Welcome back. The reading this time is a book chapter by the influential sociologist Manuel Castells. He often writes about information technology, and this chapter relates the history of the Internet. For those of you young enough to have always had the internet as a taken-for-granted part of your life, you may never have thought about who and what shaped its creation. Castells called this chapter Lessons from the History of the Internet, and we will frame our discussion around his use of the word lessons. As you will see, the idea is to each come up with our own lesson through a close reading of Castells review of the history. Be sure to read the assignment carefully. Heres a hint: dont just look for the word lesson in the text, as many of the lessons are only implied in the way Castells relates the historical arc of the internets development. You might want to take notes as you read, to prepare for posting on the discussion board about any lesson that you think Castells meant to convey. If you find this history intriguing and want to know more, there are a number of interesting supplemental materials you can review as well.