A little over 47 years ago, a pair of Russian dogs went on a trip which would change the world forever. Belka and Strelka were onboard Russian artificial satellite Sputnik 5, and when they returned to earth a day later, they made history by becoming the first living creatures to survive a space trip. The subsequent period of scientific research led to the creation of what we know today to be the internet. In the present day, the electronic ink has barely dried on a common consensus for what is meant by Web 2.0, and the notion of Web 3.0 is already being debated, marking the third phase of web evolution.

Despite a literal misunderstanding that Web 2.0 is a new creation, or some sort of alternative to the net', the term is actually a retrospective evaluation of how web content and interaction has evolved. The internet, (a collection of interconnected computer networks), initially stemmed from the need for large organisations to communicate information from city to city, in order to pool expert knowledge into some sort of web (interconnected documents and resources).

The success of Sputnik 5 and its canine crew signalled what the American Department of Defence had feared. The Russians were closing in on sending a man into space, and possibly landing on the moon. The Cold War of technological development was in full swing, and the Americans felt compelled to invest more money in science and research.

It was at this time that NASA was formed to further the Americans space program, while the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) strove to develop a variety of more earthly innovations. ARPA created the Information Processing Technology Office (IPTO), whose initial task was to further the research of the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) project, which had created a link between the various American radar systems of the time.

J.C.R. Licklider - who would later be referred to as Johnny Appleseed, recognising the fact that he had sown the seeds of modern computer networks - worked closely with Lawrence Roberts at IPTO, to create a network based on the concept of packet as opposed to circuit switching.

On October 29th, 1969 at the University of California Los Angeles, the first node of the new network, known as ARPANET was sent live. ARPANET was the precursor to further research by The British Post Office, Western Union International and Tymnet, which resulted in the first international packet switched network - International Packet Switched

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