Why is knowing about the internet, it's conception and its history important to today's web designer?
Today, one of the most successful examples of the benefits of sustained investment and commitment to research and development that I can think of is the Internet. The information infrastructure of the World Wide Web has revolutionized our world and the way in which we do everything, every single day of our lives!
Starting with packet switching during early research, the government, industry and academics worldwide have partnered in conceiving and enabling this fantastic technology.
As Lucy from the TV series "I Love Lucy" would say "You've got some 'Splaining to do". With that in mind I set out to do exactly that - explain why.
I really wanted to have a crazy, zany and fun look at all the reasons why a good web designer should know and understand at least a bit about how the internet came into being and how it works. As I researched for accuracy, the timeline the 'net was developed over and the important players I realized that it was far more than just a simple article, nor was it one I could really write tongue in cheek as I'd planned. Drat!
By this point I had far more bytes of information about the 'net on my hard drive than I really care to admit to, so I chose to forge ahead with my project. Writing the articles now will be a bit more serious than originally planned and have more components, but I'll try to keep injecting some humour all the way through them as history has a way of going dry on you.
However we will all arrive at the same end result which is a full and complete explanation of why web designers should know where the internet came from and how it came about in order to be better designers! You'll also have a very good understanding of the internet by the time we're through, that is if you read all of it.
By now, you're probably wondering why I said that web designers should know some of the history behind the internet in order to become a more complete designer, competent in all areas of web work. Well, if you'll follow along you'll see why a good designer understands, reads and writes what is known as hyper text markup language or HTML. This is the basic language of every website in existence and any good designer will know it as easily as you or I read a newspaper!
Now, let's get started and find out how the Web was won...
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