The Internet and the World Wide Web - Essay Example

The Internet and the World Wide Web Name: Student number: 12 December 2009 Introduction 3 A brief history 3 The differences between the Internet and the Web 4 Conclusion 5 Reference list 6 Introduction People have often erroneously referred to the term World Wide Web to mean the Internet or vice versa. The two terms, however, mean different things (Jessup & Valacich 2007). In fact, both their history and concept differ. This report examines the Internet and the World Wide Web and provides a brief history of the two technologies before providing a discussion of the differences between the Internet and the World Wide Web. A brief history The history of the Internet goes back in the 1950s during when a researcher in a university located in Pittsburgh utilized a particular computer networking technique to connect with other researchers in Illinois. The bulk of the Internet history, however, is on various research works that looked into the principles and concepts of networking among networks located at different physical location. These works included Paul Baran and Donald Davis independent studies that recommended packet switching technology, and the Leornard Kleinrock 1962 idea of packet-based networks as well as his 1970 concept of hierarchical routing (Hafner & Lyon 2000). These developments were instrumental in development of the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), which in its initial stages linked only two nodes. Robert Taylor, J.C.R Licklider, and Larry Rober were all instrumental in its creation. J.C.R Licklider had envisioned a global and conveyed his ideas through his 1960 document called Man-Computer Symbiosis (Levine, Baroudi & Young 2002). As more networks were developed, the Internet Protocol (IP) and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP/) specifications were developed, and in 1978 the TCP/IP emerged. It was approved as the protocol for use in ARPANET. The term “internet” was initially used in the initial TCP specifications when Vinton Cerf referred to “internetworking” (Cerf, Dalal and Sunshine). A network built in 1985 became available for commercial use in 1988, and several networks became interconnected to expand the Internet. In 1990, the Internet became popular when the World Wide Web was created. Thus, the history of the World Wide Web is far much more recent than that of the Internet. The history of the world wide web can be traced back in March 1989 when Tim Berners-Lee wrote a document to the Geneva-based European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) proposing the creation of an ornate information management system characterised by a huge “hypertext database with typed links” (Bernes-Lee 1989). Earlier, in 1980, Berners-Lee had created a private database called Enquire that allowed a page of information to link to other pages. Although Tim’s proposal did not get much attention of the CERN executives (Gillies & Cailliau 2000, p.10), Robert Cailliau – a Belgium computer scientist – joined him to work on a proposal that would develop the World Wide Web. Thus, they proposed utilizing “hypertext” as a means of linking and accessing information store in “servers” through a “browser” in a client-server set up (Berners-Lee and Cailliau). By the end of 1990, Tim had created all the tools required for the web to operate. These includes the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), hypertext markup language (html), a web browser, and a HTTP server program, and a web server as well as web pages of his project to run on the web (Gillies & Cailliau 2000, p.20). In 1991, the web became open for public use. Since then, the web and its tools have developed tremendously. The differences between the Internet and the Web The difference between the Internet and the world wide start with their history. The concept of the Internet was around by 1969 when the United States launched the initial ARPANET network (Levine, Baroudi & Young 2002, p.52). The Internet was thus born around this time and more computers started to have access to the expanding network. Conversely, the concept of the world wide was born much later. It started with Tim Bernes-Lee idea in 1990 when he came up with a concept that developed into the web, and develop tools such as the HTTP to support it. The Internet and the World Wide Web are distinguished further by their concept. The Internet represents the huge interconnection of computers and computer networks around the globe. It is an infrastructure that allows inter-linkage of computers on a global scale (Jessup & Valacich 2007). On the other hand, the World Wide Web represents an application with the Internet that allows a network of hypertext documents on a global scale (Rathbone 2001; Gillies & Cailliau 2000). The World Wide Web is a sub-network of the Internet. It can be described as a service that is communicated through the Internet. A main point of distinction is in the access of the Internet and the web. The web requires the HTTP protocol which is not necessarily while accessing the Internet. In fact, it is important to note that the Internet supports other protocols such as the SMTP, POP, IM, etcetera to access other sub-networks or applications. The web also requires the use of a browser to access it, which is not so with the Internet. It is the Internet platform that allows the use of all these tools and applications, and it would not be possible to have the World Wide Web with the Internet. Another difference is that the web also relies on servers to store the hypertext documents and uses URLs and hyperlinks to allow retrieval. In summary, the Internet can exist without the web, but the web cannot exist with the Internet. The two technologies, however, share some similarities. Both the Internet and the World Wide Web are universal and vast, and are embraced by millions of people, several countries and many corporations. Furthermore, the two networks are so intertwined that it is almost unthinkable to talk of the Internet without considering the World Wide Web. It is important, however, to distinguish the two as separate technologies. Conclusion This report has examined the concept and history of the Internet and the World Wide Web, and identified the differences of the two technologies. The Internet is a global network of computers, while the World Wide Web is a network of hypertext documents that are accessed using the HTTP protocol. The web, thus, runs on top of the Internet framework and is only an application on the Internet. The Internet supports other applications like emails. Nonetheless, both are large networks and spans over the whole world. Reference list Bernes-Lee, T 1989, Information Management: A Proposal. Web. 13 December 2009. . Cerf, V, Dalal, Y & Sunshine, C 1974, Specification of Internet Transmission Control Program, RFC 675. Gillies, J & Cailliau, R 2000, How the Web was born: the story of the World Wide Web. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hafner, Katie & Lyon Matthew 2000, Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet. Simon & Schuster, New York Jessup, L & Valacich, J 2007, Information systems today: managing in the digital world, 3rd edn, Pearson Education. Levine, JR, Baroudi, C & Young ML 2002, The Internet for dummies, Hungry Minds, United States. Rathbone, A 2001, Windows XP for dummies. John Wiley & Sons, New Jersey. Wardrip-Fruin, N & Montfort, N 2003, The new media reader. 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