The Internet - Mid 90's Web Culture

Let's jack into the 'net, surf the Information Superhighway and go visit the global village in this video taking a look at mid 90's Internet culture. Come and see what all the fuss was about before the dot-com bubble even began and people were still trying to work out how to make us of a globally connected network of computers. The concept was so new we still didn't have a consistent name for it.

Features a selection of amusing adverts from the time period and some simulated 56k and T1 period accurate Internet surfing from within Windows 98 using the Protoweb Proxy which lets old machines connect to "The Internet" via the Wayback Machine.

Originally this was going to be a more technical look at 90s web technology, but I got far too distracted experiencing the early Internet again. It's fascinating how the speed of the Internet completely shaped the way it was used. Today people will socialise online or even use it to occupy their time. Back when the Web was new it was expensive - as you'll see from my £200 phone bill! - and going online was a deliberate act. You would plan where to go, what to look at and make a list of things to do. Once that was done, you'd disconnect.

To speed things up we would often disable images when browsing so the text could load faster!

Credits

Contains TV adverts and clips from the following BT Anytime - British Telecom 1993 CNN Report Tomorrow's World 1994 "Are you ready for the Internet" - BBC Freeserve advert from Channel 4 The Computer Chronicles - The Internet 1993 Hayes Modem Windows 98 presentation where the machine blue screens when plugging in a scanner Kids' Guide To The Internet - Diamond Entertainment Corporation 1997

Links

Blog Post - ... Protoweb proxy - https://protoweb.org

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