The History Of The Internet (An Infographic)

There's a bit of a trend I've noticed lately where information is being shared in easy-to-understand infographics. They are sometimes a mix of the humorous and insightful along with a well laid out representation of information. I wasn't even born until 1976, so...

The following graphic is a timeline of the major milestones in the full History of the Internet. Some of this history I lived through and can recall, but much of it happened while I was a little oblivious.

[Source: OnlineMBA.com]

Found via Digg.

Wil Wheaton's keynote at Penny Arcade Expo [mp3]

I bookmarked this over a year ago, but I listened to it again today in full. I checked back through my stuff and realized that I've never linked to it anywhere. It's worth mentioning for all kinds of reasons, mostly for the video game nostalgia trip that you will have if you are over the age of 30. Most geeks our age will recognize the name of Wil Wheaton from his role as Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation as well as Gordie Lachance in the film Stand By Me (a.k.a.the best Stephen King movie ever!) as well as many other great roles. If you haven't seen him recently, he is still working and is active in the online community of bloggers and video gamers.

In 2007, he gave the keynote speech at the Penny Arcade Expo, a hugely successful fan-driven, industry-sponsored festival for tabletop, videogame, and PC gamers. He tells a series of biographical stories starting in his early youth and moving to his role as a parent. Honestly, it's the most topical speech on video games and what they mean to us today. If you have not already heard it, you must hear it now. Give yourself an hour and then hit play.

Wil Wheaton's keynote at Penny Arcade Expo 2007

The following video is only an excerpt of the speech intro but it's coupled with a few moments after the speech as Wil graciously meets with a fan. It encapsulates the reaction a little to see a fan shaking his hand.

Found via Delicious.

More Information

• Article on Stage Select
• Article on Macworld

Why We Know Less Than Ever About the World (Video)

I've become semi-obsessed with the TED conference videos lately, and I just have to share them when I see them.

View the video at TED | Talks | Alisa Miller. The first one of these that I saw on their site was Jeff Han's multi-touch interface. I want one. You will too.

WorldWideWeb - The Birth?

There has been a long historical debate on when the Internet first came about. The first thing you have to do to keep it very straight is to define the terms and whether the debate is talking about the first network, the "World Wide Web" or the larger Internet. Since so many people at all levels of expertise use these terms interchangeably --and their organic terms anyhow-- it can get difficult and confusing.

However, there was a moment on a usenet message board system where an expert in these matters named Tim Berners-Lee first outlined and proposed the WorldWideWeb as a project. Thanks largely to the fact that these mailing lists have been archived in many places, including Google Groups, we can go back and see the message as it was first posted, typos and all.

The WWW project merges the techniques of information retrieval and hypertext to make an easy but powerful global information system.

The project started with the philosophy that much academic information should be freely available to anyone. It aims to allow information sharing within internationally dispersed teams, and the dissemination of information by support groups.

Read the full message on WorldWideWeb Summary.