INTERNET

An internet is a collection of interconnected computers that use networking hardware and software to send and receive data. The Internet is the global network of inter-connected computers and servers available to the public. The World Wide Web is the collection of graphically intensive Web pages that have enabled the Internet to become a societal phenomenon.

THE ORIGINAL INTERNET

In the 1950s researchers and scientists across the country linked their mainframe computers via telephone connections operating at very slow speeds. This first network supported communication of basic text-based computer data. In the beginning, only federal agencies and a few research universities were linked. The system was funded by the Advanced Research Project Agency, a technology and research group in the U.S. Department of Defense. The system was referred to as ARPANET.

The first four universities connected to ARPANET were Stanford University, the University of California-Los Angeles, the University of California-Santa Barbara, and the University of Utah. Communications research in the 1960s led to decentralized networks, queuing theory, and packet switching. These technologies allowed different types of computers to send and receive data. Computers transmitted information in a standardized protocol called packets. The addressing information in these packets told

each computer in the system where the packet was supposed to go.

In 1972 the first electronic mail (e-mail) program was developed. It used file transfer protocol (FTP) to upload messages to a server that would then route the message to the intended computer terminal. This text-based communication tool greatly affected the rate at which collaborative work could be conducted between researchers at participating universities. This collaboration led to the development of the transmission control protocol (TCP), which breaks large amounts of data into packets of a fixed size, transmits the packets over the Internet using the Internet protocol (IP), and sequentially numbers them to allow reassembly at the recipient's end. The combination of TCP and IP is still the model used to move data over the Internet.

In 1984 the Pentagon, the leadership of the U.S. military, decided the growing academic and community-based Internet was far too open and lacked the security required for a military network. They transferred control of the original ARPANET to the National Science Foundation (NSF) and created a separate and secure network called MILNET. The NSF added a network backbone, renamed it NSFNet and made it available to a much larger number of colleges and universities.

With more universities connected and participating in the Internet, more programs and communication applications were created. A program called Telnet allowed remote users to run programs and computers from other sites. Gopher, developed at the University of Minnesota and named after the university's mascot, allowed menu-driven access to data resources on the Internet. Search engines such as Archie and Wide Area Index Search gave users the ability to search the Internet's numerous libraries and indexes. By the mid-1980s users at universities, research laboratories, private companies, and libraries were empowered by the new networking revolution. More than 30,000 host computers and modems were actively using the Internet.

THE INTERNET AND THE WORLD WIDE WEB

In August 1991, Dr. Tim Berners-Lee (1955– ) of CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Switzerland envisioned the concept of a graphical, page-based Internet—the World Wide Web. Although many people use the terms Internet and World Wide Web inter-changeably, they refer to two separate, yet related, technologies. The Web is supported by hypertext markup language (HTML), a programming language used to create graphical Web pages, and hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), the routing technology used to identify uniform resource locators (URLs) or Web page addresses.

Web pages are retrieved via Internet protocols and resources; the Web, however, is merely one of many Internet applications such as FTP, Telnet, and Gopher. Berners-Lee developed the Web as a way to simplify reading the location of documents by assigning standard names or file paths. In 1992 the first Web browsers, Viola and Mosaic, were developed. The ease of use and graphic capabilities (prior Internet data exchanges were primarily text-based) made Web browsers popular outside the academic community, and soon the general public found access to the Internet and World Wide Web to be useful.

The Internet and the World Wide Web continue to grow. The U.S. Census Bureau reported that in 2003, 61.8 percent of U.S. households had a computer and 54.7 percent had Internet access. Home use, however, does not reflect the number of people who use computers and the Internet at work, in libraries, at schools, and in community organizations. The Census Bureau found that nearly 60 percent of American adults used the Internet. Over 165 countries are connected to the Internet. Yet, no one nation or group operates or controls the Internet. Although there are entities that oversee the system, "no one is in charge." This allows for a free transfer and flow of information throughout the world. Search engines such as Google and Yahoo index the Web to help in the organization and retrieval of information.

USING THE INTERNET AND WORLD WIDE WEB

Accessing the Internet requires an Internet-capable computer and a modem to modulate/demodulate outgoing and incoming data packets. Modems connect computers to the Internet across telephone lines (dial-up) or by optical or wire cable (broadband or digital subscriber line, also known as DSL). The connection is provided by an Internet service provider (ISP), such as America Online, Com-cast, or RoadRunner. For a monthly fee, these companies provide access to the Internet, e-mail, a certain amount of storage, and search utilities. These Internet providers will often offer portal sites that provide a Web browser, a chat service (Internet relay chat—IRC), instant messaging (IM), bulletin boards, newsgroups, and forums.

Each application requires a specific software program. Many computers are sold with these applications preloaded, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer, the most popular Web browser. E-mail applications such as Eudora are purchased separately; many e-mail programs, however, are now Web-based. This means that users can access their Web-based e-mail program from any computer that is connected to the Internet. A specific software application is no longer required because the application runs from the server rather than from the computer itself.

All ISPs require a username and password, which establishes the user's identity and gives authorization to use the Internet service. The Internet service provider has its own higher-order identity on the Internet, known as a domain. For example, in the following e-mail address:
jones@abc.com
the first part of the address, "jones" identifies the user; this is the username. The "@" (pronounced "at") separates the username from the domain. In this example, "abc" is the domain name, and ".com" is the extension that identifies the entity as a commercial provider. Other extensions include .net for network, .edu for education, .mil for military, .gov for government, and .org for organization.

Affect on Business and Industry

The World Wide Web has created a new industry segment called electronic commerce (e-commerce). Businesses sell to other businesses (B2B) and to consumers (B2C) on the Internet using secure Web sites. The "dot.com" frenzy came to a head in the late 1990s when the number of online companies exceeded demand. Although online commerce declined slightly, it has remained stable since then. Strong e-commerce providers are either "pure-play" (having only an Internet presence, such as eBay and Amazon.com) or "brick-and-click" (having both a physical store as well as an online store, such as Wal-Mart, Sears, and most other major retail outlets).

Internet technology has also had an impact on business and industry by supporting telecommuting. Rather than commuting to work, employees work from home via telecommunications (e.g., e-mail, video streaming, and online portals). Overhead costs are lowered if office space and equipment can be reduced, and the flexibility for the employee can be a benefit.

Changing Education

Additionally, Internet use has changed the face of education. Nearly every school in the United States has computer technology and Internet access. Students use Web browsers to search for information, teachers use online databases to access lesson plans and learning resources, and schools build Web sites that provide homework information, school calendars, and other important information for parents, faculty, and students.

Distance learning or online education has also made great strides. High schools, colleges, universities, and for-profit providers are supplementing their face-to-face classes with Web-based learning environments, such as Blackboard, WebCT, and e-College. Students can down-load activities, participate in synchronous chat groups or asynchronous discussion forums, work collaboratively with other students on group projects, take tests, and post their homework for evaluation. Some courses are offered totally online without any face-to-face interaction between the student and instructor.

Changes in Information Transfer and Communication

The Internet is one of the most innovative and productive technologies in history. The Internet can send information from virtually any place on the globe to any other place in seconds. This communication tool has dramatically changed the concept of the "speed of business." In effect, the Internet has created a sense of time compression. No longer do large documents need to be mailed by expensive overnight carriers. Electronic files are sent as e-mail attachments in seconds or documents can be posted to Web sites where they can be downloaded by thousands of recipients. Distribution has also been affected. Rather than mailing 1,000 newsletters to an organization's membership, Listservs enable the message to be sent to one address. The message is sent to the Listserv address (e.g., "listserv@abc.com"), and anyone who has signed up or been added to the Listserv instantly receives the information.

A very popular new Web-based communication tool is the Weblog (or "blog"). Used by both companies and individuals, blogs are diaries posted to a host site that can be accessed by anyone. Some commercial blogs are designed for customer use. They offer free product advice, technical assistance, drivers and downloads, and product data to attract new customers. Microsoft's product developers use blogs to encourage interest in their work. In some cases, readers can post comments to forums, which the blogger monitors.

The ease of use and instantaneous communication of the Internet are generally seen as significant enhancements to society, but there are some negative aspects. The term CyberEthics refers to the ethical use of the Internet. For example, music or movie files are easily copied from compact disks or downloaded from file-sharing and peer-to-peer sites such as BearShare, e-donkey, Napster, and Kazaa. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) attempts to combat piracy—the illegal duplication and distribution of any recording—via lawsuits and fines. The RIAA reported that worldwide, the industry was losing $4.2 billion to piracy each year.

CONCLUSION

The personal computer will continue to evolve, but experts predict other Internet-smart appliances would become standard. Wristwatches will provide Internet access and support computer applications such as Word. Televisions will anticipate viewers' program preferences and record shows it thinks they may like. Kitchen appliances will be programmed by Internet-based command centers that will download recipes, inventory current ingredients (how much milk is left?), and print shopping lists. Like the explorers who discovered new continents, Internet users are just beginning to discover the full impact of the medium on information, space, and time.