I for I/internet or i – a question that comes up enough that it seems worthy of discussion! Lowercase or capitilised? There has been a trend in recent years of designers of lowercasing everything, so for them it’s ‘i’, Microsoft Office however defaults with a capital "I", so what's correct?

Firstly, a little bit of history...

It all started in 1960’s by a US defense project know as ARPAnet (after the Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency), the I/internet was designed to allow academics to talk to each other more effectively by linking computer networks together. Then know as the inter-network, or internet. The latter, “internet” first pops it head up 1974 in a document written by Vint Cerf (“father of the I/internet” - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinton_Cerf) – very clearly with a lowercase “i”. In the years following, I/internet was always referred to by academics with a lowercase “i”.

But why “I” (man!)?

So it’s a fact that I/internet started as “internet”, where did “I” come from? Well, the first example in the Oxford English Dictionary’s entry with a capital letter came from the magazine Network World in 1986, though by then (for reasons unknown) the “I” had become common in most technical documents. Virtually all publications adopted this style into and through the 90's.

The main reason for capitalisation back then was that there was just one entity that was called by this title, that it was a specific thing with a proper name, and that by the usual rules that name ought to be capitalised. It also distinguished this official network from a number of others that appeared from the early 1980s onwards, such as BITNET.

Where does that leave us?

In the good ol' US of A, a capital "I" is still the norm in most cases. However the UK differs, with the Daily Telegraph, the Independent, the Guardian, and the New Scientist  all using a lowercase "i" for for the past few years.

So what do I think?

Well the I/internet has changed, it’s become a part of our lives, a process rather than an entity, an engaging communications medium, a doing tool. We don’t capitalise Television, it’s television. Newspaper isn’t capitalised either. Nor are radio, telephone, email! So why should we capitalise i/Internet? People aren’t “Internet” users anymore, they’re information seekers, communicators, downloader’s, viewers and listeners.

The change from i to I to i is minor in itself but a cultural marker for a shift in public perception, a sign that the I/internet is growing up. At the moment though, I still quite like using the capital "I". It’s a special medium, worthy of its capitalisation. I’ve no doubt that lowercase will prevail but for now perhaps we should try and hold on to that special “I”. So, what do you think?