Vast, Vibrant & Growing - China's Internet

This video from The China Digital Conference neatly explains the depth and breadth of China's vibrant Internet.  More controlled it may be than its Western counterpart, but the sheer volume of online activity is very impressive.

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'Arping On About History

Well yes, I know that the title of this post is a terrible pun, but the fact is that the history of the Internet has been documented in a piecemeal fashion - until now.

It was in 1969 that the Pentagon produced ARPAnet, the precursor to the Internet as we know it. Dani Polak,Joep Drummen and Joeri Bakkers, from the Dutch ad agency advertising TBWA\NEBOKO, have put in a lot of effort into producingThe Big Internet Museum. The site faithfully records the Internet's milestones and unlike many museums these days,entrance is free!

The online museum documents and displays the Web’s most interesting artefacts, for today's and future generations. It houses seven specialised wings and each features a different subject.

As well as these traditional 'wings', The Big Internet Museum has other parallels with a conventional museum. Third parties can display their works in a specially assigned temporary exhibition wing. There are plans for the digital production agency, MediaMonks, to fill the temporary exhibition space with an exhibit about the history of Flash.

Got something you thing is worthy of their collection? You can submit it to the museum and, if democratically accepted by public vote, help the museum's collection grow. Visitors are invited to adopt the mantle of digital curator.
The site's creators say: "We seek to educate and inspire visitors from all over the world with an ever-growing collection about the Internet and the World Wide Web. Not only for this current generation, but also for generations to come. Remember the sound of a 56K dial-up modem? Your children probably don't. In fact, chances are they don’t have a clue what a loading bar is."

There are some of us who are old enough to remember the interminable wait for a dial-up modem to connect. Thankfully these experiences have now been consigned to history.

Hate To Say I Told You So, But I Told You So

Late in 2011 I predicted the steady decline of  Internet Explorer as the browser of choice. Confirmation this month based on StatCounter global statistics that this has now happened. And it should be noted, unlike IE which comes pre-installed on 90% of the world's computers changing to Chrome is purely a personal choice.

 Source: Silicon Valley Insider

Firefox is also struggling to make any headway against Chrome. So unlike Google+ which is being cast aside by many, Google's browser seems to be grabbing increasing Market share.

Related articles

• StatCounter: Google Chrome Pushes Past Microsoft's Internet Explorer (Again) (techcrunch.com)
• Chrome now world's top browser, but beware the math (news.cnet.com)

Just When Is The Internet Awake?

The circles above are sized according to the number of broadband subscribers in each country, as measured December 2009 - June 2011.

See the full interactive presentation here.