January 1st was the 30th anniversary of the modern internet. The 1st marked the cut over to TCP/IP.

Where computers had a giant impact on the way we do our work and what not TCP/IP has had and continues to have an even greater impact. Prior to TCP/IP all things were proprietary. Sharing and sending information between the various networks was all but impossible. TCP/IP changed all of that paving the way for what we have today.

It has been the underlying tidal force of my entire career. Computers may have been the vehicle but without TCP/IP there is no where to go, stuck on an Island trapped in a silo.  TCP/IP Changed all of that.  Computers in their current forms and iterations are nothing like what they were 30 years ago (ok sans a keyboard and yes we still have command prompts.).  TCP/IP on the other hand is the same for the most part.  Even with the addition of IPv6 its still the same at its core, just has more segments its still TCP/IP.  One could argue the same thing about computers that at their core they are still the same too, but to that I say “Shush! this is TCP/IP’s day not yours 8086”.

Take a moment, sit back look at all the devices around you. Every news feed alert, IM message, each dungeon run or quest you complete (Fellow Warcraft players, im looking at you), all Netflix movies you watch on a smart TV and wall you post to would not be what it is today with out the pioneering work of Vint Cerf in 1973, Robert Kahn in the 1970’s, Jon Postel.

There are many other very smart and creative people that provided frameworks to make these things happen but the creation of TCP/IP was the road which they all had to navigate.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MODERN INTERNET…..and

Thanks for one heck of a ride so far.  {Tip of the hat and toast of the Red Bull to ya TCP/IP}

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2013/01/marking-birth-of-modern-day-internet.html