3 ms·

Funny to see the BBC complaining about "letting the market forces" build the internet. The said market forces didn't do too bad.

by cm2187 4y ago

mizzao 4y ago
You mean the oligopoly of big tech?
- cm2187 4y ago
  If it was government controlled, it would be even less diverse. Think of the original AOL, but country wide.
  - throwaway787544 4y ago
tambourine_man 4y ago
Considering that ARPANET and CERN were both government funded, I’d say market forces had little to do with it.
- beardyw 4y ago
  Yes, it was a government initiative to create a decentralised network. Getting ready in 1994 was over 20 years late. Fun fact: Queen Elizabeth sent an email in 1976. Or more likely she pressed a button.
- fundad 4y ago
  Not to mention BBC
- HarHarVeryFunny 4y ago
  ARPANET was basically military and educational, and was pre-web. I remember using a 300 baud acoustic coupler to dial into a university computer c.1980; there really wasn't a whole lot you could do with it back then - just simple text-based stuff like telnet (remote login) and command-line based e-mail (SMTP) as well as FTP. Even things like IRC, Usenet, Archie, Gopher all came later. While the commercial internet, allowing companies and consumers to connect, grew out of ARPANET, it obviously was commercially funded, with backbones built out by the telecoms, etc. I think for most people today the term "internet" is essentially synonymous with "web" - stuff they can do in their browser, which of course came a lot later. HTML and HTTP were only invented c.1990, and this was the beginning of the internet as people today know it. Even then, a lot of people only saw the internet as filtered through AOL.
Bayart 4y ago
Without nationwide regulation to homogenize the network, it looks like it can be very perfectible (looking at the US).
tannhaeuser 4y ago
Err, for a while, they didn't. But soon enough new gatekeepers and middlemen (GAFA, Paypal) returned which not only had we hoped to get rid of, but even paid public money (ARPA, CERN, W3C) and established net neutrality legislation for, in vain.
jimbokun 4y ago
Didn't Europe, with their combined industry and government coordinated plan, leap frog US connection speeds, where things were left only to the market?

Funny to see the BBC complaining about "letting the market forces" build the internet. The said market forces didn't do too bad.

by cm2187 4y ago

Funny to see the BBC complaining about "letting the market forces" build the internet. The said market forces didn't do too bad.

mizzao 4y ago

You mean the oligopoly of big tech?

cm2187 4y ago
If it was government controlled, it would be even less diverse. Think of the original AOL, but country wide.
- throwaway787544 4y ago

tambourine_man 4y ago

Considering that ARPANET and CERN were both government funded, I’d say market forces had little to do with it.

beardyw 4y ago
Yes, it was a government initiative to create a decentralised network. Getting ready in 1994 was over 20 years late. Fun fact: Queen Elizabeth sent an email in 1976. Or more likely she pressed a button.
fundad 4y ago
Not to mention BBC
HarHarVeryFunny 4y ago
ARPANET was basically military and educational, and was pre-web. I remember using a 300 baud acoustic coupler to dial into a university computer c.1980; there really wasn't a whole lot you could do with it back then - just simple text-based stuff like telnet (remote login) and command-line based e-mail (SMTP) as well as FTP. Even things like IRC, Usenet, Archie, Gopher all came later. While the commercial internet, allowing companies and consumers to connect, grew out of ARPANET, it obviously was commercially funded, with backbones built out by the telecoms, etc. I think for most people today the term "internet" is essentially synonymous with "web" - stuff they can do in their browser, which of course came a lot later. HTML and HTTP were only invented c.1990, and this was the beginning of the internet as people today know it. Even then, a lot of people only saw the internet as filtered through AOL.

Bayart 4y ago

Without nationwide regulation to homogenize the network, it looks like it can be very perfectible (looking at the US).

tannhaeuser 4y ago

Err, for a while, they didn't. But soon enough new gatekeepers and middlemen (GAFA, Paypal) returned which not only had we hoped to get rid of, but even paid public money (ARPA, CERN, W3C) and established net neutrality legislation for, in vain.

jimbokun 4y ago

Didn't Europe, with their combined industry and government coordinated plan, leap frog US connection speeds, where things were left only to the market?