How The Web Was Won

How the Web Was Won

How did the Commercial Internet started anyway?

Prior to 1992, the "internet" was a network based on the DARPA network, and was used by universities and UNIX administrators - for research purposes only. Advertising was not allowed, this included mass-mailings, distribution lists, and abuse of usenet newsgroups. Discussions on usenet were often heated, but always uncensored.

In 1991, the Bush [I] administration decided to cut the funding for what had become known as the National Science Foundation (NSFnet), but agreed to fund links between the major nodes, to protect the DOD network from an increasing number of Windows users who were passing out trojans without knowing it.

A group of UNIX administrators, among them Carl Menges, decided that they would take on getting funded by the private sector. They approached local businesses and offered them support for what would later be called Open Source Software

forum/: Discussions of the Landmark Forum, where the whole Internet project started.
lec/: More Information about Landmark Education - Where it all started
hist/: Some of the earliest history
snp1/: Information about Standard & Poor's and McGraw-Hill's early web strategies

The Phantom of the Internet

outbox/: The musings of the "Phantom of the Internet"
sent/: More musings of the Phantom
Messages Sent in 1994/: Messages Sent in 1994 - This is a partial collection, starting from when I established my Digex account.
Messages Sent in 1995/: Messages Sent in 1995
1996/: Messages Sent in 1996
thanks/: Fan Mail for the Phantom

Early Pioneers

Parent Directory: Rex's Home Page
Epubs.html: Some of the earliest online Publications.
urls/: URLs from the earliest commercial Publishers
web/: Early notes about Web Browsers
webster/: Another pioneer web publisher
clips/: Clippings of Early Internet Coverage
census/: Tracking the net's early growth

But is there any PROFIT in the Internet?

economics/: Economic models for turning the Internet into a business.
ascap/: An A.S.C.A.P. or B.M.I. model for sharing royalties.
ads/: Strategies for Advertizing on the Web.
agencies/: Use of agencies.
New Century Network/: New Century Network, the first Internet Publisher's Syndicate
newshare/: Newsshare - another attempt at an ASCAP Royalty sharing model
clickshare/: A Company that used the ASCAP model
digests/: Digest of the Online-News mailing list
digicash/: Early Pioneers of Internet Commerce
ecash/: Another Pioneer of Internet Commerce

Who will actually USE the Internet?

How to reach 1 billion people

formats/: Why we use public formats instead of proprietary formats.
gender/: How to make the Internet appealing to Women. How will women use it?
handbook/: The Internet Handbook
hotflash/: One of the earliest versions of "PUSH" (via E-Mail), contains earliest press coverage of "The Web"
isdn/: High Speed access to the internet. Barriers, Costs, Solutions
isps/: Early independent Internet Services Providers - a startup guide
java/: A new language for the Internet
kismet/: Why be content with an olive, when you could have a whole olive grove
lists/: Some early internet mailing lists
locals/: Strategies for bringing local newspapers onto the internet
News Room 2000/: News Room 2000 - What would "News" look like in the 21st century predictions of 1994-5
others/: Other publishers on the internet
profilers/: Publish and Subscribe techniques

Rules of the Road - Internet Standards

publishers/: Some of the early publishers
servers/: Strategies for early entry Web Publishers
shareware/: The role of Public License Software on the Internet
standard/: Use of Standards on the Internet
stats/: Early Internet Statistics
subscribers/: How many people are there on the Internet anyway?
webtv/: Low Cost Web browsers - what is required?

Rex's Blog

Welcome to Open4Success

Open Source + Open Mind = Unlimited Abundance

E-mails from 1994