Dot-com Bubble

The rise and fall of dot-com companies
In the middle of the 1990's (era actually began in 1995) the stock market had soared in the areas of technology and the Internet thus the dot-com bubble began (bubble that was solely based on the rise of technology and the opportunity to make invest and make money). Company after company invested in these dot-com websites (dot-com companies) in hopes that making a daring decision could allow them to dominate their respective markets. During this era, so much money was invested in these companies that the stock market (on top of what it did before) drastically rose and hundreds of companies were being created in high tech areas such as Silicon Valley, California. But, what seemed like an overnight event, companies were going bankrupt. Many companies were in legal trouble with lawsuits stating that many companies were creating monopolies and, because of this decline and a decline in company spending, dot-com companies began to fail and the stock market fell. It is estimated that as much as 5 trillion dollars was lost.

Some companies that were involved in the bubble:
Alcatel, Amazon, AOL, Dell ,Ebay, France Telecom, Paypal, Yahoo

Search Engines - Bruce, Chien, and Jered

* definition
- A Web search engine is a tool designed to search for information on
the World Wide Web. Information may consist of web pages, images,
information and other types of files. Some search engines also mine
data available in newsbooks, databases, or open directories. Unlike
Web directories, which are maintained by human editors, search engines
operate algorithmically or are a mixture of algorithmic and human
input.


* origin: when, where, what

Netscape - 1996, US, a search engine rotated with these five engines:
Yahoo!, Magellan, Lycos, Infoseek and Excite.

Yahoo! - late 1990s, US, started as a web directory of other websites,
organized in a hierarchy, as opposed to a searchable index of pages
and later turned into a full-fledged portal with a search interface.

Google - 1997, US, a web search engine.

Gopher - 1991, University of Minnesota, a distributed document search
and retrieval network protocol designed for the Internet.


* main figures: who are they? what do they do?

Netscape - Jim Clark, founder, is also father-in-law of youtube co
founder, Chad Hurley. He was a computer scientist and became a super
entrepreneur.

Yahoo! - Jerry Yang and David Filo. They were electrical engineers
from Standford.

Google - Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Graduates from Stanford who
became entrepreneurs.

Gopher - Mark McCahill - "gopher was a big deal b/c it was easy to
install. a lot of people can run it and the more people who install
the software the more information is available on the servers.
ordinary people could and should have exceptional power at their finer
tips.", Farhad Anklesaria, Paul Lindner, Dan Torrey, and Bob Alberti.
They were members of the University of Minnesota.

references/related links

history/information on gopher –

http://www.codeghost.com/gopher_history.html

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=01278848
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_(protocol)



history/information on netscape -
http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/history/netscape.htm
http://www.livinginternet.com/w/wi_netscape.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape


history/information on google –
http://www.moovinonup.com/a_brief_history_of_google.html
http://www.work-at-home-net-guides.com/articles/history-of-google.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Search

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/40076


history/information on yahoo! –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_Search
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/misc/history.html
http://www.highposition.net/news/history-of-yahoo/

Y2K

Maggie Castro, Chris Brown, Adam Ashby

Y2K

Definition: Of or relating to the year 2000. Of or relating to the y2k bug.

Origin: The Y2k movement started in the very beginning of the computer age when computer programmers were entering the dates into the first computers. Instead of writing the dates in the form (YYYYMMDD), they wrote the dates using the six digit format (YYMMDD). For example, February 14, 1983 would be written in the computer “021498”. The problem with this is that once the year 2000 came, the computer would only see that date “00” or “1900”. People started to realize this problem because they remembered that computer run such a large portion of things that we all need on a day to day basis (air conditioning, clean water, internet, banks). Thousands of computer programmers where then stuck with the task of changing the dates on millions of computers, and manually because the original computer programmers were not around anymore. This problem would effect all of the United States, and was considered a crisis at the time just before the year 2000 arrived. The crisis was averted by major companies spending billions of dollars in fixing the approaching IT crisis. When 2000 came around, main computers were turned off and back-up computers were turned on, and no major problems were reported.

Influential Groups/People:

Citizens for Y2K Recovery

Advisory council is a group of y2k experts that took charge of national and international concerns regarding Y2K. This committee worked to educate the general public, lecture to government officials and international delegates, and offer solutions and consolation to those worried about Y2K. The panel included Rick Cowles, President of CyberServices America and a founding member of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility’s Y2K Working Group; Cory Hamasaki, head of HHResearch Co, and specialized in Year 2000 remediation; Michael Hyatt, author of The Millennium Bug: How to Survive the Coming Chaos; Tony Keyes, funder of “The Y2K Advisor;” Jim Lord, retired Naval Officer, specializing in the electronics field and author of A Survival Guide for the Year 2000 Problem; Victor Porlier, former cief of Information Systems Development for the U.S. foreign aid program, head of the Center for Civic Renewal, Inc. and author of Y2K: An Action Plan for January 1, 2000; Stuart Umpleby, professor for the Department of Management Science at George Washington University; and Bruce Webster, international authority on Y2K, founder and co-chair of Washington, D.C. Year 2000 Group, and author of The Y2K Survival Guide: Getting To, Getting Through, and Getting Past the Year 2000 Problem.

References:

http://www.y2ktimebomb.com/

http://cy2kr.tacticom.com/AdvisoryCouncil.html

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Y2K

http://www.1960pcug.org/pcnews/1998/08/2000.htm

What Did We Learn from This?

• We found that the Internet was created by various public and corporate organizations. We also learned the names of many CEO's who founded companies that support and shape the institution of the Internet. Contrary to the popular notion of the Internet being a space entirely open to users, these organizations place restrictions on the everyday usage of the Internet.
• We found that WWW is not the only means to access the Internet.
• MUD started out as an online game.
• Jim Clark founded Netscape, having created the company based on an idea. This led to the IT boom in the 1990s.
• Silicon Valley started in the 1950.
• Cyberpunk as a genre began in the 1970s.
  
• The meaning of digital technology changed from the Cold War to In the 1960s, Berkeley students protested against computer technology because they thought computers would strengthen top-down media control.
  

Y2K

Jen and Camille: UNIBAC, ARPANET, Packet Switching, Punch Card

• The UNIVAC I (UNIVersal Automatic Computer I) was the first commercial computer produced in the United States
  
• first UNIVAC I was delivered on June 14, 1951. From 1951 to 1958 a total of 46 UNIVAC I computers were delivered, all of which have since been phased out
  
• designed by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly
  
• used 5,200 vacuum weighed 29,000 lbs, consumed 125 kW, and could perform about 1,905 operations per second. The complete system occupied more than 35.5 m² of floor space
  
• In 1952, it successfully predicted the outcome of the 1952 presidential election during a televised news broadcast
  

• The ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) developed by ARPA of the Department of Defense, was the world's first operational packet switching network, and the predecessor of the global Internet
  
• Packet switching now the dominant basis for both data and voice communication worldwide, was a new and important concept in data communications 
  
• Previously, data communication was based on the idea of circuit switching, as in the old typical telephone circuit, where a dedicated circuit is tied up for the duration of the call and communication is only possible with the single party on the other end of the circuit
  

Packet switching is a network communications method that splits data traffic (digital representations of text, sound, or video data) into chunks, called packets, which are then routed over a shared network. To accomplish this, the original message/data is segmented into several smaller packets. Each packet is then labeled with its destination or connection ID. In each network node, packets are queued or buffered, resulting in variable delay and throughput, depending on the traffic load in the network. This contrasts with the other principal paradigm, circuit switching, which sets up a specific circuit with a limited number of constant bit rate and constant delay connections between nodes for exclusive use during the communication session.

• A punch card (aka IBM card) is a piece of stiff paper that contains digital information represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions 
  
• widely used throughout the 19th century for controlling textile looms and in the late 19th and early 20th century for operating fairground organs and related instruments 
  
• was used through the 20th century in unit record machines for input, processing, and data storage, early digital computers used punched cards as the primary medium for input of both computer programs and data, with offline data entry on key punch machines (some voting machines use punched cards)
  
• Punch cards were first used around 1725 by Basile Bouchon and Jean-Baptiste Falcon as a more robust form of the perforated paper rolls then in use for controlling textile looms in France
  
• From the 1900s, into the 1950s, punch cards were the primary medium for data entry, data storage, and processing in institutional computing
  

ISOC, ICANN, W3C

Internet Society (ISOC)
• Nonprofit organization founded in 1992
• Provide leadership for Internet-related standards, education, & policy
• International website (headquarters in US, Switzerland)
• Vint Cerf, Bob Kahn,& Lyman Chapin released original concept of the Internet Society
• Board of Trustees – members are appointed to this governing body; time in office lasts for 3 years
• Various staff members and advisors around the globe
• Ensure open development, evolution, and use of the Internet around the globe
• Discusses the future of the Internet
• Hold training sessions for use of the Internet for developing countries
• Over 20,000 members in 80 different chapters around the world
• Goal is to enhance the availability & utility of the Internet on the widest possible scale
• Media Information – people can contact staff for interviews, conferences, and programs; links to related organizations (Internet Architecture Board [IAB]; Internet Engineering Steering Group [IESG]; Internet Research Task Force [IRTF]; Internet Assigned Numbers Authority [IANA])
• References: http://www.isoc.org/isoc/; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Society

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
• Nonprofit organization founded in 1998
• Located in California and Brussels, Belgium
• Coordinates unique identifiers across the world for global Internet communication
• Created to oversee Internet-related tasks that were once performed by the U.S. Government
• Dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable
• Promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet’s unique identifiers
• ICANN doesn’t control content or spam … but has an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet
• ICANN' s tasks include responsibility for Internet Protocol (IP) address space allocation, protocol identifier assignment, generic (gTLD) and country code Top Level Domain name system management, and root server system management functions\
• Assignment of domain names and IP addresses
• Paul Twomey = President/CEO of ICANN
• Peter Dengate Thrush = Chair of the Board of Directors (he replaced Vint Cerf)
• Made up of the Board of Directors & ICANN staff
• Press can contact ICANN for questions
• Able to translate website in other languages
• References: http://www.icann.org/; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICANN

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
• Develops interoperable technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web to its full potential
• A forum for information, commerce, communication, and collective understanding
• Members and visitors are allowed to contribute to the website
• Website is composed to recent articles that discuss technological updates and events
• An international consortium where Member organizations, staff, and the public collaborate to develop Web standards
• Established in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee (the director & inventor of W3C) at MIT Laboratory for Computer Science with support from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
o Berners-Lee coined the term “the world wide web” in 1989
• Headquartered in France & Japan
• World offices in 16 regions around the globe ( from Austria to the United Kingdom)
• 434 members as of February 2008
• Work with their regional Web communities to promote W3C technologies in local languages, broaden W3C's geographical base, and encourage international participation in W3C Activities
• Nurture liaisons with international organizations
• Developing standards for the Web or Internet in order to enable clear progress
• Financially supported by membership dues, research grants, public/private funding, and the Supporter’s Program
o Membership dues vary by country
• Collaborate with media to advertise their website
• Able to translate the website in other languages
• References: http://www.w3.org/; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web_Consortium

Silicon Valley

What is Silicon Valley:
Silicon Valley is the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California, United States. The term originally referred to the region's large number of silicon chip innovators and manufacturers, but eventually came to refer to all the high-tech businesses in the area; it is now generally used as a metonym for the high-tech sector. Despite the development of other high-tech economic centers throughout the United States, Silicon Valley continues to be the leading high-tech hub because of its large number of engineers and venture capitalists.

Silicon Valley History- Stanford Industrial Park:

It was in Silicon Valley that the integrated circuit, the microprocessor, the microcomputer, among other key technologies, were developed, and that the heart of electronics innovation has beaten for four decades, sustained by about a quarter of a million IT workers. Silicon Valley was formed as a milieu of innovations by the convergence on one site of new technological knowledge; a large pool of skilled engineers and scientists from major universities in the area; generous funding from an assured market with Defense Department; the development of an efficient network of venture capital firms; and, in the very early stage, the institutional leadership of Stanford University.

" In the 1950's, the idea of building an industrial park arose. The university had plenty of land over 8,000 acres....but money was needed to finance the University's rapid postwar growth. The original bequest of his farm by Leland Stanford prohibited the sale of this land, but there was nothing to prevent its being leased. It turned out that long-term leases were just as attractive to industry as out right ownership; thus, the Stanford Industrial Park was founded. The goal was to create a center of high technology close to a cooperative university. It was a stroke of genius , and Terman, calling it ``our secret weapon,'' quickly suggested that leases be limited to high technology companies that might be beneficial to Stanford. In 1951 Varian Associates signed a lease, and in 1953 the company moved into the first building in the park. Eastman Kodak, General Electric, Preformed Line Products, Admiral Corporation, Shockley Transistor Laboratory of Beckman Instruments, Lockheed, Hewlett-Packard, and others followed soon after."

Main companies at the Valley:
Adobe Systems
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
Agilent Technologies
Apple Inc.
Applied Materials
Business Objects
Cisco Systems
eBay
Google
Hewlett-Packard
Intel
Intuit
LSI Logic
Maxtor
National Semiconductor
NetApp
Nvidia
SanDisk
Sun Microsystems
Symantec
Yahoo!

Universities at Silicon Valley
Carnegie Mellon University (Silicon Valley Campus)
San Jose State University
Santa Clara University
Stanford University

Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Valley#Notable_companies
http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/search.aspx?q=silicon+valley
http://www.siliconvalley.com/

Chris A. and Yong L.

Telnet- (Telecommunication network) is a network protocol used on the Internet and Local area network (LAN) connections. Developed in 1969, it provides access to command-line interface (DOS) on a remote machine. Since mid-2000s, Telnet clients are rarely still used, usually only to diagnose problems and manually "talk" to other services
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telnet)

E-mail- Electronic mail- any method of creating, transmitting, or storing primarily text-based human communications within digital communications systems. In using their Compatible Time-sharing system (enabling multiple users to utilize processing power from one machine), MIT researchers developed e-mail in 1965 as a way for these users to communicate. This later became an essential application in the spread of DarpaNET's technology.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail)

the World Wide Web- system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. Through a Web browser, one can view Web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia and navigate between them using hyperlinks. English scientist Tim Berners-Lee conceptualized the World Wide Web in 1989, proposed his ideas and later released them in 1992. Headed by Berners-Lee, the World Wide Web Consortium (main international standards organization for the World Wide Web) produces the majority of Web standards, such as recommendations for programming languages which define the structure of hypertext documents. The World Wide Web enabled the spread of information over the Internet through an easy-to-use and flexible format. It thus played an important role in popularising use of the Internet, to the extent that the World Wide Web has become a synonym for Internet, with the two being conflated in popular use.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_wide_web)

Blog- individual websites that can function as commentary on a particular subject or more personal online diaries. Typical blogs combine text, images, and also other links within the blogosphere (known as the collective community of all blogs). The modern blog evolved from the online diary, where people would keep a running account of their personal lives. In 1993, Dr. Glen Barry invented blogging, defined as web based commentary, linking to other articles. Early blogs were simply manually updated components of common Web sites. However, the evolution of tools to facilitate the production and maintenance of Web articles posted in reverse chronological order made the publishing process feasible to a much larger, less technical, population. Some popular blogging sites include: MySpace, Blogger.com, livejournal.com, xanga.com, also Open Diary (which innovated the concept of allowing the audience to provide a user comment).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog)

ICQ- An instant messaging computer program first developed by Mirabilis, an Israeli company, the company was later acquired by Time Warner/AOL. Originally released in 1996, it was acquired by AOL in 1998- Today ICQ is used by over 31 million users worldwide. ICQ became the first Internet-wide instant messaging service. ICQ has been used as a basis for most popular instant messaging systems of today, including: iChat, Meebo, etc.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icq)

MP3.com, Napster, Kazaa

MP3.com

Founded in 1997 By Micheal Robertson and Greg Flores.

Innitially run under the Z corporation, it was purchased by Vivendi Interactive for $375 million. 

MP3.com: A vocal community of musicians and fans

A slick, all-inclusive music site, MP3.com is fueled by an active community of musicians and fans who live to spread the word about music. The site caters to artists looking to promote their material and connect with listeners, and to fans that thrive on discovering new music and expressing their opinions. 

The Lineup

Artist-provided content from both independent and major-label acts including customized artists pages with songs, videos, similar-artists lists, photos, bios, news, blogs, and forums. 

Fan-generated content such as ratings, reviews, videos, blogs, forums, and favorites lists. 
Exclusive coverage, editorial features, and original programming including web shows, artist interviews, concert webcasts, event reports, video album reviews, and more. 

Thousands of free MP3s, plus streams of popular music videos and selected new albums. 
Artist charts enabling artists to view their daily popularity level and sort by genre and zip code. 

Flash audio player providing the ability to create playlists and download files from within the player. 

Easy-to-use tech guide with details and advice on the latest digital-music equipment and technology. 

Favorite-artist tracking updating fans on new releases, TV appearances, news stories, and more. 

Photo gallery featuring thousands of images of today’s hottest artists. 

More than six million song clips accompanied by retailer links. 

Daily news updates and commentary on major industry headlines.

Napster

In 1999, an 18-year-old college dropout named Shawn Fanning changed the music industry forever with his file-sharing program called Napster. His idea was simple: a program that allowed computer users to share and swap files, specifically music, through a centralized file server. His response to the complaints of the difficulty to finding and downloading music over the Net was to stay awake 60 straight hours writing the source code for a program that combined a music-search function with a file-sharing system and, to facilitate communication, instant messaging. Now we have Napster, and people are pissed.

Check out Time magazine's Interview with Shawn Fanning
The Recording Industry Association of America has filed suit against Napster charging them with tributary copyright infringement,which means Napster is being accused not of violating copyright itself but of contributing to and facilitating other people's infringement. However, Napster argues that because the actual files are never in Napster's posession, but transferred from user to user, that Napster is not acting illegally. The issue in P2P applications (Peer to Peer) is that if Napster is guilty of copyright infringement, then the consumers of Napster are guilty too. Likewise, if the consumer are not guilty, then how can Napster be held responsible.

For a different perspective, check out RIAA's website

Now this tiny company of 50 employees in Redwood City, California is up against media empires like Universal, Sony and BMG,plus influential artists Dr. Dre and Metallica. The court battles continue and Napster's future hangs in the balance. Yet somehow, regardless of the outcome in the courtroom, Napster has opened a proverbial window of possibility on the Internet and more companies will spring up over time.

Kazaa

Kazaa.com, Kazaa Media Desktop and Kazaa Plus are products of Sharman Networks. Sharman Networks is a proactive, virtual, global technology and publishing company, focused on delivering peer-to-peer software. 

Kazaa is working hard to meet our mission of delivering the best P2P experience in the world.
Meet the Sharman Networks Team 

Technology

This team is global, and includes hard-core coders, information architects, testers, web developers, designers, and planners. Their job is to keep the software running at optimum, while constantly reinventing and improving the KMD with new and tweaked features. Phil Morle (Director of Technology)

Doesn't need to sleep and comes up with great new versions of KMD for your delight. New releases are staged like the large theatre spectacles he once directed. The guardian of your privacy, a technical visionary and a man who's word you can take to the bank.


Business Development and Marketing

The guardians of the end-user, these guys work to ensure that the software keeps everyone happy. They listen to user feedback and think about new ways to reach more people.

 Alan Morris (Executive Vice President)

Been there, seen it and done it in entertainment, research and computing and got the T-shirt to go with his mountain biking scars. Knows that P2P is where it is going to be and believes that life is there to be lived to the full. 


Business Management

The 24x7 team works to keep the rest of us true to the vision and ensure that the complex machine runs as smoothly as possible. They include individuals with deep experience in media, software, publishing and entertainment a perfect mix for the new world of peer-to-peer.

 Nikki Hemming (CEO)

Pushed frontiers in entertainment and computer-games for people like Virgin and Sega and snagged an award or two launching market winners around the globe. Thinks that Kazaa Media Desktop is the killer app for the 21st Century and that the only limitations are the ones in your mind.

Chrissy and Philomena

Wired Magazine

• Monthy magazine and on-line periodical (Wired News)
• Started in 1993 in San Fransisco

1. Purpose

• report on how technology affects culture, economy and politics
• Science, art, adventure and online culture business philosophy
• Strong libertarian principles
• techno-utopian

2. History

• founded by Louis Rossetto and Jane Metcalfe
• new owner ( Conde Nast Publications)
• 1st issue limited internet info
• part of dot-com success
• editor

3. Present

• more than 2 million monthly readers
• $10 subcriptions
• annual festivals called Nextfest

4. Awards

• six nominations for national magazine award for general excellence
• won in 2005 and 2007
• 2008 nominated for 18 top awards from society of publication designers

AOL

Definition:

AOL is a leading global ad-supported Web company, with a comprehensive display advertising network in the U.S., a suite of popular Web brands and products, and a leading social media network.

The company’s strategy focuses on growing the size, engagement and monetization of its worldwide audience by providing highly relevant content and advertising to consumers across the Web. AOL’s business is centered on Platform-A, Publishing and People Networks. In addition, AOL continues to run one of the largest Access businesses in the U.S.

Orgin:

Started out as Cotrol Video Corporation in 1983 in Loudoun County, Virginia that was a game service (Gameline) for the Atari 2600. In 1985 Jim Kimsey became the manufacturing consultant for Control Video changed it to a an online service originally called Quantum Link and moved the headquarters to New York. They then worked with Apple to create AppleLink in 1988 and PC link for IBM users. The company then parted ways with Apple in 1989 and changed its name to AOL (American online) and is now operated by Time Warner. They now offer a wide variety of services (aim, news, sports, moviefone, aol television, aol radio). Steve Case was co-founder with Kimsey and was groomed to take over after Kimsey retired and is also responsible for the merger with Time Warner.

Organizations:

AOL sponsors many organizations that promote health, safety, and charity. Their branch in Canada sponsors organizations to help keep children safe on the internet and raise awareness about parental involvement in monitoring what their children do online. Depending on the type of resources you are looking for on the AOL site many different organizations may be involved (ex. http://www.aolhealth.com/arthritis/learn-about-it/resources/organizations). They mainly try to promote online safety but work with other organizations throughout the different branches of their website (music, news, entertainment etc.)

Growth:

Between the years of 1989 through the mid 90s AOl grew as it added chat rooms and became more knowledgable about computer networking. In 1996 they changed their policy of charging an hourly rate to a flate rate of $19.99 a month. After this change their userbase quickly grew to 10 million people. Along with the growing userbase more applications and programs were able to be ran while using google. The merger with Time Warner however has seem to hurt the company as they have seen no quarterly growth since 2002. The focus is now to become a content provider as opposed to a internet service.

Related Links

http://dashboard.aim.com/aim

http://music.aol.com/radioguide/bb

http://news.aol.com/

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_Online

http://www.aol.com/

MUD

MUDs were among the first online multiplayer computer games. "MUD" is actually an acronym, meaning "Multiple User Dungeon," and was named after the first game of the style ever produced.

In 1975, Will Crowther created the world's first text-based adventure game, Adventure. Emulating the basic concepts laid out by Adventure and another text-game, Zork, Roy Trubshaw created MUD. He expanded the basic concept to allow other users to participate in the game at the same time, allowing for interaction and communication between players within the game world. MUD was hosted on a local server, and any user who connected to the server could log in and play with their character. While originally available only to Essex University in the UK, the concept of MUDs became very popular throughout the country and the craze spread to America. The growing internet became an optimal host for new MUDs, allowing anyone with internet access to play the game as opposed to those with access to a specific server.

Since then, multiple variations of MUDs have been produced. Some games added graphical modifications while other intensified the role playing aspect. MUDs also became divided into two major subcategories: MUCK and MUSH.

MUCK has not concrete definition, but an accepted one is "Multiple User Created Kingdom". These types of MUDs tend to focus on storytelling, social interaction, and world building, while leaving out some of the adventure aspect of old MUDs. MUSH, on the other hand, focus on improving the classic gaming experience, sometimes offering player versus player competition. Fans of MUDs have many variations on the names for MUDs, depending upon client platforms and game style. They all fall under acatch-all, reffered to as MU*.

There are a lot of MUDs that are still played today, but their popularity has been dropping steadily. MMORPGs like Everquest and World of Warcraft have paved their way as the new role-playing expereince, offering high end graphics and more visceral and strategic combat than MUDs. The MUCK style of MUD is better off than others because of their focus on social interaction over gameplay. But with the rise of virtual world's like Second Life, MUDs may soon become an obsolete genre.

cyberpunk

 Cyberpunk- a genre of science fiction that show the dichotomy between advanced technology (cyber) and a breakdown in social order (punk).  Specifically a popular theme in Japanese anime the genre often features film noir and detective elements.  The defining feature expounds upon the bleak reality brought on by cyber technologies compared to the Utopian promise traditionally associated with innovation.  Characters often appear as a synthesis of robot like qualities and human aspects.  The Matrix is an example of an actual physical version of the Japanese anime Ghost in a Shell, a famous cyber punk film.  It is an allegory for contemporary experience in a heavily commercialized, media-driven society, especially of the developed countries.  The Matrix also uses influences from different historical myths and philosophies, such as Plato's cave allegory and Hinduism.In The Matrix, the main character Neo lives a secret life as a hacker and discovers the secret that he lives in a technologically controlled fantasy world.  The hacker represents dissonance against the organization and order imposed by technology.  X-Files episode Ghost in the Machine also expounds on cyberpunk ideas in which the synthesis of humanity and technology is a threat to humanity.  This episode was inspired by the anime Ghost in a Shell.

What is this?

Consider this a workspace for socmusi255 to produce a series of useful wiki entries related to digital vernacular music-culture. The class will divide up into groups and choose their preferred terms to research. Individuals will spend 20 minutes on researching their selected term(s). Make sure that you consult at least 3 sources. The group will then spend 15 minutes creating the wiki text and then posting them on the blog.

After everyone's wiki text is posted, the class will reconvene to comment on each of the wiki posts.

Below is a selection of terms organized into groups:

1. UNIVAC, ARPANET, packet switching, punch cards
2. USENET, The WELL, Wired Magazine
3. MP3.com, Napster, Kazaa
4. Google, Yahoo, Netscape, Gopher
5. Telnet, e-mail, the World Wide Web, blog, ICQ
6. AOL, MUDs
7. The Information Superhighway, Y2K, Digital Divide
8. Internet Society (ISOC), Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
9. dotcom boom and dotcom bust, Silicon Valley
10. cyberpunk (Ghost in the Shell), the Matrix, hacking, X-files episode "Ghost in the Machine"

Some questions to consider when creating the wiki:

• definition
• origin: when, where, what
• main figures: who are they? what do they do?
• organizations: what are they? what contributions do they make?
• history of development
• related media: podcast, video, etc.
  
• references: online, off-line
  
• related links
  

Any of these items can be further broken down into categories of information.