| Discipline | Communications Computers Networks |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publication details | |
| History | September, 1991 |
| Publisher | Scientific American, Inc. (USA) |
| Standard abbreviations | |
| ISO 4 | Commun. Comput. Netw. |
The Scientific American special issue on Communications, Computers, and Networks is a special issue of Scientific American dedicated to articles concerning impending changes to the Internet in the period prior to the expansion and mainstreaming of the World Wide Web via Mosaic and Netscape. This issue contained essays by a number of important computer science and internet pioneers. It bore the promotional cover title Scientific American presents the September 1991 Single Copy Issue: Communications, Computers, and Networks.
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Transcription
What does "going viral" on the internet really mean, and why does it happen so quickly? Why is a financial institution too big to fail? How does a virus in Africa end up in the United States in a matter of hours? Why are Facebook and Google such powerful companies at creating global connections? Well, in a word: networks. But what are networks? Everyone knows about their social network, but there are all different kinds of networks you probably haven't thought about. Networks are collections of links which combine by specific rules and behaviors if they are alive. We say that networks are alive because they are in constant change. Over time, the connections within a network migrate and concentrate in new places, forming evolving structures. How the evolution and concentration of constantly changing connections occurs is the subject of a whole discipline called network theory. We can think of networks as neighborhoods. Neighborhoods are defined by maps. A Google map demonstrates the relationship between locations in exactly the same fashion a network connects hubs and nodes, using streets as links to connect neighborhoods. The reason a network can expand and evolve so quickly is based upon a mathematical concept called power functions. A power function is a mathematical amplification mechanism, which over specific and very small ranges, accelerates changes logarithmically. That is, a very small change in one parameter produces a huge change in another over a very specific range of values. An example of how network structure emerges is the algorithm used by Google. As the number of links around a search term, say "friends", increases, connections begin to form among millions of different searches using the term "friend". What Google has cleverly accomplished is a real-time mathematical model for how to predict the emergence of growing connections among billions of search terms. The algorithm Google derived collects the number of references to any search object. As references to a search object increase, the number of links also increases, creating a node. As the node increases in size, it eventually becomes a hub, which links to many nodes. Networks will continue to emerge as new ways of connecting and creating neighborhoods are defined. Perhaps you can begin to see why networks are so powerful. As Google continues to collect the billions of daily searches, new clusters of links will rapidly emerge, forming additional and growing networks. Despite the logarithmic expansion of your network, the laws of six degrees of separation still apply. Therefore, if you explore a close friend or acquaintances in you Facebook network, everyone on average will be separated by six individuals or less and a map of your social network will create neighborhoods linked by common connections among friends.
Reviews
University of California, Berkeley's September 1991 online journal, "Current Cites" commented: "Scientific American Special Issue on Communications, Computers and Networks 265(3) (September 1991): If you purchase a single issue of a magazine this year, this should be it. Filled with eleven articles by some of the biggest names in computer networking, this issue covers all bases and includes suggestions for further readings on the issues."[1] In addition, a 4 September 1991 post to the University of Houston's "Computer System's Forum" also recommends the issue, stating: "These articles cover enough ground that I would recommend the issue to people getting ready to dive into the Internet or understand what is happening in networks these days."[2] An additional post to this same forum on 21 August 1991 comments: "The authors are exceptional, including Mitch Kapor, Mark Weiser, Nicholas Negroponte, Alan Kay, Al Gore, and many others. An excellent issue."[3]
Response
Of this issue, the Electronic Frontier Foundation stated in the article "Scientific American's September Issue to be Sent to All EFF Members" in its September 1991 newsletter:
- This month's Scientific American ("Communications, Computers, and Networks") must surely represent the most complete collection of articles and commentary on all aspects of networking to date. As such we feel strongly that it should be made available to as many people as possible. Because of this, we have purchased a large number of copies of this issue that we will be using for various purposes over the coming year. The first use will be to deliver a free copy of to all our members. We are expecting the magazines to be delivered to us at the end of next week and they will go out to our members soon after. We realize that many of our members may already have a copy of their own, but if so we trust that they will use this extra copy to educate and enlighten someone else to the issues and potential of networking.[4]
Table of contents
- Gary Stix: "Profile: Information Theorist David A. Huffman" [5]
- Michael Dertouzos: "Communications, Computers and Networks"
- Vint Cerf: "Networks"
- Larry Tesler: "Networked Computing in the 1990s"
- Mark Weiser: "The Computer for the 21st Century"[6]
- Nicholas Negroponte: "Products and Services for Computer Networks"
- Lee Sproull and Sara Kiesler: "Computers, Networks and Work"
- Thomas W. Malone and John F. Rockart: "Computers, Networks and the Corporation"
- Alan Kay: "Computers, Networks and Education" [7]
Computers, Networks and Public Policy
- Al Gore: "Infrastructure for the Global Village"
- Anne W. Branscomb: "Common Law for the Electronic Frontier"
- Mitch Kapor: "Civil Liberties in Cyberspace"[8]
See also
Footnotes
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-02-28. Retrieved 2006-12-31.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "PACS-L Archives - September 1991 (#14)". Archived from the original on 2016-01-18. Retrieved 2006-12-28.
- ^ "http://listserv.uh.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9108&L=pacs-l&T=0&P=18778[dead link]
- ^ "SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN'S SEPTEMBER ISSUE TO BE SENT TO ALL EFF MEMBERS". The Electronic Newsletter of The Electronic Frontier Foundation. Retrieved May 28, 2019.
- ^ Scientific American, September 1991
- ^ Weiser, Mark (September 1991). "The Computer for the 21st Century". Scientific American. Retrieved May 28, 2019.
- ^ Scientific American Page 1 Archived December 21, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Kapor, Mitchell (September 1991). "Civil Liberties in Cyberspace: When does hacking turn from an exercise of civil liberties into crime?". Scientific American. Retrieved May 28, 2019.
References
- Scientific American September 1991 (Special Issue: Communications, Computers, and Networks), Volume 265, Number 3.
External links
- UC Berkeley, "Current_Cites", Library Technology Watch Program - Sept. 1991
- University of Houston Computer Science Forum - Sept. 1991
- Overview of the issue - Humanist Discussion Group, Sept. 1991
This page was last edited on 3 June 2021, at 07:01