[ih] Internet-history Digest, Vol 10, Issue 1

[Jay Hauben]

Hi,

A friend in Beijing wrote to me that: "I read your presentation and the
first thought is how time fly. Net change our world. But looking back to
the past. Maybe 1990-2019 are the best 30 years humanity had in all
history. We usually got chaos 99% time. But we got development last 30
years. That's not normal."

I answered him that thirty years of the internet has been a spectacular
time of development. Can you imagine the word fighting the COVID-19
pandemic without the internet? If there were no internet, there could be
very little working from home, no online classes for students stuck at
home, no video communication with family and friends, much more loneliness,
no way to stop rumors and get scientific information to ordinary people,
etc.

We are lucky to live in the time when the internet was invented and spread
and so many people became netizens and spoke up to try to make their
societies better.

The pandemic has proven again that we are all in the same big world. That
is why the friendship among the people of the world and the internet are so
important.