Browsing: New Virtual Water Sport
Internet Timeline 1945 Presidential Science Adviser Vannevar Hush proposes MEMEX, .1 iomepiii.il machine thai stores
I
n its early days, which for our purposes means a couple of years ago, "surfing the Net" could be as fearsome as it was alluring. A good deal of computer knowledge was necessary in order to use a Gopher, the University of Minnesota's menu-driven information service, or the Veronica tool for searching the data bases. Mastering file transfer protocol, or ftp, required considerable skill, and the downloaded text-only files often ended u p going to some unknown corner of cyberspace never to b e seen again.
The Web changed all that. "The Web and a lot of the tools that have been written over the past couple of years have done a phenomenal job of hiding a lot of what w e used to call the savage interface from the user," Mealling says. Although many users freely interchange the terms, the World-Wide Web and the Internet are not the same thing. Internet refers to the countless computers and networks and the cables connecting them: It's hardware. The Web refers to what EIT's Hughes calls "a body of information—an abstract space of knowledge."
information and allows users to create links to related texts and illustrations.
1956 Soviet I nion launches Sputnik; in response the limed stales creates the Advanced Research Projecl Agencj (ARPA) in the Defense Department
Connected to Tech The Institute and Alumni Association are on-line.
T
here's a new oft ramp on the
Information Superhighway, and it
leads to Georgia Tech. Both the Insli lute and the Alumni Association now have home pages'' on the World Wide Web. By accessing the- association's home page through the internet, alumni can gain "immediate access to the Alumni Assoc ta lion and Georgia Tech." says Bennett
to establish a U.S.
Gaston, information systems coordinator,
lead in military
Working with student assistant l.ance Dooly, Gaston set up the Alumni Associa lion Web page to Improve services lor members. A lot of the services that we had to do by telephone t >r la\ can now he dime on the Internet, such as address changes," Gaston sacs, "Alumni can just connect to the home page' and fill out a change of address lot in. "They will also be' able to order met chandise from us electronically." In addition, the Web page will pic icicle such sere ices us sports schedules and times and places of Georgia Tech club meetings. future plans call for creating an electronic membership directory in database formal that can be scare heel. Current editions of
technology.
1962 RANDs Haul Ma ran proposes a packet
switching network with multiple o r points
Web pages for those links offer further resources, such as Mechanical Engineering magazine, available through the College of Engineering's site. Web surfers can also download a freeware edition of NCSA's Mosaic Web browser from the Institute home page. • To reach the Institute, go to (http://www.gatech.edu/TechHome.html). The Alumni Association Web page is accessible through the Institute page or at (http://www.gatcch.edu/alumni/alunini.html)
Tech Topics and the (in IKCIC Tn it An \i\i
MAGAZINl ate already on line, and back issues will be available, also in database format, in the future. Access to the Institute's home page is available through the Alumni site. The [nsti lute page offers links to all of Tech's col leges, schools! organizations and clubs.
18
GEORGIA TECH • Spring 1995
Bennett Gaston (rear) and Lance Dooly pore over the Tech Wei) page's interactive campus map. When Web surfers click on a building, they receive an information page on the location.