"Internet" or "internet"? Maybe it's also got something to do with novelty - I am sure I've seen a shift from people referring to "E-mail" towards "e-mail" and now just plain "email". In the same way I think the shift has probably happened from "Internet" to "internet" as it's now seen as commonplace and not worth capitalising. <cheeky grin> "Finally, by 1934, AT&T had become the government sanctioned monopoly and had become THE telephone network." You of course refer to "the telephone network in the USA". In other places, telephone networks took a different route. ;-) In the UK the the Post Office became the only provider of telephone services (with the exception of Hull Corporation and the States of Guernsey) in 1913. http://web.ukonline.co.uk/freshwater/histuk.htm </cheeky grin> regards Mark Mark Gaved Knowledge Media Institute The Open University Walton Hall Milton Keynes, UK MK7 6AA http://kmi.open.ac.uk/people/mark -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org on behalf of Robert Cannon Sent: Thu 3/29/2007 4:55 PM To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-l] Origin of the term "Internet" ? --- Sue Cranmer <sue@jcranmer.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
Interesting discussion. How do aiorlisters then see the comparison between the the 'Internet' or 'internet' and the 'telephone'?
That's a good question and I have wondered about that. http://www.cybertelecom.org/notes/att.htm The telephone was of course invented in 1876 by Elisha Gray of Oberlin. Too bad for Elisha that Alexander Graham Bell beat him to the patent office. Bell did not believe that he was inventing a "telephone"; he believe he was inventing a "voice telegraph." Now at this time there were multiple competing telegraph networks. "Telegraph" was not the name of one network; "Western Union" was. Likewise, with the invention of the telephone, there was competition between telephone networks. Western Union bought Edison's patent for a telephone and immediately opened a competing telephone network - until Bell sued. Bell did not have enough money to build a nationwide singular telephone network, so he licensed his technology and set up multiple local telephone companies known as Bell Operating Companies. Long distance was not immediately possible, so again, you had multiple "telephone" networks, not one with the name "Telephone." Then the Bell Patents expired and you immediately had competition from indies. By 1904 you have 5000+ independent telephone networks competing with the Bell networks. In one city you may have multiple telephone networks that competed but did not interconnect - so a business would have to have two or more phones to be reached by everyone. This was known as Dual Service. Finally, by 1934, AT&T had become the government sanctioned monopoly and had become THE telephone network. The point is that there is a significant difference in the evolution of telephone and the Internet. There were always multiple telephone (and telegraph) networks; there was no time where there was one telephone network named The Telephone network. There are also multiple computer networks with no one network called The Computer Network. But there is one The Internet. It has a birth on a specific date; it has a common addressing scheme (you either have an address and are reachable or your dont); and it has a consistent (changing but you can always draw a line around it) subscribership. It's a good question, comparing the telephone telegraph and the Internet. But I think the real comparison here is the telephone, telegraph, and computer networks. AT&T was one telephone network; The Internet is one computer network. B =~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~= Cybertelecom :: Federal Internet Law & Policy www.cybertelecom.org