The last ten to fifteen years has seen several enormous leaps in technology that have given us the Internet that we know and love today.
Initially invented by the US military to give them a communications network that could survive a nuclear attack, the ARPANET, was developed. In 1969 the first computers were linked, they were located at the University of California at Los Angeles, SRI (in Stanford), University of California at Santa Barbara, and the University of Utah. This early Internet was later adopted by scientific and government establishments assist research as an aid to speed communication.
In the mid nineties easy to use web browsers such as Netscape and Internet Explorer came onto the scene and this totally transformed the way the Internet was used - no longer a text based medium the web was now comprised of images and the Internet took another massive leap forward.
Over the last five years we have seen the introduction of ADSL and broadband services which have increased the speed at which the text and images that comprise web sites can be downloaded. With the uptake of broadband technologies being rapidly taken up by home and business users alike the Internet is still growing and developing as we speak. A new range of Internet capable mobile devices are also coming on the scene and these could yet again change the landscape again.
As well as the new mobile devices, to make the web more personal, to allow user specific content to be served and to allow users to log their preferences and online purchases to be made web sites need a database system and a way of coupling the web page with the data in the database.
So to succeed in this industry you will not only need to be multi-skilled but must also relish the challenge of learning new technologies and skills to keep up to date.
Hedley Thomas - Web Site Consultancy Services. www.tactics.co.uk
