Reflection
on TMA04
I enjoyed researching TMA04 a great deal more than other
assignments as a lot of the information was new to me whereas the
other assignments contained material with which I was already
familiar with to some extent.
The major difficulty I found with the assignment was with the
complexity of the story of the development of the Internet. In
order to establish the main personalities involved on the
development of the Net I had to unravel the key technologies from
the key personalities and establish who had major roles in each.
Hyper linking allowed me to relate these relationships and
with this assignment made me realise the real power of HTML.
I feel I may have contradicted myself in regards to my
introduction and my conclusion. My introduction stated that it
would be difficult to specify an individual for the title of
father of the internet, however in the conclusion I stated that I
felt J.C.R. Licklider was suited to the title.
This is because I wrote the Introduction prior to doing full
research on the issue and whilst doing the research I discovered
more about Licklider and perhaps allowed my opinions to be swayed
from what I read about not only about his technical involvement
but also his personality.
I have applied what my tutor recommended as regard backgrounds
for this type of web page. I feel I have applied what I learned
with regards backgrounds and imagery for this assignment. While
researching TMA04 I found a mailto: link to Steve Crocker, one of
the founders of the Internet, an asked him for his thoughts on
the issue of "Fathers of the Internet". This email exchange made me realise the power
of such links and this form of communication, especailly in such
a research environment.
| That individual, J.C.R. Licklider, seemed to have so
much depth of character, had such an impact on the world
of computers, yet did not have a computing background. So
many sites referred to him as "The Father of the
Internet", with so many people talking of him uin
such affectionte terms that perhaps I was swayed from a
totally objective view. Yet he was a visionary, and he
was inspirational to those who would build the computer
industry and Internet of the future.
So perhaps it would have been more appropriate to
identify him with the title from the introduction and go
into more detail with regards his contribution throughout
the report. As such perhaps only then could I have done
justice to the man and his achievements.
|
 |
In retrospect, I feel that perhaps it was the wrong approach
to identify so many individuals and technologies that were
involved in the issue, especially as I reached the conclusion of
identifying one individual in the end.
But I did feel that the site upon which the report was written
was essentially quite good, having a lot of depth and multiple
links to make the complex relationship between all factors a
little clearer.
