Tag: internet

As mentioned in the latest posts, there are many possibilities for online communication nowadays. But what do they offer in terms of integrity, confidentiality and - let's face it - persistence? It can be argued that especially the last part is very questionable. For how long have been instant messengers or social networks in use? Not that long. Especially compared to time-tested electronic mail with its complex ecosystem. This ecosystem can actually form a basis for modern and secure communication.

It is more than appropriate to finish our mini series about messaging on the Internet with the biggest paradigm shift when the general public started to use Internet on daily basis for casual communication as well. We can only ponder whether this was for better or worse.

Last week we have discussed some of the emerging methods of communication on the early Internet. We covered the means of communication where the primary target was conveying information to single or multiple recipients and where - at least theoretically - the primary communication intent was work- or research-related. Today we see quite the opposite trend where the communication platforms are originally envisioned for free time communication and only later on the companies try to leverage them for some possible profit. If we look at the dawn of time, we can see that this is nothing new.

It has been a busy year here at Trustica and while typically people use the occasion of the beginning of a new year to reflect on what has happened in the last one, I would like to look further back in time and write about some highlights in the history of Internet messaging. It turns out, the history of communication over interconnected data networks has a lot to do with what we have been up to for almost a year now and we have learned a lot and I think some parts are really worth sharing.