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Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press to circulate books, including the Bible. He did this in the hopes of spreading knowledge to those who previously couldn't afford to buy handwritten text. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Johannes-Gutenberg -
Charles Babbage advances computer technology by designing the first programmable Mechanical Computer.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py4S4JKnmZc[(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py4S4JKnmZc) -
Ada Lovelace becomes the first notable computer programmer, making advancements in the field of computer science that were not yet seen before her time.
https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/ada-lovelace-the-first-tech-visionary -
Melvil Dewey creates the Dewey Decimal System, a classification system used to organize books. It is a precursor to the modern day internet in the way that it made finding and organizing information more efficient. You can find more info here -
Paul Octet and Henri LaFontaine developed the Universal Decimal System in an attempt to gather and organize "the world's information" and share it internationally with others. Octet's vision of being able to read with the use of screens and keyboards was foreshadowing to the way we share information now. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henri-La-Fontaine
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Paul-Otlet -
Vannevar Bush creates the Differential Analyzer, a machine the size of a room that was made to analyze different equations.
https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/the-rise-and-fall-of-vannevar-bush -
Alan Turing designed the first electronic digital computer
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/obituaries/alan-turing-overlooked.html -
Inventor George Devol made the very first digitally operated and programmed robot named Unimate and put him to work in a New Jersey assembly line.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/george-c-devol-99-self-taught-tinkerer-who-invented-robotic-arm/2011/08/17/gIQA0Ed5LJ_story.html -
Larry Roberts and Thomas Merrill connect computers from California to Massachusetts with a dial-up telephone line.
https://theconversation.com/how-the-internet-was-born-from-the-arpanet-to-the-internet-68072 -
Ray Tomlinson sent the first email and made the @ symbol the universal electronic locater sign -
The first desktop computer is introduced by IBM and Hewlett-Packard. Their main purpose was for scientific research rather than social communication.
https://www.computerhistory.org/brochures/g-i/hewlettpackard-company-hp/ -
Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis developed Usenet, a decentralized site that had a similar purpose to Reddit today. Users would connect with each other through text based conversations about specific topics of interest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qFAGE8d55k -
Michigan network MERIT brings up the possible commercial appeal of the internet to the National Science Foundation, introducing the idea of internet access for the general public -
CERN, the European organization for nuclear research, decentralized the internet and made it free and accessible to everyone. https://www.britannica.com/topic/CERN -
Mosaic, a web browser that was more graphic and easy to use than its predecessor Gopher, becomes a popular way to surf the net but was quickly replaced by Netscape Navigator. This rapid change shows the mercurial nature of internet developments in the 90's. -
This law mandated that all US classrooms, libraries, and hospitals be connected through the internet, thus causing a boom in the use of the web in public spaces.
https://www.fcc.gov/general/telecommunications-act-1996 -
Google launched and set itself apart from other search engines by showing search results in an order based on relevance rather than the presence of the searched term. -
A new law is introduced to regulate the use of copyrighted material on the internet in the US.
https://www.ala.org/advocacy/copyright/dmca -
Google introduces finding search results through an algorithm, which is a set of complex, rule based formulas that come together to show the user the best information for their query.
https://computer.howstuffworks.com/google-algorithm.htm -
The internet as we know it today is tool for education and connection through social media. Thanks to the technological advances of computer scientists from the past, most people around the world have access to the World Wide Web.