The Web Goes Commercial

In 1995, the National Science Foundation (NSF) decided that the Internet had become much more than a network supporting scientific research. Thus, NSF decided that it would not continue to upgrade and support the Internet backbone.

Instead, NSF turned the responsibility over to a number of commercial companies. The plan: to have multiple, commercially-owned backbones that would all converge at key nework access points (NAPs)—initially in San Francisco, Chicago, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C.

This not only changed how the Internet backbone was administered: it also changed the entire culture of the Internet.

Until 1995, given that the Internet backbone was a project of the U.S. Government (first ARPA, then NSF), this meant that no commercial traffic was allowed on the Internet. You could not buy or sell over the Internet. You could not advertise your company.

Secondly, until 1995, the only way to access the Internet was via a college, university, or other non-profit institution that met the NSF criteria. Thus, although networks such as Compuserve and America Online existed, these were not connected to the Internet: you could have an account on America Online, but you could access only AOL online material and send e-mail only to other AOL customers.

The culture of the pre-1995 Internet was largely an academic one; most users had some ties to a college or university. This had some advantages (e.g., there was no such thing as anonymity; you could always find out who the "real person" was behind an e-mail address). But overall, it would be fair to say that the pre-1995 Internet culture was somewhat elitist in comparison to today. It was for this reason that Bill Gates had little interest in the Internet: he considered it largely a plaything of only the geekiest of college and university students and professors—hardly a potentially lucrative market.

But everything changed in 1995. When the NSF privatized the Internet backbone system, there was no longer any valid prohibition of commercial traffic on the Internet. Suddenly, businesses were popping up online, and professors on e-mail discussion lists started seeing e-mail messages sent from "newbies" with e-mail addresses that ended in "aol.com."

Was the party over? Or had it just begun?

This chapter was written by Jeff Nyhoff and Joel Adams. Copy editing by Nancy Zylstra
©2005 Calvin University (formerly Calvin College), All Rights Reserved

If you encounter technical errors, contact computing@calvin.edu.