Tell the group about your first-timer’s experience of going online on your own!

Some forty years ago, the RAND Corporation, America’s foremost Cold War think-tank, faced a strange strategic problem. America would need a command-and-control network, linked from city to city, state to state. RAND mulled over this puzzle in deep military secrecy, and arrived at a daring solution. The RAND proposal was made public in 1964. The principles were simple. All the nodes in the network would be equal in status to all other nodes, each node with its own authority to originate, pass, and receive messages. The messages themselves would be divided into packets. Each packet would wind its way through the network on an individual basis.

In fall 1969, the first such node was installed. By December 1969, there were four nodes on the infant network, which was named ARPANET, after its Pentagon sponsor (Advanced Research Projects Agency). Thanks to ARPANET, scientists and researchers could share one another’s computer facilities by long-distance. Researchers were using ARPANET to collaborate on projects, to trade notes on work, and eventually, to downright gossip and schmooze. Not only were they using ARPANET for person-to-person communication, but they were very enthusiastic about this particular service − far more enthusiastic than they were about long-distance computation.

It wasn’t long before the invention of the mailing-list, an ARPANET broadcasting technique in which an identical message could be sent automatically to large numbers of network subscribers. Interestingly, one of the first really big mailing-lists was "SF-Lovers," for science fiction fans. Discussing science fiction on the network was not work-related and was frowned upon by many ARPANET computer administrators, but this didn't stop it from happening.

As the ‘70s and ‘80s advanced, many very different social groups found themselves in possession of powerful computers. It was fairly easy to link these computers to the growing network-of-networks. Since the basic technology was decentralized and rather anarchic by its very nature, it was difficult to stop people from barging in and linking up somewhere-or-other. In point of fact, nobody wanted to stop them from joining this branching complex of networks, which came to be known as the "Internet."

Foreign computers, and a few American ones, chose to be denoted by their geographical locations. The others were grouped by the six basic Internet "domains": gov, mil, edu, com, org and net. Gov, Mil, and Edu denoted governmental, military and educational institutions, which were, of course, the pioneers. Com, however, stood for "commercial" institutions, which were soon bursting into the network like rodeo bulls, surrounded by a dust-cloud of eager nonprofit "orgs." (The "net" computers served as gateways between networks.)

The Internet is especially popular among scientists, and is probably the most important scientific instrument of the late twentieth century. The powerful, sophisticated access that it provides to specialized data and personal communication has sped up the pace of scientific research enormously.

Why do people want to be "on the Internet?" One of the main reasons is simple freedom. The Internet is a rare example of a true, modern, functional anarchy. There is no "Internet Inc." There are no official censors, no bosses, no board of directors, no stockholders. In principle, any node can speak as a peer to any other node.

The Internet's "anarchy" may seem strange or even unnatural, but it makes a certain deep and basic sense. It’s rather like the "anarchy" of the English language. Nobody rents English, and nobody owns English. As an English-speaking person, it's up to you to learn how to speak English properly and make whatever use you please of it. Though a lot of people earn their living from using and exploiting and teaching English, "English" as an institution is public property, a public good. Much the same goes for the Internet. Would English be improved if the "The English Language, Inc." had a board of directors and a chief executive officer, or a President and a Congress? There’d probably be a lot fewer new words in English, and a lot fewer new ideas. People on the Internet feel much the same way about their own institution. It’s an institution that resists institutionalization. The Internet belongs to everyone and no one.

Vocabulary work

Find in the text the words which have the following meaning:

1) to ponder, to consider; 2) venturesome decision; 3) component in a computer network; 4) gossip; 5) person, hiring a telephone line; 6) to connect; 7) zealous; 8) momentous tool; 9) highly developed and complex; 10) equal; 11) disorder, especially political; 12) withstand.

Translate the following sentences from the text into Russian:

1. Each packet would wind its way through the network on an individual basis. 2. Discussing science fiction on the network was not work-related and was frowned upon by many ARPANET computer administrators. 3. Many very different social groups found themselves in possession of powerful computers. 4. Since the basic technology was decentralized and rather anarchic by its very nature, it was difficult to stop people from barging and linking up somewhere-or-other. 5. Much the same goes for the Internet. 6. It's an institution that resists institutionalization.

Answer the questions:

1) How did the idea about setting up an entirely new network arise?

2) Who were the first users of ARPANET?

3) What was the first big mailing-list?

4) What happened in the ‘70s and ‘80s?

5) How can one explain what different domains stand for?

6) How can the intense attractiveness of the Internet be explained?

7) Is it possible to draw a parallel between the Internet and the English language?

Prepare a short summary of the text (1/3 of the original text)

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