Blog 3: A Gig is a Billion

In chapter 5 and 6 of "Tubes", Blum finally dives more into what actually makes the Internet the Internet. He talks about the different pieces and their functions by putting their functions into fairly basic language. He also talks about how all this equipment and power is ultimately invisible to us and the only way to truly grasp what goes on "behind the scenes" is to educate yourself and imagine it. Something I have noticed about Blum's writing, especially in Chapter 5 is his attention to detail and imagery in his writing. You can tell that through all of his research he relied on his imagination to understand things that he had little knowledge on. In the video I linked below is a summery of essentially chapter 5 and the explanation of getting from point A to be B.

Another part that really stood out to me was when Par Westesson talked about how a gig is a billion. this part of the book really started to put into perspective how massive the Internet is and how much work it does in a day, minute, and even a second.

Finally, in chapter 6 Blum focuses on the underground tubes and talks more about how the power of imagination has lead him to believe that these underwater tubes are one of the most magical aspects of the Internet. One of the key players in these magical tubes was Simon Cooper. Cooper helped develop the connections that reach us around the world. Blum goes on about the geography of the tubes and how strategically they are place.

Again these two chapters were confusing and left me with more questions then answers. I feel like overtime I finish a chapter I realize how little about the Internet I really knew, but also helps me see the gaps I had put in place about concepts I had never really took much time to learn about. Some questions I have are:

1. In the world, nations often fight about land and property. As we move forward in the development of the Internet how do we make sure these battle over whose tubes or who don't develop into a major issue?

2. My topic for the upcoming project is Social Networks. We rely heavily on Social Networks to connect us to be people all over the world and for a lot of people, the main use for the internet. If we didn't have these ways of communication would the Internet be as valuable to us? Because we rely so heavily on the underwater tubes for communication should we take more priority in understanding how they work and where they are?

Blog 2: The Personal Connection and the Internet

In chapter 3 of "Tubes" Blum talks about two very important players in the establishment of connectivity in the Internet.  Eric Troyer and Jay Adelson. Adelson founded Equinix which is a company that works to give power to data centers, and Troyer who works for the successful company.   The three of them walked around the PAIX and could physically see the evolution of the internet and its connectivity developing through out the years. Blum refers to the "network effect" which refers to the phenomenon that something will become more useful the more that people use it and that is just what happened with this company. As more and more large Internet providers moved into the building the more wanted to be there. Another interesting the company faced in its early years was managing all of the cables. This is an issue I have always been a little curious about because if there is a problem with my internet how would someone know exactly what cable needs to be checked? How often do these cables need to be replaced or have diagnostics run on them? As PAIX became a pioneer in figure out ways around this issue they needed to expand and fast.

In chapter 4 Blum talked more about personal interactions with the internet and how they affect our lives. He talked more about the philosophical aspect that the internet presents in our usage. While I appreciated this point of view it was very reoccurring and felt forced at times. In this chapter he talked more about the development of the Internet that we know now and again some of the terminology went over my head.

My questions after reading this chapter are:

1. Will there ever be a time where all of the service providers merge into one? Are we over complicating things by having all of these different companies and making things more expensive then they need to be?

2. Will there ever be a time that everything will be wireless? Will there be a time where we don't even  need the "tubes"?

Blog 1: A Squirrel Ate My Internet

Andrew Blum's, "Tubes" starts off in the prologue by admitting he hadn't given much thought to where or rather what the internet is. The most tangible think he could heaps onto of what the inner is was the modem with five green lights in his living room that had a couple cables sticking out here and there. When the Internet stopped working in his home because a squirrel had chewed through some exposed wires Blum's journey began to find out what the internet is really made of.

Blum begins his research in Milwaukee, WI where he come to the concluding that the Internet could be imagined in three realms: 1) Logically- electronic signals that "magically" bring internet into our lives. 2) Physically- the wires and machines that we can physically see and 3) Geographically- where the signals reach to. During his research he struggles to imagine the map on which the internet exists because of the numerous webs of connections that one router will reach out to. He visits a building that stores a lot of the Milwaukee's Internet connections. There he sees all of the "tubes" which actually contained fiber-optic cables, glass strands that contains information encoded in pulses of light. This chapter was a little difficult for me to understand from my perspective because I feel that in my life I have only skimmed the surface of what the Internet is and some of the terminology they used went over my head so I am definitely looking forward to expanding my vocabulary that is correlated to the Internet.

In chapter 2 Blum focused more on where the Internet started and tackled the difficult question of who actually invented the Internet? He soon discovered that there are multiple "fathers" of the Internet, but a very substantial one could be found at the University of California - Los Angeles by the name of Leonard Kleinrock. He goes onto visit him and see the location of the first IMP that was founded by the Department of Defense and ultimately grew into something more than just a weapon, but an overtime tool for the average American. The rest of the chapter goes in depth on the importance of the ARPANET project had on the development of the Internet that we know today. Blum also begins to talk about the exciting expansion of user friendly networks and the philosophical shifts that these new communication modes played in the way we connected person to person.

These first couple chapters were honestly a little difficult for me to understand, but also exposed me to many concepts and knowledge about the internet that I had never really explored before. However, these chapters did leave me with some questions:

1. Blum talks a little bit about the trust in other people that the internet requires and even talks about the 2 hour crash of YouTube. At what point do we have to be smart and stop trusting others that they will not hack or crash any websites containing personal information? Our world is so technically based now and what protection do we have? And if there is an "attack" on our personal computers how do we defend ourselves?

2. Another idea that left me a little confused was what is the importance of knowing what the Internet is physically? People seem to do just fine relying on this magically signals, so why bother educating ourselves on how they get to us?

Blum, A. (2012). Tubes: A journey to the center of the internet. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers. [Prologue, chapters 1 & 2]

About Me

Hello! I'm Sydney Elliott

Welcome to my blog for WRIT 3577W Rhetoric, Technology and the Internet. I am a sophomore, here, at the University of Minnesota and I am currently double majoring in Political Science and Technical Writing and Communication. These two majors are preparing me well for a future career in the political world. However, I have always been attracted to technology and have always been the "IT Person" of my family. This class excited me because I am able to learn more about technology and the internet, while also diving further into one of my majors. In this course I hope to learn about different aspects of the Internet and its capability in communication.