It started with an L and an O. Then the system crashed.

But the event, exactly 50 years ago, is usually counted on the sound of the birth of the Internet.

“It was a historic event of almost succeeding in sending three letters. It was a good start”. The researchers at UCLA in California actually tried to send the “Login” command to another research institute. However, so far, this was not the groundbreaking attempt on October 29, 1969. Background: Childhood of the Internet

Already in the early 1960s, the US defense began to develop the Arpanet network, a precursor to today’s Internet.

October 29, 1969 is one of the key dates in the history of the Internet. Researchers at UCLA in California then tried to send the “Login” command to a computer at the Stanford Institute, also in California.

Only the first two letters could be sent, but the event is still seen as a breakthrough.

In 1971, the first email was sent.

The word “Internet” first appeared in 1973, in connection with the network becoming international when a computer in Norway is connected via a ground station in Tanum in Bohuslän. A month later, the UK also gets its first connection.

In Sweden, during the 1980s, it was mainly the universities that participated in the development of the Internet. The university sites are linked together in a network where researchers and students can communicate digitally with each other.

Later, the Nordic university networks are linked and on December 1, 1988, the network gets a line to Princeton in New York.

The web (world wide web), created by physicist Tim Berners-Lee, emerged in 1989.

But even with just “LO” the breakthrough was the fact. For the first time, two computers had talked to each other through what would later become the Internet.

 The development since then has been explosive, states Patrik Fältström, an expert who has worked in various forms with the internet since the 1980s.

“The digitalisation explosion is really two things that happened at the same time, says Fältström, today technology and security manager at Netnod”.

“Secondly, the ability to convert information into ones and zeros and back. Partly what they found 50 years ago, namely moving ones and zeros back and forth”

The early, stumbling steps of the 1960s have become the Internet 50 years later that we know today. With websites about everything between heaven and earth, constant connection through our smart phones and vehicles that can do without a driver.

According to Patrik Fältström, it’s really just the imagination that sets the boundaries for how the Internet’s next 50 years will be.

 “I think the internet itself will be as boring and obvious as water and electricity. I hope so, at least, that we shouldn’t even think about it” he says.

“The interesting thing is all the services, like the web, Swish, Facebook, Spotify. This is what we must extrapolate 50 years into the future”.

Basically, everything today that has an electric cord may as well have a fiber cord as well. The step to connect cars and other mobile things wirelessly is also not far. Instead, the big changes in the future will be made in how the Internet is applied, believes Patrik Fältström.

“Once you have all these things connected, it is just your imagination that says what applications and services you can run. Then you can really start to invent things”.

Source: Internetmuseum.se, AB

This morning I attended a brekfast meeting in Gothenberg arranged by MAQS Law Form and the SEB bank.

The topic was Brexit and I, together with Richard Falkenhäkk from SEB, were asked to deliver our latest news about Brexit to a large number of Swedish businesses.

I opened with my estimation of the Withdrawal Agreement Bill, potential Customs and Border solutions, alternative attangements, the political situation, business preparations and different scenarios, while Richard talked about macro economic estimations for different scenarios and much more.

It was a great meeting arranged by Michael Åström from MAQS Law Firm.

‪Interesting analys from Open Europe about the difference of a Brexit No-Deal after a transition period 31 December 2020 and a No-Deal as we have discussed it for 31 October.‬

A ‘No trade deal’ is not the same as ‘No Withdrawal Agreement’.

It is also important to remember that the post-transition version of ‘No Deal’ would be different to a scenario where the UK left the EU without a Withdrawal Agreement.

Recognition of these differences must inform both the public debate over a post-transition ‘No Deal’ and the Government’s preparations for such a scenario. The key differences are summarised in the table below.

You can read the article here: No Deal vs. no Deal

Source: Open Europe