A Brief History of Technology and the Birth of the Internet

The Internet as we know it today is an evolution of a DARPA network project which was known as ARPANET. ARPANET used a protocol known as X.25 to provide data connectivity between military installation and large research facilities worldwide. ARPANET was critical to government/military communications but impractical for widespread adoption because of these challenges:

• Hardware - In the 50s a computer was a big monstrosity that required lots of power, air conditioning and tender loving care.  They were comprised of thousands of vacuum tubes, essentially a single transistor, which resulted in the size and power used. Not to mention the fact they were enormously expensive to buy and maintain. So the connections were limited to US government research labs, military, big universities, and other allied foreign governments.
• Static routes - The first communications used over ARPANET were static in that there was a network address for each computer or node on the network and packets of information were directed by switching in much the same way a the phone system. This limited the number of nodes that could quickly communicate with each other.
• Software - Early use of computing required knowledge of the Unix operating system. In those days, email was pretty primitive requiring the use of command line editors. While Unix is still the most widely used operating system for big systems, it continues to require advanced computer software skills to use. 
• Investment – aside from the military and research there was no big demand for the Internet since there was very little content

Breakthroughs

Hardware

Through the 50’s and 60’s continued improvement and miniaturization in solid state technology, and improvements in integrated circuits or ‘chips’ sparked an explosion in innovation  and breakthroughs. In the 70's the first affordable computers came to the masses with Apple models I and II, Mark-8 Altari, IBM 5100,  Radio Shack's TRS80 and the Commodore 64 ; the home computer was born.

Networking

In the early 60s ARPANET included high profile research universities such as MIT and a few innovative companies who soon realized the existing setup was impractical. They developed various "languages" or protocols the computers used to communicate in but eventually the IP or internet protocol along with its sister protocol transmission control protocol (TCP) became the dominant way to encapsulate, route and deliver information from one computer to another.  .

The early 80s brought on great advances in internetworking. Ethernet emerged as the dominant local area network (LAN) standard, and Cisco introduced the first commercial multiprotocol router, and the IBM and Apple McIntosh home computers, things really started to take off. The computer had made huge leaps in functionality, and while still fairly expensive, offered the first truly affordable computing for the average home owner.

Software

Key to this success was the development of the Mac and Windows operating systems. These were the first graphical user interfaces (GUI) that provided non expert users that ability to interact with computers in a more logical and intuitive manner. Subsequent software programs like the word processor, spreadsheets and more importantly game software drove a software revolution that continues today.

Capitalism

The 80's also spawned the dot com revolution with hundreds of online companies and technology driven startups. More and more companies like AOL began to start internet service provider (ISP) services using analog modems gave consumers the world wide web (WWW) made up of  hypertext markup language (HTML) based "websites" providing everything from information to products.

In the 90s of course the dot com bust curbed the growth somewhat but the Internet continued to grow and evolve. The latest "jump" of the Internet came with widespread availability of broadband internet connectivity to the general public. No longer limited to slowness of the dial up modem, people could explore and even create content for the Web

Corporations got the picture and on line advertising took off. The cheapness and availability of webspace also allowed many independent marketers to develop online empire. Websites began to pop up literally overnight. Interest grew and more people began to check out the Net.

The New Century & Social Networking

Blogging actually started in the 90s but continued improvement and additional content on the internet left us empowered with a great way to make our voices heard. Essentially any person could now make their views and ideas known. Sites like MySpace and Facebook sprang up to allow the technically challenged and free and easy way to reconnect with friends and stay in touch with.

Youtube came on the scene and suddenly you have millions of video clips of people doing the most insane things imaginable. All these sites allow free exchange of information and creates an online community of friends and associates. The hustle and bustle has now found saving grace for our social lives as the Internet has taken place of the physical neighborhood.

Additionally the other great technical innovation of the 20^th century the venerable cell phone made the evolutionary jump to computer status and mobile computing was finally realized. Twitter and other crossover web services allow you to keep constants tabs on your friends and colleagues. The concept of Web 2.0 is closely tied to mobile computing and a new way using applications online and off.  

Well that in a nutshell is how we have gotten to the massiveness and complexity of what we know as the Internet. There is much more information already out there filled with details but for a good history along with information on pioneers of the internet please visit http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/brief.shtml .