[Air-l] Origin of the term "Internet" ?

[Hugemusic]

Grammatically speaking, it should be capitalised as long as there is the 
possibility of other internets.  In other words, it is THE Internet, but 
other internets are also possible.  This is done to clarify which internet 
is being referred to. Rather like the Western (cultural) world, as opposed 
to western (geographic) places.  Nifty and often overlooked grammatical 
device.

However, I'm not aware of any other internets so it seems rather redundant - 
though the possibility is always there, I suppose ... I always capitalise, 
just in case  :-)

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Hughie

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tama Leaver" <tamaleaver at gmail.com>
To: <air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2007 11:11 AM
Subject: Re: [Air-l] Origin of the term "Internet" ?


> Hi All,
>
> Regarding the capitalisation (or not), in 2004, Wired ran a column
> declaring: It's Just the 'internet' Now
> http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2004/08/64596
>
> I recall it provoked a lot of discussion at the time; I've not capitalised
> internet for a while, but are others still Internetting?
>
> - Tama
>
>
> On 3/29/07, James Whyte <whyte.james at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>> The capitaliztion is because it is treated as a proper noun - "a specific
>> person, place or thing." Harbrace College Handbook
>>
>> Joseph Reagle <reagle at mit.edu> wrote:  On Wednesday 28 March 2007, Tamara
>> Paradis wrote:
>> > Been poking around trying to find what organization or individual 
>> > coined
>> the
>> > term "Internet" and also trying to find out why the term is always
>> > capitalized. I keep coming up with a lot of information on the origin
>> > stories of the network and technology (i.e. ARPAnet) but nothing that
>> > pinpoints the dawn of the umbrella term "Internet".
>>
>> Not sure if this is what you were after, but Vint Cerf is fond of talking
>> about how the merging of ARPANET, PRNET, and SATNET were known as
>> the "'inter-net' problem" [1]. However, I've not found much documentation
>> of that.
>>
>> [1] http://legalminds.lp.findlaw.com/list/cyberia-l/msg27462.html
>>
>> What I have found is that the terms international, internet, and
>> internetwork were used rather throughout the 1970s, they (Cerf) couldn't
>> even settle on what to call it, or what ITP stood for:
>>
>> Vinton Cerf
>> + ~ A partial specification of an International Transmission
>> Protocol
>> o y=1973
>> o Specifies a International Transmission Protocol (ITP)
>> implemented via TCP
>> Vinton Cerf, Yogen Dalal, Carl Sunshine
>> + ~ Specification of Internet Transmission Control Program
>> o n=RFC 675, NIC 2 INWG 72 m=December y=1974
>> Vinton Cerf
>> + ~ IEN #5: Specification of Internet Transmission Control
>> Program: TCP (Version 2)
>> o m=March y=1977
>> o Uses the term Internet, but otherwise speaks about
>> Internetwork
>> Vinton G. Cerf, Jonathan B. Postel
>> + ~ Specification of Internetwork Transmission Control Program:
>> TCP, Version 3
>> o m=January y=1978
>> o Version 3 simplifies TCP by breaking out IP into a separate
>> spec, goes back to using Internetwork
>>
>> In version 3 (1978) because IP was split out of TCP, and was 
>> unambiguously
>> referred to as Internet Protocol, I think that's when the term began to
>> stick. However, there's more ambiguity on the details and versioning of
>> these specs [2], so it's not as easy as that!
>>
>> [2]
>> http://www.postel.org/pipermail/internet-history/2006-October/000644.html
>>
>> My theory as to why Internet remains capitalized whereas the Web doesn't
>> is:
>> language usage evolves in odd ways, and Internet seems more like an
>> acronym
>> which perhaps innoculates it from change.
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>
>
>
> -- 
> Dr Tama Leaver
> Associate Lecturer (Higher Education Development)
> Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (M400)
> University of Western Australia
> 35 Stirling Highway
> Crawley WA 6009 Australia
> Ph: (+61 8) 6488 1502
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>
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