Communication Technologies

Early Communications

• Spoken Word
• Drums & Smoke
• Paintings

The Written Word

• "Knowledge is Power"
• The Power Elite & Religious leaders
• Messengers & Sealed Scrolls

Communications Today

• Written Words
• Telephone
• Radio
• Television

Communications-Mid 1440s

• Verbal & Visual methods
• Guttenburg Bible
• Movable Type
• Mind Your 'p's and 'q's

When lay people can read...

• Shared Knowledge
• Less reliance upon memory
• Break out of family professions

Print Media

• Books and newspapers
• Shared public opinion
• Commerce & Business transactions

Communications-Mid 1800s

• Electrical Theory
• Electronic Communications
• Morse Code-1844
• Bell-Telephone

Wireless

• Radio-1920 Election results
• Television-1939
• Government Regulation of Spectrum

Privacy Concerns

• Whose data is it?
• Who gets it?
• Who controls access?
• What could the "bad guys" do with it?

Dangerous Knowledge

[What used to be here was a PERL script of the RSA encryption. As this information is classified as a munition by the U.S. Government, it may not be exported. Penalties for exporting this technology include the possibility of jail and/or a $1,000,000 fine. As anyone in the world could download it from this ETSU web site, it has been removed from the lecture notes.]

I first downloaded it in late 1995 from a web-based server located in the United Kingdom (a.k.a. Britian).  It can now be accessed from  <http://www.cypherspace.org/~adam/rsa/> The last time I checked, this site was still active. You've been warned. Don't play cute.