Collective Futures: Black History of the Internet
Black History Month encompasses our past, present and future. This year, we are centering on where we’ve been, where we are now and where we want to go, collectively. Celebrating our collective futures gives us the opportunity to acknowledge and appreciate Black History while working toward a bright future, together.
Search Engines and URLs
Internet searches have profoundly changed the way we learn, work, and socialize. Whether you’re developing a new skill, doing competitive analysis, or just want to prove you’re right in a debate with friends, your fact-finding journey is likely to take you to a text- or voice-based search engine. But just a few decades ago the same efforts would have required a library, a phonebook, and analog resources.
Widely considered to be the first search engine, Archie (a play on the word archive) was a system developed by Barbadian-Canadian computer scientist Alan Emtage. Emtage created Archie during his postgraduate studies to aid in his work accessing and managing files as a systems administrator. Since then, search engines have proliferated and expanded their offerings into services like marketing and advertising, positioning themselves as the bridge between your clients and their prospective customers.
Emtage later chaired a non-profit committee which established the standards and conventions for Uniform Resource Locators (URLs), building on the basics of URLs that had been developed thus far to make them usable across more of the internet. If a website is your home online, then the URL is surely the address. It’s how prospects, customers, and other members of your community find your site, and how search engines direct prospects to you.
On one hand Emtage contributed to the convention by which sites are named, and on the other he contributed to the standards by which sites are accessed by search engines. If the adage “knowledge is power” is true, then Archie and the standardization of URLs were both a major step in democratizing access to information online.
Location Services
Location services are so ubiquitous that we rarely give them a second thought. From getting directions to a local store, to playing your favorite mobile games, location services based on GPS technology impact our understanding of the world around us and the way we navigate it every day.
In her four decades at the U.S. Air Force, mathematician Gladys West worked on some of the most sophisticated mathematical models of the time mapping out parts of the solar system. Eventually, she led a team in the programming of a computer that provided an accurate model of earth. This model was the building block for what would become the GPS orbit, enabling countless scientific studies and the commercial development of location based services.
Whether it’s finding love on dating apps or just the best pizza in your neighborhood, the foundation that West and her team built has helped countless people find what they want in the world.
Web Animation
If you’ve logged onto social media lately, you’ve likely been barraged with GIFs, animated images ranging from insightful infographics to hilarious reaction images. But the web hasn’t always been so saturated with multimedia and animations.
In the 1990s, an internet consisting mostly of text and tables was rocked when computer scientist Lisa Gelobter led the product team behind the launch of Shockwave, a platform for developing interactive media online. Since discontinued, Shockwave player and its editing counterpart Director were the de facto tools for multimedia professionals of the time and provided essential technology that led to the development of interactive multimedia, web animation, and video games.
After leading teams at major tech companies and serving as Chief Digital Service Officer to the U.S. Department of Education, Gelobter founded tEQuitable, which provides an independent, confidential platform to address issues of bias, harassment, and discrimination in the workplace.
Electric Microphones
When the coronavirus pandemic hit in full force, swaths of workers around the world shifted to remote work. Phone and video calls became a standard for many, along with the unavoidable question: “Can you hear me?”
Looking to improve on cost, sensitivity, and size of microphones of the time, inventor James West co-patented the electret microphone in the 1960s. Since then, the technology has become the industry standard—as much as 90% of all contemporary microphones, including those in smart phones, baby monitors, and hearing aids, leverage the technology West developed.
Today, Professor West teaches electrical engineering, computer engineering, and mechanical engineering. He also chairs The Ingenuity Project, a Baltimore non-profit fostering public school students’ interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) with a focus on equity across ethnicity, gender, and income.
Conclusion
From its altruistic start to its cemented seat in modern media, the internet along with its technology and culture have always been influenced by Black inventors and innovators. Today, and always, we celebrate the Black creators who’ve left their mark online and IRL. How will you leave yours?
Special thanks to Alan Emtage, Lisa Gelobter, Gladys West and her daughter Carolyn, and James West for sharing their stories.
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