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No. The internet was not a commercial enterprise, it was first and foremost a military enterprise, just like GPS.
by kibwen 7mo ago
No. The internet was not a commercial enterprise, it was first and foremost a military enterprise, just like GPS.
- JumpCrisscross 7mo ago> it was first and foremost a military enterprise, just like GPS This is sort of like arguing cutlery is a military enterprise. Like yes, that’s where knives came from. But that’s disconnected enough from modern design, governance and other fundamental concerns as to be irrelevant. The internet—and less ambiguously, the World Wide Web—are more commercial than military.
- kibwen 7mo agoThis is moving the goalposts. The commenter above is talking about the enthusiast-populated internet of the late 80s/early 90s, at which point it still wasn't even clear if it was legal to use the internet for commercial purposes. If all you mean to say is that the internet is currently commercialized, yes, that is obviously true, in much the same way that a disgusting ball of decomposing fungus may have once been an apple.
- JumpCrisscross 7mo ago> commenter above is talking about the enthusiast-populated internet of the late 80s/early 90s, at which point it still wasn't even clear if it was legal to use the internet for commercial purposes Source? Not doubting. But I have a friend who was buying airline tickets through CompuServe in the late 80s/early 90s.
- hn_acc1 7mo agoCompuserve was NOT the internet. Compuserve / Prodigy / GEnie were early versions of Facebook. They also inter-operated (email) for some period of time. IIRC.
- jasonfarnon 7mo agoAn important distinction, although I do remember AOL making a strong go at "branding" the internet by the late 90s.