The Internet arguably defines modern society. It has revolutionized our media and our culture. Some are in a constant struggle to adapt to it, while many embrace it for its limitless potential. Four decades ago, it was incarnated as a means of military communiqué (ARPANET) and since that time it has become a center of influence on our world. To a new generation, life without it is unimaginable. In this Is Greater Than series, we have asked those behind some of our favorite websites to share their stories of when and how the Internet first came into their lives.

In September of 2005, Metafilter member Paul K. (or PK) of Sydney, Australia, began BibliOdyssey, a blogged account of visual materia obscura. “I most enjoyed finding primary source material that had significance in terms of history,” PK explains. “I would track exhibitions and announcements about repository holdings and I suppose I got to the stage where I thought that I may as well corral all this info in one spot.” Finding his material in “off-the-beaten-path digital cloisters,” PK’s proclivity towards research is the backbone of the BibliOdyssey gallery, where his summaries provide the often fascinating and rich histories behind the astounding illustrations. Illustrations are “a kind of bait to learning,” he tells Is Greater Than. “[I have] belief in the web as having great educational opportunities.”

For the first installment of The Origins of Our Communication, PK traces the roots of an odyssey that, for him, began over twenty years ago:

“There are three significant episodes of connectivity that stand out in my mind.

The first is about 1986/7 when I was working in a hospital emergency department and the newest toy at the time was a dumb terminal that connected to the pathology lab. It meant that we got the blood tests automagically on a computer screen in real time which also removed the risk of mistakes that come from playing phone tag and listening/writing under pressure. We could print the results out and add them to the patient charts. This was a big thing both for the work quality at the hospital but I remember thinking at the time that it was only the start of something, although I didn’t know what.

In the early 90s I finished a medical science degree and because I lived opposite the university, I was able to go and spend a couple of weeks on their computers which I had neglected during my studies. It was the internet, if only an early version - I don’t remember too much about the content; I do remember reading a lot of plain text. I was blown away, even then, by the amount of information that you could find — I do remember Lycos search portal was the place of pace back then. There was also the manic chatting on telnet bulletin board services (bbs).

In 1998/9 I moved into an apartment with a Russian computer programmer who had his own website and spent hours and hours at home on the internet. I couldn’t ask him enough questions and he wasn’t prepared to let me use his computer as often as I wanted so naturally I got my own pc (433 MHz chip I think) and learned to touch-type playing trivia games on mirc. I’ve been wired and addicted ever since.”

Visit BibliOdyssey.

For more on the evolution of BibliOdyssey, read Elatia Harris’ in-depth interview with PK on 3QuarksDaily.

To purchase the BibliOdyssey book, click here.

Images courtesy of BibliOdyssey.