Feb. 16 Internet Messaging And Surveillance!
Today in history gives birth to the concepts of internet messaging and internet surveillance. This is something that is really relevant.
Internet Messaging Is Born on February 16, 1977
On this day in history, Ward Christensen and Randy Suess launched the first public dialup bulletin board system (BBS). In theory one could call BBSes from anywhere in the world, but since the connection was chargeable, BBSers tended to limit communication to local BBSers.
The Precursor To Twitter and Live Chat
But BBSes were only the beginning of what would eventually spawn the worldwide webs countless online messaging systems including Twitter.
Today we are fortunate to enjoy messaging through Live Chat in WA. We all know the value this adds to getting quick help instantly. It is one of the benefits of being a Premium or Premium Plus member.
So That’s Messaging! What About Surveillance?
The Inventor Of Internet Surveillance Is Born February 16, 1977
Today in history, Ian Clarke is born. He was a Computer Scientist who took lead in the development of FreeNet. FreeNet is one of the first peer to peer communication tools focused on free communication with protection against total surveillance. It was written in Java Script.
And Freenet Is Still In Use Today
Freenet is a self-contained network. It is a peer to peer platform for censorship-resistant communication. It uses a decentralized distributed data store to keep and deliver information, and has a suite of free software for publishing and communicating on the Web without fear of censorship. So if you wish to distribute data free of censorship to a specific recipient Freenet works as long as your recipient uses Freenet as well.
Why Don’t We All Use Freenet?
To connect to our favorite browsers Google Chrome, Bing, Yahoo and social media sites such as Facebook, a proxy server is needed. A proxy server acts as a gateway between us and the internet. It's an intermediary separating us as end users from the websites we browse. Unless proxy servers are used our websites will not be available and viewable by the worldwide web.
Proxy servers provide varying levels of functionality, security, and privacy depending on our browsing choices. Browsing in incognito offers a thin layer of privacy. But Proxy servers do not offer protection against censorship.
Recently we have heard a lot about internet censorship. Now we know that Freenet is available and large tech companies cannot touch it.
So We Can Be Grateful That February 16th Took Place In History.
We definitely use its results. Do you use the WA Live Chat feature? Have you ever used Freenet?
Enjoy messaging today!
Recent Comments
11
Thanks so much that was interesting. What is also interesting is that it was launched in the month of Aquarius which is the sign for technology & of course the internet !
Have a great day.
Trevor
My nephew, MT Anderson, wrote a best selling novel for young adults called "Feed" about internet messaging and surveillance. Back then it was pretty much science fiction. Thanks for the post.
Very interesting! Feed Reminds me of the Big Brother. Before their time! Thanks for sharing.
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Hi George, thank you for sharing a little bit about messaging and surveillance history. Very interesting.
Michael
Thanks for enjoying. I have been doing a day in computer/ technology history since Feb. 8 this year. It is very interesting to see what has happened. So its a series I am doing.