Author Archives: GilPress

About GilPress

I launched the Big Data conversation; writing, research, marketing services; http://whatsthebigdata.com/ & https://infostory.com/

Wikipedia Launched

Posted on January 15, 2013 by GilPress

Today in 2001, Wikipedia was launched. Since its creation, Wikipedia has grown rapidly into one of the largest reference websites, attracting around 470 million unique visitors monthly in 2012. Today, there are more than 77,000 active contributors working on over 22,000,000 articles in … Continue reading →

Posted in Digitization, Education, Knowledge compilations | Leave a comment

Teaching with the Library of Congress

Posted on January 14, 2013 by GilPress

Source: Best Colleges Online

Posted in Education, Libraries | Leave a comment

Birth of Public Radio Broadcasting

Posted on January 13, 2013 by GilPress

Yesterday and today in 1910, opera was first heard on the radio in what is considered the first public radio broadcast. On January 12, Lee De Forest conducted an experimental broadcast of part of the live Metropolitan Opera performance of Tosca and, on January 13, Enrico … Continue reading →

Posted in Radio, Wireless | 1 Comment

America’s First Public Museum

Posted on January 12, 2013 by GilPress

Today in 1773, America’s first public museum, The Charleston Museum, was established in South Carolina. Today, there are approximately 850 million visits each year to American museums, more than the attendance for all major league sporting events and theme parks combined … Continue reading →

Posted in Museums | Leave a comment

Al Gore Gives Birth to the Internet

Posted on January 11, 2013 by GilPress

Today in 1994, The Superhighway Summit was held at UCLA’s Royce Hall. It was the “first public conference bringing together all of the major industry, government and academic leaders in the field [and] also began the national dialogue about the Information … Continue reading →

Posted in Information diffusion, Internet, This day in information, World Wide Web | Leave a comment

Standardizing Information Transmission: The Uniform Penny Post Established

Posted on January 10, 2013 by GilPress

Today in 1840, the Uniform Penny Post was established throughout the UK, facilitating the safe, speedy and cheap conveyance of letters.“At this time I did not stand very well with the dominant interest at the General Post Office. My old friend Colonel Maberly had … Continue reading →

Posted in Information diffusion, Post Office, Standards, The Information Business, This day in information | 1 Comment

Information Visualization: Mapping the Underground

Posted on January 9, 2013 by GilPress

Today the London Underground celebrates its 150th birthday. The Guardian: Engineer Harry Beck, came up in 1931 “with the radical idea of presenting the ever-expanding network as a circuit diagram rather than a geographical map – so creating a modernist design … Continue reading →

Posted in Information Visualization, Maps | Leave a comment

The First Cloud: First Battery-Operated Switchboard Installed

Posted on January 9, 2013 by GilPress

Today in 1894, New England Telephone and Telegraph installed the first battery-operated switchboard in Lexington, Massachusetts. With what became to be known as the “common battery” (replacing the local battery attached to the telephone), the subscriber could signal the operator simply by … Continue reading →

Posted in Centralization, Cloud Computing, Telephone, This day in information | 2 Comments

Launching the Photography Industry

Posted on January 7, 2013 by GilPress

Today in 1839, the Daguerreotype process was presented to the French Academy of Sciences by Francois Arago, a physicist and politician. Arago told the Academy that it was “…indispensable that the Government should compensate M. Daguerre, and that France should then nobly give to … Continue reading →

Posted in Digitization, Photography | 1 Comment