1.  Internet Basics I Fulton County Public Library Mobile Digital Media Lab

2. Basic Concepts  What is the Internet?  A network of computers around the world, used to share ideas and information  What is it used for?  Finding information  Sharing information  Cat pictures :)  What is “information”?  Any file on your computer

3. Why Internet?  Free and Open (relatively speaking)  Constantly Changing/Updating  Communication Tool- eMail, Instant Messaging (IM)/Chat, VoIP, Blogs  Entertainment  Case by case basis: Does the benefit outweigh the cost?

4. Internet: Diversion or Tool?  Some people just use the web for fun  Others make their living on the web  Others still buy things online  People use it to connect to others, to share ideas/work together  The Internet is everywhere! Not just home PCs; laptops, cell phones, tablets, other portable devices

5. Web browsers  What is a web browser?  A web browser is a computer program which allows you to view web pages located on other peoples’ computers/servers Ex.: Internet Explorer, FireFox, Google Chrome  How does the internet work?  A person creates a web site and shares it on their computer  Another person (you) types the address of that website into the address bar of their web browser  The web browser reads & displays the web page

6. History of Internet  A (brief) History- 1950’s - a message was sent from a computer at UCLA to a 2nd computer at Stanford. Early 1960s - ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) [limited to military sites and universities] Late 70’s Early 80’s - BBS (Bulletin Board Systems) which were the precursor to modern Forums websites Dec. 1974 - “Internet” is coined as shortening of “internetworking” 1982 - Domain Name Servers are created, allowing for “.com” names instead of strings of numbers 1986 - NSFNET sets up the first 56k (“modern” dialup) internet 1989 - Europe’s internal internet goes global 1989 - CompuServe is first to offer consumer internet

7. History of Internet 2  Modern History- 1989 – AOL offers largest “walled garden” internet service 1989 - “The World”: first commercial dialup 1990 - The outdated ARPANET is decommisioned 1991 - WorldWideWeb: world’s first web browser 1993 - Mosaic: first browser to display images on webpages! 1994 - Netscape Navigator (from the creators of Mosaic) 1995 - Internet Explorer (a clone of Mosaic) 1996 – Opera web browser 1998 - “Mozilla open source project” allows for new browsers 2003 – Safari: Apple’s web browser 2004 – Mozilla Firefox 2008 - Google Chrome

8. Parts of the internet/browser… Address BarTab(s) Site Index Menu Bar Scroll Bar Zoom Exit Settings Favorites Home Page Text links underlined Pictures / buttons often “clickable”

9. Favorites  Shortcuts to websites  Also called “bookmarks”  Remember site addresses for you in browser  Can be transferred to other browsers  People are creatures of habit Browsers remember where you have been for you to make it easier next time!

10. History  In “View” menu, under “Explorer Bars”  Remembers where you have been today, yesterday, last week, last month, last year, etc…  Useful for remembering sites you’ve recently visited.

11. The World Wide Web, summary  The internet is not to be feared.  If harnessed properly, one can make it work for and not against us…  Practice makes perfect  It is your portal to information and like the public library, it is free and open to all…