Back to resumeWritten as a paper document in 1997.
There is a road that leads everywhere, including Rome. With no beginning and no end, it criss-crosses the planet. Although long and winding, it has many forks, some less traveled than others. This road was started by soldiers, improved by scholars, and traveled by students. This road is a highway. An electronic superhighway called the Internet.
In 1969, a branch of the Federal government's Department of Defense provided the funding for the original network. There were many different universities working on research for the military and it was necessary that they communicate with each other and with the Pentagon. The original network was called the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANet) (Levine 21).
The military wanted to build the network so that it could withstand attacks during wartime. The method in which the military made the network reliable and attack resistant involved "dynamic rerouting". If one of the network links became disrupted by enemy attack, the network traffic could reroute to other links automatically (Levine 12).
An example of the effectiveness of dynamic rerouting happened during the Gulf War. Thr U.S. military had a difficult time taking out the Iraqi communication networks because the Iraqi military had bought network routers with standard Internet routing and recovery technology. (Levine 12).
The original ARPANet could only connect a maximum of only 64 computers. Eventually, it was broken into two parts; MILNet, which was specifically military sites, and ARPANet (Lane 2). Now there were two networks that needed to communicate with each other. The method, or language, used to link computers is called protocol.
The protocols developed for the ARPANet are Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP). MILNet and ARPANet became connected through IP, enabling traffic from one to the other. IP was designed to accommodate tens of thousands of networks (Levine 12).
Computers use a number-based system to address and access Internet sites. The IP transfers the number-based system to a name-based system. This would be like storing company phone numbers in a telephone memory system by company names (Badgett 76).
Now IP links many different sites: corporate networks and educational, regional, and home workstations. It sends data from point-to-point by grouping information into packets. A packet is an assembly of characters less than 1500. The TCP breaks the packets down and reassembles the individual components. The packet may contain information from several sources. The TCP then puts the data in the proper order (Badgett 78).
In addition to these TCP/IP communication protocols, there are other operating systems being used to control data. The most common is the UNIX operating system (Veljkov 11)
The University of California-Berkeley developed UNIX in the early 1980s as university computers moved from sharing machines to developing workstations for individual users. The Berkeley version of UNIX included all the software needed to get a working network going. It could connect the workstations together so eventually many, many universities could afford to hook up (Levine 23).
You do not have to understand TCP/IP or UNIX in order to use the Internet. Most commands are now translated into graphics or icons that the user just points to and clicks. However, it is important to know that many standard Internet tools in existence have stemmed from the UNIX operating system (Manger 3+).
ARPA provided the funding that allowed the creation of high speed networking with standard protocols (TCP/IP). Much of the current research and development is attributed to ARPA's early work (Lane 2).
The ARPANet eventually had to be replaced. In 1984, the US National Science Foundation (NSF) developed a project to link several supercomputers throughout the US using communication lines leased from commercial telephone service providers. In 1985, NSF and ARPA corroborated between ARPA researchers and NSF funded supercomputing sites to create the NSFNet (Lane 3).
The ARPANet was dismantled in March 1990 and was replaced by NSFNet. The NSF set up five supercomputer centers, and regional networks, to connect the users in each region with NSFNet and connect all the regional networks (Levine 13).
The NSFNet became the backbone to todays' Internet. Commercial networks also hooked up with NSFNet and the "network of networks", the Internet, was in place(Levine 14). The Internet is made up of Local Area Networks (LANS), city-wide Metropolitan Area Networks (MANS), and Wide Area Networks (WANS) connecting computers all over the world, even Antartica (Lacques 21).
In 1991, then-senator Al Gore sponsored the bill called the High Performance Act of 1991. Signed on December 9, 1991 by president George Bush, this legislation laid the ground work for the "electronic superhighway"(Lane 3). It called for coordinating and combining several federal agencies into one big-capacity, high speed network that will connect all academic and research institutions and federal agencies. The NSFNet will be expanded and succeeded by the National Research and Education Network (NREN) (LaQuey 13).
"The NREN will carry billions of bits of data per second, serve thousands of users simultaneously, and transmit not only electronic mail and data files but voice and video as well", said Al Gore in August 1992 (LaQuey vi). "High speed" means gigabit-per-second speeds. An example of the speed would be the transfer of an entire encyclopedia in less than three seconds. The NREN is available now to scientists and researchers but eventually will provide the basis for a national public network, connecting grade schools, libraries, hospitals, factories, and homes (LaQuey 16).
While the Internet refers to the physical side of the global network, a giant mass of cables and computers, the World Wide Web (WWW) refers to a body of information-an abstract space of knowledge (Angell 72).
The WWW began in March 1989 when Tim Berners-Lee of the European Particle Physics Laboratory (a collection of European high-energy physics researchers) proposed a project to develop a means for transporting research and ideas effectively throughout their organization (Levine 13). Who controls the Web? Christopher Davis, an Internet regular, answers; "Lots of people, and nobody, and the National Science Foundation, kinda, sorta" (LaQuey 27).
By the end of 1990, Tim Berners-Lee had perfected the capability of viewing hypertext documents (Levine 14). Hypertext is regular text that contains connections within the text to other documents. Clicking on a phrase or word in a document takes you to related information located at another source (Angell 14)
Hypertext connects pieces of information from all over the world, from different machines, in different databases (Levine 258). If this paper contained hypertext, all the words in bold would take you to other papers that contained other information on that bold-faced word. Because this is a paper and not a computer, all the words that are in the glossary have been bold-faced to give you an idea of how hypertext works. You have to physically turn back to the glossary at every word in bold but the WWW takes you there electronically.
Hypermedia is hypertext documents that contain links not only to other pieces of text, but also to sounds, images, and video. Hyperlink describes the use of hypertext and hypermedia on the Web. Also called just 'links', they are embedded in Web documents (Angell 14).
Links between documents are made using a hypertext editor that encodes text in a language capable of expressing the texts' links to other documents. The protocol used by WWW is the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is used to produce and link documents (Falk 180).
The Web works under a client-server model. A Web server is a program running on a computer whose only purpose is to serve documents to other computers when asked to. A Web client is a program that interfaces with the user and requests documents from a server as the user asks for them (Angell 259).
All Web clients and servers must be able to speak HTTP in order to send and receive hypermedia documents. Web servers are HTTP servers. The World Wide Web is often used to refer to the collective network of servers speaking HTTP, as well as the global body of information available using the protocol (Falk 181).
Web documents are typically written in HTML and are usually named with the suffix ".html". HTML is the standard language the Web uses for creating and recognizing hypermedia documents (Falk 181).
HTML uses Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) to represent hypermedia links and links to network services within documents. The first part of the URL (before the two slashes) specifies the method of access. An example would be: http://www.usnews.com. The second part is typically the address of the computer the data or service is located. It is possible to represent nearly any file or service on the Internet with a URL (Falk 190+).
The software you use to look at hypertext is called a browser. Browsers give you a clear view of where the links are in a hypertext document and a way of following links from one document to another. WWW browsers are also client programs-they retrieve the documents they display from a server (Falk 180).
Most Web browsers allow the user to specify a URL (the one-line address for a resource on the Internet) and connect to that document or service. When selecting hypertext in an HTML document, the user is actually sending a request to open a URL. In this way, hyperlinks can be made not only to other texts and media, but also to other network services (Levine 259).
In the first half of 1993, the National Center for Supercomputing (NCSA) introduced the first version of a versatile Web browser called Mosaic (Angell 27). Mosaic is a client program that you run in your computer. When you connect to the Internet, you use Mosaic to connect to a Web server. The Web server sends instructions (HTML codes) to Mosaic, telling Mosaic how to assemble the Web document on your system. The WWW is the system on which Mosaic (or other Web browsers) and servers interact with each other based on the HTTP protocol (Angell 25).
Because of the services it could handle, and due to its easy, point-and-click hypermedia interface, Mosaic soon became the most popular interface to the Web (Angell 25). Although today there are better, faster Web browsers (Netscape), Mosaic is responsible for the Web site boom.
In June 1993 there were 100 Web sites. In May 1994, there were 4,500. Today the number of Web sites are in the tens of thousands. Millions of individuals, schools, businesses, and other organizations are turning to the WWW to deliver their message (Angell 19). With estimates of the number of sites on the WWW ranging from 90,000-265,000, there may be a total of 16 million individual pages (Gabriel 1).
According to a recent Nielsen study, adults in the US spend more time collectively browsing the Internet every week than they do watching video cassettes. Nearly 20 million American adults say they use the WWW regularly and as many as three million have bought goods or services on the Web (Specter 1). Businesses are finding that the Web is a low-cost, multimedia means for publishing information or conducting virtual commerce (Angell 19).
By creating your own Web document and renting space on a server, you can establish a presence on the Internet that's available to millions of people (Angell 171). Many Web sites are the work of hobbyists who have learned to use the Web's basic writing tool, HTML. They freelance, selling their services to friends and small businesses (Gabriel 1).
Determine what you want to provide and how you can present it as a service to people on the Web. You should try and attract Web users to your site by providing a useful resource along with your own message. It is important to keep your Web site updated. Don't just create a site and then leave it alone. It is also necessary to watch out for copyrights. You can avoid this problem by using hyperlinks to point users to an existing Web site, thus avoiding the need to copy anything from that site (Angell 174)
This entails writing and copyediting text, creating or obtaining pictures, sounds or video, and assembling URLs for your hyperlinks. You should target your text to the audience you want to attract. Also, have someone copy edit the text. The text should stand on its own as a printed document (Angell 175).
This involves working with HTML commands, which you can enter using an HTML editor or a text editor. Most people are not computer programmers so dealing with HTML can be daunting. However, there are easy ways to create the HTML without knowing the language. An example is the WebWizard at: http://www.halcyon.com/webwizard/welcome.html. Although it is not necessary to know HTML, there are many tutorials (ranging from the basics to more advanced features) on the WWW that are free (Harris 1).
Involves working with companies that rent space on their servers (Angell 171+). Before you choose your server service, see if their own Web site looks professional. Ask about the volume of traffic their service gets and make sure they accept HTML documents. It is also a good idea to inquire how the server service markets itself both on and off the Internet (Angell 182).
Server service companies handle the expensive overhead of hardware and software systems, high-speed data lines and technological support in maintaining a server on the Internet. They take care of the technical details, you just rent the space (Angell 181).
Creating a Web document is on-line publishing, ranging from a simple one-page document to a multi-page information center. A basic Web document might include a few pictures, test and hyperlinks to other Web resources. The cost for such a Web-site on a server can be as low as $25 a month. Multi-pages can be placed on a server for as low as $100 a month (Angell 173).
You can access pictures, video, sound and other files through hyperlinks. By pointing the hyperlink to the site that has the picture, video, or sound you want to use, you can save the cost of putting a large multimedia file on a server (Angell 176). By keeping your Web site simple, you make it easy to change and you have a fast download time (Harris 1). Documents with an excessive number of hyperlinks take longer to print so plan your hypertext with care (Angell 175).
You can also put your Web document on the Internet as a file at an anonymous FTP site. Mosaic users can access your Web document by using Mosaic as an FTP client. Although inexpensive, this requires you to set up access to an FTP server, usually through your Internet connection service. The Web document address will be different than the typical Web URL which starts with http:// (Angell 182).
The field of creating Web sites has expanded so fast that nobody has managed to count the new jobs created, or the amount of business generated. Rick Spence, an on-line analyst at Dataquest, a research firm, estimated that at the very least, "tens of millions" are spent on Web site development annually, involving tens of thousands of people (Gabriel 1).
Josh Bernoff, an analyst at Forest Research, predicted that in the next two years, salaries for Web artists and HTML authors would rise 10 percent, and for programmers, 20 percent. He said, "Talent is so much more in demand than there is supply" (Gabriel 2). Salaries range from no pay, for volunteers trying to learn skills, to $30,000 for a competent HTML author, to $100,000 for a programmer familiar with the main computer languages used to connect the Web to data bases (Gabriel 2).
Others suggest that HTML authors have a limited career span. Already there are programs that bypass HTML and allow anyone to create Web sites (Gabriel 3). Nathan Shedroff, the creative director of Vivid Studios, a San Francisco company that created the Web site for the debut of Windows 95, said; "We're in the old guard because we've been doing this for more than a year and a half" (Gabriel 1).
Income levels of the average internet user are significantly above the national average. The typical user can be characterized as a young to middle aged adult with a healthy disposable income (Grattis 1). Marketers on the Internet need to address the nature of the medium. Target marketing works best, while mass marketing techniques are for the most part ineffective and unwelcome (Grattis 2).
A study by Forester Research found that the cost of creating and running a site for one year ranged from $304,000 for a corporate promotional site, to $1.3 million for a site offering catalogue shopping (Gabriel 2). Disadvantages to the Internet are that there is actually too much information to properly catalog and connections over the Internet are quite insecure. In terms of financial transactions, the fact that connections are so insecure is the greatest drawback for conducting business over the Internet (Freedman 1).
One way to conduct transactions over the Internet is to set up a 1-800/credit card system. Local banks can help with the implementation of this. You should expect to pay $300-$1500 to set up a 1-800/credit card system. A transaction fee of 2.5-4.5 percent will be charged for every transaction handled by the system (Freedman 1).
Leading developers are concluding that to attract and keep users, Web sites must offer sophisticated features, such as chat forums, customized searches of data bases and useful tools such as budget calculators. To build them requires a knowledge of programming languages , including Java, a new language that is expected to "light up Web sites like video games" (Gabriel 3).
Java allows developers to create and automatically deliver working programs, not just files, to any computer on the network. Even though Java is still very new and not yet widely deployed, it is regarded as one of the most important computer software developments since Mosaic (Lewis 1). Java is unlike most other languages because it is not restricted to any particular type of computer chip or operating system. A programmer can create an application using Java and embed it in a Web page, and in theory, any computer that visits the page with a Java-based browser can operate the program (Lewis 2).
Java programs delivered via the Web are referred to as applets. When an applet is embedded in a Web page, and the page is visited by someone using a Java-enabled browser, the applet is automatically sent to the user's computer and activated (Lewis 2).
Java brings with it the possibility of writing search engines, image maps, and other impressive Web utilities which are fully on the client side. Client side controls mean you can tell the remote computer to do things in a smart way, and neither your own nor the host computer can be compromised, due to the built-in security features (Smith 2). With the processing power of the Web pages being placed on the client side, a lot more clients can be kept happy at one time as the server load is reduced (Smith 2).
The future of the WWW is exploding with new features and technologies. "The real question," says Eric Schmidt, chief technical officer of Sun Microsystems Inc., "is what new applications will be available in the industry a year from now that we have not foreseen, the kind that will drive new kinds of consumer behavior. And the obvious new thing happening now is cable modems"(Lewis 1). Cable modems connect a computer to the thick coaxial cables used to bring television signals into millions of homes. In theory, the cables can allow two-way data traffic at hundreds of times the speed of standard telephone wires. Indications from current cable modem trials show that high-speed communications are at least several years away (Lewis 1).
Another product, due out by the fall of 1996, is Netcast; 12 channels of 24-hour-a-day live audio programming, including music, news, talk, corporate announcements, and concerts. Netcast will provide access to the programming as well as visual and textual information intended to supplement the audio programming Netcast president and CEO Jim Butterworth explains, "if you're listening to an R.E.M. song, the browser points to various Web sites and allows users to view fan club information, tour dates, and band bios" (Lash 1).
A similar application is called Timecast: The Real Audio Guide. This is a browser application that enables users to customize their own daily news broadcast with time-sensitive audio content on the Web. The key to Timecast is a Daily Briefing feature, which allows users to build a custom newscast with stories from a dozen media organizations such as ABC, Entertainment Tonight, Fortune, Computer World, and more (Rupley 1).
And so the Web universe continues to expand. Information is now a commodity. It is no longer hoarded by library card holders and those with the money to buy books. It is sitting there at the end of 100 million keyboards (Specter 2). It's a big world out there and it's getting smaller all the time.