Narrative Project Research Given Era: The Information Age (1970-2000) The History of Computers The history of computing

spans nearly two centuries which is much longer than most people realize. From the mechanical computers of the 1800s to the room-sized mainframes of the mid-20th century, all the way up to the netbooks and smartphones of today, computers have evolved radically throughout their history. A Timeline of Computers developed from the 1800s to the present day

Mid-1800s1930s: Early Mechanical Computers 1930s: ElectroMechanical Computers

The Difference Engine No.1 Designed by Charles Babbage mid 1800s

The Z1 Designed by Konrad Zuse Developed in 1938

1940s: Electronic Computers

The Z3, Descendant of the Z1 First programme controlled digital computer

Colossus Developed during World War II to decrypt secret German codes

1930s: ElectroMechanical Computers

1950s: The First Commercial Computers

Williams Tube Used random access memory (RAM) for computations.

The UNIVAC First commercial computer in the U.S. First mass-produced computer.

Mid-1950s: Transistor Computers 1960s: The Microchip and Microprocessor

The IBM 650 Would cost $4 million today Smaller model was developed in the mid-1950s.

The IBM 350 RAMAC The first disk drive First introduced in 1956.

1960s: The Microchip and Microprocessor

1970s: Personal Computers

Microchips (integrated circuit) Triggered production of minicomputers and microcomputers

The Commodore PET Went on to sell millions Between 4KB and 48KB of RAM

1980s-1990s: The Early Notebooks and Laptops

1980s-1990s: The Early Notebooks and Laptops

Osborne 1 Produced in 1981 Small enough to transport 5 Monitor

The Gavilan SC First computer to be sold as a laptop Produced in 1983

2000s: The Rise of Mobile Computing

2000s: The Rise of Mobile Computing

Late 2000s: Netbooks

The Droid Smartphone capable of basic computing tasks such as web browsing and emailing

The Asus Eee PC 700 First Notebook that was mass produced Released in 2007

The History of the Internet The Internet was developed during the 1970s by the Department of Defense. In the case of an attack, military advisers suggested the advantage of being able to operate one computer from another terminal. In the early days, the Internet was used mainly by scientists to communicate with other scientists. The Internet remained under government control until 1984. In the early 1990s, the World Wide Web was developed for commercial purposes. Corporations created home pages where they could sell products. Soon almost everything could be purchased online such as airline tickets, hotel reservations, books, and even cars and homes. Colleges and universities posted research data on the Internet, so students could find valuable information without leaving their dormitories. Companies soon discovered that work could be done at home and submitted online, so people started to earn a living from home offices without the hassle of travelling or even having to put clothes on. Soon after, electric mail or Email was introduced; this was a more convenient way of sending messages to family and friends. Where a letter would take days to receive you could receive an email in seconds whenever you wanted. Service providers set up electronic chat rooms which could be used by anyone, anywhere and people could talk to complete strangers over cyberspace. Surfing the Web became a hobby and past time. The map below show how much internet usage there was in the world as of mid1995.

However the unregulated nature of the Internet allowed pornography to be broadcast to millions of homes. Protecting children from these influences or even from meeting violent predators would prove to be difficult. Regardless of its drawbacks, by the end of the 1990s, the world was fast becoming connected through cyberspace.

Above is an illustration showing the progress of the internet from the days of modemconnectivity to the web.

Above is a simple timeline showing the basic progress of computers and the internet.

History and Growth of the Internet from 1995 till Today The following table shows the incredibly fast evolution of the Internet from 1995 till the present time:
DATE December, 1995 December, 1996 December, 1997 December, 1998 December, 1999 March, 2000 July, 2000 December, 2000 March, 2001 June, 2001 August, 2001 April, 2002 July, 2002 September, 2002 March, 2003 September, 2003 October, 2003 December, 2003 NUMBER OF USERS 16 millions 36 millions 70 millions 147 millions 248 millions 304 millions 359 millions 361 millions 458 millions 479 millions 513 millions 558 millions 569 millions 587 millions 608 millions 677 millions 682 millions 719 millions % WORLD POPULATION 0.4 % 0.9 % 1.7 % 3.6 % 4.1 % 5.0 % 5.9 % INFORMATION SOURCE IDC IDC IDC C.I. Almanac Nua Ltd. Nua Ltd. Nua Ltd.

5.8 % Internet World Stats 7.6 % 7.9 % 8.6 % Nua Ltd. Nua Ltd. Nua Ltd.

8.6 % Internet World Stats 9.1 % Internet World Stats 9.4 % Internet World Stats 9.7 % Internet World Stats 10.6 % Internet World Stats 10.7 % Internet World Stats 11.1 % Internet World Stats

February, 2004 May, 2004 October, 2004 December, 2004 March, 2005 June, 2005 September, 2005 November, 2005 December, 2005 March, 2006 June, 2006 Sept, 2006 Dec, 2006 Mar, 2007 June, 2007 Sept, 2007 Dec, 2007 Mar, 2008 June, 2008 Sept, 2008 Dec, 2008 Mar, 2009

745 millions 757 millions 812 millions 817 millions 888 millions 938 millions 957 millions 972 millions 1,018 millions 1,023 millions 1,043 millions 1,086 millions 1,093 millions 1,129 millions 1,173 millions 1,245 millions 1,319 millions 1,407 millions 1,463 millions 1,504 millions 1,574 millions 1,596 millions

11.5 % Internet World Stats 11.7 % Internet World Stats 12.7 % Internet World Stats 12.7 % Internet World Stats 13.9 % Internet World Stats 14.6 % Internet World Stats 14.9 % Internet World Stats 15.2 % Internet World Stats 15.7 % Internet World Stats 15.7 % Internet World Stats 16.0 % Internet World Stats 16.7 % Internet World Stats 16.7 % Internet World Stats 17.2 % Internet World Stats 17.8 % Internet World Stats 18.9 % Internet World Stats 20.0 % Internet World Stats 21.1 % Internet World Stats 21.9 % Internet World Stats 22.5 % Internet World Stats 23.5 % Internet World Stats 23.8 % Internet World Stats

June, 2009 Sept, 2009 Dec, 2009 June, 2010 Sept, 2010 Mar, 2011 Jun, 2011 Sept, 2011 Dec, 2011 Mar, 2012 June, 2012 Sept, 2012 Dec, 2012 March, 2013

1,669 millions 1,734 millions 1,802 millions 1,966 millions 1,971 millions 2,095 millions 2,110 millions 2,180 millions 2,267 millions 2,336 millions 2,405 millions 2,439 millions 2,497 millions 2,749 millions

24.7 % Internet World Stats 25.6 % Internet World Stats 26.6 % Internet World Stats 28.7 % Internet World Stats 28.8 % Internet World Stats 30.2 % Internet World Stats 30.4 % Internet World Stats 31.5 % Internet World Stats 32.7 % Internet World Stats 33.3 % Internet World Stats 34.3 % Internet World Stats 34.8 % Internet World Stats 35.7 % 38.8 % I.T.U. I.T.U.

The History of Mobile Phones Martin Cooper, a senior engineer at Motorola made the first mobile phone call on April 3, 1973. Cooper called a rival telecommunications company and simply said he was speaking to them via a mobile phone. The phone weighed in at 1.1kg and measured 228.6x127x44.4mm; he could get 30 minutes of talk-time and took about 10 hours to charge. Motorola released its first commercial mobile phone in 1983, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. The handset could store 30 phone numbers, offered 30 minutes of talk-time, six hours standby and cost 2639 ($3995). In the very early days of the mobile space handsets werent designed with consumers in mind. Youd need a couple of thousand pounds to get hold of one, and even then performance wasnt great. Even at the start of the 1990s this was still the case despite Nokia and NEC entering the fray. Nokias first 'handheld' mobile phone, the Mobira Cityman 900, launched in 1989 and weighed just 800g a huge improvement over 1982s 9.8kg Mobira Senator model. 1990 to 1995 represented an upward swerve in design and portability, with mobile devices gradually starting to appear in the hands of average consumers for the first time. By the late-1990s, mobile devices were fast becoming the norm. Mobile phones developed from the 1990s to the present day

1997 Nokia 6110 Three Games Calculator, Clock and Calendar Currency Converter 4 Colours

1997 Motorola StarTAC The worlds first clamshell handset

1998 Nokia 5110 Great battery life Snake game Slim for 1998

1999 BlackBerry 850 First handset released under the BlackBerry brand

2000 Nokia 3310 Regarded as one of the best mobile phones created Some say its indestructible

2002 Samsung SGH-T100 First phone to use a thin-film transistor active matrix LCD display

2003 BlackBerry 5810 Email and QWERTY keyboard Had to use headphones because there was no built in speaker

2004 Motorola Razr V3 Best-selling clamshell handset in history

2005 BlackBerry 7270 First BlackBerry to feature Wi-Fi One of the reasons for CrackBerry addiction

2006 Nokia N95 Smartphone with 160MB of RAM 5 megapixel camera Bluetooth Wi-Fi

2007 LG Shine 2.0 megapixels camera with autofocus Java MIDP 2.0 Operating System 50MB Internal Memory MicroSD external memory card slot

2008 Apple iPhone 3G Changed the face of the mobile space forever Helped make touchscreen interface the norm Broke new ground for overall design and finish

The Elderly Coping with Technology Today Day by day technology is growing and the elderly are having a hard time to keep up with modern day technology, so much so that some feel completely detached from the rest of the world. Some try to understand the new technology around today where as others do not want anything to do with it. Statistically people over the age of 50 do not indulge in online activities as much as teenagers who are using such activities every day for everyday things from contacting family and friends to research for homework. This bar chart below shows the statistics of people using online leisure activities in New Zealand last year. There is a 10% increase since 2009. Over three quarters of 15-24 year olds access music online while two thirds access movies online which accounts for downloading as well as watching. 1 in 4 Internet users over the age of 75 years use the internet for reading.

There have been many tests on the elderly where researchers and scientists have given elderly people a piece of technology such as a smartphone and filmed volunteers attempting to perform tasks which would seem easy and simple to the likes of teenagers today. Ian Hosking, who works at Cambridge Universitys Design Centre expresses his view that modern gadgets are designed by young people with young people in mind and in this video he is studying the reactions and responses of the elderly to modern technology with volunteer, 75 year old Archie Ferguson. Mr Ferguson said I was amazed at how thick I am. He also admits he frequently gets frustrated when trying to use modern technology such as a smartphone. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS1Pz7-ACis

Here is another short video of an elderly couple attempting to take a photo on their new mac to send to their friends. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRBcP6MmE8g

There a multiple organisations and programs trying to solve this problem by educating seniors about the technological world, specifically computers. Although this is a great idea, funds for such programs are rather large. An example of one these senior helping programs is Its Never 2 Late. Here is the programs website and a 5 minute video showing the therapy and technology used. http://www.in2l.com/index.cfm/m/therapy/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56WXDrJcONs

Here is a documentary a student has made for a school project about the struggle between older people and technology. The student interviewed his grandparents as shown below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DeW00atojA