Presenting The Internet

[orangepoptart]

I am in school and I did a research paper on the "internet" but now I have to present it. Theres no rules really it just has to be between 2:30 and 3:00 min. I want to get everyone involved but I don't have a clue how to present my "topic" any help is greatly appreciated. Please respond quickly this is sorta last minute.

[orangepoptart]

sorry *bump*
I really would value any advice! .........soon

[mengle]

You just need some sort of basic scructre/format to follow

Here's a basic idea to follow.

Intro: What is the internet and hwat do you want to tell the audience about it (the topic statement)

1) Where did the internet come from and why was it originally developed (i.e. history)

2) Present day uses and applications of the internet (i.e. porn and banking)

3) Future uses and growth areas

Conc: Brief summary and conclude something based on your topic sentance.

I hope that helps. Good luck.

[Satanic Atheist]

Don't make it complicated. It's easy to fall into the trap of even just mentioning "TCP/IP" or "DNS" or even "IP Address" and in 2:30-3:00mins you have no time to explain this. I guess that most people aren't as technical as you may be and you really don't want to bore them.

Start off with "The Internet - the global interconnected series of networks was a concept originally conceived by DARPA for de-centralised government control during the cold war." (Haven't got time to check my facts, sorry, but I think this is basically right).

The WORST you could possibly do is overrun on your time. I did a presentation a year ago for 8 minutes which lasted 16. Oops. I got a nailing for that.

From the course I did on presentation techniques, avoid using PowerPoint or an OHP (your talk is far too short to use these) and do not use a script. Use bullet-points if you need to, but you should be confident on your topic and ad-lib as much as possible. I did. Walking around a little keeps your nerves down (great with a large audience) but don't wring your hands or anything like that. Best is to just wave your arms about a little (don't look rigid) - using descriptive talk can help with this.

For 3 minutes, you'll barely touch the surface, but your best bet is to mention how global communications have evolved over the past decade and how the "Greatest Encyclopaedia on Earth" has evolved - the Web.

If there are mostly low-techs in the audience, you can let them assume that the Web and the Internet are the same thing, just don't make the gaffe of telling them they are! You really are pushed on this one.

Did you choose the topic? If so, I suggest that for short talks in future you choose a very small and discrete topic (just the Web itself? Or maybe Peer-to-Peer networks or even a tiny topic like the SETI Screensaver - how it works and what it does).

At least you got a topic that is remotely interesting. Next week I have a 5 minute prep-talk on Racial Tensions in the 21st Century (wow) and then in a few weeks a 15-minute talk on the same subject. I'm stuffed. Especially as my first beer comes in on Friday since I haven't had a pint for over two weeks. I'm also sailing on the weekend with a boat stuffed with lager. And more ashore Saturday night. How the hell am I going to have time to research a project like THAT!?!

James

[hard candy]

How the hell am I going to have time to research a project like THAT!?!

Have your beer in the Harlesden district in London on the weekend- that should get you some research material.

[bwkaz]

Originally posted by Satanic Atheist
Start off with "The Internet - the global interconnected series of networks was a concept originally conceived by DARPA for de-centralised government control during the cold war."

That is one of the most widely believed reasons for ARPANET's existence (decentralized enough to survive a nuclear attack), but it's not right. It was set up as nothing more than a way to share computer time when computer time was expensive.

Mainframes cost a ton of money to run, and didn't always have enough work to keep them at 100% utilization, so people started distributing work to mainframes at other universities (near the beginning, it was almost all universities) when the time delay on their local one started getting too long (i.e. when it had too much work to do).

http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/I/Internet.html

[Trogdor]

All you need to know about the internet is here .

[Satanic Atheist]

Originally posted by hard candy
Have your beer in the Harlesden district in London on the weekend- that should get you some research material.

No thanks, I've had enough "excitement" this weekend as it is. Especially managing to cause a LOT of damage to 4 yachts, one Man Overboard (scary) and try to sail through force 8 winds. Besides, I'm not allowed out of the college for a few more weeks yet.

Originally posted by bwkaz
That is one of the most widely believed reasons for ARPANET's existence (decentralized enough to survive a nuclear attack), but it's not right. It was set up as nothing more than a way to share computer time when computer time was expensive.

Thanks, I think that one would have to be the most common Myth of the Internet at the moment. Whilst your explanation is more likely, isn't it possible that DARPA would've been looking to de-centralise your government as described? Russia was looking pretty menacing back around then... When networking was in its infancy, that is.

James

[bwkaz]

Yeah, that makes sense. I think that's why people believe it.

However, given ESR's explanation of how:

Robert Herzfeld, who was director of ARPA at the time, has been at some pains to debunk the “survive-a-nuclear-war” myth, but it seems unkillable.

, I would think twice before believing it, myself.

[roamingnomad]

I actually read a book (Nerds 2.0.1) that said that the DARPA developed the ARPANet for something like Grid Computing because they didn't want to pay for more computers that could do everything, so they said "Why not just have a bunch of specialized computers hooked together?"

[bwkaz]

That sounds similar to what ESR says, actually. Not quite the same (ESR is saying that it was just to give access to expensive hardware, not quite to rig together a bunch of disparate machines into a grid computer), but close.

[blackrax]

Originally posted by mengle

2) Present day uses and applications of the internet (i.e. porn and banking)

3) Future uses and growth areas

what? even more porn, less banking and a continued flood of spammers circumventing opt-in by any means possible?

although you've been given a lot of good advice, and this would actually be a bit off topic, but you may very well discuss why DVD:s supports multiple angles - surely it can't be for the next incarnation of the matrix-ilk movies?

still amused about multiple camera angles on dvd's,
//blackrax

[madcompnerd]

There are many interesting ways to explain the internet. I'll start with what you shouldn't do:
"The internet is an amazing part of modern day life. It's so cool cause you can research, chat with friends/family....bla blah tripe blah blah blah." I'd heard this speech so many times and it's quite worn out.
An interesting cover of the net could be a technical one, such as getting into TCP/IP and DNS as some guy above said not to do. Believe it or not, but the average person is quite capable of understanding DNS. Don't be too detailed, or it will be boring, but you can cover the tech side of it.
Another side of it could be social. Arguably the internet is nothing more than a society, of course backed by an electronic network of immense complications. You may look into the rise of internet pornography, gnu, irc, im, personal pages, ecommerce. It's like the downtown of a big city right in your own home .
You may also want to cover the history of it. Start way back and talk about Bell labs and arpanet. Talk about the use of networks, talk about mainframes and personal computers. And finally, move to what the 90's bore as the term being "The Internet."

Whatever you do, don't do another boring speech of internet worship. It's just a big network, seriously. You don't see people worshiping the telephone line, and you don't see your Bell phone complaining about memory errors do you?

[Satanic Atheist]

Originally posted by madcompnerd
as some guy above said not to do

That would be me. And I think it's generally accepted that I'm not a "guy", I'm just a "loaf". .

I don't recommend going into the details unless you truly know that your audience is going to be interested (e.g. you're speaking to a computing class).

Second, you really don't have time to go into that much depth.

I did the whole TCP/IP talk and bored a group of people to death. Talk was great - presentation-wise, but it was too dull and people started falling asleep. If you DO do it, then I suggest you keep it as simple as possible.

James