Scratch Video a mutant hybrid of scratch DJ music and guerrilla TV

scratchvideo/evolution/personalcomputer/worldwideweb

The modem came out in the early 1970's, a device which allowed users to send information back and forth between computers, and form networks. The largest network is called the internet, defined as:

"The global network of computers and computer networks that evolved from the US Department of Defense's Advanced Research Project Agency network, an experimental packet-switching network set up in 1972." (Cotton and Oliver 176)

That's how the internet started: the Department of Defense designed ARPAnet to control the United States' capabilities to respond to nuclear attack. They wanted a way to re-route information if a nuclear bomb destroyed any of their computers. A "packet" network meant information could be sent through a number of routes, even if some along the chain were no longer functioning. This also guaranteed capability for retaliation -- a way to launch missiles after being attacked. Academics were the first to appropriate this technology from the military, and then other small communities began posting text messages to each other on what they called "bulletin boards".

In 1991, Tim Berners-Lee came up with a way for different kinds of computers on the network to talk to each other. His World Wide Web was a common language, a specific way to transfer information and an address for each computer. He posted his free program on the internet for interested people to download.

Personal computers now had a way to pass along information to each other, text-only. Mosaic, developed by Marc Andreesen, was a way to look through the information available to computes on the Web, using a graphical interface capable of displaying text and images. Later versions of "browsers" could access multimedia content, thanks to modems that could handle information at much faster speeds. By 1996, modems were released that sent information over cable rather than phone lines.

The cable line has only been used as a one-way model of communication, but cable modems extend the technology and let people for the first time send back their own information. This fits in perfectly with how Tim Berners-Lee envisions the World Wide Web:

"I had (and still have a dream) that the Web will be less of a television channel and more of an interactive sea of shared knowledge." (Cotton and Oliver 36)

Access to both the production and distribution of information is increasing dramatically for those with access to the technology. No longer confined to being physically handed from person to person (like the first DJ mix tapes), the web gives alternative media broadcast capability. Scratch video producers use the web for promotion (web sites and search engines), and to show their work. Sites like microcinema and anteye, host independent films and videos for distribution to an unlimited potential audience.

Copyright 2000© Hart Snider