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12:00 AM  Jul. 7, 2008
New Media Timeline (2001)
By David Shedden (More articles by this author)
Library Director, Poynter Institute

More in this series

Previous: 2000 / Next: 2002
View all of the years in the New Media Timeline

             SERVICES & TECH

  • Wikipedia formally begins on January 15, 2001. (Source: History of Wikipedia)

  • 51 percent of all U.S. households have at least one mobile phone. 40 percent of U.S. adults use their cell phones regularly.
    (Source: Dataquest Inc., Feb. 2001.)
  • 54 percent of the U.S. population uses the Internet (143 million people). This figure is up 26 percent from 2000.
    (Source: U.S. Commerce Department)

  • In July 2001 the Napster file sharing service shuts down after being sued and losing a court case for copyright infringement.

  • "The Microsoft Verdict."
    The New Yorker, July 9, 2001.
  • On July 16, 2001, anti-virus experts begin hearing reports about the Code Red worm and SirCam virus.

  • Internet users find it easier to access free wireless connections at libraries, schools, restaurants, and many other locations.

  • "Wireless: The Strategies."
    Presstime, July/August 2001.

  • "The PC at 20: The road from 1981's IBM PC to today's systems -- and all the revolutions, evolutions, and stumbles in between."
     PC World, Aug. 2001.

  • The Trojan Room coffee pot Web cam is turned off on August 22, 2001. (See also: "Farewell, Seminal Coffee Cam."
    Reuters/Wired, March 7, 2001. "Story of the Trojan Room Coffee Pot: A Timeline." and "First Web Cam." Quentin Stafford-Fraser, 2001.) The Web cam image was first posted on the Internet in 1993.
  • On October 23, 2001, the iPod, Apple's hard drive-based digital audio player is introduced. The Apple iTunes music store opens for Mac users on April 28, 2003. (You might say Sony's audio cassette Walkman (1979) and the first commercial transistor radio (1954) were the iPods of their generations.)

  • "Leviathan: How much bigger can AOL get?"
    The New Yorker, Oct. 29, 2001.

  • There are more than 21 million broadband Internet home users in the United States.
    (Source: Nielsen/NetRatings, Nov. 2001.)

  • Microsoft introduces its Xbox video game console.

  • "The dot-com meltdown and the Web: 12% of Internet users have lost a favorite Web site, 17% have been asked to pay for something that used to be free online, yet most online Americans adjust easily."
    Pew Internet & American Life Project, Nov. 14, 2001.

  • "20 Year Usenet Timeline."
    Google, Dec. 2001.

  • "The 30-Year Path of E-Mail"
    New York Times, Dec. 6, 2001.

    Additional Resources


     

                 THE MEDIA

    • "Five Years on the Web."
      New York Times, Jan. 20, 2001.

    • "When the Internet stock bubble burst last year, the Wall Street funding spigot was quickly turned off.... Much of the reporting on the dot-com decline focuses on the business side: stock slides, cutbacks, layoffs. And indeed, there is no shortage of financial woe."
      (Source:"Web Sites Struggle Financially Despite Millions of Visitors." Washington Post, Feb. 21, 2001.)

    • The Online Publishers Association (OPA) is organized during June 2001.

    • News Example:
      Sept. 11, 2001 --
      "9/11 Terrorist Attacks."
      (Source:
      Poynter's Links to the News)

    • "In the days immediately following the September 11 terror strikes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon the number of Americans online dropped. But there were signs by the end of September that online activity was returning to the usual levels. At the same time, there were conspicuously more Internet users getting news online after Spetember 11 than in previous periods."
      (Source: "The Commons of the Tragedy."
      Pew Internet & American Life Project, Oct. 10, 2001.)

    Awards

     Statistics
    • "More than 1,300 North American daily newspapers have launched online services."
      "Worldwide, there are more than 4,500 daily, weekly and other newspapers online."
      (Source: NAA's 2001
      Facts about Newspapers
      )

    • There are approximately 1,418 television stations with sites on the Internet or dial-up services.
      (Source: Editor & Publisher)

    Additional Resources


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