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Web Scout
Heroes of Internet Innovation
By Marcia Koth de Paredes
There are many extraordinary people who work hard to make the Internet a useful development tool for societies based on freedom. This Web Scout includes information about people I consider “heroes” for the important questions they help answer as advocates for freedom and as creators of practical applications in accord with their ideals. Historical timelines that quickly offer more detail about Internet history are also included below.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee:
How can electronic documents be shared? Berners-Lee began to write a program to create, view, edit and link electronic documents in 1980 during free time while working at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. He dubbed this global hypertext program the “Worldwide Web.” After he finished writing the tools that defined the Web's basic structure he gave them away for public use, with CERN's blessing, no strings attached.
The web program base is HTML (hypertext markup language), HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocols) and URLs (Universal Resource Locators). Now at MIT, the recently knighted native of England is developing the Semantic Web by adding definition tags to information on Web pages in order to improve searching and sharing.
For more information on his thinking and his projects, see:
Interview in Technology Review:
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/04/10/frauenfelder1004.asp?PM=GO
Biography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee
Personal Page: http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/
Lawrence Lessig:
Who will own ideas? Lessig founded the Creative Commons, teaches, and supervises court battles for improvement of U.S. copyright law. He insists on building a culture of collaboration and campaigns against government and business limitations, either by law or by fee, on the use of new technologies. He believes that people should be able to mix and remix new technologies for cooperative and creative effort.
The Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization for development of proprietary licenses that are more flexible than the typical US copyrights for software producers, authors, filmmakers, musicians and other creators. A CC license enables holders to grant some rights to the public while retaining others. The intention is to avoid the problems current copyright laws in the US create for sharing information. Examples of licenses are: Flickr, Internet Archive, Wikimedia Commons, Jamendo, MIT OpenCourse Ware.
See for ideas:
Free Culture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Culture
and Remixing Culture: An Interview with Lawrence Lessig: http://www.oreillynet.com/lpt/a/5666
Biography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Lessig
Blog: http://www.lessig.org/blog/
Creative Commons: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons
Steven Clift:
How can Internet help increase democratic participation?
His particular concern is for online collaboration and interaction resources to improve government and citizen interaction.
How to Start an Online Public Commons: http://www.e-democracy.org/do/commons.html
Biography and his articles: http://www.publicus.net/topten.html
Blog, Email, Wiki Working Space: http://dowire.org
Martin Dougiamas:
How can learning via Internet be improved? He wrote Moodle (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) as an open source platform to help educators create online courses. The program is based on the idea that education is two-way, that students and teachers should share and shape the learning experience via stories about personal experience and reflective inquiry. There are now more than ten thousand registered sites in use for education in 147 countries partly because the program is easy to use and free.
Description of Moodle Program: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moodle
Dougiamas Autobiography: http://dougiamas.com/
Moodle Home Page: http://moodle.org/login/index.php
Luis Piazzon, Carlos Wendorff,
Marcia Vargas de Sanchez, Edwin San Roman:
How can the private sector innovate new technologies in Peru? The people mentioned are a few members of an extraordinary team of Peruvians who established the Red Cientifica Peruana (RCP), an Internet service provider located in ESAN in the early days. The RCP started as a collaboration among the Pontificia Universidad Catolica, ESAN and other universities and then as a private, nonprofit organization in 1991 to link academic, public and business organizations by interconnecting computers using TCP/IP protocols. While the governments in other Latin American countries were investing heavily to build their national networks, the RCP did it without government support and stimulated Internet extension throughout the country by privately owned “Cabinas Públicas” that use RCP services.
Luis Piazzon continues to be a leader of the RCP and a professor at ESAN, Carlos Wendorff is director of the Institute for Transfer of Technology and their services through InnovaPUCP at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica, Marcia Vargas is a consultant on information system management, Edwin San Roman is the President of OSIPTEL. For information on their recent work see:
Red Científica Peruana: http://www.rcp.net.pe/
Yachay: http://www.yachay.com/ (See Quelcas for librarians)
InnovaPUCP: http://www.pucp.edu.pe/serv_terceros/innovapucp/ (See Ventana Publica and Ventana de la Sociedad Civil)
Organismo Supervisor de la Inversión Privada en Telecomunicaciones (OSIPTEL): http://www.osiptel.gob.pe/
The following provide more information about other international “stars” of Internet.
Internet History Timelines
Portal: Internet Society: All about the Internet: http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/
Internet History Timeline: Hobbes' Internet Timeline: http://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/
History of the Internet: Unsung Heroes: http://www.computing.co.uk/2133662
La Experiencia de Internet en el Perú: a Diez Años de la RCP:
http://macareo.pucp.edu.pe/~evillan/exper.htm
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