*The Integrated Newsroom - Origins of the WWW*

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Appendix C: Origins of the World Wide Web
(Compiled from Hobbes Z., Leiner B., Harper C., Brown P., Berghel H. and Poynter Online)

1945
Origins of the ideas on hypertext can be traced to Vanevar Bush's famous article, As We May Think in Atlantic Monthly. He proposed the Memex machine which by using binary codes, photocells and instant photography, allowed microfilm cross-references to be made and automatically followed.

Based on this concept Ted Nelson coined the word hypertext defined as a form of text which includes visible links to other pages of text or media, accessible by clicking or selecting the links.

1969
The US Department of Defense commissions the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). The groundwork for the Internet is laid with four host computers connected together into the preliminary ARPANET.

1970
Computers are quickly added to ARPANET and in December the Network Working Group (NWG) develop the functionally complete initial ARPANET Host-to-Host protocol, called the Network Control Protocol (NCP).

1971
ARPA changed its name to Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

1972
The Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN) team complete the invention of the pioneer electronic mail application allowing users to send and receive messages over the computer network.

1973
The first international connections to the ARPANET, is established from the University College of London (England) and Royal Radar Establishment (Norway).

1979
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), University of Wisconsin, National Science Foundation (NSF) and computer scientists from many universities establish a Computer Science Department research network.

Kevin Mackenzie suggests adding emotions to electronic mail. He introduces -) for suggesting a sentence was tongue-in-cheek. Though frowned at, today it has evolved into widely used emoticons (glossary available: http://www.thirdage.com/features/tech/netglos/index.html).

1981
BITNET, the 'Because It's Time Network", is launched as a cooperative network at the University of New York, with the first connection to Yale. It provided electronic mails, listserv servers to distribute information and for file transfers. The first online newspaper service: Fort Worth Star-Telegram pioneers StarText, a dial-in bulletin board service (BBS). The BBS moves to the WWW in 1995.

1984
Knight-Ridder launches Viewtron, a news and information service. Domain Name System (DNS) is introduced. Number of hosts breaks 1,000.

1987
Knight-Ridder loses $50 million and shuts down Viewtron. FineArt Forum, the newsletter of the Art, Science and Technology Network, an email newsletter and bulletin board service based at the University of Amherst in Massachusetts, USA is launched.

1989
Number of hosts breaks 100,000.

1991
CERN's (French acronymn for the European Particle Physics Laboratory) Timothy Berners-Lee releases the World-Wide Web (WWW). America Online goes public providing news and information services for a fee. Singapore (SG) joins other countries in connecting to NSFNET (National Science Foundation Net - an academic network funded by the NSF). Businesses and media begin to take notice of the Internet.

1992
Knight-Ridder Newspapers opens an Information Design Laboratory in Colorado, to design the newspaper of the future. FineArt Forum launches an interactive server-client-based Gopher version of the newsletter.

1993
Wired, the self-proclaimed voice of the digital age, publishes its first edition. HotWired, its online publication goes on the WWW the year after. Marc Andreessen of the National Center for Supercomputer Application (NCSA) wrote Mosaic for X Windows. This easy-to-install and user-friendly application can be attributed for the rapid growth of the WWW. It allowed navigation with the click of the mouse. DARPA, goes back to being called ARPA.

1994
Andreessen co-founds Netscape Communications whose browser Netscape Navigator became the de facto standard WWW browser. This led to a boom in the number of WWW users worldwide. ARPANET/Internet celebrates its 25 anniversary. Search engines are introduced to the Internet and JAVA, JAVAscript and VRML are in development. January: About 20 newspapers are available online through Bulletin Board Services (BBS). Time Inc. begins Pathfinder, its gateway website for a variety of publications. Within three years, it is clocking losses of $10 million a year. L'Unione Sarda, a Sardinian newspaper becomes the first European newspaper to go on the WWW. The Weekend Independent, Australian University of Queensland's student newspaper, becomes the continent's first online publication. About 100 newspaper services are operating or under development including online editions of the Los Angeles Times. America Online reaches one million subscribers. FineArt Forum becomes one of the first few arts resources available online and to maintain a large and influential readership. More than 15,000 people read the web version (based on a hit rate of 70 - 100,000). 1,500 professional practitioners subscribe to the email newsletter.

1995
February: Melbourne's The Age, becomes the first Australian daily online publication. April: USA Today, launches its online service initially charging for the service through CompuServe but quickly turns it into a free publication. July: Business Times On-line, the Singapore Press Holdings business newspaper goes online, followed closely by the Straits Times Interactive believed to be one of the first in Asia. Jose Shea, former Village Voice reporter launches the American Reporter with solely online content. Knight-Ridder Newspapers closes its new media research centre, the Information Design Laboratory. August: CNN launches CNN Interactive, a 24-hour service Steve Outing launches his column, "Stop the Presses" in Editor & Publisher Interactive. December: Nearly 700 newspapers are operating online editions worldwide, an increase of 100 from the previous year.

1996
America Online reaches five million subscribers. Mainichi Shimbun, the third largest newspaper in Japan launches Zaurus, becoming the first publisher to distribute daily editions designed to be read on a portable electronic display. June: Slate, an electronic magazine backed by Microsoft is launched. July: A $440 million joint-venture is announced by Microsoft and NBC to introduce a cable television channel and an accompanying Web service, MSNBC.

Pierre Salinger, former chief European correspondent for ABC News, reports that the TWA 800 was brought down by a missile accidentally fired by U.S. Navy. More than 200 people were killed in the crash off Long Island. Salinger cited French sources for his story which made the headlines around the world. An anonymous document posted on the Internet was the primary source for the story. The document was discounted by many other journalists. December: The number of online newspapers jumps to 1,600 from 700 the previous year. This includes every major newspaper in North America and Europe. Registration of domain names is no longer free. A $50 fee is imposed, except on .edu registration which is subsidized by NSF and on an interim basis for .gov. Singapore requires political and religious content providers to register with the state. ARPA is renamed DARPA which is maintained till today.

1997
March: The Daily Morning News reports that Oklahoma City bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh confessed to the attack to his attorneys. The article appeared first in the publication's online edition because the editors decided not to wait for the printed version of the newspaper to provide the information. 71, 168 mailing lists are registered with Liszt, a mailing list directory.

1998
In January, a major landmark in online journalism: The Drudge Report breaks the President Clinton - Monica Lewinsky story before the traditional media and a media frenzy follows. $500 million in industry support is pledged for the development of the next-generation, called Internet 2 in June. However the idea and development has been in progress since 1996. Nielsen Media Research and CommerceNet announce that the number of Internet users over the age of 16 in U.S and Canada has reached 79 million. Meta news search engines which regularly index current content from WWW news sources, some carrying full-text, also serving as archives. Associated Press offers a fee-based archive service on The Wire website, with access to 250 online newspapers from November. Editor & Publisher, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Newspaper Association of America recognise online journalism and awards the best online news services.

1999
June: register.com becomes an official competitor to Network Solutions Inc, previously the only company allowed to register domain names. Network Solutions will continue maintaining the database which holds the registered names and helps steer Internet traffic.

2000
Internet giant AOL and media giant Time-Warner merge, and their new company purchases EMI, a big player in the music recording industry. Ananova, the world's first virtual newscaster is announced (http://www.ananova.com)