A history of the Internet and the digital future [electronic resource] / Johnny Ryan.

Distributed network, centrifugal ideas
A concept born in the shadow of the Nuke
The military experiment
The essence of the Internet
Computers become cheap, fast and common
Expansion
The Hoi Polloi connect
Communities based on interest, not proximity
From military networks to the global Internet
The Web!
A platform for trade and the pitfalls of the dot-com
The emerging environment
Web 2.0 and the return to the oral tradition
New audiences, the fourth wall and extruded media
Two-way politics
Promise and peril.