Ethernet · TCP/IP · HTTP · Search engines · Open source · AI
An automatic presentation with one station per shift – from local networks and open protocols to the web, the platform economy, blockchains and AI.
ARPANET
ARPANET connects the first nodes and shows that packet-switching networks can carry distributed digital communication – the practical seed of the Internet.
Caption: J.C.R. Licklider, Lawrence Roberts et al.
Ray Tomlinson shows that networks are not only about machine-to-machine, but about human communication. The “@” becomes the addressing symbol that makes the Internet social long before social media.
Caption: Ray Tomlinson
Ethernet
Ethernet, developed at Xerox PARC, lays the foundation for the local network that later becomes second nature in offices, data centres and campuses. It is the station where the digital world gets cables, discipline and scale.
Caption: Robert Metcalfe, David Boggs
TCP/IP
TCP/IP makes it possible to connect different networks with open rules instead of proprietary islands. Here arises the architecture that later makes global interoperability possible.
Caption: Vinton Cerf, Robert Kahn
Internet
When ARPANET switches to TCP/IP we get the modern Internet in practical form. The same year DNS arrives, making the network more human through names instead of numeric addresses.
Caption: Vinton Cerf, Robert Kahn, Paul Mockapetris
The Web
At CERN, Tim Berners-Lee formulates the web, creates HTML and HTTP, and gets the first site online. Here the Internet becomes a public publishing medium instead of a specialist network.
Caption: Tim Berners‑Lee
Mosaic & Netscape
Graphical browsers make the web comprehensible and inviting for ordinary users. Here the commercial web is born, soon drawing in media, advertising and entire consumer markets.
Caption: Marc Andreessen, Eric Bina, Jim Clark
Open source
The open web stack breaks the proprietary companies’ grip on infrastructure. Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP make it cheap to build web services at global scale.
Caption: Brian Behlendorf, Rasmus Lerdorf, Michael Widenius, Michael Kunze
Search
The search engine changes the game from “finding a website” to “finding an answer”. Information asymmetries are pushed back as knowledge becomes searchable in real time.
Caption: Larry Page, Sergey Brin
Social & mobile
The open knowledge build, the social graphs and the smartphone move the web from the desk to the pocket – and from websites to ever-present platforms.
Caption: Jimmy Wales, Larry Sanger, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Andy Rubin
The value layer
The blockchain introduces a new layer on top of the Internet: transport and storage of value, not only information. Bitcoin establishes scarce digital assets; Ethereum makes the chain programmable.
Caption: Satoshi Nakamoto, Vitalik Buterin
Cloud & platforms
Cloud infrastructure turns computation, storage and distribution into a service. Companies no longer just build systems – they build platforms and APIs that other companies build on top of.
Caption: Jeff Bezos, Marc Benioff et al.
The AI breakthrough
AlexNet marks that neural networks, large data sets and GPU power work together in practice. Cheaper storage, Moore’s law and modern GPUs open the door to today’s AI era.
Caption: Alex Krizhevsky, Ilya Sutskever, Geoffrey Hinton, Jensen Huang
AI as a layer
Large language models mean the web no longer just stores and distributes information – it also starts processing it. AI becomes a new cognitive layer on top of HTTP, APIs and the cloud.
Caption: The OpenAI team, Google DeepMind et al.
Next step
The deck loops automatically and can be used as kiosk display, background presentation or embedded web page. The next natural step is packaging it as a simple website with a start page, autoplay and direct links to each station.