Melih Bilgil’s video, “The History Of The Internet,” explains in great detail (with a good amount of confusion as well) how the Internet we currently know and use came to be, from nothing more than an idea to the incredible entity it is today.  With the Internet being such a large part of our daily lives, it’s hard to imagine it not even existing 50 years ago.  The advancements that allowed the Internet to be; and the developments it has produced are on a level of genius and power that few other inventions can claim.  As for the video (another wonder of the Internet), I think it did a lot right, but misstepped on some finer points.

The first bit of praise I have for the video is its art style.  The monochromatic, minimalistic animations are interesting and fun to watch, and visually kept me focused on the video throughout my time watching it.  Being a graphic designer, it’s not doubt that Bilgil knew the type of animation would be entertaining, and connect with the subject matter.  In fact, the art medium he uses in the video is known as PICOL (Pictorial Communication Language), and is itself a result of the Internet’s existence.

The video was very informative too, and despite the large amount of ground it had to cover, it presented a lot of knowledge in a fairly short time.  Information such as who was part of the Arpanet’s founding:

• The United States’ Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA)
• The United States’ RAND Corporation
• England’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL)
• France’s CYCLADES (Institut de Recherche d’Informatique et d’Automatique)

This was helpful to have so people know who should be credited (or blamed) for the Internet itself.  The timeline he gives is also helpful:

• 1957 – Time sharing on computers is made possible; the idea of computer network is presented (later to be the Arpanet)
• 1962 – Direct waves are made the primary transportation of information within the computer network
• 1966 – The official start to the development of the Arpanet
• 1990 – The Arpanet is shut down, and gives rise to the Internet

While you could criticize the video for being shallow, the time it’s allotted gives you more than enough information to create a basic foundation of knowledge on how the Internet was invented, as well as what the Arpanet was and how it helped the Internet grow into what it is.

The thing I found frustrating about the video was that it talked about certain technologies that I had no knowledge of, and did not explain them in any way.  The first minute of the video went completely over my head, with the batch programming and how people interacted with their large computers.  I can understand how that information was a vital part in how the Arpanet and Internet developed, but more explanations would have been nice so that I could understand the entire video, and not left to look up lost information.  Many of the protocols and codes were also presented vaguely, and not explained in any detail, which would have been nice to know their ramifications.

As a whole the video was very well done, with great animations and a wealth of knowledge easily presented.  The lack of fine details does not overshadow the fact that it is a quick way to learn the history of one of the greatest marvels in modern technology.  I’d encourage anyone who uses the Internet to watch this video so that they know more about the medium that is now one of the most important parts of our lives.