Foot: An Oral History of the Internet

I always knew that the creation of the Internet involved many different people, companies and government agencies, but I never imagined that so many different parties took part in developing the web. The article clarified for me the controversy of Al Gore saying that he created the Internet. Apparently Al Gore made sure that the government funded different projects that led to the creation of the Internet. However the article was very drawn out and its unique style of using different people's opinions about issues that they all had biases on made for a story that was not true to the facts, but rather people's personal feelings about how they were involved with the creation of the Internet. It would have been better if the article took more of a summarizing approach rather than being 100% personal narrative. The story of how today's Internet came to be is an important story that we all should know, because we all are directly affected by the Internet.

Students could learn from this story because it shows the true nature of human greed, and how when there's a will there's a way, and how our government will step into the the field of technological research in order to keep the American society at the top of the pecking order. The story shows the concept "big fish eats the little fish" through Microsoft using its threshold over the computer software market to make sure that no one else created new Internet browsers or operating systems. A teacher can teach his or her's class about how Microsoft and other monopoly like companies are like the mafia with their unethical business methods. Students can also learn about the market place from this story with how once the Internet became huge everyone started investing in .com companies and how most of the .com companies eventually failed because there were so many different .com companies competing with one another, and how today everyone seems to use the same 2 or three websites to buy most things from (ebay, amazon, etc.). Living in a society where the Internet reigns supreme, the public ought to have a clear, unbiased explanation for how the Internet came into existence.