... in a net I seek to hold the wind.
—Wyatt
The Internet is the network that is changing the way people communicate, interact, and define community.
The Internet has a spirit of invention within the human community it encompasses as expressed in the tools, software, and hardware that are used. It crosses time and space in a way we could only dream of before, creating a virtual place and community.
The Internet represents a changing paradigm for human interaction. It is a collaborative medium, in which you can access information and data; it is a place for learning, for commerce, for entertainment, and a place to intensively interact with people. This book explores the conceptual structure and nature of the Internet and explains the tools and protocols of the Internet.
The Internet creates points of contact for widely dispersed people across time and distance. There are daily person-to-person exchanges that can have an enormous impact on how we as individuals think and how we come to understand global issues. Time on the Internet tends to be accelerated and compressed, creating what I call "Internet Time." Things happen and change fast. It is a little like what people call dog years: they say that one year for a dog is like seven for a person; on the Internet, one day is like a month or longer.
As a network of networks, the Internet connects computers around the world using a standardized set of procedures called TCP/IP. The number of networks linked to the Internet now is in excess of 45,000, with approximately 5 million host computers connected to these networks. And the Internet is growing by roughly 10 percent a month. It is the largest intentional association of people and machines yet invented and it is growing every day.
The Internet is not owned by any one person or group. No one is in charge; it is a cooperative venture. The Internet has moved from being primarily an educational and scientific network to a primarily commercial network. Currently, the commercial domains account for almost 60 percent of address registrations.
Not all that long ago, the only way to get on the Internet was through an educational, governmental, or related business entity. By and large, the only people using the Internet were researchers and scientists.
But how times have changed. The majority of Internet users used to be VT-100 terminals attached to DEC VAX machines; that has shifted to dial-up connections to UNIX boxes using Internet services providers (ISPs). Now access can be obtained through a variety of means, including ISDN, dial-up SLIP/PPP, and permanent high-speed connections up to T3. In addition, the commercial services such as CompuServe, America Online, and Prodigy are providing some Internet-related services, with more expected.
The average user now has powerful access to the Internet, with the ability to use all the Internet tools including e-mail, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Gopher, the World Wide Web (WWW), Internet Relay Chat (IRC), and more.
We have seen the Internet move from the realm of professors, researchers, and scientists to the domain of children, educators, and business owners—individuals of all ages and walks of life.
On the Internet, communication can be person to person, computer to computer, or person to computer:
The trend is towards more and better real-time interaction including video and sound using teleconferencing, virtual reality techniques, and improved speed and throughput.
Regularly, the Internet has impact on the lives of millions of people. A few examples are given in the following sections.
Professor Thomas Nicely noticed that he had been running into a calculation problem on his computer and suspected that it was caused by the CPU: the Pentium chip. He spent several months figuring out the problem, and he was right: the chip could not divide correctly under certain circumstances. He was not alone in that finding, but the chip manufacturer, Intel, downplayed the situation. And then the Internet came into play.
Dr. Nicely posted a message on the Internet, reporting his findings, and the problem he was having with Intel. Boom! The word was out and spread like wildfire: there was a calculation problem with the Pentium. In the ensuing weeks, Intel dodged and ducked, but then IBM decided to stop selling the chip in its computers.
People talk, and when they talk on the Internet, the world tunes in. People share information very rapidly; they compare notes and make the facts easy to verify. A critical mass is much easier to create.
And in this case, a company's credibility and reputation went on the line very quickly and very publicly. Now, when this kind of thing happens to a company, the Net calls it "being inteled."
In Canada, Karla Homolka was put on trial for murder. She was accused of killing two people, but defended herself saying that her husband made her do it. The government sought to ensure a fair trial by prohibiting the news media from covering it after the trial began. The government had not counted on the Internet, though. Many Canadians were disturbed by the news blackout. Others outside the blackout area began to report the story on the global Internet. Although the government attempted to stop the postings, it was unsuccessful. The upshot was that the information was made available.
The following was written in English and sent on the Internet from an 11-year-old Bosnian girl to a boy in Los Angeles who had lost a friend in a drive-by, gang-related shooting:
I live in what you call it Bosnia and know that it is like with your gangs in Angles [Los Angeles]. Many lost friends I count and know that I may die soon before growing up and this seems the same for you I think. I am sorry for you but glad also to know that it is the same for you.
Their exchange went on for several months, but stopped abruptly one day. No one knows what happened to the Bosnian girl, only that she stopped writing.
Of course, she started a conversation that continues on.
What the Internet does best, in addition to connecting people with people, is to make available, through a variety of means, rich storehouses of information of all kinds: science, research, commercial, education, community, government, diversions, and on and on. The range and depth of this information can support serious research in thousands of areas, or provide a fascinating trip for the casual Net surfer.
Not surprisingly, the Internet is not a perfect place—it reflects the people and communities that comprise it.
The Internet has concerns about security in commercial transactions, authentication of messages, and the integrity of computers and data. For example, there have been cases of "crackers" stealing credit card numbers from a Web site and of bogus messages being sent from a CEO to employees.
In addition, the quality, validity, and type of information, files, and images are of concern.
In each case, however, there are ways of working around the issues; many groups and individuals are working on new solutions and improvements in firewalls, secure transaction methodologies, personal search agents, and selective message filtering and sorting systems.
The Internet has shifted from a place where serious scientists conducted research. Now, there are a lot of entertaining and interesting things to be found on the Internet: Using appropriate software (a GUI) for example, you can see video clips of the Tonight Show. Take a quick trip out to http://www.nbctonightshow.com/ and browse the video and sound clips.
If you are headed for a vacation in Moscow, you can get information about flying in a MiG-29 Fulcrum B supersonic fighter. Yes, you can actually fly in the fighter. And how did I find about this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to suit-up in a high-performance g-suit and hurl myself aloft? I found full information, pictures, sound, and video on the Internet at http://www.intnet.net/mig29.
The single constant about the Internet is change. We know with certitude that the Internet will keep evolving. The Internet has already fundamentally changed the way people communicate—it has a long reach, it is fast, it has a leveling effect: people talk to people regardless of station in life. New tools and protocols will continue to enhance human communication.