What exactly is the web made of? It's a conglomeration of all electronic technology that has been produced in the past 150 years or so. I want to take a look at each individual technological item and the protocols for using them, then I will relate those protocols as they converge and meet upon the Internet. Oddly, I'm not going to begin with a communication device but a transportation vehicle.

The locomotive.
The building of the railroads was the first organized national transport system. Mainly plotted by the US government with private capitalists. It was urgent for both parties to establish lines that connected the East Coast to the West Coast. Since this great divide consumed so much of the available capital and labor, South to North lines were neglected. The West Coast was heavily influenced by the Eastern culture, yet even though they were closer to each other, the South and North has relatively little cultural exchange.
AND.. the railroads cleared the way for the telegraph lines to be installed.
Telegraph messages were transmitted in digital code - a series of short and long clicks.Western Union built its first transcontinental telegraph line in 1861, mainly along railroad rights-of-way, further strengthening the East-West connection.
The original Morse telegraph printed code on tape. However, in the United States the operation developed into sending by key and receiving by ear. A trained Morse operator could transmit 40 to 50 words per minute. The message was probably read aloud by the messenger when delivered. In 1900, Canadian, Fredick Creed invented a way to convert Morse code to text called the Creed Telegraph System. Automatic transmission, introduced in 1914, handled more than twice that number.
The privacy of telegraph messaging regular mail system.
The Internet would be nowhere without the telephone.

Also, it is important to realize the natural theatrical effects that can be had from the Internet. posters in the dramatic mode have been systematically driven off the web. Well, we will just have to wait for the technocrats and "educators" to fall flat on their asses and come running to the artists and poets to bail them out.

Add a big ass computer
An Internet discussion forum is like a conference call.

Caller I.D. led to IP checking. Probably a bad idea.

Phone booth cramming. The idea was to cram as many people as possible into a phone booth. That is the social web today.

VW cramming - Same thing ten years after.
phone sex moderators party line 1st telephone call 1st conference call 1st televised broadcast 1st Caller ID IP checking phone booth cramming
