The Evolvement of Classical IT Business Models
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Figure 2 - Network Structure ARPANET
In order to be up-to-date with current projects and to monitor developments in
research, the US ministry of defense needed a fast method of communication
between its premises and researching facilities, such as universities. During this
time no decentralized hubs were available. Thus a direct link between the ARPA
and the universities had to be established. This intention was not only a costly and
time consuming one, but also offered solely limited flexibility towards further
developments. The later agreement on a common transport protocol for packets
sent from one computer to another, was paving the way for modern IT
communication (Hansen & Neumann, 2005, pp. 610-611) & (Meinel & Sack, 2004,
pp. 28-29).
The European pendant to ARPA was initiated in France in early 1980. While ARPA
firstly should serve military purposes only, the “Minitel” project was meant to provide
access to information using special terminal computers. In its early stage, people
living in France could do home banking, use the telephone book or look at graphic
files. This self-enclosed system was only available within France and was steered
trough a central server. People, who wanted to use this system, had to pay a fee for
certain services. Throughout France this project has been a huge success and was
shut down as recently as end of 2012. Today the idea of providing an enclosed
network with paid services regained value with Apple’s “App Store” or Google’s
“
Play Store” (Kurose & Ross, 2008, pp. 85-87) & (Jones, 2002, p. 317).
Source: Author’s Chart
