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How Communications Has Changed The World

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According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of “networking” is, “the exchange of information or services among individuals, groups, or institutions” and the definition of “network” is, “a group of people or organizations that are closely connected and that work with each other.” In the Information Age, infrastructure and technology has been created to allow the rapid sharing of information between parties, but it has not always been so. While the exchanging of information has always been consistent, the methods by which this task has been carried out is constantly changing relative to the time period in which the demand occurs and situation causing the demand. Over this paper, we will examine the ways networking has changed the past, …show more content…

Since the great wars were fought globally, there was a need to transmit information globally and quickly. Telegraphs, telephones, radio waves, radar, and sonar did just that. The telegraph was invented in the 1830s by Samuel Morse and consisted of wires that carried electrical signals between stations; the operator would encode the message using Morse Code, a system of taps that signify words, and the recipient on the other side of the wire would decode the message sent in different patterns, print outs, or sounds. While this network infrastructure was used in the Civil War, it was also used during the World Wars by the use of the transatlantic cables which stretched through the Atlantic Ocean, connecting America, Great Britain and other locations. The telephone was created in 1877, and during the World Wars telephone lines were used to transmit information quickly. But, these methods proved unreliable and sometimes insecure; German troops could often tap into lines and break their codes. To confront this issue, cryptography was used often by both the Allied and Axis forces. For example, in World War I the US used Native Americans (Choctaw) to transmit information in their native language. Further, the Germans created the Enigma Machine, a cryptographic machine used to encipher and decipher messages; the machine was claimed by the Germans to be uncrackable, but with the use of Bombes (electromagnetic machines developed by the

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