Development of the Internet Grassroot Contributions to Internet

Question:-

Using examples from the course’s textbook and articles, discuss the ways in which the development of the Internet came about via a complex interplay of large-scale institutional forces and small-scale grassroots cultural practices. Identify and explain the significance of two institutional and two grassroots contributions to the Internet. Be sure to identify and address the most relevant technological, political, cultural, social, and/or economic dimensions of each of the 4 examples that you provide.

Answer:-

While the above-mentioned contributors have more or less impacted the development of internet in an indirect way, it is the grassroot computing experts who truly helped the development reach every corner of the society. Hackers and hobbyists are the most prominent examples. The hackers are programmers who have existed since the age of minicomputers. These are the people who have truly built the internet. The functioning of the World Wide Web and Unix are the results of hacking which has actually changed the way internet is used. Discoveries such as the ENIAC and FORTRAN were actually programs developed by hobbyists who later became hackers. The PDP-1, PDP-10, the first microprocessor, the C language and customized OS are considered to be the some of the significant contributions. Then the next was Xerox Parc’s D machine series resulted in powerful computers. PDP-11 was used by hackers Thompson and Ritchie to implement the C language. As early as 1982, some other hackers created the Sun Microsystems and a year later, the systems were moved to VAX. Unethical hacking increased with the development of internet and has resulted in the fast development of the internet because that is the only way to effectively combat and control hackers. Some other contributions include the CERN (Robinson, et al., 2015). In fact, ethical hacking is the part of curriculum in many institutes, designed to control hacking that has immense impact on the social, political and economic front. It can be said that that ethical hackers restore the faith on the internet which is compromised by hackers.

A big portion of contribution by hobbyists is the development in computer programs. Around 40% of the software developers in the world are regarded as hobbyists. In fact, the rate at which the number of hobbyist program and app develops are increasing is much ahead of the increase in professional developers. The reason behind this growth is the cause of computer literacy which can teach coding to the mass. Often the contributions or discoveries by the hobbyists are results of fun and leisure activities. School or college students can also be regarded as hobbyists. Software programs such as salesforce are results of hobbyists which does not necessarily need the professional developers. In fact, in a broader sense hobbyist can refer to those persons as well who spend a lot of time on the internet creating content out of their hobbies such as pottery, quilting, painting, gardening and cooking. The main impact of the hobbyists is the positive impacts which gives the non-programmers the faith to use the internet freely. Nations which have strong technology base because of the higher proportion of professional developers as the hobbyists also take up professional positions in the long-run. Therefore, the strength of a nation’s technology dependence is related to the willingness of the hobbyists to actively join the professional fields. Also, as the developers continue to make progress, they would lead the demand for the internet development.