BBC Online
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Imagine a history of World War 2 that failed to cover the events in 1930s Germany. Conventional histories of the internet are that incomplete, according to a researcher. It is difficult to conceive of a world without the internet – today more than a billion users worldwide are connected – but just 25 years ago global network connections were vanishingly rare.
During the 1980s, small research networks linking a few hundred universities were gradually replaced by a commercial network with 300,000 users. But history has failed to document this transitional period in any detail. Dr Doug Gale, president of Information Technology Associates, in Montana, is devoting his spare time to filling in the gaps. Read more…
