I choose the teenagers from 17- 25 years of age as my audience to address the negative affect to healthy individual identities and healthy interpersonal relationships of Computer Mediated Communication. Day by day, teenagers may get addicted in using the internet; they spend extraordinary amount of time exploring the internet. More and more teenagers start to use the internet as one of their important source of communication. This type of new communication is called CMC (Computer Mediated Communication). Its ability to give fast and easy communication make us think that it is the future for humankind. However, it also has negative affect on our society. For an example, many teenagers like to chat in the chat room. Consequently, some teenagers neglect their education and relationships; sometimes they even result in ruined family and life (American Internet Survey). Furthermore, the communication over internet is a dangerous place for teenagers. Teenagers may be targeted by stalkers or those who might take advantage of them. It is very dangerous to chat with a person whom they don’t really know. Moreover, some young girls can go out with that person and it had caused many young girls to
Websites can help to show solutions of a person’s problems. If a person needs help on something, he/she can post the question on the website. Within a matter of time, an “expert” responds to the question, and then people with similar problems can use that example to solve their own problems. Ranking is judged by the people who read the question. If an expert got the high ranking then he or she gets the small cash prize. However, problems are found out before Marcus called “experts.” Some people lie about their age and pretend to be experts on subjects that they have no knowledge or previous education. A similar case occurred when “15-year-old Marcus Arnold offered his reply to those questions, and a thousand or so more besides” (Lewis, 2001, p.289).
I try to convince people that a relationship without a "tangible existence in the world outside the realm of CMC where you cannot touch, smell and meet face-to-face" (Schwartz, 1999, p.235) is not real; it’s just something lying, hiding the truth, dishonesty. In the real world, we can shake hands before we start a conversation, we can hug someone to show that we care, we can put our hands on their back to give emotional support, we can smell our lover’s perfume and kiss when we fall in love. On the other side, CMC cannot provide the sense of touch or smell when communicating with someone. For me, I can’t really trust the chat room friend because I can’t understand him/her completely by the words from the monitor. However, I can trust somebody by eyesight; I can feel his/her personality by the body language.
Nearly five hundred and fifty years ago, Johann Gutenberg revolutionized the world when he developed the first printing press with movable metal type in Europe in 1450. Five hundred years after the invention of the movable metal type printing press, the Internet was invented, a unique communication medium. On the Internet, people are not only consumers of contents but also creators of contents.
In general, there’re five kinds of communication medium in the modern society, which are books, newspaper, radio, TV and Internet.
The newspaper is an easy and affordable way to share information and made news available to people on a daily bases. Then the radio where it introduced the power of the human voice including the emotions that accompany it. The radio served as a mass communication medium in two aspects, it delivered the intended news and information to a larger audience instantly, and it made
Presently, it seems that the Internet is playing a very important role in everyone’s daily life. Like no other medium before, it allows individuals to express their ideas and opinions directly to a world audience. Also, it is digital based, unlike other four mediums, which are all analog.
the message behind the broadcast more believable for the mere fact it was produced by a human, who manipulated the presentation by embedding his emotions to serve his/her purpose.
Few months ago in Hong Kong, there’s a college student suicide from taking poison with the web cam recorded himself until the policeman crash in his room. Psychologist analyzes that phenomena reflects how people are escaping from the reality and get trapped into the virtual world. A lot of the technology manufactories focus on creating a virtual environment that emulates the reality. User who is not mature is easily to be confus
Today few people would deny that vision, or “sight? is as important a system of human communication and cultural expression as language. In fact, in the past thirty years, it has become a very common thing to point out the centrality of vision in contemporary and modern world.1 Western and, increasingly, global culture is dominated by visual images, whether material or virtual, and by visual experience.
At the same time, new technology ?computer technology, has been developed fast in the last thirty years and since the late of 1980’s, the Internet technology could be available for the mass society, millions of computers, modems and telephones around the world access to this “Information super-high Way? and use Internet to transmit all kinds of information. People can publish their work, develop their business, go shopping, take part in a collaboration which involves the people who are thousands miles apart from each other by using Internet. New technology changed our lifestyles and New Media- computer communication media has become “The Fourth mass Media?after newspaper, broadcast, television and united these traditional medias together.
Message boards have become a popular medium on the Internet for people to visit and communicate with others about subjects ranging from the current war in Iraq, to what colour underpants a person wore on Tuesday. The detached feeling that the Internet gives is very much apparent on message boards, with people often willing to share much more about themselves than they normally would to people in the real world.
Bands commonly incorporate a message board (or forum) onto their websites to encourage their fans to congregate and talk about the band and their music. Popular band’s message boards often stray from talk about the group, with users utilising it as more of a hang out while they are on the Internet, a place where like-minded individuals can go and chat about anything at all that interests them. A message board I frequently visit, and the subject of my analysis in this report, is the message board for a band called Sparta, from El Paso, Texas, USA. It is fairly obvious that I am a fair way from El Paso, and many people just like me from around the globe frequent the board on numerous occasions each day.
Message boards create a very simple, but different form of communication amongst its users. The detached feel of th
Each user applies their own emphasis and accentuation when reading a post, because body language and tone of voice are non-apparent. A lot of receivers, like myself, tend to assume voice, or accentuate commonly accentuated words to get a general “best fit” for most of the posts. What is interesting to find is that a user will create a certain voice in their head when they see another user’s particular avatar or other distinguishing features, creating an imaginary personality for the user in their own heads. More often than not these “voices” nothing like the users actual characteristics, but this does not matter because of the irregularity of a meeting of the two individuals.
The channel is already selected for me; if I wish to get my question across to as many people as possible on the Sparta Message Board, then I need to express it in it’s own post, with a clearly defined heading. All these criteria were achieved satisfactorily. I can now assume that the channels used by the receivers reading my message are Seeing; all the viewers of my post would have seen the topic heading on the main page of the message board. Then Touching; inquired as to the rest of the message by physically clicking the heading to get into the message itself. Hearing would have been utilised in the receiver’s heads as they spoke the message out, in their own voice, inside their own heads, to help them decode the message in a way to best suit their own understanding.
e internet makes it easy for people to say what they think, post pictures of themselves and others and also get to know other individual users through the use of IM’s (Instant Messages) and other such instant communication programs.
The most common form of expression on a message board is to simply start a topic about a subject, or a question, and wait for others to respond to it. In Figure 1 there is an example of a post I made on the Sparta message board, asking a question about people’s thoughts on the phrase “Patriotism breeds Racism”.
Now utilising Bühler’s model, I can further clarify my use of language in the topic as discussed in the notes on Bühler’s model.
During face-to-face communication we rely heavily upon facial expressions, tone of voice, and body language to interpret what someone is saying. Communication on the internet includes E-mail, instant messenger, chat room, or message boards. With these methods of communication on the internet facial expression, tone of voice and body language become obsolete. (http://www.webliminal.com/essentials/eoc-rtfs/ch03.htm. Date accessed 5/12/03.)
This exposes some obvious set backs. Communicating over the internet will cause misinterpretation of meaning.
Why are these types of expressions so important? Why do we misinterpret over internet communication, aren’t words just as important? The tone of somebody’s voice allows us to tell if they are happy, sad, mad, or being sarcastic. Facial expressions tell us about the mood and emotions of a person. Body language gives us clues as to whether the
For adults the intimate conversations can be overlooked. What about our teenagers and even children. Has communication on the internet introduced them to a whole new way of getting into trouble? Adults and teenagers are both at risk of getting computer viruses, unwanted email, and unwanted messages. If we are going to allow our teens and children to communicate this way we should tell them about the risks. By giving out their real name, phone number, address, opening emails with attachments. You never know who are talking to on the internet. Furthermore, we do not know what people are capable of doing. (http://www.webliminal.com/essentials/eoc-rtfs/ch03.htm. Date accessed 5/12/03.)
We can clearly see where misinterpretation would be an often occurrence. We could be in a great mood and we assume the person we are speaking with is also in a great mood but we may be wrong. With all these things in mind it makes us think what communication.
“It is the sense of Congress that providers of electronic communications services and manufacturers of electronic communications service equipment shall ensure that communications systems permit the government to obtain the plaintext contents of voice, data, and other communications when appropriately authorized by law.” (Baase, 2003) This excerpt was initially taken from Senate Bill 266 in 1991 and articulates the goal of governmental agencies since that time. The U.S. Government has since tried to pass legislation to control the encryption used by software manufacturers relating to information communicated over the internet. Through research and analysis I will define the encryption standards, explore the legislation that the government is trying to put in place and determine if government involvement in encryption standards is if fact necessary.
Encryption is defined as a process of translating a message, called the Plaintext, into an encoded message, called the Ciphertext. The Ciphertext is encoded text, after it has been passed through an Encryption algorithm and is the product of Plaintext after Encryption. A Cipher is a computer software algorithm used for Encryption. Encryption is usually accomplished using a secr
In 1998, H.R. 850 known as SAFE, Security and Freedom Through Encryption Act, were introduced into Congress. The three purposes of this bill were to allow the purchase of any type of encryption software and prevent the government from restricting encryption software, allow for fewer export restrictions of encryption software, and prohibit any third party access to the encryption key of any piece of software. The purpose was to ensure that the U.S. was competing in the encryption market worldwide, which current restrictions were preventing them from doing so effectively.
AES is a standard from the National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST) that was developed to replace DES. NIST held a challenge for researchers to submit algorithms that would be chosen to become AES. The winner of this challenge is called Rijndael and was designed by J. Daemen and V. Rijnmen. Rijndael is a symmetric cryptosystem using 128-bit, 196-bit and 256-bit input and keys. “NIST chose Rijndael because it combines simplicity and high performance.” (Smith, 2001) This will be the algorithm I will be focusing on for the remainder of this paper.
et key and a cryptographic Cipher. Two basic types of Encryption that are commonly used are Symmetric Encryption, where a single secret key is used for both encryption and decryption or Asymmetric Encryption, where a pair of keys is used, one for Encryption and the other for Decryption.
Again, in light of this growing problem, my belief is that it is not worth exposing all the confidential information that is at risk so that the government is able to look into information whenever they want. I do not believe that the government should be able to decipher confidential information. There is much more confidential information out there that is at risk than the information that they are looking for about terrorists or criminals.
In light of my research and experience with computers, I believe it is necessary for all information transmitted over the Internet and Satellites to be protected with encryption standards that cannot be deciphered by anyone. By providing relaxed encryption standards so that the government can decipher information, we leave the window open for “computer geniuses” to be able to crack the code and steal important information. The problems we are currently having will continue.
The communication path we as a culture and society have evolved into has led us to a new method of speaking to one another. The introduction of online interaction has changed the way we speak, interpret and understand people as a whole. Online messaging methods such as E-mail, AOL Instant Messenger, and ICQ are just a few utilities that will allow us to talk electronically. What really needs to be questioned is if the Internet is the best form of communication.
Electronic communication, also known as computer-mediated communication (CMC), is not only amazingly convenient but something you can receive immediate gratification from. Despite the convenience, there are many features that are lost in the transfer of messages. Nonverbal communication is the key component that is filtered through the wires when speaking electronically. The majority of the communication you do when speaking to someone in front of you, is nonverbal. Actually, approximately fifty five percent of the interaction you have with one another is in fact, nonverbal.(Fletcher)
When you speak to someone verbally you might send a whole array of nonverbal actions that helps the opposite party to decode your message appropriately. Non-verbal communication is d
efined as ¡§behaviors, attributes, or objects (except words) that communicate messages that have social meaning.¡¨ (Seiler, G-6) These include your tone, such as raising your voice if you are excited, or speaking softly if you are upset or disappointed. Nonverbal references extend to the way you move your eyes, hold your posture, move your hands, and so on. It is easier to determine the emotions and interpretation of your communicator by watching the expressions that are delivered. You now most likely realize why Internet communication may pose a slight problem.
Communicating online is still in its beta stages in terms of functionality. As time continues and technology increases in bigger leaps then we are seeing now, more elaborate methods of talking will be developed. Video conferencing is sparsely used in the consumer market today and in a small sector of the business and corporate level communication. Gradually this technology will become more perfected and will be more appealing to the next generation of people who want to change the way communication is done in revolutionary strides, such as the way our generation did with Electronic Communication.
This sort of false front represents both positive and negative effects for yourself and the partners you talk to. On the positive note, it can allow you to overcome fears of people, situations, and talking in general. Back before my internet days, around the time of junior high, I was the world¡¦s shyest kid. I would generally go to school and continue to be unsociable with my peers throughout the day until it was time for me to go home. The Internet for the most part allowed me to overcome this fear. Gradually, I started to talk to some friends on the computer and found it was easier for me. I could hide my shy personality and bring out someone that might be more enjoyable to talk to. I learned that I could collect my thoughts without stuttering and becoming nervous when I spoke aloud. The more I spoke online, the more I felt comfortable speaking with people in the classroom or elsewhere. This therapy brought me to love people as much as I do today.
By now, we all have our own ideas about the Internet and if it is a good method of communication. There are some who focus primaril
The possible advantages of implementing the Internet in the classroom are as diverse as the services and tools offered by the network. The Internet offers many resources that are not usually available in any geographic location. In addition to these resources, the Internet also enhances various skills of its users. Communication and writing skills can be directly affected through the use of the Internet. It may also help in areas such as critical thinking, problem solving, and group work. This section of the paper will elaborate on how the Internet provides access to resources and how it can enhance various skills for students.
One major advantage of the Internet is the amount of resources it makes available to its users. College level students are used to having significant library resources on location, not to mention the availability of interlibrary loans. These options are generally not available to s
The simple aspect that there is an attractive looking web page surrounding the information that students are looking for is also beneficial. The quick change in sites and their differences in looks and their presentation of the material can offer a new kind of excitement every time a student accesses a site. Moreover, the sources may represent different media. There may be texts, videos, and audio materials available through the Internet, all of which aid in the benefit of implementing it. (DuBois 43)
Because the Internet is so large, students have the opportunity to see many different sides of the issues that the may be researching. Instead of looking at the ideas of a single author, students can browse many different resources on the web and put together a well-rounded topic. By doing this, Children also learn how to integrate different materials.
Real Time Statistics For Measuring Success of Promotion Campaign
One of the most significant advantages of Internet Promotion is that its success is measurable. Marketers can use tools that provide real time statistics, on unique visitors, repeat visitors, click through rates (CTR) on advertisements, thereby allowing them to evaluate the effectiveness of a promotion campaign. This enables marketers to determine what works for their particular market and to make timely changes in their marketing strategies.
Time Saving
Another important advantage of Internet Promotion is that it saves time since it generally does away with counselling on product uses and benefits, service information and sales administration. Visitors can access "frequently asked questions" to help themselves, and can buy online, without the involvement of staff. This saves time and money. So, whether 10 or 10,000 visitors visit the site, the increased cost is marginal whilst the savings can be immense.
But like any business approach, Internet Promotion is not without its risks and weaknesses.
Disadvantages
Difficulty in Attracting Customers
Small business may not have the resources to pay for paid directory inclusion, pay per click inclusions and often have to rely solely on search engine optimisation or word of mouth to drive traffic to their sites. With millions of businesses selling the same product and services, competing with more established businesses can be frustrating and costly venture for small business.
On the other hand, larger companies can offer promotions, pay for directory inclusions, implement pay per click campaigns as well as employ the “who is who” in internet marketing to develop campaigns that generate traffic and leads.
Difficulty in Evaluating Legitimacy of Transaction
Another notable disadvantage of doing promoting businesses online is that it may be difficult for the businesspersons and consumers to thoroughly evaluate the legitimacy of a transaction. Small businesses are particularly vulnerable to thieves using stolen credit cards and stolen information to do online transaction.
With Internet credit card and identity fraud on the rise, small businesses are forced to finance costly security measures to reduce their vulnerability to fraudulent transactions.
Salespersons and Customers are Isolated
Another disadvantage of promotion via the Internet is that the customers and businesspersons are isolated. There is little personal contact between customer and salesperson prior to and after the sales is closed. Thus, the prospect for repeat sales may thus be diminished. Entrepreneurs are therefore compelled to adopt marketing strategies to drive online users back to their site.
From all indications, it appears that the advantages of Internet promotion, far exceed the disadvantages. With adequate knowledge, entrepreneur can benefit significantly from Internet promotion, especially small business owners.
More and more, the growth and outreach of the Internet’s, its ease and accessibility for customers is becoming inevitable. Small business would therefore be well advised to start their web advertising function in order to improve their competitiveness online.
The emergence of globalise trade, increase in foreign investment and cross-border transactions have put many small businesses under pressure to find innovative ways to continue to market their products and services. This is especially difficult given that they often operate on tight marketing budgets.
In the quest for cheap marketing alternatives, these small businesses continue to use conventional marketing tools such as newspaper, magazine, radio and television advertisements, unaware of the advantages that Internet Promotion offers. All too often, these entrepreneurs focus on the disadvantages of Internet Promotion and fail to adequately take advantage of the opportunities that it presents. Moreover, their preoccupation with conventional marketing strategies is driven by a misconception that these are cheaper than Internet Promotion.
To most small business entrepreneurs, marketing or promoting their products or services via the Internet can be a daunting task. However, with adequate information small businesses can benefit significantly from Internet Promotion while minimising the disadvantages that it presents. In fact, it may prove to be the marketing strategy that generates the highest return on investment.
The Advantages
Cost Effective and Enduring Marketing Strategies
The Internet has become the information superhighway for the buying public. Most persons prefer the hassle free transactions that Internet shopping can offer. As a result, the Internet has become the most powerful selling tool. Internet Promotion offers cost effective ways for small businesses to enhance their product or service distribution networks. For example, the use of portals can help create new marketing channels and logistics, or provide better or faster product access for customers.
In comparison to other forms of marketing, Internet Promotion presents the advantage of reduced budget and storage costs, when compared with printing brochures, producing television or radio advertisements or managing a call centre. It presents a fast and cost effective option for penetrating new markets.
Market Penetration
With millions of person using the Internet to search for products and services, small businesses can penetrate other markets at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing methods.
Websites act as virtual storefronts, allowing businesses to stay open 24/7. Internet Promotion gives a business greater visibility, thereby creating more opportunities for increasing its customers at relatively low cost. Never before has it been easier for an upstart business to be able to reach out to literally millions of potential customers and to position themselves for success, without the need for costly infrastructure and overwhelming marketing costs. Thanks to the Internet, new businesses can become popular almost overnight.
Low Cost, Instant Communication
Email makes business communications instant, whether the customer or business affiliate is across the street or across the globe. It makes it easier for customers to maintain contact and readily facilitates repeat purchasing. An effective online strategy can therefore turn a small web business into a virtual cost saver and income-generating machine. The net result is that the small business can gain significant competitive advantage in a given market.
Many online businesses have therefore resorted to the use of ezines, blogs, pop-up ads and other online marketing tools to let customers know about new products or services as well as provide information relevant to their respective industry. The benefits of this strategy are two fold. Marketers can effectively heighten brand awareness for relatively new products on the market whilst strengthening customer relationships, with shorter time frames.
Content is Timeless
Internet Promotion also provides the advantage of being enduring. Whereas participation at a trade fair or conference loses sales impact, once it is over, and an advertisement in a newspaper or business magazine may quickly lose its sales generating value within a day or two or as soon as the next issue is released; Internet Promotion is often timeless. Apart from the dates and sometimes prices, much of your website content remains valid years after.
Fundamental issues in network protocol design and implementation and principles underlying TCP/IP protocol design; historical development of the Internet; Internet routing protocols (unicast, multicast and unidirectional); algorithmic issues related to the Internet; multimedia communication (Voice over IP, Real-time protocols); measurement and performance; next generation Internet (IPv6, QoS) and applications.
Catalog Description:
Networking Protocols. Real-time and Multimedia Application Services. The Global Internet. Measurements and Metrics. Next Generation Internet and Advanced Applications.
Pre-requisite(s):
Computer Networks
Course Outline:
I Networking Protocols 1. OSI model 2. Internet IP/UDP/TCP 3. Routing in the Internet 4. RIP, OSPF 5. BGP 6. Multicasting 7. Unidirectional Routing
II Real-time and Multimedia Application Services 1. Real-Time Protocol 2. Voice over IP 3. H.323 4. Audio/VDO Compressions
III The Global Internet 1. Historical Development 2. IP Address Allocation 3. Domain Name Services
IV Measurements and Metrics 1. Delay, Latency, Packet Loss, Throughput 2. Link Utilization and Availability 3. Network Monitoring
V Next Generation Internet and Advanced Applications 1. IPv6 2. MPLS 3. Quality of Services 4. Mobile Internet 5. Grid Computing
Textbook:
Lecture Notes
References:
J. Crowcroft, M. Handley, I. Wakeman: Internetworking Multimedia, Morgan Kaufmann, 1999. J. F. Kurose and K. W. Ross: Computer Networking - A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet, Addison-Wesley, 2000. L. L. Peterson and B. S. Davie: Computer Networks: A Systems Approach, Second Edition, Morgan Kaufmann, 2000. S. A. Thomas: IPng and the TCP/IP Protocols, Wiley, 1995. W. R. Stevens: TCP/IP Illustrated, Vol. 1, Addison-Wesley, 1994. O. Hersent, D. Gurle, J.-P. Petit: IP Telephony, Addison-Wesley, 2000.
By "special interest groups," he means the more traditional, individualistic style of science where a researcher receives a grant, buys equipment, and is the sole author of the results. The current trend is for multiple investigators to conduct coordinated research focused on broad phenomena, according to Tom Finholt, an organizational psychologist from the University of Michigan who studies the relationship between the Internet and scientists.
This trend, Finholt and others hasten to add, has existed for a long time, but has been greatly enhanced by the Internet's email, Web pages, and electronic bulletin boards. In addition, formal collaboratories—or virtual laboratories of collaborators—are forming around the globe. The Space Physics and Aeronomy Research Collaboratory (SPARC) is one of these. Developed as the Upper Atmospheric Research Collaboratory (UARC) in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1992 and focused on space science, this collaboratory has participants at sites in the United States and Europe. Scientists can read data from instruments in Greenland, adjust instruments remotely, and "chat" with colleagues as they simultaneously view the data.
"Often, space scientists have deep but narrow training," says Finholt. SPARC allows them to fit specialized perspectives into a bigger picture. "Space scientists now believe they have reached a point where advances in knowledge will only be produced by integrating information from many specialties"
Furthermore, the collaboration is no longer as physically draining as it once was. Now, scientists like Charles Goodrich of the University of Maryland and John Lyon of Dartmouth College can continue collaborating on space-weather research, even when one person moves away. While Goodrich admits that the work might be done more easily if it could be done in person, he is sure that both the travel budget and his family life would suffer if he tried. "You can put your data on the Web, but not your child," he quips.
Other disciplines are seeing an equally phenomenal surge of information. Researchers can now get many journals online when they once needed to work geographically close to a university library. The surge of data is both a boon and a problem for researchers trying to keep on top of their fields. But no one is asking to return to the pre-Internet days, and no one is expecting the information growth to end.
On a more profound level, the Internet is changing science itself by facilitating broader studies. "Instead of special interest groups focusing on smaller questions, it allows people to look at the big picture," says Mark Luker, who was responsible for high-performance networking programs within CISE until 1997 and is now vice president at EDUCAUSE, a nonprofit organization concerned with higher education and information technology.
For researchers, the expanding Internet means more—more data, more collaboration, and more complex systems of interactions. And while not every university and research institution is hooked up to the vBNS, all forms of the Internet have brought radical changes to the way research is conducted.
Ken Weiss is an anthropologist at Penn State University and an NSF-supported researcher studying the worldwide genetic variability of humans. While he is not actively seeking a hook-up to the vBNS, he says the Internet has had a significant impact on his research. For example, he uses email constantly, finding it more convenient than the phone ever was. And he has access to much more data. He can download huge numbers of gene sequences from around the world and do research on specific genes.
Weiss is an active user and enthusiast, but he does not necessarily agree that more is always better. "The jury is still out on some aspects, such as the exponential growth of databases, which may be outpacing our ability for quality control. Sometimes the data collection serves as a substitute for thought," says Weiss.
The computer shows were more than exercises in pretty pictures; they demonstrated new ways of digging deeply into the available data. For example, participants in the Virtual Surgery demonstration were able to use the National Medical Library's Visible Man and pick up a "virtual scalpel" to cut "virtual flesh." At another exhibit, a researcher demonstrated tele-robotics and tele-presence. While projecting a cyber-image of himself into the conference, the researcher worked from a remote console and controlled a robot who interacted with conference attendees.
Applications such as these are just the beginning, says DeFanti. Eventually the Internet will make possible a broader and more in-depth experience than is currently available. "We're taking the computer from the two-dimensional 'desktop' metaphor and turning it into a three-dimensional 'shopping mall' model of interaction," he says. "We want people to go into a computer and be able to perform multiple tasks just as they do at a mall, a museum, or even a university."
While other remote applications are not as far along, their results will be dramatic once the bugs are ironed out, according to Tom DeFanti of the University of Illinois at Chicago and his colleagues. DeFanti and many others are manipulating the computer tools that provide multimedia, interaction, virtual reality, and other applications. The results, he says, will move computers into another realm. DeFanti is one of the main investigators of I-WAY, or the Information Wide Area Year, a demonstration of computer power and networking expertise. For the 1995 Supercomputer Conference in San Diego, he and his colleagues, Rick Stevens of the Argonne National Laboratory and Larry Smarr of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, linked more than a dozen of the country's fastest computer centers and visualization environments.
If the past is a guide, the Internet is likely to continue to grow at a fast and furious pace. And as it grows, geographic location will count less and less. The "Information Superhighway" is not only here, it is already crowded. As EDUCAUSE's Mark Luker says, it is being divided, as are the highways of many cities, allowing for the equivalent of HOV lanes and both local and express routes. The electronic highway now connects schools, businesses, homes, universities, and organizations.
And it provides both researchers and business leaders with opportunities that seemed like science fiction no more than a decade ago. Even now, some of these high-tech innovations—including virtual reality, computer conferencing, and telemanufacturing—have already become standard fare in some laboratories.
Tele-manufacturing allows remote researchers to move quickly from computer drawing boards to a physical mock-up. At the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), the Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM) machine turns files into models using either plastic or layers of laminated paper. The benefits are especially pronounced for molecular biologists who learn how their molecules actually fit together, or dock. Even in a typical computer graphics depiction of the molecules, the docking process and other significant details can get lost among the mounds of insignificant data. SDSC's models can better depict this type of information. They are also relevant to the work of researchers studying plate tectonics, hurricanes, the San Diego Bay region, and mathematical surfaces.
To make the move from the virtual to the physical, researchers use the network to send their files to SDSC. Tele-manufacturing lead scientist Mike Bailey and his colleagues then create a list of three-dimensional triangles that bound the surface of the object in question. With that information, the LOM builds a model. Researchers can even watch their objects take shape. The LOMcam uses the Web to post new pictures every forty-five seconds while a model is being produced.
"We made it incredibly easy to use so that people who wouldn't think about manufacturing are now manufacturing," says Bailey. For some researchers, the whole process has become so easy that "they think of it no differently than you do when you make a hard copy on your laser printer," he adds. SDSC's remote lab has moved out of the realm of science fiction and into the area of everyday office equipment
ACM Transcations on Internet Technology brings together many computing disciplines including computer software engineering, computer programming languages, middleware, database management, security, knowledge discovery and data mining, networking and distributed systems, communications, performance and scalability etc. TOIT will cover the results and roles of the individual disciplines and the relationshipsamong them.
Entertainment is another popular raison d'être why many people prefer to surf the Internet. In fact, media of internet has become quite successful in trapping multifaceted entertainment factor. Downloading games, visiting chat rooms or just surfing the Web are some of the uses people have discovered. There are numerous games that may be downloaded from the Internet for free. The industry of online gaming has tasted dramatic and phenomenal attention by game lovers. Chat rooms are popular because users can meet new and interesting people. In fact, the Internet has been successfully used by people to find life long partners. When people surf the Web, there are numerous things that can be found. Music, hobbies, news and more can be found and shared on the Internet.
Services
Many services are now provided on the internet such as online banking, job seeking, purchasing tickets for your favorite movies, guidance services on array of topics engulfing the every aspect of life, and hotel reservations. Often these services are not available off-line and can cost you more.
E-Commerce
Ecommerce is the concept used for any type of commercial maneuvering, or business deals that involves the transfer of information across the globe via Internet. It has become a phenomenon associated with any kind of shopping, almost anything. You name it and Ecommerce with its giant tentacles engulfing every single product and service will make you available at your door steps. It has got a real amazing and wide range of products from household needs, technology to entertainment.
If you use the Internet, you may be facing grave danger as your personal information such as name, address, credit card number etc. can be accessed by other culprits to make your problems worse.
Spamming:
Spamming refers to sending unwanted e-mails in bulk, which provide no purpose and needlessly obstruct the entire system. Such illegal activities can be very frustrating for you, and so instead of just ignoring it, you should make an effort to try and stop these activities so that using the Internet can become that much safer.
Virus threat
Virus is nothing but a program which disrupts the normal functioning of your computer systems. Computers attached to internet are more prone to virus attacks and they can end up into crashing your whole hard disk, causing you considerable headache.
Pornography:
This is perhaps the biggest threat related to your children’s healthy mental life. A very serious issue concerning the Internet. There are thousands of pornographic sites on the Internet that can be easily found and can be a detrimental factor to letting children use the Internet.
Internet has been perhaps the most outstanding innovation in the field of communication in the history of mankind. As with every single innovation, internet has its own advantages and disadvantages. But usually, greater magnitude of advantages outweighs its disadvantages.
During his evolution journey from Neanderthals to Homo erectus and then to Homo sapiens, man has come long way. Because of his continuous quest for more and more amenities and facilities, the nineties have seen a major turn around with the invention of computers. 10 years ago, the term internet was practically anonymous to most of the people. And today internet has become the most ever powerful tool for man throughout the world. The internet is a collection of various services and resources. Although, many people still think e-mail and World Wide Web as the principle constituents of internet, there is lot more in store than e-mail, chat rooms, celebrity web sites and search engines. It also became the best business tool of modern scenario. Today internet has brought a globe in a single room. Right from news across the corner of the world, wealth of knowledge to shopping, purchasing the tickets of your favorite movie-everything is at your finger tips. Internet has great potential and lot to offer… however, like every single innovation in science and technology, internet has its own advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages
Communication:
The foremost target of internet has always been the communication. And internet has excelled beyond the expectations .Still; innovations are going on to make it faster, more reliable. By the advent of computer’s Internet, our earth has reduced and has attained the form of a global village.
Now we can communicate in a fraction of second with a person who is sitting in the other part of the world. Today for better communication, we can avail the facilities of e-mail; we can chat for hours with our loved ones. There are plenty messenger services in offering. With help of such services, it has become very easy to establish a kind of global friendship where you can share your thoughts, can explore other cultures of different ethnicity.
Information
Information is probably the biggest advantage internet is offering. The Internet is a virtual treasure trove of information. Any kind of information on any topic under the sun is available on the Internet. The search engines like Google, yahoo is at your service on the Internet. You can almost find any type of data on almost any kind of subject that you are looking for. There is a huge amount of information available on the internet for just about every subject known to man, ranging from government law and services, trade fairs and conferences, market information, new ideas and technical support, the list is end less.
Students and children are among the top users who surf the Internet for research. Today, it is almost required that students should use the Internet for research for the purpose of gathering resources. Teachers have started giving assignments that require research on the Internet. Almost every coming day, researches on medical issues become much easier to locate. Numerous web sites available on the net are offering loads of information for people to research diseases and talk to doctors online at sites such as, America’s Doctor. During 1998 over 20 million people reported going online to retrieve health information.
DSL Modem Digital subscriber line (DSL) technology transmits data over phone lines without interfering with voice service. A DSL connection works better when you are closer to the provider's central office. See a broadband modem next.
There are many older and newer technologies that allow you to get connected to the Internet, including this wireless Internet card. Click on the next pages to see the different types of connections and find the one best for you.
Cable Modem
A cable modem allows the user to get high-speed Internet from their cable provider, though in times of heavy usage with many connected users, performance might be significantly slower. See cable modem's competition next.
Wireless technology makes it easy to get rid of the cables and take computing away from the desk. It's becoming the household norm, and while the technology is advancing quickly, there are some easy things you can do to improve your own wireless connectivity. Get started by checking out the first tip on the next page.
The Internet's histor began in the United States, where Americans had the best access to the Internet's resources for several years. According to technology experts like S. Derek Turner, as more countries began to link to the Internet, a strange thing happened. The U.S. began to lose its dominant position as world leader of Internet access. Other countries began to support Internet access more effectively than the country that invented it. But other sources disagree, arguing that the United States is still a leader both as a content provider on the Internet itself and in giving citizens the access they need. What do these different perspectives mean? Much of the reason has to do with the way Internet access is measured. Is it measured by each country's physical Internet resources? Or do you measure it according to the number of citizens who have Internet access out of the overall population? One company's method was to simply survey a sample of the population of different countries by asking each interviewee if he or she had accessed the Internet over the last month. In this article, we'll use the same approach as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The OECD compares each country's number of broadband subscribers against the size of the overall population. Why use this method? Because looking at the number of subscribers alone doesn't tell us enough information. Let's compare and contrast the United States with China.
1. In retrospect, what were the decisive turning points for Internet and WWW technology to become ubiquitous and pervasive? 2. What are the next likely disruptive technologies in Internet space that might make new marks in the way we live and work? 3. What are the most important technologies that will determine the future Internet’s speed and direction? 4. Where do you see the roles of industry, startups, research labs, universities, “open source” companies, and standard organizations in shaping the future Internet? 5. What will be the major application areas dominating the Web? 6. What is the most controversial and unpredictable technology in the Internet space?
As we’ve all seen, Internet technology has become a dominant factor in business, academia, and everyday life. E-commerce and e-services are fueling a market sea change, with practically any business anyplace nurturing its equivalent on the Internet. The change began with advertisements and news, followed by entertainment (with music and movies) and traditional businesses, such as retail sales, financing, brokerage, and auctions. Now, entirely new businesses and services are created on and for the Internet. As a consequence, Internet service providers and application service providers have created a revolutionary new model for driving new applications, hardware, and software development. More globally, the recent AOL–Time-Warner merger revolutionizes our perception of future business, making us all wonder who will dominate tomorrow’s businesses. If an Internet company that was lightly regarded—if not ridiculed and abused for its poor service just a few years ago—can buy one of the pre-Internet giants, where will the changes stop? On a different front, much of today’s research revolves around the Internet. Networking teams explore how to bring big pipes that last mile to homes, while others explore operating systems within the context of Web servers or look to agent technology for help with Web interfaces and search techniques. Internet research has made itself felt most profoundly through startups. A number of university research projects ended up in products coming from startups, usually as products for the Web, such as Akamai or Inktomi. The open-source community is another relevant factor in this arena, while the Linux operating system and Apache Web server are the most widely represented systems in Web serving. The Internet’s impact on everyday life is also fascinating. The other day, my wife and I received a Web greeting card through Yahoo—animated, too! It is much easier to reach me by e-mail than by phone. Like most of my colleagues, I do not search for academic papers in libraries, but rather on the Web. There, I also do spell checking, follow my favorite basketball teams on the NBA’s Web site, and buy books and computers at Amazon.com and buy.com among many other sites. WebVan offers groceries online in the San Francisco Bay area and other companies offer clothing. “If it is not on out on the Internet, it ain’t there” :-). Unfortunately, the Internet has also opened some dark doors, including privacy invasion, pornography, and information abuse, to name a few—problems that existed in the presence of traditional technologies and that will have to be fought with traditional and new ways. In this installment, we feature some of the people who have brought the Internet technical revolution to you: Erik Brewer of Inktomi and the University of California at Berkeley, Fred Douglis of AT&T Labs–Research, Peter Druschel of Rice University, Gary Herman of HP Labs, Franklin Reynolds of Nokia, and Munindar Singh of North Carolina State University.
WELCOME TO INTERNET SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGIES!IST has been in the web application development and website design business since 1996. Located in Houston, Texas, IST designs, develops and implements custom software applications designed to meet our clients' needs. That's why we can say that we are the realistic solution to the Internet. We give you, the client, what you want: custom design based on your specifications. To learn more about our services, click on a link below.
CUSTOM SOFTWARE DESIGN
The Internet has introduced numerous opportunities for companies to interact with their clients 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from anywhere in the world. We can help you identify the best solutions for your business. Online purchasing, problem reporting, and information distribution are feasible through the implementation of web software designed specifically for your company's needs.
Examples of this technology are:
Conversion of existing Visual Basic applications to VB.net
Migration to Web Services Technologies
Establishing Virtual Business Communities
Contact Management Systems
Project Management Systems
Job Placement Systems
Feedback Forums
Dynamic document creation and updates
Sales lead management systems
Product status queries
Workflow Solutions
WebTemplates Software
We have expertise in the software tools required to facilitate user interaction with a web site. This includes:
Database programming utilizing Macromedia's ColdFusion, PHP, and other ODBC interfaces.
Active web page programming using Microsoft's Active Server Page technologies. XML development.
CGI Programming utilizing C, PERL, and WinCGI scripts.
JavaScript programming for enhancing interactive HTML documents.
VBScript programming for enhancing Microsoft Internet Explorer documents.
AIT OVERVIEW Based in Huntington Beach, we aim to provide our clients with the best solutions possible in relations to their accounting and business management software and Internet needs. Our philosophy revolves around providing solutions, service, and support that exceed your expectations. By utilizing new technology we help companies in a variety of industries to automate their process, become more efficient and improve their bottom line. We do this by offering expertise in the following areas: Accounting Software and Support We have an excellent reputation as a MAS90 and MAS200 authorized reseller and consultant. For the past twelve years we have been installing, implementing, training and supporting a variety of companies using MAS90 and MAS200. End users of this product consist of small to medium sized companies in an assortment of industries. We are dedicated to providing superior quality business computing solutions, which result in improved productivity and profitability for our clients. Controller Services Many of our clients have found it more cost-effective to out source their controller needs. A full-time Controller in a small to mid sized company can be expensive and may not be necessary. That is why we decided to provide the option to have an outside controller come in on a weekly or bi-weekly basis to work with the bookkeepers/accounting clerks to generate financial statements and reports. Clients that have decided to implement this solution are very pleased with their results in reference to the reduction in costs and quality of performance. Contact Management Software To achieve complete office automation many companies desire powerful contact management software for their sales force. The ability to link this software to their accounting system can really increase the power of their business computing solution. We specialize in Goldmine and Telemagic which both have links to MAS90 and MAS200. Hardware/Networks When it comes to Novell, Windows, NT, Unix and LAN or WAN, we offer complete accounting/data-processing solutions. We also specialize in setting up networks. From providing the actual server and work stations, to setting them up, and even handling the cabling if necessary. In addition to setting up the network we have consultants on staff that are experts at the different operating systems to assist you when you may need support. Internet/Email Using the Internet as a business tool will allow you to save money and improve efficiency. Having Business to Business e-commerce capabilities are needs that companies are facing today. We are also Internet Service Providers, which gives us the capability to service all your Internet needs as well. We can provide dial-upaccess, web hosting, ADSL access, and T-1 frame connections. The opportunities that come with the Internet are endless, and we want to help you discover and implement them. Watch your profit margins grow as you automate your communications and make a presence on the world wide web. Web Hosting / Design With the Internet evolving as one of the necessary tools for businesses today, we are able to help our clients maintain a competitive edge. Not only are we in the business of hosting web sites, we are also designing them. We would love to come visit you and discuss your web strategy and what necessary steps must be taken. We also have the resources available to set you up for E-commerce capabilities. This means not only can you advertise your business on the web, but you can also perform business transactions like taking orders, processing them and even having your system updated with the information.
As much as business trends evolve and change all the time, so does Internet technology. If there is one segment of IT (Information Technology) that has had a lot of innovation and rapid developments in the last ten years, it is Internet technology. Today, there is almost nothing you can't do anymore online. As e-commerce and B2B applications and solutions continue to outgrow their 'brick and mortar' counterparts, a better understanding of the changing trends in Internet technology is essential in today's competitive business world. It could mean increasing your market share in your industry and reaping all the benefits.
Evolution in Internet Technology
Number of Canadians banking online grew 36 percent A new survey by comScore Media Metrix finds that online banking In Canada continues to be a popular and growing industry. The number of Canadians banking online grew from 8.7 million in May 2003 to 11.8 million in August 2004, a 36% increase. Currently, 64% of all Internet users in the country have visited banking Web sites. HSBC experienced the greatest growth in the number of unique visitors with a change of 88.3% from August 2003 to August 2004. ING Group's visitor numbers also expanded by a large relative margin, with a 55.4% growth in the one-year period. Overall, men make up a slightly higher percentage of visitors to bank Web sites than women, but the gender picture varies significantly by bank. For instance, 53.6% of ING Canada's visitors are male, while 52.9% of Scotiabank's visitors are female. The banks do vary greatly in terms of the income level of their visitors. ING and Royal Bank both bring in over 25% of their visitors from households with annual income over $100,000 (US). TD, on the other hand, only counts these more affluent households as 16.6% of their visitors. Historically, Canadian households have done more online banking than US households, and this pattern will continue for 2004. eMarketer estimates that 43.7% of US online households will engage in online banking in 2004, a rate already well below that of Canadian online households in 2003.
What's the current status of Instant Messaging in the workplace? As more and more businesses deploy and use surveillance software to track employee behaviour, vendors that offer workplace monitoring tools are enjoying increasing sales. Security cameras and phone monitoring have long given bosses a view into workers' daily habits. But now employers are going further than ever, thanks to technology that can capture e-mail and instant messaging conversations, or record a worker's every keystroke. Surveillance of e-mail and IMs is on the rise, due to regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the growing use of e-communications as evidence in lawsuits. Workers may not like it, but companies that make snooping software don't mind--the workplace surveillance industry is enjoying a boomlet. Websense, a maker of Internet monitoring tools, has seen its stock price nearly double in the last year, though it saw some gains erased late last week. The company is scheduled to report third-quarter 2004 results on Tuesday. Other top players in the market include SurfControl and Secure Computing. "I think all these companies are seeing great demand," said Katherine Egbert, an analyst with Jefferies & Co. "Lately, regulatory compliance issues, and deadlines for meeting those regulations, have been driving sales."
It's December already and so it's about that time to reflect on what has happened in Web Technology during 2006 - and ponder what 2007 may bring. Over the next few weeks Read/WriteWeb is going to publish some in-depth posts analyzing the trends and new products we've seen in 2006, as well as musing on some specific things we'll probably see in 2007.
To kick this series off, here is an overview of some high level trends from 2006. In our next post, we'll make predictions for 2007. We're also looking for YOUR feedback, to ensure that what we cover over the next few weeks is complete.
I have to thank kiwi journalist Mark Evans for the inspiration for this series. Mark recently had an article published in Management Magazine that outlined Web trends for 2006 and 2007. Mark interviewed me for that article and so this post (and the next) will utilize much of the thinking I did to contribute to Mark's article. Here goes...
2006 Review - Undoubtedly 2006 has been the year of the social network. MySpace, YouTube, Facebook have been the three outstanding success stories - but also impressive was Bebo (in the UK particularly) and there was strong growth in existing web 2.0 networks like Flickr and del.icio.us. The zenith of this social networking craze was probably Google buying YouTube for $1.65 B.
- RSS continues to inch towards the mainstream - Yahoo integrated it into Y! Mail Beta, Microsoft is utilizing it more (e.g. integrated into IE7), Google came out with Google Base and the GData format (which is based on the RSS variant, ATOM). While 2006 can't be seen as the breakthrough year for RSS in the mainstream, we will probably see RSS bloom in 2007 as a result of the groundwork done in '06 by the big Internet companies. Note that there have been recent murmurs that Yahoo is scaling back RSS, but I think this is a short-term trend only.
- 2006 was also the year that Web 2.0 got overhyped and the term is now generally accepted as just a marketing term, akin to Dot Com. But whatever you call it - I prefer to use the term 'Social Web' or even 'read/write Web' nowadays - this current era of the Web is making a big impact. Mainstream media is taking on board many read/write philosophies. This is evidenced in many ways - e.g. News Corp acquiring MySpace and seeing enormous growth; blogs are now accepted by mainstream media and businesses; etc. Also the overwhelming presence of media people at the 2006 Web 2.0 Summit was evidence that Social Web trends are influencing a broader cross-spectrum of people now.
- In 2006 Amazon came out with some startling new web technologies - Mechanical Turk, S3 (online storage) and EC2. Their push to be a major web services infrastructure platform was one of the more intriguing strategies from an Internet bigco this year.
- On the other big companies... Google dominated the news and buzz this year, Microsoft pushed ahead with its Windows Live strategy (its Web-based suite of products and services), and Yahoo had a steady product year (but ending with organizational issues). Apple continued to dominate the online music market (forcing Microsoft to compete head-on) and has also entered the video space with gusto.
- Lots of bigco partnering. Allow me to quote directly from Mark Evans here, as he captured this trend very nicely: "Ebay and Yahoo have snuggled up together, announcing in May that Yahoo would serve display ads to Ebay’s US users and promote Paypal – Ebay’s payment service – to Yahoo users. In August, Ebay signed Google to serve ads to international Ebay users. A dollar each way, perhaps?"
- 2006 also saw the return of the VC money (see web 2.0 hype above!). Although VC money this time round seems to be much more circumspect and generally lower valuations than in the dot com boom. Indeed an associated trend is that web startups are increasingly going it alone and bootstrapping, thanks to open source technologies (e.g. the LAMP platform) and ability to work anywhere anytime. On the flip side (pardon the pun), it still pays to be located in Silicon Valley - as that is where the key networking and fundraising activity still takes place.
- Localization really matters in Web space - for example TradeMe dominates New Zealand traffic and similar local products often outrank the likes of Yahoo and Google in their local markets. The larger trend here is that cultural and language differences mean that big US companies don't always dominate in international markets. Having said that, there is also a lot of overseas cloning of successful Silicon Valley apps (e.g. digg, flickr). See Read/WriteWeb's continuing coverage of international markets for individual country drill-downs.
- The consumerization of the enterprise has been an emerging trend all year. More and more social web apps are coming into the enterprise (e.g. Skype, IM), and organizations are adopting read/write Web philosophies. Corporate blogging got popular in 2006 and blogs are usually part of the mix now in marketing plans.
- In particular, I've been tracking the trend of Web Office. As well as lots of startup action (Zoho, Zimbra, ThinkFree, et al), late this year saw a flurry of action from Google in this space - Google Apps For Your Domain, the acquisitions of Writely and JotSpot, the launch of Google Docs & Spreadsheets, and more. In 2007 a major area of focus will be the increasing competition in office software between Google and Microsoft.
- Widgets (mini web apps) were all the rage this year, culminating in its own conference. Related to this, 'personalized start pages' (live.com, netvibes, pageflakes, etc) ramped up, enabling users to collect their widgets together on the one site.
- Online video was hot, hot, hot this year! There are currently a host of YouTube wannabes on the market. The best chance for success for all these startups vying for attention, is to either come out with a next-generation product that takes online video functionality to the next level and/or target a specific niche market.
- VoIP space showed signs of hotting up. Skype now has a bunch of new competitors, all aiming to disrupt the existing telecoms industry.
- Hybrid web/desktop apps (or as Read/WriteWeb termed it "webified desktop apps") came into play a lot more this year. For example the Times Reader, built using Microsoft WPF technology. Also noteworthy is Adobe's Apollo platform and Laszlo's rich internet apps platform.
- Browser Wars 2.0. Firefox enjoyed strong growth this year and released its 2.0 browser in October. 2006 was also (not coincidentally) the year that Microsoft finally upgraded its Internet Explorer browser, to 7.0.
- From a blog perspective, Techcrunch established itself as the blog at the center of all the web 2.0 action - attracting aspiring startups like moths around a flame. Other tech blogs like Gigaom, VentureBeat and Read/WriteWeb itself, have also experienced excellent growth this year.
- Ajax had strong growth this year and according to some reports is not that far behind Flash now.
- World Internet Penetration is 16% and growing - Asia in particular is ramping up fast! Also noteworthy is that 3/4 of traffic to top websites is international.
Those were the major trends from the Web this year, but there are many other smaller trends. Here is a starter for 10:
RSS filtering, while not as strong as I expected this year, is still making progress via very small startups. The new Google Reader also had some interesting filtering features. However PubSub carked it. The commodization of RSS Readers - e.g. the Pluck Reader shut down. P2P traffic continued to grow. The WebOS (virtual desktop) was a relatively small market this year, but a lot of startups entered the space. Digital Reading market hotted up - Microsoft, Sony and Adobe all released new e-reading products. Asian Mobile Web years ahead - while the Mobile Web has a long way to go in places like the US and NZ, in Asia the mobile Web had continued growth in 2006. e-learning had strong growth in 2006. There was hot competition between blog vendors - e.g. SixApart vs Wordpress Innovative distributed portal plays are growing fast - e.g. edgeio, simplyhired. ADD MORE IN THE COMMENTS... As the final bullet point implies, so much more has happened in 2006 than I can hope to cover in one post. So please add other 2006 Web trends to the comments. After all, the only way this list is going to be comprehensive is via the Power of the Many ;-)
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standardized Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP). It is a network of networks
that consists of millions of private and public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope that are linked by copper wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless connections, and other technologies.
The Internet carries a vast array of information resources and services, most notably, the inter-linked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the infrastructure to support electronic mail, in addition to popular services such as online chat, file transfer and file sharing, online gaming, and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) person-to-person communication via voice and video.
The origins of the Internet reach back to the 1960s when the United States funded research projects of its military agencies to build robust, fault-tolerant and distributed computer networks. This research spawned world-wide participation in the development of new networking technologies and led to the commercialization of an international network and the popularization of countless applications in virtually every aspect of modern human life. By 2009, an estimated quarter of Earth's population uses the services of the Internet (see Growth).
Terminology
The terms Internet and World Wide Web are often used in everyday speech without much distinction. However, the Internet and the World Wide Web are not one and the same. The Internet is a global data communications system. It is a hardware and software infrastructure that provides connectivity between computers. In contrast, the Web is one of the services communicated via the Internet. It is a collection of interconnected documents and other resources, linked by hyperlinks and URLs.
The term the Internet, when referring to the Internet, has traditionally been treated as a proper noun and written with an initial capital letter. There is a trend to regard it as a generic term or common noun and thus write it as "the internet", without the capital.
History:Creation
The USSR's launch of Sputnik spurred the United States to create the Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as ARPA, in February 1958 to regain a technological lead. ARPA created the Information Processing Technology Office (IPTO) to further the research of the Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) program, which had networked country-wide radar systems together for the first time. J. C. R. Licklider was selected to head the IPTO.
Licklider moved from the Psycho-Acoustic Laboratory at HarvardUniversity to MIT in 1950, after becoming interested in information technology. At MIT, he served on a committee that established Lincoln Laboratory and worked on the SAGE project. In 1957 he became a Vice President at BBN, where he bought the first production PDP-1 computer and conducted the first public demonstration of time-sharing.
At the IPTO, Licklider got Lawrence Roberts to start a project to make a network, and Roberts based the technology on the work of Paul Baran, who had written an exhaustive study for the U.S. Air Force that recommended packet switching (as opposed to circuit switching) to make a network highly robust and survivable. After much work, the first two nodes of what would become the ARPANET were interconnected between UCLA and SRI International (SRI) in Menlo Park, California, on October 29, 1969. The ARPANET was one of the "eve" networks of today's Internet.
Following on from the demonstration that packet switching worked on the ARPANET, the British Post Office, Telenet, DATAPAC and TRANSPAC collaborated to create the first international packet-switched network service. In the UK, this was referred to as the International Packet Switched Service (IPSS), in 1978. The collection of X.25-based networks grew from Europe and the US to cover Canada, Hong Kong and Australia by 1981. The X.25 packet switching standard was developed in the CCITT (now called ITU-T) around 1976.
X.25 was independent of the TCP/IP protocols that arose from the experimental work of DARPA on the ARPANET, Packet Radio Net and Packet Satellite Net during the same time period. Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn developed the first description of the TCP protocols during 1973 and published a paper on the subject in May 1974. Use of the term "Internet" to describe a single global TCP/IP network originated in December 1974 with the publication of RFC 675, the first full specification of TCP that was written by Vinton Cerf, Yogen Dalal and Carl Sunshine, then at StanfordUniversity. During the next nine years, work proceeded to refine the protocols and to implement them on a wide range of operating systems.
The first TCP/IP-based wide-area network was operational by January 1, 1983 when all hosts on the ARPANET were switched over from the older NCP protocols. In 1985, the United States' National Science Foundation (NSF) commissioned the construction of the NSFNET, a university 56 kilobit/second network backbone using computers called "fuzzballs" by their inventor, David L. Mills. The following year, NSF sponsored the conversion to a higher-speed 1.5 megabit/second network. A key decision to use the DARPA TCP/IP protocols was made by Dennis Jennings, then in charge of the Supercomputer program at NSF.
The opening of the network to commercial interests began in 1988. The US Federal Networking Council approved the interconnection of the NSFNET to the commercial MCI Mail system in that year and the link was made in the summer of 1989. Other commercial electronic e-mail services were soon connected, including OnTyme, Telemail and Compuserve. In that same year, three commercial Internet service providers (ISP) were created: UUNET, PSINet and CERFNET. Important, separate networks that offered gateways into, then later merged with, the Internet include Usenet and BITNET. Various other commercial and educational networks, such as Telenet, Tymnet, Compuserve and JANET were interconnected with the growing Internet. Telenet (later called Sprintnet) was a large privately funded national computer network with free dial-up access in cities throughout the U.S. that had been in operation since the 1970s. This network was eventually interconnected with the others in the 1980s as the TCP/IP protocol became increasingly popular. The ability of TCP/IP to work over virtually any pre-existing communication networks allowed for a great ease of growth, although the rapid growth of the Internet was due primarily to the availability of an array of standardized commercial routers from many companies, the availability of commercial Ethernet equipment for local-area networking, and the widespread implementation and rigerous standardization of TCP/IP on UNIX and virtually every other common operating system.
Growth
Although the basic applications and guidelines that make the Internet possible had existed for almost two decades, the network did not gain a public face until the 1990s. On 6 August 1991, CERN, a pan European organisation for particle research, publicized the new World Wide Web project. The Web was invented by English scientist Tim Berners-Lee in 1989.
An early popular web browser was ViolaWWW, patterned after HyperCard and built using the X Window System. It was eventually replaced in popularity by the Mosaic web browser. In 1993, the NationalCenter for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois released version 1.0 of Mosaic, and by late 1994 there was growing public interest in the previously academic, technical Internet. By 1996 usage of the word Internet had become commonplace, and consequently, so had its use as a synecdoche in reference to the World Wide Web.
Meanwhile, over the course of the decade, the Internet successfully accommodated the majority of previously existing public computer networks (although some networks, such as FidoNet, have remained separate). During the 1990s, it was estimated that the Internet grew by 100% per year, with a brief period of explosive growth in 1996 and 1997. This growth is often attributed to the lack of central administration, which allows organic growth of the network, as well as the non-proprietary open nature of the Internet protocols, which encourages vendor interoperability and prevents any one company from exerting too much control over the network.
Using various statistics, Advanced Micro Devices estimated the population of Internet users to be 1.5 billion as of January 2009.
University students' appreciation and contributions
New developments in the field of communications and information technology have been driven by the research and the need of scientists and students at universities and they were always early adopters of new technologies.
Examples of early university Internet communities are the Cleveland Free-Net, BlacksburgElectronicVillage and NSTN in Nova Scotia. Students took up the opportunity of free communications and saw this new phenomenon as a tool of liberation. Personal computers and the Internet would free them from corporations and governments (Nelson, Jennings, Stallman).
Graduate students played an important part in the creation of ARPANET. In the 1960s, the network working group, which did most of the design of the ARPANET protocols, was composed mainly of graduate students.
The My Opera Community server rack. From the top, user file storage (content of files.myopera.com), "bigma" (the master MySQL database server), and two IBM blade centers containing multi-purpose machines (Apache front ends, Apache back ends, slave MySQL database servers, load balancers, file servers, cache servers and sync masters)
Technical foundation
The complex communications infrastructure of the Internet consists of its hardware components and a system of software layers that control various aspects of the architecture. While the hardware can often be used to support other software systems, it is the design and the rigorous standardization process of the software architecture that characterizes the Internet and provides the foundation for its scalability and success.
The responsibility for the architectural design of the Internet software systems has been delegated to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The IETF conducts standard-setting work groups, open to any individual, about the various aspects of Internet architecture. Resulting discussions and final standards are published in a series of publications each of which is called a Request for Comment (RFC), freely available on the IETF web site. The principal methods of networking that enable the Internet are contained in specially designated RFCs that constitute the Internet Standards.
These standards describe a framework known as the Internet Protocol Suite. This is a model architecture that divides methods into a layered system of protocols (RFC 1122, RFC 1123). The layers correspond to the environment or scope in which their services operate. At the top is the Application Layer, the space for the application-specific networking methods used in software applications, e.g., a web browser program, and just below it is the Transport Layer which connects applications on different hosts via the network (e.g., client-server model) with appropriate data exchange methods. Underlying these layers are the actual networking technologies, consisting of two layers. The Internet Layer enables computers to identify and locate each other via Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, and allows them to connect to one-another via intermediate (transit) networks. Lastly, at the bottom of the architecture, is a software layer that provides connectivity between hosts on the same local network link (therefor called Link Layer), such as a local area network (LAN) or a dial-up connection. The model, also known as TCP/IP, is designed to be independent of the underlying hardware which the model therefore does not concern itself with in any detail. Other models have been developed, such as the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, but they are not compatible in the details of description, nor implementation, but many similarities exist and the TCP/IP protocols are usually included in the discussion of OSI networking.
The most prominent component of the Internet model is the Internet Protocol (IP) which provides addressing systems (IP addresses) for computers on the Internet. IP enables internetworking and essentially establishes the Internet itself. IP Version 4 (IPv4) is the initial version used on the first generation of the today's Internet and is still in dominant use. It was designed to address up to ~4.3 billion (109) Internet hosts. However, the explosive growth of the Internet has led to IPv4 address exhaustion which is estimated to enter its final stage in approximately 2011. A new protocol version, IPv6, was developed which provides vastly larger addressing capabilities and more efficient routing of Internet traffic. IPv6 is currently in commercial deployment phase around the world and Internet address registries (RIRs) have begun to urge all resource managers to plan rapid adoption and conversion.
IPv6 is not interoperable with IPv4. It essentially establishes a "parallel" version of the Internet not directly accessible with IPv4 software. This means software upgrades or translator facilities are necessary for every networking device that needs to communicate on the IPv6 Internet. Most modern computer operating systems are already converted to operate with both versions of the Internet Protocol. Network infrastructures, however, are still lagging in this development.
Aside from the complex physical connections that make up its infrastructure, the Internet is facilitated by bi- or multi-lateral commercial contracts (e.g., peering agreements), and by technical specifications or protocols that describe how to exchange data over the network. Indeed, the Internet is defined by its interconnections and routing policies.
Today's Internet
Internet structure
The Internet and its structure have been studied extensively. For example, it has been determined that both the Internet IP routing structure and hypertext links of the World Wide Web are examples of scale-free networks.
Similar to the way the commercial Internet providers connect via Internet exchange points, research networks tend to interconnect into large subnetworks such as GEANT, GLORIAD, Internet2 (successor of the Abilene Network), and the UK's national research and education network JANET. These in turn are built around smaller networks (see also the list of academic computer network organizations).
Many computer scientists describe the Internet as a "prime example of a large-scale, highly engineered, yet highly complex system". The Internet is extremely heterogeneous; for instance, data transfer rates and physical characteristics of connections vary widely. The Internet exhibits "emergent phenomena" that depend on its large-scale organization. For example, data transfer rates exhibit temporal self-similarity. Further adding to the complexity of the Internet is the ability of more than one computer to use the Internet through only one node, thus creating the possibility for a very deep and hierarchical sub-network that can theoretically be extended infinitely (disregarding the programmatic limitations of the IPv4 protocol). Principles of this architecture date back to the 1960s and it might not be a solution best suited to modern needs. Thus, the possibility of developing alternative structures is currently being looked into.
According to a June 2007 article in Discover magazine, the combined weight of all the electrons moved within the Internet in a day is 0.2 millionths of an ounce. Others have estimated this at nearer 2 ounces (50 grams).
Computer network diagrams often represent the Internet using a cloud symbol from which network communications pass in and out.
ICANN
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the authority that coordinates the assignment of unique identifiers on the Internet, including domain names, Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, and protocol port and parameter numbers. A globally unified name space (i.e., a system of names in which there is at most one holder for each possible name) is essential for the Internet to function. ICANN is headquartered in Marina del Rey, California, but is overseen by an international board of directors drawn from across the Internet technical, business, academic, and non-commercial communities. The US government continues to have the primary role in approving changes to the root zone file that lies at the heart of the domain name system. Because the Internet is a distributed network comprising many voluntarily interconnected networks, the Internet has no governing body. ICANN's role in coordinating the assignment of unique identifiers distinguishes it as perhaps the only central coordinating body on the global Internet, but the scope of its authority extends only to the Internet's systems of domain names, IP addresses, protocol ports and parameter numbers.
On November 16, 2005, the World Summit on the Information Society, held in Tunis, established the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) to discuss Internet-related issues.
Language
The prevalent language for communication on the Internet is English. This may be a result of the origin of the Internet, as well as English's role as a lingua franca. It may also be related to the poor capability of early computers, largely originating in the United States, to handle characters other than those in the English variant of the Latin alphabet.
After English (28.6% of Web visitors) the most requested languages on the World Wide Web are Chinese (20.3%), Spanish (8.2%), Japanese (5.9%), French and Portuguese (4.6%), German (4.1%), Arabic (2.6%), Russian (2.4%), and Korean (2.3%).
By region, 41% of the world's Internet users are based in Asia, 25% in Europe, 16% in North America, 11% in Latin America and the Caribbean, 3% in Africa, 3% in the Middle East and 1% in Australia.
The Internet's technologies have developed enough in recent years, especially in the use of Unicode, that good facilities are available for development and communication in most widely used languages. However, some glitches such as mojibake (incorrect display of foreign language characters, also known as kryakozyabry) still remain.
Internet and the workplace
The Internet is allowing greater flexibility in working hours and location, especially with the spread of unmetered high-speed connections and Web applications.
The Internet viewed on mobile devices
The Internet can now be accessed virtually anywhere by numerous means. Mobile phones, datacards, handheld game consoles and cellular routers allow users to connect to the Internet from anywhere there is a cellular network supporting that device's technology.
Within the limitations imposed by the small screen and other limited facilities of such a pocket-sized device, all the services of the Internet, including email and web browsing, may be available in this way. Service providers may restrict the range of these services and charges for data access may be significant, compared to home usage.
Common uses
E-mail
The concept of sending electronic text messages between parties in a way analogous to mailing letters or memos predates the creation of the Internet. Even today it can be important to distinguish between Internet and internal e-mail systems. Internet e-mail may travel and be stored unencrypted on many other networks and machines out of both the sender's and the recipient's control. During this time it is quite possible for the content to be read and even tampered with by third parties, if anyone considers it important enough. Purely internal or intranet mail systems, where the information never leaves the corporate or organization's network, are much more secure, although in any organization there will be IT and other personnel whose job may involve monitoring, and occasionally accessing, the e-mail of other employees not addressed to them. Today you can send pictures and attach files on e-mail. Most e-mail servers today also feature the ability to send e-mail to multiple e-mail addresses.
The World Wide Web
Many people use the terms Internet and World Wide Web (or just the Web) interchangeably, but, as discussed above, the two terms are not synonymous.
The World Wide Web is a huge set of interlinked documents, images and other resources, linked by hyperlinks and URLs. These hyperlinks and URLs allow the web servers and other machines that store originals, and cached copies of, these resources to deliver them as required using HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol). HTTP is only one of the communication protocols used on the Internet.
Web services also use HTTP to allow software systems to communicate in order to share and exchange business logic and data.
Software products that can access the resources of the Web are correctly termed user agents. In normal use, web browsers, such as Internet Explorer, Firefox and Apple Safari, access web pages and allow users to navigate from one to another via hyperlinks. Web documents may contain almost any combination of computer data including graphics, sounds, text, video, multimedia and interactive content including games, office applications and scientific demonstrations.
Through keyword-driven Internet research using search engines like Yahoo! and Google, millions of people worldwide have easy, instant access to a vast and diverse amount of online information. Compared to encyclopedias and traditional libraries, the World Wide Web has enabled a sudden and extreme decentralization of information and data.
Using the Web, it is also easier than ever before for individuals and organizations to publish ideas and information to an extremely large audience. Anyone can find ways to publish a web page, a blog or build a website for very little initial cost. Publishing and maintaining large, professional websites full of attractive, diverse and up-to-date information is still a difficult and expensive proposition, however.
Many individuals and some companies and groups use "web logs" or blogs, which are largely used as easily updatable online diaries. Some commercial organizations encourage staff to fill them with advice on their areas of specialization in the hope that visitors will be impressed by the expert knowledge and free information, and be attracted to the corporation as a result. One example of this practice is Microsoft, whose product developers publish their personal blogs in order to pique the public's interest in their work.
Collections of personal web pages published by large service providers remain popular, and have become increasingly sophisticated. Whereas operations such as Angelfire and GeoCities have existed since the early days of the Web, newer offerings from, for example, Facebook and My Space currently have large followings. These operations often brand themselves as social network services rather than simply as web page hosts.
Advertising on popular web pages can be lucrative, and e-commerce or the sale of products and services directly via the Web continues to grow.
In the early days, web pages were usually created as sets of complete and isolated HTML text files stored on a web server. More recently, websites are more often created using content management or wiki software with, initially, very little content. Contributors to these systems, who may be paid staff, members of a club or other organization or members of the public, fill underlying databases with content using editing pages designed for that purpose, while casual visitors view and read this content in its final HTML form. There may or may not be editorial, approval and security systems built into the process of taking newly entered content and making it available to the target visitors.
Remote access
The Internet allows computer users to connect to other computers and information stores easily, wherever they may be across the world. They may do this with or without the use of security, authentication and encryption technologies, depending on the requirements.
This is encouraging new ways of working from home, collaboration and information sharing in many industries. An accountant sitting at home can audit the books of a company based in another country, on a server situated in a third country that is remotely maintained by IT specialists in a fourth. These accounts could have been created by home-working bookkeepers, in other remote locations, based on information e-mailed to them from offices all over the world. Some of these things were possible before the widespread use of the Internet, but the cost of private leased lines would have made many of them infeasible in practice.
An office worker away from his desk, perhaps on the other side of the world on a business trip or a holiday, can open a remote desktop session into his normal office PC using a secure Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection via the Internet. This gives the worker complete access to all of his or her normal files and data, including e-mail and other applications, while away from the office.
This concept is also referred to by some network security people as the Virtual Private Nightmare, because it extends the secure perimeter of a corporate network into its employees' homes.
Collaboration
The low cost and nearly instantaneous sharing of ideas, knowledge, and skills has made collaborative work dramatically easier. Not only can a group cheaply communicate and share ideas, but the wide reach of the Internet allows such groups to easily form in the first place. An example of this is the free software movement, which has produced Linux, Mozilla Firefox, OpenOffice.org etc.
Internet "chat", whether in the form of IRC chat rooms or channels, or via instant messaging systems, allow colleagues to stay in touch in a very convenient way when working at their computers during the day. Messages can be exchanged even more quickly and conveniently than via e-mail. Extensions to these systems may allow files to be exchanged, "whiteboard" drawings to be shared or voice and video contact between team members.
Version control systems allow collaborating teams to work on shared sets of documents without either accidentally overwriting each other's work or having members wait until they get "sent" documents to be able to make their contributions.
Business and project teams can share calendars as well as documents and other information. Such collaboration occurs in a wide variety of areas including scientific research, software development, conference planning, political activism and creative writing.
File sharing
A computer file can be e-mailed to customers, colleagues and friends as an attachment. It can be uploaded to a website or FTP server for easy download by others. It can be put into a "shared location" or onto a file server for instant use by colleagues. The load of bulk downloads to many users can be eased by the use of "mirror" servers or peer-to-peer networks.
In any of these cases, access to the file may be controlled by user authentication, the transit of the file over the Internet may be obscured by encryption, and money may change hands for access to the file. The price can be paid by the remote charging of funds from, for example, a credit card whose details are also passed—hopefully fully encrypted—across the Internet. The origin and authenticity of the file received may be checked by digital signatures or by MD5 or other message digests.
These simple features of the Internet, over a worldwide basis, are changing the production, sale, and distribution of anything that can be reduced to a computer file for transmission. This includes all manner of print publications, software products, news, music, film, video, photography, graphics and the other arts. This in turn has caused seismic shifts in each of the existing industries that previously controlled the production and distribution of these products.
Streaming media
Many existing radio and television broadcasters provide Internet "feeds" of their live audio and video streams (for example, the BBC). They may also allow time-shift viewing or listening such as Preview, Classic Clips and Listen Again features. These providers have been joined by a range of pure Internet "broadcasters" who never had on-air licenses. This means that an Internet-connected device, such as a computer or something more specific, can be used to access on-line media in much the same way as was previously possible only with a television or radio receiver. The range of material is much wider, from pornography to highly specialized, technical web casts. Pod casting is a variation on this theme, where—usually audio—material is downloaded and played back on a computer or shifted to a portable media player to be listened to on the move. These techniques using simple equipment allow anybody, with little censorship or licensing control, to broadcast audio-visual material on a worldwide basis.
Webcams can be seen as an even lower-budget extension of this phenomenon. While some webcams can give full-frame-rate video, the picture is usually either small or updates slowly. Internet users can watch animals around an African waterhole, ships in the Panama Canal, traffic at a local roundabout or monitor their own premises, live and in real time. Video chat rooms and video conferencing are also popular with many uses being found for personal webcams, with and without two-way sound.
You Tube was founded on 15 February 2005 and is now the leading website for free streaming video with a vast number of users. It uses a flash-based web player to stream and show video files. Registered users may upload an unlimited amount of video and build their own personal profile. You Tube claims that its users watch hundreds of millions, and upload hundreds of thousands, of videos daily.
Internet Telephony (Voip)
Voip stands for Voice-over-Internet Protocol, referring to the protocol that underlies all Internet communication. The idea began in the early 1990s with walkie-talkie-like voice applications for personal computers. In recent years many VoIP systems have become as easy to use and as convenient as a normal telephone. The benefit is that, as the Internet carries the voice traffic, VoIP can be free or cost much less than a traditional telephone call, especially over long distances and especially for those with always-on Internet connections such as cable or ADSL.
VoIP is maturing into a competitive alternative to traditional telephone service. Interoperability between different providers has improved and the ability to call or receive a call from a traditional telephone is available. Simple, inexpensive VoIP network adapters are available that eliminate the need for a personal computer.
Voice quality can still vary from call to call but is often equal to and can even exceed that of traditional calls.
Remaining problems for VoIP include emergency telephone number dialling and reliability. Currently, a few VoIP providers provide an emergency service, but it is not universally available. Traditional phones are line-powered and operate during a power failure; VoIP does not do so without a backup power source for the phone equipment and the Internet access devices.
VoIP has also become increasingly popular for gaming applications, as a form of communication between players. Popular VoIP clients for gaming include Ventrilo and Teamspeak. Wii, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 also offer VoIP chat features.
Internet by region
Internet access
Common methods of home access include dial-up, landline broadband (over coaxial cable, fiber optic or copper wires), and Wi-Fi, satellite and 3G technology cell phones.
Public places to use the Internet include libraries and Internet cafes, where computers with Internet connections are available. There are also Internet access points in many public places such as airport halls and coffee shops, in some cases just for brief use while standing. Various terms are used, such as "public Internet kiosk", "public access terminal", and "Web payphone". Many hotels now also have public terminals, though these are usually fee-based. These terminals are widely accessed for various usages like ticket booking, bank deposit, online payment etc. Wi-Fi provides wireless access to computer networks, and therefore can do so to the Internet itself. Hotspots providing such access include Wi-Fi cafes, where would-be users need to bring their own wireless-enabled devices such as a laptop or PDA. These services may be free to all, free to customers only, or fee-based. A hotspot need not be limited to a confined location. A whole campus or park, or even an entire city can be enabled. Grassroots efforts have led to wireless community networks. Commercial Wi-Fi services covering large city areas are in place in London, Vienna, Toronto, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago and Pittsburgh. The Internet can then be accessed from such places as a park bench.
Apart from Wi-Fi, there have been experiments with proprietary mobile wireless networks like Ricochet, various high-speed data services over cellular phone networks, and fixed wireless services.
High-end mobile phones such as smart phones generally come with Internet access through the phone network. Web browsers such as Opera are available on these advanced handsets, which can also run a wide variety of other Internet software. More mobile phones have Internet access than PCs, though this is not as widely used. An Internet access provider and protocol matrix differentiates the methods used to get online.
The Internet has made possible entirely new forms of social interaction, activities and organizing, thanks to its basic features such as widespread usability and access.
Social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace have created a new form of socialization and interaction. Users of these sites are able to add a wide variety of items to their personal pages, to indicate common interests, and to connect with others. It is also possible to find a large circle of existing acquaintances, especially if a site allows users to utilize their real names, and to allow communication among large existing groups of people.
Sites like meetup.com exist to allow wider announcement of groups which may exist mainly for face-to-face meetings, but which may have a variety of minor interactions over their group's site at meetup.org, or other similar sites.
Digital Natives
Main article: Born Digital
The first generation is now being raised with widespread availability of Internet connectivity, with consequences for privacy, identity, and copyright concerns. These "Digital Natives" face a variety of concerns that were not present for prior generations.
Political organization and censorship
In democratic societies, the Internet has achieved new relevance as a political tool. The presidential campaign of Howard Dean in 2004 in the United States became famous for its ability to generate donations via the Internet. Many political groups use the Internet to achieve a whole new method of organizing, in order to carry out Internet activism.
Some governments, such as those of Iran, North Korea, Myanmar, the People's Republic of China, and Saudi Arabia, restrict what people in their countries can access on the Internet, especially political and religious content. This is accomplished through software that filters domains and content so that they may not be easily accessed or obtained without elaborate circumvention.
In Norway, Denmark, Finland and Sweden, major Internet service providers have voluntarily (possibly to avoid such an arrangement being turned into law) agreed to restrict access to sites listed by police. While this list of forbidden URLs is only supposed to contain addresses of known child pornography sites, the content of the list is secret.
Many countries, including the United States, have enacted laws making the possession or distribution of certain material, such as child pornography, illegal, but do not use filtering software.
There are many free and commercially available software programs with which a user can choose to block offensive websites on individual computers or networks, such as to limit a child's access to pornography or violence..
Leisure activities
The Internet has been a major source of leisure since before the World Wide Web, with entertaining social experiments such as MUDs and MOOs being conducted on university servers, and humor-related Usenet groups receiving much of the main traffic. Today, many Internet forums have sections devoted to games and funny videos; short cartoons in the form of Flash movies are also popular. Over 6 million people use blogs or message boards as a means of communication and for the sharing of ideas.
The pornography and gambling industries have both taken full advantage of the World Wide Web, and often provide a significant source of advertising revenue for other websites. Although many governments have attempted to put restrictions on both industries' use of the Internet, this has generally failed to stop their widespread popularity.
One main area of leisure on the Internet is multiplayer gaming. This form of leisure creates communities, bringing people of all ages and origins to enjoy the fast-paced world of multiplayer games. These range from MMORPG to first-person shooters, from role-playing games to online gambling. This has revolutionized the way many people interact and spend their free time on the Internet.
While online gaming has been around since the 1970s, modern modes of online gaming began with services such as GameSpy and MPlayer, to which players of games would typically subscribe. Non-subscribers were limited to certain types of game play or certain games.
Many use the Internet to access and download music, movies and other works for their enjoyment and relaxation. As discussed above, there are paid and unpaid sources for all of these, using centralized servers and distributed peer-to-peer technologies. Some of these sources take more care over the original artists' rights and over copyright laws than others.
Many use the World Wide Web to access news, weather and sports reports, to plan and book holidays and to find out more about their random ideas and casual interests.
People use chat, messaging and e-mail to make and stay in touch with friends worldwide, sometimes in the same way as some previously had pen pals. Social networking websites like MySpace, Facebook and many others like them also put and keep people in contact for their enjoyment.
The Internet has seen a growing number of Web desktops, where users can access their files, folders, and settings via the Internet.
Cyberslacking has become a serious drain on corporate resources; the average UK employee spends 57 minutes a day surfing the Web at work, according to a study by Peninsula Business Services.
Market
Further information: Disintermediation Impact of Internet-related disintermediation upon various industries and Travel agency The Internet threat
The Internet has also become a large market for companies; some of the biggest companies today have grown by taking advantage of the efficient nature of low-cost advertising and commerce through the Internet, also known as e-commerce. It is the fastest way to spread information to a vast number of people simultaneously. The Internet has also subsequently revolutionized shopping—for example; a person can order a CD online and receive it in the mail within a couple of days, or download it directly in some cases. The Internet has also greatly facilitated personalized marketing which allows a company to market a product to a specific person or a specific group of people more so than any other advertising medium.
Examples of personalized marketing include online communities such as MySpace, Friendster, Orkut, Facebook and others which thousands of Internet users join to advertise themselves and make friends online. Many of these users are young teens and adolescents ranging from 13 to 25 years old. In turn, when they advertise themselves they advertise interests and hobbies, which online marketing companies can use as information as to what those users will purchase online, and advertise their own companies' products to those users.
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