referencing internet 10 years before Al's "invention." And if it's big-I Internet you're referring to, RFC901 (June 1984): "This RFC identifies the documents specifying the official protocols used in the Internet." And, it was all public (although primarily educational institutions), even if not commercial.

All of the foundational protocols for the Internet (IP, TCP, UDP, DNS, DHCP, FTP, SMTP, POP, RIP, OSPF, BGP, etc.) were well established long before 1991. Heck, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Internet (RFC 1118) was written in 1989.

mike-s wrote:

Dutch_12078 wrote:
And just to clarify the "Al Gore invented the Internet" nonsense, he never made that claim. His exact quote... was:

"During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."

You're seriously claiming that "invented the Internet" is significantly different than "took the initiative in creating the Internet" in colloquial meaning? Ha.

ARPANET, which was the start of what we now call the Internet, began in 1971 when Al Gore was in Divinity School. He didn't initiate the Internet, it existed long before he had any ability to do so. Sure, he later provided support for it as a Congressman, but that wasn't creation or initiative.

ARPANET didn't become known as the public Internet until Al Gore's "High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991" was signed by President George H. W. Bush and led to the creation of the National Information Infrastructure. The Internet as we know it today didn't exist until 1993. Look at it any you want to, but Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf see Al Gore's contributions to the Internet this way:

Al Gore was the first political leader to recognize the importance of the Internet and to promote and support its development.

No one person or even small group of persons exclusively “invented” the Internet. It is the result of many years of ongoing collaboration among people in government and the university community. But as the two people who designed the basic architecture and the core protocols that make the Internet work, we would like to acknowledge VP Gore’s contributions as a Congressman, Senator and as Vice President. No other elected official, to our knowledge, has made a greater contribution over a longer period of time.

And also from Kahn and Cerf:

As far back as the 1970s Congressman Gore promoted the idea of high-speed telecommunications as an engine for both economic growth and the improvement of our educational system. He was the first elected official to grasp the potential of computer communications to have a broader impact than just improving the conduct of science and scholarship [...] the Internet, as we know it today, was not deployed until 1993. When the Internet was still in the early stages of its deployment, Congressman Gore provided intellectual leadership by helping create the vision of the potential benefits of high speed computing and communication. As an example, he sponsored hearings on how advanced technologies might be put to use in areas like coordinating the response of government agencies to natural disasters and other crises.

And from Len Kleinrock (one of the ARPANET creators) would later credit both Gore and the "Gore Bill" as a critical moment in Internet history:

A second development occurred around this time, namely, then-Senator Al Gore, a strong and knowledgeable proponent of the Internet, promoted legislation that resulted in President George H.W Bush signing the High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991. This Act allocated $600 million for high performance computing and for the creation of the National Research and Education Network [13–14]. The NREN brought together industry, academia and government in a joint effort to accelerate the development and deployment of gigabit/sec networking.

I am not an Al Gore fan by any stretch, but I do believe in giving credit where it's due. As part a political campaign statement regarding his political accomplishments in comparison to his opponent, his statement is valid.

"What a long strange trip it's been!"

A LOT of people have been involved in the development of what we know today as the Internet. Many (most?) of us were just technology geeks fascinated by the evolving technology and could not foresee where it has gone. My own journey along this road started as an undergraduate student at UC Santa Barbara in 1969 where I was involved in connecting one of the four sites that was the prototype ARPANet. Anyone else have experience with the BBN IMPs? ARPA was funding research on multiple types of network technology and wanted to be able to combine them. The TCP/IP protocols that are the foundation of today's Internet were developed and implemented in the late 70's. In the 80's I attended many IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) conferences. These meetings is where a lot the Internet technology was hammered out. But it was Tim Berners-Lee's introduction of hyperlinks and the creation of the "World Wide Web" with the subsequent evolution of web browsers, that really made the technology accessible to everyone.

(now retired and spending way too much time online)

MrWizard wrote:
And just maybe it has to do with world wide web aka the internet aka public Access

The Web was Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in Switzerland. Commercial, public, Internet came about from private companies forming CIX, and the eventual transition away from NSFnet's no-commercial-use AUP. That was happening before Gore's principle contribution, the funding provided by his High-Performance Computing Act of 1991. Although that no doubt accelerated the transition to the modern commercial Internet, there was already enough interest and investment commercially that it was going to happen anyway. Those were the days of CompuServe, AOL, the Source, the Well, Fidonet, etc., and it was obvious everything would eventually move to an internet once the commercial restrictions were eased. Al Gore was an advocate, but it's overstated to claim he initiated or created the Internet.

Ah, the old days. My first computer that I connected to a network of any sort was a VIC-20, which was my second computer which I bought in 1981. If I had extra cash I could get access to Usenet message boards via compuserve, or go through a BBS system that involved a long distance call on an extremely slow modem. Fortunately, local BBS systems that didn't charge came around fairly quickly after that, and finally Q-link, which was much cheaper, although it only operated during the evening and night times. By then I had a big bad commodore 128. As I recall, you could download pictures even in the early 80's, they just took a long time and were gif format.

Other than quicker access, and posting updates, I'm not sure I'd say forum type internet communication has changed all that much in the last 35 years. I'm sure moderators on moderated forums might disagree however due to the much heavier usage.

This whole debate is typical of many debates here

But you have to take the statement in context, at the time it was made

And just maybe it has to do with world wide web aka the internet aka public Access

Not the creation of arpanet, but instead it's about the web as we know it
The conversion of arpanet into our part of the web

In the beginning, you had to type in a long strong of characters and numbers
To send and email or reach pages of data
There w was no www and no DNS, no website names
There creation of the internet as we know it was a big change

Dutch_12078 wrote:
And just to clarify the "Al Gore invented the Internet" nonsense, he never made that claim. His exact quote... was:

"During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."

You're seriously claiming that "invented the Internet" is significantly different than "took the initiative in creating the Internet" in colloquial meaning? Ha.

ARPANET, which was the start of what we now call the Internet, began in 1971 when Al Gore was in Divinity School. He didn't initiate the Internet, it existed long before he had any ability to do so. Sure, he later provided support for it as a Congressman, but that wasn't creation or initiative.

bucky wrote:

mike-s wrote:

bucky wrote:
It couldn't be any easier.

Yes, it could. For many forums, there's an upload link right in the forum software. Click the Image button, select a file, done.

Not here.

You conveniently left out the link in quoting me. Did you even look at it? It's been a clicky on here for years now. The pic only needs to be on your device.

WHOOSH. YOU posted a link. It is NOT a link provided by the forum software. It could be easier than having to remember or keep track of a link. Duh.

I just had a flashback to my Mosaic "Web Browser":B